A horse of course!

As Melbourne Cup day approached, we were looking to get a cover with a  horse and jockey.

We toyed with the idea of getting a pantomime horse, you know something like this-

but we thought the jockey would be upset for not taking their profession seriously.

So i rang the president of the local racing committee and he got a bona fide jockey and horse sorted for me.

It was a bit daunting shoving a camera right up in the horses' grill, but she was cool as ice.

The filly's name is Dandabella, and the jockey was only too happy to get her out for a run

horses are tops!

Cats!

We ran a 'Love your pet' feature in the paper.
The obvious choice was to get some kind of domestic animal for the cover.
After a few dog owners fell through, we called up the RSPCA to see if they could help.
Turns out they had a load of 4 week old photogenic kittens!

The original idea was to get a few of them squashed in together all cute like. But it wasn't doing it for me.

They were quick little buggers, but it added to the fun!

the cover

I had my head stuck in their cage, trying to keep up with the little buggers.
I'm usually not the biggest fan of cats. I mean I like them and all, it's just that I'm allergic to them so I kinda keep my distance.
I was weezing for the rest of the day, but it was worth it in the end.

It's raining....or is it?

We needed a cover for the paper I work at.
It had been raining in town for about a month, so we decided a 'rainy day' themed cover would be appropriate.
Only problem was, the day that we went to take the shot was bone dry! We decided to improvise with a watering can.
I roped my beautiful girlfriend Nora into wearing a 12 dollar K Mart child-sized raincoat and getting dosed with water.

It took some coaxing, but she agreed after I assured her the flimsy raincoat would protect her.

Nora probably gave this look after i ordered another can full.

After about 10 can fulls, a million shots and some nifty Photoshopping, we got a great cover.