Get in touch with nature

I'm getting all nostalgic about my Foundation Degree now...

This was a piece I created for our final show back in 2013. I designed and created the head piece which is all hand embroidered. I was inspired by our natural surroundings and even used nature within the head piece, such as the twigs which are wrapped  with different colours. I loved this and really enjoyed the whole design and making process. I then photographed the head piece on a model and created a 'Vogue' cover including the head line 'get in touch with nature' which supported the image!

9/11

How beautiful are these pictures? They just don't look real! 

I took this on 9/11 from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade - which is two minutes away from my accommodation here in New York! It is hands down the most stunning view I have ever seen and every evening I go there it literally takes my breathe away. No photo does it justice. 

The first time I saw this view I had to stand in silence and take it all in. I mean, who ever thought at twenty years old I would be living in this amazing city and this would be my view? I certainly never did. I knew I would always live here one day (it's been a dream of mine since I was ten) but never did I think it would be when I was still a university student!!!!

Photographic Styling - Lemon chicken

My second Photographic styling shoot...

This time we had to create an image which could be used in a catalogue selling the cooking equipment NOT the food. Sounds easy but it is in fact very hard! It was difficult making sure all the pans, chopping board etc were all in shot but still looking quite natural as well as making sure the food doesn't out stage them! A very weird task! 

We chose to create a lemon chicken dish with a side of veg - broccoli and mushrooms. The next challenge was making sure the food looked cooked when obviously we don't have a kitchen in the studio! We had watched tutorials previous to the shoot which gave us tips and tricks on how to achieve this. We started by using coffee to brown the chicken off (they had been slightly cooked before class)  and we also used it on the lemon. We added grease to the pan to make it look like the oil that would be used during cooking chicken. We also added herbs to the pan to give it a more authentic feel. We then browned the veg with coffee so the whole meal looked as though it was ready to be served and eaten. 

We used marble contact paper to give the impression we were shooting on a kitchen counter top when we were in fact shooting on a wooden board on the floor of the studio. This just shows how deceiving photoshoots can be!

We experimented with the layouts multiple times by making the tea towel look like it had just been thrown on to the counter rather than folded and placed. We also sprinkled salt and herbs on the chopping board as well as seeing what the salt would look like it had spilt on the black towel - I really loved this shot because the salt contrasted so much with the black towel! Even though I loved the black towel in that one shot I preferred the red overall as it added a pop of colour - much more interesting! 

I really liked this shoot and much preferred it to the perfume ad! Now I just cant wait to get started on the last two portrait and editorial shoots!

NYFW

This is crazy..I just worked at New York Fashion Week!!! 

After working at London Fashion Week back in February I just knew I HAD to work at NYFW. It's such a rewarding job. Working hard helping the show go as planned is amazing and the best bit is definitely getting to catch the show. 

I was working at Isabella Rose Taylor's show - she's only 13!!!! Her collection was cool but obviously a little young for me! I could definitely see my little cousins trotting around in her clothes! Her collection is already being sold at Nordstorm but this was the first time she has shown at NYFW, making her one of the youngest to ever show! 

She also had Olivia Somerlyn sing her new single Parachute before the models headed down the runway which was a lovely added bonus!

I preferred working at LFW purely because I was interning for a PR company there so I got to know the rest of the team quite well and because I worked there for a couple of weeks before the actual show so I got to see how it was planned and organised in more detail. 

Now all that's left for me to do is Paris and Milan! In my dreams!! 

Photographic Styling - Taking a trip to the beach

This was my first shoot in Photographic Styling at FIT and it was so interesting! I've assisted on shoots before but this was obviously so different as its A) on a much smaller scale and B) it's not fashion! However, I learnt so much about the lighting, setting up the backdrop and setting up the camera. I'm really excited about this course as I will develop my skills so when I return back to Nottingham Trent in January I will be much more confident when we are required to produce photo shoots. I'm even more excited for the last two shoots as these are portraits and a 4 page fashion editorial. I'm praying I get the role of stylist for these shoots! 

This shoot was interesting as I have never really worked on such a small scale in photoshoots. I have either worked with people or large scale art installations such as window displays. 

We chose to photograph the perfume 'Aqua Savon' for our advertisement project, which I admit I had never heard of so I first had to research the history of the perfume and the brand before we made any decisions for the shoot. We eventually decided on re-creating a beach for the backdrop of the shoot with sand, sea and shells. In theory we wanted  to submerge the bottle into water which had golden sand at the bottom - which turned out to be not the greatest idea! By mixing the sand with the water we ended up with a mud-like pond, not what we were after! So we used our initiative and placed sand under the plastic container holding the water and that thankfully gave us the golden beach we were searching for! 

My favourite shots are definitely where the bottle is surrounded by sand and shells as this really gives off the beach vibe we were going for. Overall I am really happy with the results for this shoot and I can't wait to get stuck into the next project in a few weeks! 

The city that never sleeps

This is crazy. As if I am actually living in New York. Okay it's only for four months but STILL! I cannot get over how weird it is! 

I haven't really been able to blog because it's been so chaotic here but I've managed to do lots of wonderful things in this beautiful city while also managing to sneak some uni business in there! 

Welcome week was mental, as always! We had a massive mess up with our course selections so had to start from scratch. This didn't exactly go well as the majority of the courses we all wanted were now full or not running any longer - absolute nightmare! We managed to eventually get it all sorted after countless phone calls and emails to every professor at F.I.T! 

I'm now studying quite a range of subjects here such as Fashion Journalism, Buying, Photographic Styling, Leather Accessories and Jewelry Fabrication! The description for all of these sound really fun and exciting which is exactly what I wanted! I'm definitely most excited for Fashion Journalism and Styling as these are the two areas I'm most interested about going into when I graduate at the moment. However, that could all change after these four months! I'm really hoping the Journalism course will help improve my confidence within writing. I like to think I'm pretty confident when it comes to public speaking but I've always struggled with presenting my ideas to peers for fear of them not being good enough - such a silly thought!!

We've done so many touristy things in the couple of weeks we have been here so I will just upload pictures to this post for you to have a look at rather than me banging on about them all!!

Next up - New York Fashion Week! Ahhh!!!