Besame Cosmetics | A La Mode Photographic Boutique

So incredibly exciting!!!! A La Mode Boutique will be stocking Besame Cosmetics starting next week (we are still getting the new studio in order but we already have the most amazing vintage cosmetics lined up whoo hoo).  We are already booked up for the next month with a mix of Couture Portrait shoots and Pin Up shoots and will be featuring the Make Up stylings of Jessie Wright and Ellie Jean Stewart.  Cannot wait!

Anna and Tristan's crew | Wellington Newborn Photographer

Anna and Tristan brought the gorgeous Cooper back for the Free Range Kids book but I got the bonus of seeing their beautiful new little baby girl.  Mmmmmmm.  Gorgeous.

Beautiful Bailey | Wellington Pin Up Photography

Ah our gorgeous Bailey....remember the day that the blizzard hit Welly?  That was the day we shot this photo.  But for Bailey....the sun came out when she decided to don her bathing suit.   She is just loveliness  personified.  What an amazing shoot!  Bailey was posing here as her Burlesque Character Fanciforia Foxglove.  She will be appearing in September's Carousel Cabaret.....must get tickets!!!!

Wellington Beginners Photography Course | Feedback

Some lovely feedback from the course taught this weekend.  I really enjoy teaching photography.  I think I am a much better teacher than a student because it took me a year and a half to wrap my head around this stuff and I seem to be able to get it into most peoples heads in two hours.  


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Anyway here are some of the comments from some students this weekend:


Just wanted to say thanks for you class on Saturday morning. 
I really enjoyed it. I now even know how to find the buttons to change things, even what they mean (YAY).

I could constantly feel the light blub clicking... Ahh, so that's what that means LOL.  That stuff has just kept going in one ear and out the other for yonks.
I'm looking forward to 'attempting' to try get some photos of my 9month old niece this weekend.

Definately keen on doing another workshop with you at some stage.... Your a great teacher, and i think you have yet a lot to teach me! :O) 

Gaela 

In the Beginner class I learned - what aperture was about, white balance, shutter speed, ISO. How to use the manual settings on my camera.

Cuba St Field trip - I learned how to put it all into pratice. At first I was just randomly changing settings until the image looked right, but once I finally got what depth of field meant, I could really start to get my head around it all fitted together. Great price. Hugely useful and motivating. Right length of time, great advice and input. I would like to do another one at a later date. Would rate 10/10. I moved from randomly trying to get a good shot at the beginning, to by the end making semi-educated changes to my settings to get what I wanted (although obviously I still have a lot to learn!).
Rachel Foster

Angels on this Earth

Today I am counting my blessing and sitting down realizing what an amazing life this is.  I decided to do the insane thing and shift not just my studio but into my partners house at the same time.  Sometimes insanity just makes a bit of sense.   So my life is being turned inside out and upside down and I am cleaning out spaces and paring down to what is essential.  Through all of this work I have had a vision...a vision for my studio and a vision for my new blended family.   But the logistics and coordination of such a grand series of shifts are huge so enter the angels.

 The new shop space

We were competing for who could have the most amazing builders crack.  I think Jo and I tied.

Even the boys got in and helped us....Okay they had a bit more fun beating each other up with sacks of the rags we were using to distress the walls but they did get a fair amount of paint on themselves and a bit on the wall.

 Lana and Jo

There are people of this world who are just go givers I believe.  They always go out of there way to help and assist and create good vibes in the world.  I have had a swirl of these wonderfuls in my life.  The one who has been a brother to me from the moment I met him is Nima.  Nima is a Sherpa from Nepal.  We worked together on the Blueberry Farm for ages. He has been my rock through it all, and again I needed to move stuff and he asked his boss if he could borrow a truck and sorted me out.  We shifted it all with the help of Bruce Austin, Brucesonam Sherpa, and Mike Rodgers my flatmate from heaven.  Mike arrived a couple of months ago and has been a godsend.  He knows how to do things.  You know practical spacial stuff that does my head in, like fitting a fainting couch that is two inches two big for the doorway into the room without resulting to a hacksaw for the legs (my suggestion).
My partner is busy using CAD to design the perfect posing wall for the studio which he will be building for me this weekend.  I am so excited.  We even did our first mini shoot in the space yesterday with darling Rochelle.  Which gave me a better idea of how the light will play.  Ohhh that light is yummy, southfacing, reflecting off of the white building across the street and flooding in through the skylights.  The only building that actually has skylights that I can tell in Petone....Such a find!

Then there are the shopping angels which have my back...like the one that sent me to a beautiful fabric store just to drop by and say hello to the owner only to discover they had beautiful finials, and curtain rods that they were trying to get rid of....so 30.00 later I had the $300.00 worth of curtain rods I needed...Which Mike lovingly figured out how to put up for me.   Then there was the chap who sold me $600.00 worth of the perfect liliac and sage fabric to create bunting for the munted parts of the walls, and he gave it to me for $32.00 because he was shifting shop and wanted to have less to shift with.    I LOVE shopping angels.

I just wanted to shout out to all of the lovelies out there who have been such a beautiful gift to my life.  This dream that I am living now would not have happened without all of the amazing people who have touched my life.  You know who you are and know that I love you!

Normality Is Optional

At Infocus this year I was sitting with one of my dear friends, Lisa Crandell, who was telling me a story about her  daughter Jasmine who won a special award at Star Jam.  She was so excited that as Lisa tells the story she ran down the isle almost plowing over one of her teachers doing "Rainbows" with her arms in shear joy.  Lisa wasn't at the awards dinner this year but I took great pleasure in telling her about my Jasmine Rainbow moment when they called out my name for receiving my Master of Photography.  It was a lark, I hail maryed my 10 best images and to my shock 9 of them picked up national awards and got me my Masters in one year instead of 4.  I was so excited that I couldn't contain myself and when the moment came for me to have a serious photograph...you know the official one that is preserved for forever in archives and stuff.  The above was the result.  Yes me so excited I stuck my tongue out and assumed my shit eating grin response...Joy could not be contained and manifested as my tongue.   The audience cracked up laughing, as I am sure I would have too.  So anyway this is my official record of my Masters.  I love it.  Couldn't be a more perfect photograph of a more perfect moment.  Mike (the poor chap shaking my hand) you better watch out next year if I manage to get a gold and my fellow I am going to run up jump up wrap my legs around you and plant a big fat one on your forehead....I shouldn't say that as he is a judge and fearing for his life he might out of shear survival instinct mark me down :).

To my Hero to Esther Bunnings

Esther is one of my Heros.  She reminds me, in her attention to her beauty, of the finely quoiffed women of the Deep South I grew up with...but a bit more daring and cheek in her style.  So on first meeting this lady your first thoughts are about how beautiful she is....then you get to know her and realize that not only is she beautiful but that she has this gorgeous Kiwiness about her that is a bit shy and reserved, and would never initially let on that she is freeking brilliant.  We are opposites in so many ways.  I am a loud American who doesn't mind chatting about the awesome things that are happening.  Esther as any good Kiwi would, struggles with telling people how awesome she is.  She drips talent, I mean it.  I bow deeply to her years in the field, her brilliance and attention to detail, and the gentle humour she used to capture the spirit of a person. I have so much to learn from this woman.  This year she won not one but two bars to her fellow, got several golds,  and took out the highest scoring print in New Zealand, and was robbed in my humble opinion of winning a category as well.  
But she did win Wellington Photographer of the Year and deserved it one hundred percent!!!!!
So being the loud American that I am I am going to shout from the roof tops for my beautiful Kiwi friend and tell the World that Esther Bunnings is amazing and if you are not following her work you should.  She is about to launch a book called Children of the Wairarapa.  And if you are a fan of beautiful photography you should buy one of the books.  And send loving thoughts to the gods of International Shipping because the poor incredibly organized woman has planned a book launch ordered the books with plenty of time to spare and the books seem to be lost somewhere in the land of international shipping.  Send your book finding energy her way and wish her the best possible launch ever!  I can't wait to get my hands on one of the copies...And get her to sign it because she is my hero!

We learned something at the NZIPP conference about practising the highly refined American art of Shameless Self Promotion.  Well, being born and raised there it is something as simple as breathing for type A, Extroverted, types like myself....but instead today I would like to practice Shameless Esther Promotion because she is simply the shiz and I thought more people should know about her.

I adore you to bits Esther and I plan on trying to give you a run for your money next year. :).  You have set the bar incredibly high so I best start training in getting my big jumps on. :) Thank you for your generosity, encouragement to us young (in photography) whipper snappers, and I am pleased to have  you and Terry educating and cheering on our efforts in Wellington.  You are our little royal family and we are lucky to have you.

Isn't she gorgeous?  Our lovely Michelle whom I met taking a Burlesque class.  What a stunning woman she is inside and out!  The Rimutakas have nothing on this girls curves. Beautiful and we had so much fun!!!!!  Jess my amazing makeup artist was having a poos morning but the minute she got tucked into doing Michelle's makeup I watched her get more and more excited.  Then while assisting me on the shoot she was positively giddy at seeing how amazing Michelle was looking under my lens.  It was a girl fest in the bathroom of the Museum Hotel.  I can't wait to show her the images!

Pin Up Photography Wellington | A La Mode Photography

I love Wellington.   I love that Kiwi men don't gawk, cat call, or generally harass beautiful women.  They walk by as if nothing unusual is going on and when they get close enough they will throw a secret glance at the lady and pretend as if it were nothing more than just checking out some bit of dust that happened to fall in an interesting spot, and keep going.   Beautiful Bailey was a trooper today and came packing two of the most stunning vintage bathing suits and wanted to pose in both of them.  Mind you, this morning, I was screaming like a little girl running across the street in a freezing rainstorm after visiting the Sunday Market at Chaffers Marina.   But for Bailey in her bikini Wellington opened a crack in its cloudy day and shined its warm sun on this girl.  Did this surprise me?  Not in the least, the light coming out of Bailey was bright enough and it made sense that it would attract an inferior light like the sun.  I am writing this from the kitchen bench while the snow is falling in thick blankets outside.  I love Wellington.