Saturday 13 November 2010

Modelling shoot with Rhiannon


So I decided three days before I was due to restock the Celtic Manor hotel with my jewellery for the highly anticipated Ryder Cup, that I needed to shoot some fresh jewellery photos, preferably on a model in order to provide the backdrop for my jewellery in the glass cabinets whilst masking the unsightly holes & messy electric cables of the hotel wall behind! But with a budget of say, er zero, I had to call in some favours.
Late in the evenings of many house parties, I tend to get my camera out and pretend I'm a fashion photographer and practice photographing my friends in artistic styles. During our last (of many) New Years Eve parties, I snapped my dear friend Rhiannon, who had a few too many of my infamous Mojito's as she pretended to play my husband's guitar. She looked fab in a silver sequence one shoulder dress, that for the first time, I could see what "they" term as model material. Yes, she is tall, thin and long in all the right places, but there is more to modeling as we found out...
On several occasions I threatened to photograph her donning the jewellery for a model shoot and she showed signs of interest, but nothing concrete. So it was only a matter of time til I would play my wild card.
Three days before I was due to deliver my jewellery, the weather was shockingly miserable, setting the scene for a muddy golf tournament ahead, no doubt. But with news of a short break in the skies, I decided to cash in my wild card ask a huge favour. During our usual school run catch up, we discussed Rhiannon's availability and put her to the test. I advised her that I needed to catch the break in the weather due, er tomorrow! Was she really going to go through with the photo-shoot?
Like a true professional, Rhiannon arrived made-up and on time, whilst I was still wiring some last minute earrings, like any hardcore designer working over deadline. We grabbed the camera and some nic naks for props and headed down the footpath to a quiet green spot nearby.
As the Autumnal sun seemed to beat down along with nosy dog walkers, we got a couple of good shots, but it was clear Rhiannon was getting a little flustered. We took the decision to pack up and head back home and into the junglesque bamboo infested tropical greenery which is, my back garden. There, with the fence shielding any onlookers, I immediately saw a complete change, from a normal women into a model, as Rhiannon relaxed into the role and stepped up to the challenge. All of a sudden, we were snapping shot after quality shot of a model tantalizingly searching through the jungle in Borneo, and made the jewellery come to life. I had clocked over a thousand shots and was amazed at how each scene felt different, even though we were only moving slowly around the garden following the last light of sun as the kids were doing the same screaming and yelping at each other, scoring for our attention.
With a little bit of direction and ad-hock styling from yours truly along with that perfect Sienna light of late afternoon sun seeping through the foliage, Rhiannon really worked it and was, as Tyra Banks says all too often, FIERCE!
Thanx to Rhiannon, it was job well done. Phew!
The above photo is my favourite shot and numerous photos of Rhiannon can be seen around my website and on this blog...

Saturday 6 November 2010

Winter warmer candle

When I was a kid growing up in Sydney, Christmas of course was in the middle of Summer which meant Mum would literally sweat buckets over turkey just to give us the "traditional" family roast Christmas turkey dinner. Being as hot as about 40+ degrees Celsius, you normally wouldn't decorate with candles in the middle of fire season, and every window in the house akimbo, there wasn't much need for ambient scents either. Not to mention, this was long before the candle boom of the eighties.
Here in the UK, the seasonal weather provides the perfect outside ambiance for that idealistic Christmas. So there is a natural calling to fill ones home with scents that conjure cwytchy settings and women, especially go all out for all things Christmasy to build the momentum of festivities, usually overdose their homes with sweet'n spicy sickly scents.
I have been thinking about a winter warmer candle for sometime, but the market is filled with these sweet sickly scents usually incorporating dessert style flavours of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and the sheer thought fills my head with dread and throbbing migraines! By the time you've filled every corner of your lounge with those sweet'n spicy candles and scoffed the half dozen mince pies, you've over-indulged and overloaded your senses to last you the rest of the year. Luckily it's only once a year!
I mentioned my thoughts on blending a winter warmer candle to a good friend of mine, Cathie, who is one of my best testers, and her reaction was clearly in my favour, "oh please, not cinnamon or nutmeg!" she protested, nose firmly to the gods.
Now seeing as I always like to bring the flavours of my routes into my home, I have been wanting to include Sandalwood. Unfortunately due to cost, I had to substitute the best Australian Sandalwood for a cheaper African version and with that, I have put my snobby nose aside even though it's not entirely my first choice, particularly noticeable in the early spicy top note, but still, the lingering base notes very much musky Sandalwood. Now it's within a sensible price range of my other candles, about £14.95,
I am really into the subtle sweetness of Sicilian Bergamot right now which forms the basis of the scent blended with some patouli, lime, palmarose and finally the dulset tones of Sandalwood gives the blend that exotic velvety spice, I know it, but can't put my finger on it, whisper.
No sickly sweet dessert style aromas within cwoffing distance!
Available shortly on my website, after I take some more photos.