This was my motto for 2011 and it will be my motto again for 2012.

I’ve been thinking about this blog post for the past two months. Trying to think what on earth will I write to sum up what 2011 was all about for me. It was a big year. It was a crazy, scary, beautiful, fun, terrifying and exhilarating year.  It was a complete whirlwind. It was a year of challenges and learning all about patience. It was about taking risks and reaping its rewards. At the very beginning of the year I made the decision to sell and give away most my processions and the put rest into storage. I decided to start a new life completely on my own in a completely different city where I knew less then 5 people. Making the decision to move to Melbourne was one of the toughest yet easiest decisions I have ever made. After being in Melbourne for a few months now, I finally feel settled and at home. I never really felt at home like I do here.

I am incredibily lucky I get to do what I do. I have spent time in some truly remarkable places with some truly remarkable people. I have this favourite part of the day, its that moment right after the sun has set and there is that 20 minute window of twilight where the sky is an intense dark blue and its in the last moments of light. I get to spend a lot of these times in really remote and random locations. A lot of time is standing on cliff tops, looking out onto the ocean as I am finishing up photographing a wedding or portrait shoot. Sometimes its when I am riding my bike home from work and I look up to see the crazy Melbourne bats flying past, or its when I am running the streets of Fitzroy. It is at these times, that I always remind myself that I am truly grateful for the decisions I have made to lead me where I am today.

2011 was full of adventure. I ended up on 55 different aeroplanes, taking me to many random locations. I went to Vegas and saw my two dear friends renew their wedding vowels in the Little White Wedding Chapel and spend 1o days at WPPI with all my dear photography friends. I went to Japan for a fun adventure with my friend Dan where we started working on our workshop series Art and the Heart that we launched a few months later.  I traveled to Los Angeles to speak at the Beloved Collective and also spoke in Melbourne for the Pro Photo Seminars. I guest spoke at the Winter Wonderland and at the Jonas & Sean workshop’s. I certainly overcame my fear of public speaking.

In 2011, I also taught myself to run and quickly clocked up over 500km and ran half a marathon. I was a top 5 finalist in the Monster Childrens photography competition and got my photo published in their magazine and book. I joined my friend Dan O’Day on an awesome project called You Thought You Knew You, where we challenge photographers with a brief that will push themselves creatively.

It was a year about pushing myself to find new ground.

2012 is looking to be an even crazier year then the last and I could not be more excited about it. Knowing all the things I learnt in 2011 makes me very eager to see what this year has in store.  2012 has me going to Vegas, Myanmar (Burma), New Zealand, New York, Prague,  Sweden, Ireland, London, Portland, Tokyo and all over Australia for weddings and speaking and teaching workshops.

The last few weeks I have been busy working on a special project that will take me to Myanmar (Burma) in March to work on a documentary project. This project is taking me into a completely new area as I will be filming for a documentary. Learning to shoot video will be an interesting challenge but beyond excited about where it all may lead.

Earlier this week I was published in Rangefinder magazine. Was happy to check this off my life goals list :)  Today I was very excited to be announced as an Innovator at the next What If Conference in Portland, Oregon in July.

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photo of me taken in northern california by nirav patel 

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I am on the hunt for a fabulously organised Administrative Assistant based in Melbourne to help with day-to-day business-related duties.

PREREQUISITES:

- Clear, concise writing skills (you must enjoy writing as this is a large portion of the job);

- High attention to detail;

- Great organisational skills;

- Knowledge of MYOB (or the ability to learn MYOB quickly);

- Good work ethic and ability to work independently and without supervision;

- Minimum of one year commitment.

PLEASE NOTE: As this is NOT a photographic role, the position is not suited to photographers. It is perfectly suited for those with an interest in or experience with administrative duties.

Time commitment: Approximately 10-15 hours a week, with at least one hour commitment each day (flexible to work from home); as well as one day in-person at my Fitzroy office every one to two weeks.

Application details: Please submit a cover letter responding to each of the selection criteria, a full resume and two professional references as an email (title should be: “Administrative Assistant Position”) to: mail@sammblake.com. I will be accepting applications until the 20th February 2012.

Thank you so much!

A few favorites from Crystal and Aarons wedding in Yallingup, Western Australia. I cannot wait to share the rest of this wedding. xo

I went to Bali for a wedding a few months back and took some pictures. These are two favorites from an afternoon scouting expedition.

A new series I have started working on about show dogs. These are just a few images from one visit to the Perth Royal Show recently. Over the last few months, I have been working on building my documentary portfolio website. You can see it by visiting www.memoirsoftomorrow.com . At the same time, I made a tumblr page to put up my personal photography also. You can take a look at memoirsoftomorrow.tumblr.com . I am in the process of building an online print shop to sell some of my images. It will be launching soon :)

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paula and ben married on the cliffs of uluwatu in bali at the amazing kyayangan estate. a big shout out to my dear friend pobke who helped photograph this amazing day with me. xo

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In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life

- mumford & sons

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I recently spent with the afternoon with the lovely Gladys and Chris in their home and on their rooftop in San Francisco. After we finished shooting, we went to a little Italian restaurant in Nob Hill and filled our bodies with hot pasta and wine, to defrost from shooting in the fog on their rooftop (I wish we had fog like that in Australia). While up on that roof top, I looked around and took it all in, where I was standing and what I was doing on a roof top.  The life of a photographer can be a funny peculiar one when you really think about it.  Stepping into peoples lives for the briefest of moments, to simply witness, feel, react and capture. The best thing I love most about it all, is the bridge is has created for me to meet and connect with so many amazing people on this planet. Photography to me, is not about clicking that shutter at all.  Its about people and sharing with the world a little piece of them and their story.

I have posted this poem before, about a year or more ago,  but I keep going back to it. These are my favorite words.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know 
if you will risk 
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are 
squaring your moon…
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you 
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know 
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone 
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

 - The Invitation by Oriah

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This lovely wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty  and in the winter issue of Wedding Style Guide earlier this year :)

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I want to work on a photography portrait series about people who live alone. I was thinking recently how I do not know of many people who actually do and soon realized I do not know of a single person who does. This intrigues me. I have decided I want to explore the idea of living by oneself through photography and make a series out of it, with the intention of having it go on exhibition and made into a book. The idea is to go to peoples homes and photograph them in their own environment. An environment they have complete 100% control over, their own private universe. Their retreat from the world.

If you live by yourself, or know somebody who does…please email this blog post to them… please get in contact with me.

I will be visiting the following cities in the next 12 months:

Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Cairns, Brisbane, Adelaide, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vegas, New York, London, Paris and other parts of France, Prague, Bali, rural New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

I realize by putting this out on the internet.. I could possibly attract some less desirables like rapists, murderers etc… so please do not apply if you fit into these categories. I will be doing reference checks on every one I plan on photographing :) :) :)

dan and samm in japan. shortly before or after discussing all things worldly. june 2011

Many bottles of sake, a couple of months of planning, lots of miles traveled and many late night skype sessions later, “Art and the Heart – A Photography Workshop by Dan O’Day and Samm Blake” is born.

We launched the workshop website a few days ago and we have been overwhelmed with the response we have received so far. Melbourne is almost sold out, and we have a waiting list of people for the New York and London workshops. We are so excited incredibly excited for everything we have planned for these workshops.

If you are interested in the New York or London workshops, send us an email so you will be one of the first to be notified when we announce the dates and registration opens.

If you are interested in our Melbourne workshop, get in contact with us quickly to get one of the last tickets :)

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I have also been working on another project with Dan, collaborating together on a blog cooperative, You Thought You Knew You, to inspire, renew, discover and stimulate creativity. The project was introduced while Dan was speaking at the AIPP event “Hair of the Dog” in Brisbane, in February. It seeks to be an inspirational home for all types of creative photographers, so to challenge one another in thinking of new creative patterns and ways of looking at sometimes not-so-creative things.

The blog is to serve as a reminder of the importance of working on personal projects and getting a little “uncomfortable” when exploring creativity & art and exercising “seeing”. It ultimately seeks to bring out the best in us publicly – to an audience of like minded peers and colleagues, family and friends, or even to our clients.

Every week one artist will be selected and given a photography brief (created by YTYKY Creative HQ OR by a creative brief submitted by the public). The artist will be given seven days to complete the brief by providing around 10 images in response to their particular assignment. Each artist will also submit a written post, explaining their experience with the assignment as well as their thoughts on the experience as a whole.

To stimulate as much “uncomfortableness” as possible, the selected artist must shoot in a style or method outside their usual area of expertise. If, for example, the brief is “Blue” and “Grass” and the artist selected is a wedding photographer who shoots with a Canon 5D Mark II, YTYKY does not wish to see images of blue wedding shoes sitting in fields of grass shot on a DSLR. Instead, YTYKY seeks to push the boundaries of whatever “norms” the artist of the week is most comfortable with. Shoot blue garden gnomes with a Polaroid camera. Be as different as possible. Extend the imagination as far as it will go. Steer away from what feels “natural” and discover another side to your creative potential.

The site is to also serve as a hub / portal to inspire us all even further, featuring many links to videos, books and awesome sites that feature amazing photography projects.

Come join our facebook page or follow us on twitter to keep in the loop about what we are up to. We would love for you to become involved… come nominate a photographer who you would love to see issued with a challenge (or get someone to nominate you if you would like a challenge!)

My project I have been working on over winter is currently the feature of the week on YTYKY :)

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A beautiful wedding  on the coast of Western Australia. My heart left full after spending the day with Helen and Adam and their family and friends.

Sydney, Australia.

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I traveled to Japan in June with one of my dearest friends, Dan O’Day. These are some things I saw. Whenever  I travel, I like to challenge myself creatively. To push myself to shoot in a new way then I normally would. I took my new Fuji x100 camera camera along with my Mamiya 6 medium format camera.  I ended up using only the Fuji x100 the entire trip..I love this little camera.  I normally only shoot film when I travel so shooting digitally and with such a small camera, I was able to capture images I would have normally missed ..like japanese business men picking their noses on the subway :)

Tokyo is my favorite city in the world. I would move there in a heartbeat.

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