A big thank you to Alexis for featuring Lizzii & James’ Hong Kong Trash the Dress shoot on OMG I’M GETTING MARRIED last Friday! I’m a massive fan of Alexis’ blog so I’m dead chuffed that we’re on there!
For those of you who know me, you’ll know I don’t do very well in the cold! In winter I’ll either be found indoors by a radiator or michelin-manned in about a hundred woollies. That’s not to say I don’t like winter. I’m a massive fan of open fireplaces and endless cups of tea and I’m convinced that my winter wardrobe is a lot better than my summer one….it’s just the tiny matter of the cold….
One of my favourite ways to warm up is this chai latte receipe, given to me a few years ago by the the lovely Jane Branney. When I used to work in the City, my office bestie and I would often scuttle down to Starbucks after lunch for a sneaky chai latte, and every time I have one now it reminds me of how much I miss chatting to her (can we have a collective awww!). This version is pretty awesome, and well worth your time. It’ll definitely give you the wow factor if you’re doing any Christmas hosting this year.
And now seems like a good time to say a big THANKYOU to Cristina who gave me this lovely mini handwarmer, for my long walks with fingerless photographer’s gloves! HOW cute?!
What are your favourite winter recipes?
x
*These photos were edited with Lisa Devlin’s Vintage Actions, which was part of an almighty goody bag we received on The Photography Farm. I’ve been having a play around with them this afternoon and I’m struggling to pick a favourite, they’re all so cute. What do you think of this one?
Yummy!December 14, 2011 – 4:16 pm
Hmmm must give this a try :-) aww love the piccie of the cute little hand warmer :-) glad you like it and your are more than welcome! xxxDecember 14, 2011 – 4:40 pm
Nom nom nom. I might make some now, actually. Been craving chai all day! xDecember 14, 2011 – 4:52 pm
OK, there are probably 101 things on my To Do list which need attention before I blog this shoot, but you know what? It’s got trams! A feather dress! It’s on location in Hong Kong! 101 other things can wait…
Engagement/couples shoots are BIG (I mean B.I.G.) in Southeast Asia and I’ve been wanting to do one on location there for absolutely ages now. Lizzii and James got married this summer in China but didn’t have any photos done in Hong Kong where they live. I was over visiting family and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do a shoot in one of the most photogenic cities in the world!
Big thanks to Lizzii and James who are utter superstars, and honestly were so naturally lovely together I didn’t really need to do any directing at all. Can we just have a moment to admire Lizzii’s two dresses? My favourite one is the one with the feather train andwhich she DESIGNED HERSELF (talented, much?). I really hope you guys love the photos as much as I do. Also big thanks to Karly Cox for being an invaluable assistant and all round megastar. Right, enough chitchat….
AWESOMESAUCE!!!!!!!!!! xxxDecember 8, 2011 – 9:03 pm
Seriously great pics… although you have become a fully paid up member of the headless photo society ;-)December 8, 2011 – 10:24 pm
Fabulous shots Kat! I love the bride in the giftshop, the reds are fab! Have to adore the little doggy in the one shot too :)
T xxDecember 8, 2011 – 11:37 pm
Thank you! xxDecember 9, 2011 – 8:04 am
Thanks Adam!! And yep, yep I have hehehe. xDecember 9, 2011 – 8:05 am
Thanks so much Tracey! The little doggie shot was an outtake when I was testing for the light but I loved it so much I had to keep it :) xDecember 9, 2011 – 8:06 am
Very nice and the off-camera flash ones look amazing!!!! gold star.December 9, 2011 – 8:36 am
Haha, thanks Adam!! Thought I’d put my new madskillz to use :)December 9, 2011 – 11:27 am
Awesome photos, really love the feather dress too! She is amazing. fav shots has to be the ‘in the crowd’ b&w and the night glass bridge (i think it looks like a bridge). lovely and fab. Location shoots are looking promising! xxxDecember 9, 2011 – 1:36 pm
Thank you so much!! Really appreciate it Mel! Yeah, the bridge ones are secretly some of my faves too, because I was convinced they weren’t going to turn out and then when they did I was over the moon. It took someone on the end of a mobile to give my directions over the phone because I was on an opposite bridge lol xxDecember 9, 2011 – 1:46 pm
Wow, incredible pics you total genius, can’t wait for you and Cristina to photograph our wedding!!! xxxxxxxxxDecember 9, 2011 – 3:00 pm
Thank you!! I can’t wait to photograph your wedding either!! It’ll be amazing and I already have 101 ideas xxxxDecember 9, 2011 – 3:59 pm
Sweet! The dress with the feather train is amaze-balls. The bridge shots are utterly fab. Go girlie. xDecember 10, 2011 – 12:03 am
Thank you!! I’m convinced Lizzii should go into dress designing. xxDecember 10, 2011 – 8:31 am
Ahhh this is so amazing, i want to go to Hong Kong so bad!!December 12, 2011 – 12:48 pm
Aw, thanks Leah! You definitely should! It’s such an inspiring place, you’d love it! xDecember 12, 2011 – 3:44 pm
[…] big thank you to Alexis for featuring Lizzii & James’ Hong Kong Trash the Dress shoot on OMG I’M GETTING MARRIED last Friday! I’m a massive fan of Alexis’ blog so […]December 20, 2011 – 12:06 pm
Now, there’s nothing I love doing more than taking photos, but staying on an amazing farm-studio conversion (where Bohemian Rhapsody was written), with a whole bunch of lovely and likeminded photographers; learning, chatting, and being waited on hand and foot, as well as taking lots of gorgeous photos of gorgeous people? Well, there you have my Happy Place.
As photographers we’re really spoilt for choice when it comes to courses, so it really takes something special to stand out from the rest. Well, the Photography Farm is pretty darn special. Created and organised by the fab Lisa Devlin, the Farm is held over 3 days in an amazing old house in the Sussex countryside (with a pool. Yes, a POOL). It’s cosy, it’s beautiful and it’s the perfect place to be inspired and learn.
The course I went on focussed on Advanced Off Camera Flash Techniques and was co-led by Adam Bronkhorst of Viva Wedding Photography. I’ve used a bit of off-camera flash before but it was really fantastic to really get to grips with it properly and I’m definitely going to be giving a few of my newly learnt techniques a go! Lisa also holds a business school on the second day and there’s also a session on post processing. Lisa and Adam are both SO incredibly generous with their knowledge – we talked branding, marketing, pricing and they shared their tips and tricks with workflow. And then, there was the styled shoot….OMG. The only word I can find to describe it is AH-MAY-ZING.
Styled by the magic Hannah of The Tea Set, the gothic winter theme took my breath away. There were feathers, smoke machines, a tree house, and an 8 foot nest. Yep, you heard that right, an 8 foot nest. The models, Martina & Leslie were the most gorgeous real-life couple and an absolute joy to photograph – I said it at the time and I’ll say it again, it’s virtually impossible to take a bad photograph of these guys! I love them! I’m not sure my wittering will do it any justice at all, so I’m going to leave it to the photos.
A little bit of magic… (this photo also won photo of the course, so a big thank you to Martina for looking so amazing in this!)
Check out this feather bath! I love!
And can we just take a moment to admire THAT hat…
If you’re a photographer looking to improve your photographic skills and have a lot of fun along the way, please do check out the courses run by The Photography Farm. I know Lisa’s just announced a bunch of new dates for boudoir photography and wedding/engagement photography, as well as another off camera flash course with Adam starting on 29th January 2012.
If you’re a bride to be having a nosey around, please go check out these amazing vendors who will add a little bit of magic to your wedding day!
You can also check out Rock n Roll Bride’s write up of the course right here.
Photography Farm ~ run by Lisa Devlin
Lead Photographer ~ Adam Bronkhorst,
Stylist ~ The Tea Set,
Co-ordinator ~ Jayne Sacco (and a big thank you to Smokey Joe Sacco for being a smoke-producing wizard)
Hair and Make-up ~ Elbie van Eeden,
Dresses & Veil headpiece ~ Hope and Harlequin,
Suit & Overcoat ~ Gresham Blake,
Bird of Paradise Hat ~ Jane Taylor Millinery
, Jewellery ~ Union Jewellery,
Antiques~ Henry Nicholls Antiques
GORGEOUS!!!! :-) xxxDecember 6, 2011 – 10:33 am
Thanks lovely!! xxxDecember 7, 2011 – 7:03 am
Great blog post Kat, and the images look so good together!!!!
Oh and just to let you know that the first link to me doesn’t work ;-((December 7, 2011 – 6:39 pm
Thank you Adam!! It was down to good lighting ;D
Meep! Think I’ve sorted it now. Sorry about that! :DDecember 8, 2011 – 9:47 am
These look amazing Kat, you officially rock!December 9, 2011 – 2:40 pm
Thanks Lisa!! Making good use of my new skillz! xDecember 9, 2011 – 7:23 pm
There is nothing about this set of images that is not utterly amazing. So wish I could have been there too. I am super envious of your amazing new lighting skillz. xDecember 10, 2011 – 12:06 am
[…] going to be a fun one to share, I think! Yesterday I was down in Brighton with my fellow Photography Farmers. You know, sometimes it’s good to just talk photography with other people and not watch […]June 22, 2012 – 2:00 pm
One of the questions I get asked a lot is what got me into photography in the first place. I can’t honestly say that I was wielding an SLR out of nappies (if I’m being honest, for most of my gangly & awkward teenage years I avoided cameras as best I could). Then in my early twenties I caught the travelling bug, and that’s when I really got how amazing photography could be.
This time last year, I was 3,800m up in the Himalayas, eating yak cheese and hiking above the cloudline. Of course I had to bring Bobby Kamora with me.
This is the village of Kyanjin Gompa, about as middle of nowhere as you’ll get, about 8km from the Tibetan border and about a 3 day hike from the closest town. Houses are insulated with yak dung and people wash their clothes in glacial streams. Electricity? Only if you’re very, very lucky. It’s one of the places that really blew me away, and thank god for photography because my memory’s so bad, give it a few years and I’d have forgotten what it looked like. (And, considering the bus trip to get to the trail head was as close to death as I’ve ever come, I’m never likely to go back!).
It’s a different world. Little runny-nosed boys help their mothers with the industrious task of knitting…
… livestock is herded through the “high street” before being sacrificed for religious festivities….
…and wild horses roam free amongst prayer flags and dilapidated Buddhist monasteries .
(Is that horse smiling? I swear he is. But then if I were a horse and lived there, I probably would too.)
The village itself is breathtaking, and from about 3pm clouds roll in from the other end of the valley and blankets it in white.
Oh, and just when you’re thinking the place can’t get any better, you need to know there’s a cheese factory. A yak cheese factory, of course.
Before you ask, it’s pretty yummy. And yak-herding does seem a rather pleasant past time, don’t you think?
The village mainly consists of elderly people and young kids, mainly because folks of school and working age would move down to the towns to educate themselves and make a living. I did wonder what it’d be like to grow up in a world so completely on the edge of civilisation. After some careful observation, it seems that it involves (a) flying a lot of kites with your dad, whilst wearing matching snazzy jumpers….
(b) trying to kick chickens
and (c) generally being very cute (but very, very snotty)
Yeah. The Langtang Valley is a really beautiful place…
When people ask, I tell them they should definitely make the trip there at least once in their lives…if they can hack the 8 hour bus trip on this bad boy that is :)
Oh wait, did I say 8 hours? I meant 13…
I’m still glad I went. :)
Heh. Gorgeous! This time last year I had just arrived in Malaysia having left Nepal 7 days earlier to travel by road and rail to Delhi. It was during our Himalayan adventure in October 2010 that my then boyfriend convinced me to pursue a career in photography. My time in Himalayas was so inspiring. Only today I was reminiscing looking at the donkey bell and Tibetan jug I carried down from the Mustang region. Hehe. Happy days. I simply cannot wait to go on another adventure. Will take me a while to save for it…but I have my heart set on Machu Picchu next. :)November 13, 2011 – 9:13 pm
PS. Pics here if you’re interested: http://lifelinephotography.co.uk/theblog/?p=50November 13, 2011 – 9:14 pm
A couple of months ago I signed up to The Curiosity Project, which is basically like a giant secret santa gift swap. It’s organised by Tiffany Grant-Riley, a wedding planner and stylist and you can read more about how the project came about here.
You spend up to £20 choosing gorgeous little things to your anonymous recipient (not an easy task, I can tell you!) and you’ll receive a box in return from an anonymous sender. Really too exciting for a snail mail junkie like me!
I received my box a few days ago and have been waiting for some dry weather to take the photos. Here’s what I received – aren’t I a lucky girl?!?!
Wow, what a lovely parcel of lovliness. You lucky thing :-)November 7, 2011 – 6:19 pm
Awww, how lovely is that? The box itself is incredible & the contents super cute. You lucky, lucky thing. xNovember 7, 2011 – 9:44 pm
What a beautiful thing! There is nothing like receiving a mystery gift in the post, awesome! xxxNovember 9, 2011 – 10:31 am
I know!! Have you signed up for the next one? You should!November 12, 2011 – 10:16 pm
Soooooooooooooooooooooper cute. I’ve still got everything in the box cos it looks so pretty together! xNovember 12, 2011 – 10:17 pm
I know, the postman was a bit shocked when I ripped it from his hands I think heheheNovember 12, 2011 – 10:17 pm