What is the Peekaboo Project?

The Peekaboo Project is all about reconnecting with our childlike playfulness. It's about letting our guard down and making funny faces. Hopefully our funny faces will help us laugh and our laugher will be contagious. 

As children, most of us have a natural ability to laugh easily at almost anything and sometimes for no reason at all. 

But as we grow older, we seem to shut down slightly and laughter no longer flows so effortlessly as it use to. Many of us grow serious, self-conscious, or judgmental about what deserves to be considered funny. The silly noises, nonsensically words and goofy faces no longer make the cut.

Laughter becomes a buried noise that occasionally escapes from deep down within us rather than a ready expression of joy that hovers in our chests, eager to bubble over. 

Laughter is one of the four natural expression of joy. The other three are dancing, singing and playing. When we're joyful we laugh and when we laugh we feel joyful. It goes both ways. Smiling and laughing tell our brains to release endorphins and voilà — we're happier! 

Our world is dark enough as it is — we can light it up with smiles and laughter! Let's learn a lesson from the children and play peekaboo with funny faces :) 

Don't be afraid to laugh - it makes you beautiful!

xoxo

Chamonix

PS:

Here's Our Second Funny Face! 

It's my wonderful husband Miggy! 

I'm not quite sure what he calls this one but I'll ask him later (he's at the computer lab studying at the moment). 

Introducing: The Peekaboo Project!!!

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you The Peekaboo Project!

It's been stewing in preparatory stages for the past couple months and today I launch it upon the world! It's time to pull your favourite funny face and get your laughter on because The Peekaboo Project is about to take over the world (we're thinking optimistically here :P)


Click here to learn what The Peekaboo Project is all about.

I'll be brave and go first. This is me and this is my favourite funny face. I make it all the time and I call it the monkey. I'm very proud of it :P

Hope you enjoy what's to come! I'm so excited!!!!

xoxo

Chamonix

Black & White Lade Braes

One of my favourite things about living in St. Andrews is walking down the Lade Braes path. It takes you from the town, past the park, through the forest, beside the Kinnessburn (river) and out into the neighborhoods. At the end of October I like to walk down Lade Braes with my camera because the leaves are in full bloom - autumn colours everywhere you look! There are these fabulous leaves I want to call maple leaves (though I'm not entirely sure - no tree experts nearby for me to ask). These leaves are giant and the sun shines through them so prettily! This year I took a model with me on this Halloween time walk and we had fun with the late afternoon sun and all the toys at the playground. We even found a couple dandelions!

This model, Elvyra, is in here first year of university at St. Andrews studying science. As we were snapping photos she admitted to me that she is a geek. "What kind of geek?" I asked. "A video game geek!" she said with a shy smile. I never saw that one coming but I loved it! She said she'll play anything from kid's games to zoombies and racing games. haha

 It may surprise you that I captured autumn leaves in black and white but I think I was more inspired by Elvyra when I was taking these photos and she is a very black & white kinda girl. She was wearing all black (her norm) and her dark hair and fair complexion just had B & W written all over it :) No point in fighting it.

I absolutely loved photographing Elvyra's gorgeous face! Her soft cheeks and bright eyes were so charming and I just couldn't take enough photos. I love these last couple close-ups. I asked her to make a funny face for me (I can't help myself - gotta be goofy) and she pulled this one (below). She called it her duck face. She could only hold it for a couple seconds before breaking into laughter. So sweet :)

xoxo

Cham

PS: I had Elvyra throwing handfulls of leaves again and again and again and again!! Hardly any of the photos turned out the way I wanted them to in the end but it was fun tossing leaves into the air anyway so no regrets :)

Abstract Tiger Stripes

I've had such a massively busy week running between the shop and taking photos and preparing for my yoga teacher assessment! On top of it all the wind has been whipping around like crazy. The wind literally sounds like someone is weed whacking outside my house or as my friend Shona described it, a giant bumblebee buzzy outside the window! When I'm inside it's very cozy, especially with my new  homemade Christmas tree glowing in the corner. It's not so cozy when I have to ride my bike into town early in the morning and late at night in the dark :( Poor me. Just kidding.

Any way on a much more exciting note, I've been using this downtime in photography calendar to try my hand at some abstract photography. It's been quite fun! I'm most of proud of these two photos. Can you tell what they are?

In case you didn't guess, they're blinds on a window. Using Lightroom, I increased the contrast and made the blacks blacker and voila I think the first one now looks like tiger strips and the second one reminds me of an African scene with a woman's profile emerging from behind a tree or whatever these shapes are.

Right, now for the rest of today I shall edit photos from the beauty shoot I did last weekend! I'm so excited to see them! Have a lovely day!

xoxo
Chamonix

St. Andrews Engagement Session {L+M}

They literally waltzed into each other's lives! 

Like all the best couples (wink wink) Louise & Mike met  at the University of St. Andrews – a university famous for its match-making. Did you know... 1/3 of St. Andrews students find their future spouse while studying in this quaint sea-side town. (Wills & Kate, Migs & Me  and now Louise & Mike all belong to this lucky group!)

Louise & Mike were introduced at ballroom dancing society and they've been dance partners ever since. We got to shoot their engagement session on their 1 year anniversary (awesome way to celebrate!) It was a St. Andrews themed e-session so we had no choice but to whip out our red gowns and make our way from the castle to the pier to the cathedral to the quad! We got funny looks from the tourists in the castle, they got to pose with a puppy dog that couldn't get enough attention and they were jumping, piggy-backin' and of course...dancing! They are one of the more adorable couples I've ever seen. My favourite part of the whole afternoon was probably watching them nuzzle their noses together (like little eskimo kisses)! 

They'll be saying 'I do' on 8 September 2012 in Sallies Chapel (only university members can be married there!). I'm especially excited to be shooting this wedding because I'm tied to the wedding party is a very bizarre way — In my first year of university I lived in dorm room C18 in Sallies. The following year, I moved out and Louise moved in to C18. Guess who moved in to our room the year after that? Both of her bridesmaids! Totally crazy cool coincidence! After their wedding, Mike has another year of his degree before he graduates & moves his Northern Irish bride back to his home is Colorado! 

These two are way too cute! Did I mention that when I showed up at their door for the e-session, Louise was carrying in her hand an apron her friends had given her that has her future Mrs. Surname embroidered on it! Ekk - too cute!

To see more of Louise & Mike's St. Andrews Engagement Session, feel free to CLICK HERE for a slideshow.

Congratulations Louise & Mike!!

xoxo

Chamonix

Mock Bridal Prep Shoot

A couple weeks ago my fabulicious maid-of-honour put together a bridal-prep session just so I could practice taking photos! How sweet is that?! She called up some of her other friends and basically asked if they wanted to play dress up. She even baked yummy cupcakes and put together a plate of fruit! All the girls whipped out their make-up bags and we even found an 'engagement' ring lying around. We realised that all of us had bought engagement style rings when we were teenagers - just to pretend. Who knew it would end up being useful! hehe. Now some might find the idea of pretending to be getting ready for a wedding weird, but when has that ever stopped anybody! We had an amazing boy-free pre-wedding party! :D Are these lovely ladies pretty, or what?!

 xoxo

Chamonix

T&G Shoot, Style 4

This is the fourth look is the final style from that Toni&Guy shoot I did back in August. The photo above it the choice pic and below you will find my favourite shots of behind the scenes. Hannah Rose (Make-Up Artist) was super excited to put her blue lashes to use and I totally don't blame her because they're so super cool!! This London bun hairdo (by Gayleigh Chester) was super fast and simple compared to some of the other hair we did that day like STYLE ONE. Liv Nathan (model) was amazing considering she was in a massive rush to head off to a birthday party (hehe cute) so we only had a few minutes to snap her series. I think the blue eyelashes steal this show and I just love Liv's uber long neck!!! I'm so excited to work with this bunch of ladies in the future!

xoxo

Chamonix