Simply seductive.

Apologies on such a huge break between posting! We've been having HUGE trouble with our Internet and yesterday it completely cut out.  We're told it's fixed now but it's still rather slow. 

It's still cold here at the moment and it can get hard through a long winter to stay inspired in dressing and for me designing and making clothes when I'll I feel like doing is curling up on the couch watching movies (I get bored with this quickly though). 

I found this editorial photographed by Tom Munro for Numero #125 just since getting our Internet back and I find it greatly inspiring as the clothing and styling of is exactly what I've been loving this winter but had lost the inspiration for. 

I love the edginess of the kind of fetish, Bondage theme which to me communicates the 'feel' of the clothing in a way. All the tight leather, cinched in waistlines and buttoned up necklines, yet never done in a conservative way. 

I especially love where leather and chiffon have been used together, all in back but they'r just such different fabrics that the contrast is amazing.

I made myself a shirt recently that's black chiffon with leather detailing and it's been too cold to wear it yet but I'm looking forward to getting the chance to wear it with either high waisted pants or a high waisted skirt. 

I also adore the stay up or held up stockings (with suspender belt), again a look I love so much at the moment and before we came into our rather cold weather here I'd been wearing stockings either just over the knee or thigh highs and before I broke it, I had a lovely suspender belt to wear with them. I'd wear it just below the hem line of my dress or skirt. Like a lot of things, it looks good if done right. I've seen some people wearing it but the rest of the outfit they're wearing it with is too revealing that it starts to look really tacky and well just plain skanky. So, my rule that stays true most of the time: Choose, boobs or legs - it's fine to show a little bit of cleavage or some thigh, but not both at the same time. Of course at time's depending on overall styling as well as materials used and such this rule changes but generally it works.  

"Buying a Canon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Canon owner"

I couldn't agree with this quote more. I generally don't place great value what so ever on what camera people shoot with, just what they can achieve with it and how they used the camera to do so. Photography to me is personal and it's using a camera as your tool to capture the world in the way you see it, or express a feeling or mood. To be able to do fully control how your photo turns out if you are wanting to express something particular you need to know how to use the camera settings and controls to achieve what you want. 

At the same time, I do think there is something so beautiful to spontaneous photographs - I just don't agree with people that call themselves photographers or claim that they are really into photography when they buy an expensive camera and put it all on Auto settings and take a million pictures of the same thing and find one that looks decent and then edit it in Photoshop until it's a good picture. 

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Here is some of my personal Digital photography. 

The first two were shot in a studio with controlled lighting back when I had access to the studio at school, I really want to get the chance to work in studio's again but I just don't have access to one at the moment. 

These following shots I took last year at a lunch that our family held for my Grandparents 50th Anniversary. I was asked to take photo's of the day and these are some Candid snaps and photo's of just around the venue from the day...

Here are some more recent pictures I've taken..

I like the two above when I was playing around with long exposures and starting zoomed in on one spot and  zooming out whilst the shutter is open - I think it creates a really cool tunnel effect.

I don't edit my photo's much  - sometimes I'll change digitals to black and white if I'm not happy with the colours, and every now and again I'll lower the saturation or fix the shadow/highlight balance - yet I do believe that if the photo is taken well and you know how to control your aperture and shutter speed to achieve what you want then you shouldn't need to do even that. 

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Whilst I photograph really anything that I think looks interesting and I do enjoy photographing events, I particularly enjoy actual shoots that I've planned to a degree (I always leave some parts of the planning out as it forces me to get into my creative head space) and I really want to get more into fashion photography, both in studios and on location.

For a while now I've really wanted to do a shoot in a graveyard, I've found my location and I know what what style I want for it but I haven't found someone with the look for it and that would be happy to be my model for the day!

Like I said before, these are my person photographs, so I'd appreciate if they're not copied or shown elsewhere without credit back to me or a link back to my blog, thanks!

Muusik.

My Internet hasn't been working particularly well the last few days and when it's worked for me to at least get on and check emails and such, it just doesn't load pictures, so I haven't been posting so much either.

But anyway for now here some music I came across more recently, 'Katzenjammer' - a Norwegian band  that I'm really liking! They're so different and I really like the almost 1920's jazz vibe to a lot of their songs and a kind of 'Gypsy' sound to some as well? 

Have a listen if you please..

The spy glass: Jonathan Leder's camera lens

So I've shared with you my favourite digital photographer and a few other photographers that I really like the work of, but I hadn't (until now) shared with you any of my favourite photographers that shoot primary or completely in film. Given that Film photography is my preferred format, I myself was surprised when i realised but when I think about it, it's actually quite hard to come across photographers working commercially this days shooting with film due to so many different aspects to it, the process and the costs involved that just makes digital so much more time and money saving!

Anyway, I do know of a few photographers that have still made quite a name for them self shooting in film and some others that I really like even though they aren't known at all but I've just stumbled across their work at some point.

For this post though I want to just share my overall favourite film photographer: Jonathan Leder. I adore the 'simplistic' beauty that all his photographs have, yet whilst always being simplistic in nature they all tell a story and really draw you in wanting to know what the story behind them is. 

Whilst visually they are so beautifully simplistic, all his photographs are composed so well - I really love interesting placement of subjects within pictures or how subjects are framed, etc. I think this is something that Leder does so well that the standard viewer wouldn't notice it, yet it creates more interest within the photographs.  

The thing I love most that a lot of his photographs possess is a sense that you are almost spying on the subjects within the pictures and they either have no idea you're watching them or they know and almost are putting on a show for you - without you knowing that they know you're watching them. 

There's a great interview that tells you more about the man than any bio's will over at http://www.seelike.me/post/123533743/jonathan-leder-interview

and his own website is http://www.jonathanleder.com/

Keeping the Faith.

Whilst I adore Paloma Faith's music, it actually wasn't what I first found her for. A few years ago she was featured in a  fashion magazine that I was flicking through and I was so drawn to her amazing style that I went and googled her and then came across her music which just as much reflected her amazing Classic yet quirky style. 

I love when she really gets the balance right between Classic elegance and Quirky Individual, it works so amazingly well and it suits her completely. Although she has missed the mark a few times and probably ended up on the 'what not to wear' lists, she seems to take it all in her stride and makes up for it a million times over in my opinion when she gets it right.

I read over here in a little Q&A article with her that she does work with Stylist Kimi O Neill, but mainly just in sourcing different pieces of clothing. Either way I think that over time she's just been getting continuously better at getting it 'right' and she's definitely kept my faith in her as an absolute style icon and shows that you can be completely Glamorous and Classic whilst remaining so edgy, quirky and individual.

 Anyway, here's one of my favourite video's from her - the film clip for 'Do you want the truth or something beautiful?'

..."I am happy to deceive you"