New England North West Tourism – Dec 12-15, 2010

On the afternoon of Sunday 12th December 2010, myself, Australian actor and TV cook, Paul Mercurio, and 4 journalists flew to Moree in northern New South Wales to begin a 3 day roadtrip (what is apparently referred to in the biz as a “famil”… short for “familiarisation tour”) throughout the New England region.
Paul is the ambassador for New England Northwest Tourism (“The Face”, if you like), the journalists were there to learn about the region so as to then be able to write authoritatively about the area for their respective publications, and I was there as the official photographer to capture the events, the sights, the meetings, and the general goings on.
The images will be used by New England Northwest Tourism to promote the region (brochures, magazines, newspaper articles, billboards etc), by the journalists and their respective editors to accompany the aforementioned stories, and by Paul for his own promotional purposes.
It was my first time on one of these “famils”, and let me tell you, it’s hard flamin’ work!
You get stuffed to the gills with great food, accompanied by equally fantastic fermented grape juice, rolled onto a bus, driven to another spot, where they roll you off the bus, and proceed to inflict upon you an equal gastronomic assault all over again!
I’m tellin’ ya, this is not a job for the lily-livered!
‘Cause somewhere in between all of this eating and drinking, you’re expected to take some killer photos as well!
I won’t inflict upon you the minutiae of the entire trip, but myself and one of the journalists worked it out on the last day; we’d been fed 26 courses of food in 72 hours!
All jokes aside, I had a great time; totally enjoyed the experience, took some images that I was happy with, got to meet some fantastic people, and best of all, received some really generous and supportive praise from people I met along with way with regard to my attitude and professionalism. That’s always nice to hear! (Thanks, Les!!)
Paul was an absolute legend. He was always up for any photo ideas I had, and was more than happy to wait while I tried a different lens, different angles and so on. And if you follow the news, you may have noticed that this was a week when Paul could quite easily have been off his game.
But no, like the total professional that he is, he acknowledged (in true show biz fashion) that the show must go on, and on it went.
Paul, it was a pleasure to meet you and an honour to work with you. Thanks for being so down-to-earth, mate! And best wishes with the new book, too!
The journalists were all lovely ladies, writing for a broad mix of publications including the NRMA’s Open Road magazine, R.M. Williams’ Outback magazine, Austalian Associated Press, and the Weekend Australian.
Mary, Therese, Heather and Katherine, it was a pleasure to work with you all, and I trust that you (and your editors) find the images useful.
I would also like to thank Lori from Lorick Management for trusting me with this assignment. Thanks Lori! I loved it… again!