Calton Hill (Edinburgh) Engagement :: Maneula & Sebastian

Originally from Germany, Manuela & Sebastian love their new home in Edinburgh and wanted to celebrate their engagement with views over the city. Possibly the best view of Edinburgh is from the top of Calton Hill — you can see out to the North sea, 360 degrees of the city and out in the other direction to the Pentland Hills. It's absolutely stunning up there and Manuela & Sebastian made it even cuter :D Manuela had the most beautiful smile and she laughed so easily it was easy to snap away capturing beautiful image after beautiful image. Mr. Sebastian (a little more camera shy) was instructed by his bride to keep his Chandler Bing face at bay. He did a great job and towards the end of our shoot he even performed a little chicken dance for me (apparently he had to perform that dance on stage on his stag night while dressed in a pink bunny costume...LOVE this story lol).

Manuela & Sebastian met while studying at university in Germany. They've both got PhD's (they're both 'doctors' hehe how snazzy is that?!) in biology. Manuela specialises in parasites — how crazy cool is that?! I loved hearing Sebastian talk about his area of expertise. He does cardo-vascular research and he get to work with fish that glow!! A bit over my head but very cool :P

Turns out, Sebastian actually has a little passion for fish. He works with stripy little Zebra fish and he apparently he also loves to eat fish and I suppose anything fishy in between is wonderful to him. 

Isn't her laugh beautiful? :D

In the image below (on the right) Manuela really reminds me of Nia Vardalos (star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding). It probably has something to do with the fact that she's standing beside massive pillars, which reminds me of Nia Vardolos' film "My Life in Ruins" (which takes place in Greece).

Here you have it....the chicken dance!!!!!!! Woohoo!

I was especially excited to take Manuela & Sebastian's engagement photos on Calton Hill because the last time I was up the hill I was photographing wedding gowns for Bliss Bridal Studio. That was my very first bridal shoot — I think it was my 4th photo shoot ever. Check out those photos of my early days here.

Miggy and I sat down and counted how many significant buildings we could see in this 'portrait' of Edinburgh. We decided that pretty much every single major monument & building (with a couple exceptions) is present below. This makes me happy :D

Beautiful beautiful people :D I can't wait to photograph their wedding in just 1 week!

I love seeing buildings in black & white because it makes all of the window shapes pop out :D So cool! I really like how you can see the faded mountains in the background. It reminds me of my elementary school art teacher, Mrs. Nicols — she taught me all about how to put lots of layers into a painting. That was my first lesson in depth of field :D

I'll see you two cuties in 1 week! Can't wait! :D

xoxo

Outpouring of Frustrations

Blogging blogging blogging....I'm struggling this week. I've been aiming to blog everyday lately but this week it's just been a bit too much for me to keep up with it all. Since the internet died in our house it's been a bit of an effort to make it into town and find a wireless signal. Such an inconvenience. :( Boo. 

Only one more month of this and then we'll be moving to the land of the free and my parents house will definitely have internet (hopefully I'm not jinxing myself here). I can't wait to settle in to the Seattle area and start looking into starting up a more permanent studio and having lots more people around to work with. 

It's been so frustrating this week. I've scheduled 4 or 5 photo shoots this week and every single model canceled on me last minute with a severe 'sickness.' I don't mean to lack compassion. If they are genuinely sick then I hope they feel better and I understand. I just don't want to be lied to. 

What I'm really, actually, disappointed about is that the shoot is canceled. I get so excited about shoots — I wake up early, exercise, shower, even put on make-up and prepare my studio. And then I get that horrible text or email that says...."I'm so sorry but I'm really not feeling well." It's just leaves me hangin'. Today it was quite bad actually. 

I was so disappointed today I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't feel like doing anything else. I just wanted to take photos of someone. I ate an entire bowl of sugary popcorn and then crawled into bed with Miggy (who's nocturnal at the moment — hence why he was sleeping during the day) cried a little bit and then I took a 2 hour nap. 

Admittedly, it was pretty lush to lie in bed in my cloths. Really comfy. It always feels nice to get back into bed after showering and being dressed. The rest of my day perked up a little. I took a beautiful walk through the forest which is getting super green this time of year. So refreshing! I made progress on my latest business book...

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith.

I spent about 6 hours stressing over my website design. I've been worried that my website design isn't original enough. I'm afraid it's too heavily influenced by other photographers' designs. This exhausted me — hence no energy left for writing my business or marketing plan (both things at the top of my to-do list currently) and no energy left for blogging.

At the moment I'm sitting in my friend Jenni's living room. It's such a treat to socialise. It's hard being in a town where everyone has left. I can't wait to be in Seattle where people live and stay put so friendships can actually be enjoyed regularly in person. Jenni's boyfriend, Arturo, is visiting from Mexico (we love Arturo!) so we're had some quesadillas tonight. While the boys watched football, we girls got super excited about Jenni's sparkly sequin dress (for the grad-ball). I still don't know what I'm going to where. Hmm....

Super bonus of visiting Jenni's house tonight....another dinner guest was looking for a photographer to shoot her engagement session. She booked me for a St. Andrews themed session next month! Second bonus, two other dinner guests (also friends of mine) loved the idea of modelling for me and we've scheduled a shoot together for tomorrow morning! Horray. And I know they won't cancel on me because of 'sickness' partly because I trust them, partly because they were so excited and partly because they listened to me moaning about the other models' flakiness. 

We also discovered the Prank Wars from College Humour. Really gripping stuff.

Right. There's my outpouring from my heart for today. 

xoxo

Personal Shoot :: Lace Draping (with Maria & Louise Quinn)

Not this one. No. No. No. Sorting through the racks of clothing in the charity shops. I wanted something "high fashion". Something interesting and eye catching. Everything was so blah!!! Then there it was...a MASSIVE roll of lace (it was a lace curtain actually) and what's that?!? Only £2.25?! Are you kidding me? I'll take it!!!!!!!! Shopping with Miggy is always entertaining — he looked at me with raised eyebrows as I handed over my money... "Are you seriously buying another sheet just before we move across the world? We have enough to pack." The man has a point BUT this was different. The price tag made it ok. 

My lace curtain inspired a project! It's my lace draping project and it will be featured in full in my next issue of CHAMONIX magazine but to wet your appetite, here's a little sneak peek...

As you know, my internet died last week so I was camping in the university library when I overheard this girl across the table on Skype. She was talking about joining a modelling agency and she said she needed to build up her portfolio but she was struggling to find the jobs. Little did she know I was totally eavesdropping thinking to myself....YES YES YES! I've been struggling to find models this month for my personal work and there she was...gorgeous :D Meet Maria. Turns out we've got a very good mutual friend and I've heard her talked about before without knowing who she was. Funny little world :P

For more images of Maria and to see the full Lace Draping project subscribe to CHAMONIX magazine  — the next issue is out 6 July 2012.

And of course I must must must mention that the beautiful hair styles that Maria is rockin' were created by the very lovely Louise Quinn who is a hair stylist based in Perth, Scotland and she's got 20 something years experience with hair. She was a joy to work with — so relaxed, helpful and friendly. I definitely recommend her to anyone looking for some gorgeous hair right now ;P

xoxo

MarveLLous Monday :: Inspiration from the Week

(i know 'marvellous' is only supposed to have one 'l' but I like it much better with 2. it just comes more naturally to me that way...)

All I want to do is sleep in! Every single morning this week, I don't know why I'm so sleepy. Nowhere has been so comfy as my pillow and I just want to slip back into my dreamless world of peaceful darkness. But I'm awake and learning & growing my business and taking photos and I'm happy and I love it and everybody should be nice to each other so yay yay yay!!! It's monday! Have a great week :D

Typewriter art ::: people who make things like this just blow me away! 

(Found here)

MASSIVE ROSES : FIND DIY HERE!

I love love love creative engagement sessions. I really want to meet this clearly very interesting couple :P

(FOUND IT HERE)

This man was a truck driver for 30 years. The left side of his face was exposed to the sun all the time. This is what happens when you are exposed to that many UV rays without sunscreen. SCARY!! I think I'm going to go buy some nice big fancy dancy hats.

(FOUND IT HERE)

xoxo