I’m a huge fan of online shopping. There is nothing I hate more than being amongst huge crowds in shopping malls trying to put an outfit together. Trying on countless outfits while queuing endlessly for changing rooms only to discover that it doesn’t fit is utterly pointless. Besides, removing 5 layers of clothing and putting them back on again over and over again gets pretty exhausting ( if you’re shopping during the winter season).

I get probably 75% of my clothes online. I buy a few at a time, pay for postage, it arrives at my doorstep and I try them on in the luxury and warmth of my bedroom. Granted, for some online boutiques, I would have to pay for the return postage should I decide that something’s not for me. However, over the years, I’ve grown to like or dislike a particular brand or style and know which size from which brand would fit me.

I don’t know…maybe it’s the whole hype around opening parcels and packets left at your doorstep. Or waiting eagerly for the postman/courier to deliver your pack of dresses on a Saturday afternoon. It’s just so much more exciting!

Anyway, Lipsy is currently having a massive sale and urm…me being me..couldn’t stop myself and bought myself these gorgeous beauties:

I just hope the sun stays out long enough for me to get a chance to wear them all!

P.S: A few of you have e-mailed me and suggested Dartmouth (from reading my previous entry about my impending week away in Devon ) A quick google search later, and it’s perfect! Just hope J feels the same way I do about where we should go…

These past few days, I’ve been researching on how to use my newly purchased 2nd hand SB-800 Speedlight. Photographing after work doesn’t necessarily give me the daylight I so long for so I set about creating a mini studio on my dining room table. You could buy yourselves a light tent or…you could do what I did and try to create something remotely studio-like using items you normally have lying around. After much tweeking and fiddling with the controls, these were the shots I got:

I’m not overly pleased with them as I felt a 2nd flash on the left would have made the pictures a whole lot better. The top right hand side of the pictures were whiter than the left hand side…mainly due to the fact that I only had one flash source. I used a white foam board on the left to bounce off as much light as possible. I find the peppers situated on the right a tad too overexposed as compared to the ones on the right.

Also, I didn’t quite get the focus and depth of field right. All in all, it definitely was an experience and good fun but something I’ve yet to master.

If you’re interested in the set-up, have a look:

It’s that time of the year again when I feel I’ve got to sort my next holiday before Christmas. Summer’s here (well British summer anyway) and it’s depressing being in the office all day wasting the sunshine away. I start to reminisce my uni days when I used to enjoy 12 whole weeks of utter bliss doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the summer (while working part-time at Starbucks).

Since our holiday in Singapore, I figured that we couldn’t really afford to have another big holiday. However, what’s to say we can’t have a small low budget holiday in the UK? I love B&Bs. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never really knew they existed! But ever since J bought me to one for our 1st trip away, I’ve fallen in love with them (and with him as well..duh!).

I love the personal touches you get from homes that have been converted to B&Bs. The secluded little cottage in the middle of the countryside where all you can see is acres and acres of farms, cows, narrow winding roads and complete peace and quiet. I love the hosts…usually a couple…slightly older…always eager to please and simple…nothing too fancy…

Therefore, I’m looking into a week away with J in a little B&B somewhere slightly secluded and I’ve narrowed it down to Devon. Now comes the difficult bit…where exactly in Devon? I haven’t got a clue… any ideas?

I received the status of my initial shutterstock submission recently and it does go to show that they will not accept just any picture! Needless to say, I didn’t do very well. All but 2 of my 10 submitted images were rejected. Unfortunately, due to Shutterstock rules, I didn’t get to have my two approved images uploaded onto Shutterstock because I needed to get at least 7 approved!

What makes the whole thing even worse is that for my next submission, I’m not allowed to use the 2 pictures which I know for a fact would definitely be accepted by Shutterstock. Shutterstock clearly states that I would need to submit 10 brand new images.

Anyway, brief reasons for rejections were given for each image (eventhough I don’t necessarily agree with some of them…)

So there you go! Granted these pics aren’t the best I have taken and some of them were taken with my old Panasonic Lumix point and shoot. I have to admit, it was quite disheartening finding out that none of the images I submitted were really good enough.

Does it take a certain kind of photographer to take stock photography? Cause if these 10 images were anything to go by, I’m certainly not one of them…

I decided to blog about this because I’ve been researching about this for sometime now. I suppose one of the reasons to justify the amount of money photographers spend on their gear, would be to get some of that money back either by having someone pay for their photographic skills or…pay for their photos which would otherwise be doing absolutely nothing but taking up space on their harddrives. Which brings me to stock photography.

On looking at some of the stock agencies online, I can’t help but think…”Do people actually enjoy taking such pictures??”. Every single picture is so perfect. Pictures with people in are so posed and immaculate from their perfect blue skies to their shiny perfect white teeth. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of extreme lack of inspiration and creativity that were nonexistent in these shots. But…that’s how photographers make money! Stock Photography. Extremely boring. Stock Photography.

I can’t see myself spending all my time perfecting a shot I didn’t-wanna-take-but-had-to-just-for-the-sake-of-it so I decided to see just how stringent their review/critique process was. I decided to try Shutterstock first. I came home last night and put together 10 images which I felt would meet Shutterstock criteria. Most of my best work is in portraiture so far but due to the whole model release issue surrounding those, I had no choice but to submit any photos which I thought were not too bad and had no recognisable person in it. It’s been 24 hours since I submitted them.

Will update on the result in my next post. Stay tuned!

THIS is what happens when I’m banned from shopping for a whole month. The minute I got paid a few days ago, I went online and clicked “Add to Basket” a couple of times…(well, allright…more than a couple of times…but who’s counting!?)

The result? 6 dresses, 2 skirts and a sandal.

1. ASOS Floral Tulip Dress

2. Lipsy Colour Block Tulip Skirt

3. Pepe Kuna Bandeau Dress

4. Lipsy ColourBlock Dress (with waistbelt)

5. Motel Wild Lily Selina Dress

6. Motel Seagull Bandeau Dress

7. Asos Corsage Detail Flat Sandals.

8. Gestuz Fit n Flare Cotton Sundress

9. Asos Floral Mini Skirt

Oh…..shit.

Well, they haven’t arrived yet and I reckon I would need to return some of them in order to get my bank balance back to a healthy level again but even so….boy am I looking forward to trying them on!!

When I first heard the news, I didn’t know what to think. I haven’t been wanting to blog about it but when I saw the rehearsal video for his last ever tour filmed just a couple of days before his death, I was just overwhelmed with emotion that I just had to let it out. I had goosebumps just watching the video. I watched it over and over again, thinking of what could have been and the bizarre turn of events.

I’m not a huge MJ fan but even I know that he was a musical genius. That word has been thrown around so many times to the likes of Elvis, Nat King Cole etc….but Jackson….Jackson was on a whole different level. I don’t know if the child molestation allegations were true. What I do know is what I believe. I believe he was a man who never grew up. I believe he honestly and innocently believed there was nothing wrong in his actions which would otherwise seem wrong from another adult’s perspective. And I believed he wasn’t prepared for the consequences of being such an incredibly talented and unique individual and the worldwide phenomenon that he was.

I believe we killed him. Yes us…not the media…not the paparazzi…we buy the albums, we go all crazy around him that he can’t even step out to get some eggs. So if you think about it…we are the media…we are the paparazzi. I can’t help feeling that if we had only stepped back and saw what we were doing to him…things would have been different.

We had the incredible privilege of being in the presence (some sort or other ) of such a musical genius during our lifetime. We had the honour of watching him grow from this little naive child to the man that he was. Not many generations get that. Future generations will grow up learning and knowing about Micheal Jackson through literature, pictures and videos but we saw it all from the beginning. We saw this coming yet…it was too late. And we ended up loosing him.

I don’t know about you but I feel incredibly guilty…