Xmas approaches...

An electric American Christmas:










Jamin' in the evening...

Doogle and Paul
...pancakes in the morning!

Steve with pancake smile


Jen, Brian and Paul

Life is a changin'...Next Up! BA Creative Arts!?!

School Of Creative Media

17th December 2008


BRADLEY CARA
62 KEITH ST
PARKDALE
VIC 3195


VTAC application number: 29010115D

Re: Bachelor of Arts (Photography) VTAC Code: 32681

Dear CARA.

Following your recent interview for the BA Photography course VTAC Code: 32681, I am pleased to inform you that you have met the pre-selection requirements.
This means that RMIT is prepared to make you an offer for this course in the main round of VTAC offers provided that you also satisfy tertiary entrance requirements*.
Please be aware that this letter does not constitute an official offer. Formal advice of an offer will be received through VTAC on Tuesday 20 January 2009. Rather, the intention of this advice is to assist you in making your final choice of course preferences. Please be aware that a number of courses at different institutions may be prepared to make you an offer, but the offer received will be for the course highest on your list of preferences where you have met all selection criteria including extra requirements.
If you decide to alter your preferences, all applicants are given this opportunity at various dates in October and December providing processing fees have been paid. For information on these dates, please refer to the VTAC Guide or www.vtac.edu.au.
You may receive similar advice about the success of pre-selection requirements from other courses you have applied to and this should also be used when reviewing preferences. This is a practice agreed to by all institutions and endorsed by VTAC.
If you require any clarification on this matter, please contact your careers counselor or telephone VTAC.
Yours sincerely,

(Carmen Cataldo)
Per:
Sandra Irvine
Selection Officer
BA Photography
RMIT University

* To satisfy tertiary entrance requirements, applicants must have satisfactorily completed VCE and units 3&4 of English sequentially in the same calendar year or, for TAFE courses, equivalent secondary completion such as Senior VCAL.

The weekend...of work!

The deadlines have arrived:

-Monday- Film photography portfolio due
(printed on fiber and matted)
-Tuesday- Digital photography portfolio due
(2 portfolios of 20 images EACH)
-Wednesday- Photoshop portfolio/projects due
-Thursday- Ballroom dancing final

Here's what I am doing in Photoshop just for fun/learning:

Before:


After:

Cara is 24 years old now! :p

Birthday celebrations!

The 1950's housewife

Oh how far we have come in 50 years!

I am researching for a photo series I took over the weekend of my friend Molly posing as a 1950's house wife and I found 'The Good Wife's Guide' published in Housekeeping Monthly. Amazing!

The skinny...

The interview-
The RMIT phone interview was last Wednesday. It went well but was not what I expected. It was more of a formality because I sent in my portfolio via email so the panel had reviewed my work before the interview (unlike most interviewees who attend the interview and show the panel their work). I spent the whole day researching photography/terms, the RMIT course and the selection criteria which the pannel were supposed to ask me...instead they asked me if I had set up some of the elaborate shots I took of Art in France. They asked my if I was interested in the Scientific Photography discipline and told me I would be exempt from some core science classes seeing as I had completed a BSc already. They told me I had a good feeling for light and I would know if I was in, shortlisted or out by Xmas. And then it was done.

The Thanksgiving-
Wed, Thurs, Fri were all school free due to Thanksgiving. Thursday was Thanksgiving day and I agreed to spend this year with my Dad. In the morning I did a fashion photo shoot with Iaana, an actress friend of mine at the JC who did a fabulous job. She was fun to work with and up for anything....actresses are the way to go I tell you! At 3pm it was Thanksgiving time! My Dad and I ate our main course chez Penny with family friends- the Pruits (Pat and Alison) and the Browns (Alison, Charles and Joe). Then my Dad and I drove to Petaluma for dessert with Paul's family.











The weekend and days off flew by and here we are again...another week and more...photography. Yesterday, Monday I spent the entire day in the darkroom. I arrived at 10:30 and printed until 6pm. Then I went home (finally), ate (finally), did a biscuit/chocolate run with Hilary to Trader Joes and worked the night away on Photoshop which I now have to play with at home along with 2GB of new RAM which makes the computer actually run...not walk, doddle and trip over.

I'm off to download photos to show in my digital class! =)

RMIT Interview

Phone interview Wed for photography!

More photo shoots planned for the weekend.

Thursday is Thanksgiving and Wednesday is a day off as it Friday...time to catch up on photos and all the work they require.

Cara =)

Cara the photographer

Cara has been accepted for an interview at RMIT photography...in Melbourne...tehehe. :/
Phone interview it is! :)



I am shooting a lot for my Digital Class. Photo shoot mania! YAY!

The Berkeley Sonoma County Couch Surfing Invasion happened to recently:

Cara's update

Hello Aussie and International friends!

I wanted to write to say Hello and give you an update on where in the world Cara Bradley is!

I am living in California in the town where my Dad lives an hour north of San Fran. I did a big road trip of the Western USA over summer and returned to study at a great college here during the Fall semester. I am pursuing studies in Photography and Art with great teachers for very little money. I am loving the change of disciplines…very different to Microbiology.

I am working casually doing all sorts of things but just in little bits. I am no longer living with my Dad which is much better for our relationship but I visit often. I live 5 blocks from the college with my boyfriend Paul, his/our room mate Brian and my betta fish, the Colonel. Brian is an avid gardener and the front had just been planted for Fall- chard, kale, radishes, bok choy, radiccio, lettuces and lots of garlic and onions (we have contacts at a farm specializing in garlic).

I started a group to unite local Couch Surfers here (for those of you who don’t know: http://www.couchsurfing.com ) and we have just hit over 100 members. I am enjoying connecting, organizing and inspiring people as well as meeting travelers. We just had 2 New Yorkers gals on our couch for 2 nights and last week a group of us went into San Fran to socialize with some of the city mice. I was sad to see them go this afternoon.

When will I see you?
The question my poor Mother would like answered! Oz is so far away and I don’t feel I can jump on a plane unless I’m coming home and staying home. No cheap flights! I have applied for Photography and Fashion courses in Melbourne and will have phone interviews soon (fingers crossed that I get an interview for photography after they see my portfolio). If I get in I guess I will be back next year although I might defer depending on what I am learning here and my relationships.

I can imagine Australian spring, summer and Christmas though and I want to be there…but don’t know where I fit in there right now nor how I would make my life there.

So I’ll keep you posted. But I love you and miss you all! Enjoy Oz or Europe for me…can’t wait for a coming home party!

Cara

PS. My blog is still up and running! Visit to see awesome pics of American Halloween!

PPS. For those of you who don’t know the timeline:
May ‘07- arrive in the USA (visit relatives, study)
Aug ‘07- backpacked and Couch Surf Alaska, Canada and Europe
Xmas ‘07- Back with family in LA
Jan ‘08- Spring semester at SRJC- photography, journalism, singing, fashion
Summer ‘08- CS Road Trip around Western USA
Fall ’08- Fall semester at SRJC- photography, art, yoga, improvisation

Celebrating Halloween a second time....

Celebrating Halloween a second time..........with an open mic night.

It was my first time experiencing an open mic night....I really like the concept. There were singers, guitarists, pianists and poets all performing in Halloween garb! What better photos could you ask for!?!

To see more photos you can go my new flickr album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbradleyphoto/

Spooktacular Halloween!

Friday, October 31^st was a rainy Halloween. The candy and the kids seemed to be unhindered however….by kids I mean me! It my first time Trick or Treating since I was 10 years old and I all for it! Paul (a Mummy Ninja), Hillary (a contemporary Cheshire cat), Melissa (a contemporary white rabbit), Brian (a pumpkin head man) and I (little Bo Peep) spent the night roaming the streets.

We started locally with our next door neighbours and worked our way to McDonald Avenue a few blocks away. Melissa and I were out solo for a while until the others caught up. Paul labeled me the ‘trick or treating machine’, something I feel no shame over! We ran into our friend Evan and convinced him to come along for the ride. He was cycling and holding my photography tripod so together Evan and I decided he was he a Tour de France offical photographer.

McDonald Avenue is nortorious for its Halloween displays put on by the big mansions. The street was well decorated, one had a car theme...skeletons driving a car on their lawn and a million carved pumpkins on the porch. Another had a pirate treasure display. The street was swarming with people...it was slightly ridiculous. You had to line up to get to the door for candy.

As it approached 10pm, the Trick or Treating died down and we headed home. We had gone all the way to the end of McDonald and so by the time we arrived home, everyone was buggered. Sore feet, sore backs…Trick or Treating is hard work! I had had grand plans for the evening: after Trick or Treating I had intended to take some photos with my Dad of Halloween displays and go to one or more parties. Instead, we all sprawled out on the couch exhausted and ended up making some great vegetarian pasta for dinner at 11pm to combat the skipping of dinner and high level of sugar we had ingested.

This Halloween brought up memories last year. Leading up to Halloween I was in Quebec City Canada staying with Jeanna. We attended a Halloween bday party for her friend Carin and she made a cake shaped like a bat. I had my cat hat and Jeanna was dressed in a little kids pumpkin costume. A few days befre Halloween I bused it to NY to staying with my Alaskan friend Tanner in the dorms at FIT. On Halloween we hit the streets to see the Halloween Parade with his ‘bestest and closest’ friends at the time....in the fickle world of fashion he no longer knows 'those people'.

It Saturday evening now and still the rain falls. The bin is full of candy wrappers and my uncarved pumpkin adorns the mantle.

Just to check in...

Classes going well...

Advanced film photography portfolio of 12 images is coming along. I am photographing my Dad's house thus far. I keep borrow more and more equipment from the JC. I have my application in for a place at RMIT University in Melbourne.

Photoshop is crazy busy. I'm not sure my brain as capable of remembering how to do as much as the program is capable of.

Swimming is purely for the exercise.

Yoga is wonderful. The instructor is amazing and I am enjoying connecting with others and the unique way every week is different.

Improvisation and Movement- I am enjoying getting in touch with my 'movement' side

Digital Photography- After my horrible experience with my silk screening teacher from hell, I have dropped that class and am now doing a digital photography class which is wonderful and ties in very well with my subjects!

In other news:

-Fall is here. That days aren't cool all the time but cooler weather is approaching.

-Friday is Halloween so everyone is talking about costumes. People are decorating their houses too. I have seen several cocooned in spider webs.

-The election is coming up so the propaganda is flying as are the leaflets. I don't think I will ever fully understand the American voting system. Democracy made extremely complicated.

Michelle my Couch Surfing partner in crime left for her journey home to Canada! So sad! We'll miss you! =)

Tonight I have co-ordinated Couch Surfers from my group out here in Santa Rosa (SCCS) to attend the weekly meeting of San Fran Couch Surfers at the underground aka Coffee Bar! So yee haw, should be fun after all this organizing!!!

The joys of photoshop

Officially, the first day of autumn in California

If I had one wish...




Images courtesy of ultimatebooya.blogspot.com

Autumn approaches

September already.
The days are getting shorter.
The weather is cooling down.
Je-nay the van is up for sale
Five weeks into the semester and it feels like we started yesterday.

Impact

Cara has a fish! A betta fish!

The fish and the window

Look at my cute little Siamese Fighting fish! I picked him because he has pretty blue eyes and is very placid (some of my other potential fishes were 0pretty angry).

So I have an ironic fish, a placid angry fish.

PS. We haven't named him yet. So far he is 'Fish', 'the Colonel', 'Saturday' (that's when I bought him) and maybe 'Archimedes'.

PPS. Cara is learning photo shop! So easy when you know how! The how is the problem!

SRJC Fall Semester begins

Today is the first day of the fall semester at the JC and at 10:30am I am off to Advanced photography to see if that's the class for me. This whole week, I am going to see what I classes I want to end up doing. I have signed up for a bunch. Photography, silk screening (I'm hoping to silk screen my photos) a singing ensemble, French, swimming, Ballroom dancing...we'll see.




This is a giant dumpster! Construction work with Clay and Craig.


Bye Bye CSer Max who is on a bike tour of California!


Classy Cara tries Brian's salmon!

Back from Trinity and feelin' good!

Hello All,

I have returned from a weekend at Trinity Lake and am feeling happy!

I am going to organize my coming semester at the SRJC which means: housing (Cara needs independence), a second job (my photography promotions is going well but a second all the same), selecting classes (classes which will allow me to develop a portfolio and get into Uni in Australia), a routine (can you imagine!)....etc.

Cara =)