Tracey Hua - The Wool and Voodoo Vibe Shoot

The Shoot
Brief: Photograph the i/o merino Crop Top in pure merino wool
Location: Mt. Ninderry - Sunshine Coast Queensland
Model: Tracey Hua
The Route: Nitroglycerin 25, a deceptively steep crimp ladder with a balancey heart breaker to finish.

Tracey wears Crop Top from i/o merino. Shop it here at:

It struck the photographic location team at jjobrienclimbing that Nitro and Tracey would be the perfect collision of route and climber for the brief.

The shoot was fresh of the tail off her Red River Gorge USA trip, and she has returned stronger than ever.

Thanks to Henk Morgans for rope tech support.

Who's that girl?

Brizzy girl, Tracey's exotic looks come from her Chinese/Vietnamese family. You'd think that would be enough to be taken seriously as an Asian. She's always trying, but her friends only seem to see her Aussieness. What does an Asian have to do in this country to get recognition? She says she likes Asian food. We all like that. What else have you got?

She also claims to be a Tom Boy, but that's not flying either.

 Graceful? Maybe. By her own admission, she's clumsy on the ground and "falls over". 

                                     A girl of contradictions.

Beyond the brief: Get in a plug for jjobriens' own "dangerously dark" jewellery design. 

Model wears: "They only come out at night" necklace.

Obsidian and pyrite skulls and crosses, lava stone and dyed turquoise

$120.00 from Red Phoenix Emporium.

From the Red Phoenix website:

Guest designer JJ O'Brien has added some dangerously dark pieces to the Skulls and Crosses collection for primitive man and voodoo girls!
They Only Come Out At Night features a Pyrite skull and glossy Obsidian cross with matte black Lava stone and matte black Obsidian skulls. There are five different coloured feature skulls to choose from green, red, orange, bleached or blue turquoise.

Tracey Hua for Red Phoenix Emporium.

jj

Noosa with Nate Foster

 

Location: Boiling Pot - Noosa National Park

Model: Nate Foster

Photos: jjobrienclimbing

 

 

I was thinking about Boiling Pot recently. Gritty short cliffs over sensuous worn stones, washed by the sea. I used to climb there when I first started. The place has been photographed to bits in every Noosa coffee table type book but I think there's potential for good bouldering photography. 
Here's what Nate and I came up with.

 

I think a million people or more visit Noosa National Park every year. There's a constant stream of families with boogie boards and towels colliding with each other on the path, as they migrate from carpark to beach to next beach and back.

Only one or two people visit for the climbing, but the bouldering is quite good and there's trad routes to be had at the southern end of the park.

Being neither a boulderer nor a traddie I only add to the million every few years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jj

 

 

Photos of Bochere Rand

Getting to the top of the popular posts ladder on jjobrienclimbing has never been easy.

I can't do it.

The 4 girls from Urban Climb Gym dubbed Urban Girls clipped that anchor and never lowered off.

A couple of years later jjobrien lined up Bochere Rand for a follow up post.

Follow Bochere on Facebook.
...If you want daily updates, at dawn, on the first thing that comes into her head.

Climbers, you know I'm a sucker for a flaming redhead

jj

A Day with Mike Law

When I first started buying Rock magazine, probably back in '89, like most of you I was in awe of all the heroic characters. Bold, competent, even handsome. But the one who most summed up that period , for me, was Mike Law. AKA The Claw.

I was guiding a group along the Grand Canyon track in the Blue Mountains one day in the early Nineties and recognised Mike, from magazine pictures, coming the other way. I couldn't believe my luck. A real rock star, live, in person. So naturally I stopped him, and surprisingly he gave me all the time I wanted, chatting about stuff, you know, stuff. And even suggesting I come and climb at the gym where he worked. I don't know where my group got to. I caught them up some time later.

But, in my mind, I came away with an invitation to climb with Mike Law. The Claw!

I never did.

Till one day, recently on a dash trip to the Bluies with Lee, we met again. Vector: Neil Monteith.

That's me sort of looking smug mixing it up with the big boys.

I was taken as much by Mike's story telling as his climbing. He's like a TV that's always on exactly the right channel, the imagery is rich, and only just believable.

So I can scarcely believe all the amazing people I've been hangin with lately. The latest buzz was a day at my local crags with Mike.

Starting with breakfast.

We told stories while Sandra roasted coffee from our tree, free range, low food miles, organic, but saddly, tainted with child labour. Grandson Judd helps pick it.

 We had chili eggs on Turkish bread. Fav Saturday morning food.

Then out to the crags. Starting at Tinbeerwah. Yes, I took the Legend of The Claw to the Slabs of Tinbeerwah. What of it? It was fun. I left my bolt plates at work, so we used wires.

How embarrassment?

Then we dropped in at my work for lunch - Nachos and chocolate cake - and down the highway to Mt. Tibrogargan.

My human guide book, Lee was away in Kentucky, so I sent him a message. What to do with Mike?

"Remains of the Day" 5 pitch, mixed.

So here's Mike climbing past the notice declaring the route closed for Falcon Nesting.

Settle down climbers, don't get your nuts in a knot, the date on it had expired. Mike led first. We swung leads.

I snapped a couple of shots along the way, on his following pitches.

The Claw has been credited with the dubious honor of the Mastery of "Jiggery Pokery" in climbing.
Here he carefully disguises a kneebar from the camera, but this grasshopper sees all.

"Remains of the Day" 

 So named when Gareth and Ross found human remains on their first ascent. Funny guys.

 I look forward to climbing again with him. And Sandra and I wish Mike and Vanessa the most joy and happiness on their next, most extreme, unpredictable adventure they will ever undertake.

Call anytime, day or night, if you need help with that one Mike.

jj

Home in 50mm

Saturday. I'm exhausted from a hard week at work. Sandra and I have been out for coffee, and to a Gemfest in Nambour. We bought a beautiful 9crt gold ring set with three untreated sapphires from the miner himself.

Early afternoon and I have to find an activity to stop myself from going climbing.
Challenge: Photograph our house with one lens only. Easy choice; 50mm.

Sandra always has flowers in the house, dead or alive.

 Javanese day bed.
Table - recycled timber made by Sandra's brother Ray.

 

 Old round table we've had forever. 

Art: Peter K. O'Brien, my brother, oil/wax/oil paint/petrol/sand and canvas on canvas. c 1969

 

 The bookshelf Ray and I built for our old mud brick house, painfully relocated. Never again.

 

 So many things from so many places. Printing block from India, Tjantings from Java.

 

 Our dear friend Jenny, no longer with us, made this Ganesh, gold painted.

 

 Saraswati keeps and eye on the phone. My favourite knife is the Shun, folded Japanese steel.

 

 We sleep here. The Buddha reclines. The bedroom is separated from the rest of the house.

 

 Sandra's collection of True Religion jeans. Mine are G-Star.

 

 Versace, DVF, Hermes,

 

 Pearls and beads from all over the world.

 

 Sandra pads around the house making things and just looking beautiful.

 

 Afternoon sunlight illuminates the cobwebs on the stool that Ray made from discarded wood.

 

 Museum collections in every corner. We never quite achieved minimalism.

My Sitar, now unused, I studied when I was a teenager. Ravi Shankar was my idol.

 

 Take in the detail.

A collection of all the Christmas cards that Sandra has made.

 

 Shells, bells, clocks.

 

 Things on top of things, filled with things. All of them beautiful.

 

 Sandra makes intricate blankets for every baby born to family, relatives, friends.

 Quiet afternoon sun.

 Climbers, I couldn't do it. I went out for a climb at Tinbeerwah. Having a crag a few minutes away is just too tempting.

When I return it's getting dark, Sandra is still making things. The Singer treadle machine is 110 years old.
A blanket for our Niece's new baby.

The very legendary Mike Law, AKA The "Claw" arrives in the morning to go climbing.

That's a nice thing to think about tonight.

I should have been in bed hours ago.

jj