Since Ryan cooked us up an Australian BBQ on Saturday night, and many other tasty meals throughout – we figured it only proper and fitting to contribute and give our friends a taste the foods we love in America.

On Sunday for a late brunch, we whipped up a southern-comfort-inspired buttermilk crispy butter-baked chicken, herb whipped potatoes, sauteed green beans, sweet carrots, and pancakes. We were on a mission to make waffles, but waffle irons are hard to come by here so we went with the pancakes instead.

We also baked some soft Toll-House chocolate chip cookies. Most of their cookies here are baked so they are crunchy, not soft so it was a hit with the kiddos.

On Monday, after the Gauntlet (my advanced business-consultation class for Boot Camp survivors) we had a Mexican fiesta night for our last night here in Melbourne. Unfortunate for Australians, good Mexican food is nearly non-existent here. We introduced them to cheese, chicken, and veggie quesadillas and homemade chicken enchiladas with verde sour cream sauce. I can’t believe they had not had quesadillas before!!

The pièce de résistance though was the Mexican fried ice cream we served for dessert. The kind of fried ice cream we make is not actually fried (only the tortilla is!). It’s SO easy to make. Watching Jessie and Ryan’s four girls devour the dish in two minus five seconds was hilarious. Two went as far as to smearing their bare-hands onto the honey-soaked plate and drying the plate of every remaining speck.

Jessie’s already planning our next trip to Australia for us – and we haven’t even left her place yet – and now she’s insisting we quit being photographers and open a Mexican restaurant here in Australia. Haha! (Hey, maybe one day…..)

And for the inquiring minds, I give you the Mexican fried ice cream recipe:

Mexican Fried Ice Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream
Cinnamon
Sugar
Oil
Flour Tortilla
Corn Flakes
Honey
Whipped Cream & Cherry (for garnish, if desired)

Make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. 1/2 c sugar and 6-8 tsp cinnamon in a cereal bowl.

Crunch up another cereal bowl full of corn flakes into smaller pieces.

Fry flour tortilla in a bit of oil in medium-hot fry pan until crispy and golden. Place on plate. Immediately cover in a spoonful of cinnamon/sugar mixture so it’s covered.

Scoop a ball of vanilla ice cream into a ball. Place ball of ice cream into cinnamon/sugar mixture – roll around until covered. Immediately place into corn flake bowl and cover with corn flake bits.

Place covered ice cream ball onto fried covered tortilla. Cover with a few spoonfuls of honey. Or squeeze the honey bear honey over it until it’s all gooey ALL over.

Top with whipped cream and a cherry for special presentation. Eat quickly before it melts. SHARE. It’s rather large for one person to eat alone!

Saturday night we were in for a real treat – Australian BBQ by Ryan-McAwesome (Jessie’s other half!)

Last time, I was the brave one and tried Vegemite. This time around Mike still refused to try Vegemite but he did indulge in some BBQed Kangaroo! “Tastes just like beef.”

Ryan’s masterpiece. From left to right. Sausages, Kangaroo (the dark meat), onions and super tasty chicken that I had.

For dessert we were in for another treat – “sticky date pudding with double cream” – or in this case, ice cream. It sounded super gross to me before I knew what it was, but turned out to be so delish I had two nights in a row. Mmmm.

Thank you Jessie & Ryan for giving us the real, authentic taste of Australia!

Time is going by too quickly! Saturday was the third day of Photo Biz Boot Camp here in Melbourne so we ventured out for taking bio pics of each other, a fashion bridal shoot with Sarah, and fashion kids portraits with Chelsea. Soooo much fun!

Meet Hayley, Rita, Hannah, and Mandy

On the way to shoot Sarah in front of the Old Exhibition Building in Melbourne

Jessie and her oldest, Chelsea. Jessie is officially our first “two-timer” for Boot Camp! She opened her home to us and hosted in Melbourne last time around too. This time we ended up back at her house and with Mandy’s help the two of them hosted again this year. Thanks Jessie!

Behind the scenes of Hayley taking a few final shots of Chelsea in this awesome alleyway Mandy found for us.

Thanks everyone for an awesome few days and just as awesome day shooting around Melbourne!

Special thanks to Kelly Tunney who is an amazing Canberra wedding photographer for organizing this photo shoot with Natalie and Victor. They got married a few months ago and Kelly photographed their wedding – absolutely beautiful!

Hair and makeup by the fabulous and ever-talented Heather Turk!

Here are some of the shots we captured in Canberra on Day 3 of Photo Biz Boot Camp as a special fun addition to our usual option shooting morning.  It was great to get out and enjoy the fresh air shooting a so-much-in-love couple after two days of number-crunching!!

Besides the fact that I look quite scary… what is wrong with this pic?  (We got a bit giddy during Boot Camp in Melbourne and took a candy break).

The things you find in Australia assorted variety pack gummy treats

They’re finally here! Last weekend we photographed Renee and her wonderful little Liana Banana. It was so much fun and I’m inspired now to do Fashion Portrait Sessions with other kids now too!!  Never really thought of it before so thank you Renee and Liana!

Without further ado… Renee and Liana…

We started out at one of the old observatories at Mount Stromlo that had been devastated in a fire in 2003.

Liana showed us her creative side in the interesting rock formations and castles built inside the observatory.

Renee brought their favorite orange chair from Newcastle and so we brought it into the observatory for a few shots. Love the bright color against the white walls. We also had the advantage of it being quite windy up there – it made for fantastic hair pickups!

Time for a wardrobe change.

I couldn’t help but take a few candid action shots too

Then we hopped around the corner for a few pics outside in front of the new observatory and along the ledge.

Even the Kangaroos cooperated and came out for the shoot. I believe Liana was inspired at this point ….

…and then tried out her Next Top Model Pose. Love it!

A few more candids….

Liana was a starlet at this point… saying her farewells to the paparazzi.

Thanks ladies for such a fun afternoon!! And to Mikey and Christine for scouting, shooting, helping carry models, and all your help! And thanks Renee for giving us your insights into being on the other side of the camera!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a ridiculous night owl.  Staying up regularly until 1AM, 2AM, perhaps even 3 or 4AM.  Since I’ve been in Australia this time around, I’ve had an unbelievable urge to slip into bed at 8 or 9PM every night.  My excuse at first was the jet-lag – wanting to go to bed early and waking up naturally at 5 or 6AM.  After a week, I’m not sure I can use that excuse anymore.  I’ve officially gone “Grandma” on my hosts and husband. I’ve told them “I’m not usually like this – I really DO like to be social and stay up late.” Well… maybe it will get better once the jet lag is gone….

On another note, I’m about to dive into a massive bowl of Crunchy Nuts, my new favorite cereal.  It’s like Corn Flakes but nutty-sweet. Mmmmm…..

We just wrapped up Day 1 of Melbourne Photo Biz Boot Camp and at our “Australian 2nd Home” watching So You Think You Can Dance Australia.  LOVE it!

Jessie and Ryan hosted us here in April and so we’re super glad to be here again with them to catch up.  I’m not sure how they do it, but I think they have the bundle of best-behaved kids I’ve ever seen.

Here we were earlier today “Number Crunching” during Photo Biz Boot Camp

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were three amazing days of getting to know Canberra and Sydney-area photographers here at the Photo Business Boot Camp.

Special thanks to Christine Pobke and Kelly Tunney for hosting Boot Camp!  Christine has been the catalyst in bringing us back to teach again, along with the help and guidance of Jessie of J-Studios in Melbourne who hosted us last time, and our other great hosts!  Kelly Tunney is an amazing wedding photographer here and graciously opened her studio to us for three days, and also organized the high fashion bridal session with one of her couples from last year.

Before Boot Camp Started…

I love how they call cookies biscuits here like in the UK

It was Robyn’s birthday on Tuesday so we bought the bakery out of their cupcake stock (cupcakes do not seem to be as commonplace as in the USA)

Random shot from Tuesday’s optional-day-three-shooting lesson

Meet the Survivors of Canberra Boot Camp: (left to right, top to bottom)
Robyn Geering, Natalie Bice, Lauren Walker
Fiona King, Katie Kolenberg, Christine Pobke
Kristin Upcroft, Kelly Tunney, Mark Creery
(not shown) Jenny Sun, Gemma Troy

After some time taking bio pics of each other, we ventured out for a High Fashion Bridal Session with Natalie & Victor. Here’s a sneak peak, more to come:

Today we fly to Melbourne to meet up with our hosts Mandy and Jessie before starting Boot Camp there, then on to Brisbane for the last Boot Camp here in Australia. It’s been amazing here in Canberra and we so wish we could just box everyone up and bring them home with us!! Thank you for having us and making this such an amazing week!

We’re about to go on a photo shoot for Photo Biz Boot Camp here in Canberra, but wanted to post a sneak peak of our shoot with Renee and Liana. So much fun!

Since I specialize in the fashion-oriented photos, Renee really wanted to treat this shoot as a fashion portrait shoot vs a lifestyle portrait session or standard portrait session.  She and I have been meaning to a shoot since last time we were here in April, but we were not able to fit it in then.  So when we found out she’d already be in Canberra to do a session with a famous kids photographer here, it worked out perfect for us to shoot while we’re in town too!  Renee brought this awesome orange chair all the way from Newcastle with her.  Aren’t they the best mom and daughter models!? More to come…