Since my last blog entry, I've started a new adventure on fashion photography.

Its pretty logic to me to start practising fashion photography coz of liking fashion, good photography and into design thinking.

I had a nice start with a little help with my built network in the modelling world. Although I didnt have much troubles booking models for myself to shoot, the diifcult challenge was to book a good and reliable make-up artist, hair stylist, or a fashion stylist to participate a shoot with someone who just started.

It ended up I had to do it all by myself.

The first few shoots have taken me at least 6 to 7 hours to finish. From doing the hair, make-up and changing looks and adjust make-up/hair for it took most of the time. Luckily  that taking pics are pretty fast tho, its straight forward on shoots if have had enough thinking before the shoots. Knowing what you want, and therefore can direct the model accordingly straight away.

Soon after a few shoots, I'm pleased to gain more and more talents interests in working with me, as I'm gaining more approvals with positive comments from the industry.

Things became easier to organise and to have a full team now to do a shoot, which allows me to have things going further with the right support that I have from individuals, especially fashion designer Sarah Anderson, from Charas Design, which she mainly makes evening dresses for the label, and a lot of her dresses were worn by British celebrities on their nights out or red carpet events. My special thanks to her giving me the support to grow and learn.

I have uploaded some of the best pics I've taken so far in here...hopefully you'll like them :)

More in photo album :)

(continued from Part 2)...

It's a long blog... I know...

Just couldn't help it that I'm the kind of person who'll not write anything at all, but once i started writing... I couldnt stop....

So... this is the last part of the Brainstorming blog...

:2: Joseph Dirty Story:


First two photos: Model - Ella,
3rd &4th photo: Jessica
5th: Nell
Last pic: Joseph the photographer himself


Last week when I was up to Manchester to see my boyfriend (Steve) for a week, I used the free time I've got when he has to go to work during the day, and have done a shoot with Joseph. I've never learnt his last name, (very rude of me), but from websites and profiles, he's using the name Joseph Story at the moment, and before that, he used the name "Joseph Dirty Soap Story". As you can tell by the names, he loves to tell story, and that's the kind of photography I really like. I think all photography and paintings, or any art forms, should have the ability to tell a story, a moment that happened in our lives, a feeling we'd have felt when we are on our own while nobody's watching.

The reason why I feel like I have to write about him and his work is very simple, I wanted to be just like him. My mind about this is very simple too, I like his work, and how he approached his subjects on camera, very straight forward, direct, and honest! I don't know much about him in person, but through countless conversations on working our ideas for the shoot have been so much fun.

And I'd like you guys to check him out too...
http://www.myspace.com/josephstoryimages 

A few pics I have done with him are also uploaded in photo album here...


XXX

(continued from Part 1)...

As for the collections, we have Causal wear; both Rock & Crazy and White Dreams Nation from St. Martin's fashion design students; Formal wear; and Chinese Traditional Wear from a few various sponsors in UK. I was absolutely stunned when I learned that we have Chinese Traditional clothing for the show too... because that is something totally I haven't had a hand on before on a fashion show... at the same time, I thought it was really fun and looking forward the audience who are not oriental will get to have a close look of what traditional chinese clothing are like... so therefore we put this collection especially at the end before the finale...and hope that it would also stunned the audience a bit out from the expectations.

After nearly of 4 weeks of practising and mini-rehearsals of a few routines that I have planned for the show.. it finally came to the last week before the big day.

It was definitely a one big hectic week, very busy to finalise everything such as who's gonna wear what after proper fittings, music tracks,  who's gonna responsbile for what roles, and the most important of all to get the timing right with the music.



It was madness as not only I have to keep reminding the models on their postures and explain the tiny things they have to be caution on different routines; at the same time I kept having people ask me this and that... Looking back at it now, I should have hosted a proper meeting just for all crew members and designers where everyone could sit down properly and talked... but maybe at that time it was also very difficult to ask them to spend more time coz all of them are students and they have lectures to go, and they werent paid to do the job. So I really cant blame anyone for unable to put more time on preparing the show...and therefore many things were very last minute...

On 29 Feb, on the day of the show, I arrived there at 2pm got ready to run a final rehearsal, and making sure everything's in order and everyone knows what they were responsible of. I had only 3 hours sleep on the night before, just to make all the final changes on the plan  we found from the rehearsal the day before. I was supposed to be dead tired, but I'm glad I was too busy to feel it. There were even more last minutes changing when I got to the venue, such as like models wearing different outfits...and therefore the order for the models to be on stage or who's in a pair had to be changed as well.  I had to be very careful becoz if I have the models come on stage too frequently, it might end up they wouldnt have enough time to change before they have to be on stage again.... a big fear I had for the whole thing start from the very beginning...




Backstage was completely packed and extremely busy... friends and people where on earth they were from who all packed in the space. Finally I had to use all of my last strength to shout to get everyone who's not the crew or models moved out of the place. Pheww...



Finally show began with a piano performance, then the Casual wear was the first collection to go. It ran very well at the beginning, the timing was spotted on, models were a bit nervous before hand, but came to see them becoming more and more natural and confidence on the stage, and they followed the routines well, which was a big cheer up and relief for me.


And here are some nice pics taken during the show, above is from the Casual wear.


White Dreams Nation Section - by St. Martin's student


Rock & Crazy section - by St. Martin's students (Amity & Kelly)
The first pic you see above, there're lights attached to the dress...looked really pheonomenal


Formal Wear Section.

Until then, we finally hitted on a few problems with models not having enough time to change into the next section - the chinese traditional clothing, as some of them are really difficult to wear... which made me had to change their order to be on stage, and kept reminding them to walk slower then it was planned so we could have more time for other models who were still struggling for changing clothes. Gave instructions to the dj through walkie-talkie about the situation, and had them to repeat the first music track again if we don't have more tracks for the whole section... from that moment, I was completely gone nearly insane.... thank god that no audience would have noticed there was anything wrong from the backstage...


Last part - Chinese Traditional.



Finale - Final show down... with all the models with the best clothing from the show ...



St Martin's students thanks the audience, and their clothes on models.



Make up artists team


Me out to thank the audience... also have forgotten I still had a pen clipped on my v-neck...typical me...



Crew who worked really close with me during the whole project.


Everyone....


Backstage after the show - designers and models.

It was a really excellent experience that I had with everyone. The most surprising of all would be having interviewed by the Gwong Dong TV about the Chinese students as the foreigners studying in the UK, and filmed our rehearsals and the show itself; and I was interviewed by the students from City University as well...but I have no idea where they gonna put the interview on... possibilly on student union website maybe... O_O ???

After the show, fairwelled to everybody...and exchange a few contacts with the designers, the models and the make-up artists, hoping that we'd able to work together in the future again :)

Then, I was practically dead for 20 hours when I got back home...

(to be continued)...

It has been a long while again since I last input a blog entry here, feel so lazy for this, but I also feel great that I'm never able to forget about this place, where I can talk to myself once in a while, nevermind about anybody is reading this or not... I've never been a great fans of writing blogs online.... but strangely, i found online blog gives me the vibe to organise the information in my head much more clearer as I have to write them out, and praying if there's really anyone reading them, at least my words make sense!

I also found myself usually writing blogs in here when I'm half asleep....like right now i just got out of the bed... before I go brush my teeth and have my breakfast, here I am, sitting here, writing a blog... what a dirty girl i am...

Anyway...

I wanted to record a few things that happened recently....

1) First time art directing a fashion show for students from City University, London
2) Finally worked with the photographer - Joseph Story , after a great deal amount of conversations before we actually set out to do the shoot together...

:1: City Look Fashion Show 08:
Well, where should i begin? Through a contact, I got commissioned to art direct this student fashion show especially for the Chinese Student Society of City University, which also in conjunction with Imperial College, University College of London, London School of Economics, and Queen Mary. So we are talking about many chinese students altogether, from crew members to models are of all Chinese. It was quite a sight for me, coz except being able to see so many chinese except in China Town, I've never seen so many gathered around in a place in UK... or maybe its just me...

It was a very challenging project to do. Altogether from organising, training models, rehearsals, etc, etc, etc, spent us 5 weeks in total. In normal circumstances when you have so many people working on a project, it shouldn't felt rush at all... but in this case, its a bit different since nobody in the crew had experience to host a fashion show. So there's this huge amount of pressure fell on my shoulders, and it felt so crazy that I was speaking literally every second when I was with the models or the crew members, for just to go through details with them and all that. On an evening of catwalk training plus the meeting, I'd have down a bottle of coke and water for my extreme thirst from constantly speaking. For a month, I avoid as much speaking as I could in any other times, and I didn’t speak much when I got home.

We spent about 4 weeks training the models who were auditioned from the London Universities menitoned above... we had 12 female models and 10 male models, some had a bit modelling experience before which i found its a relief. Unluckily I didnt get the chance to audition them as I'd really like to audition people, coz I believe I have the eyes to spot talents... and I like the idea to give people chances who deserves it. But I didnt have the fun. Unlucky.

I started with training the girls the basic poses, turns, and basic walks. At the first training session, we'd have let them watch a few clips of various fashion shows, motivate them and let them get an idea what they should be like on the runway. I think how you carry yourself as in attitude and mood is very important, coz the whole feelings perceived by the audience would be different if you don't have the right attitude. Some people think its just a walk, becoz maybe these people are natural with walks, and they can imitate any walks just by instinct. But honestly tell you, not all are the same. Some girls I had on the training, they had to put a greater effort than some just to walk a straight line. So we are talking about many training sessions just to let them practise with basic things, then move on to different walks, such as Rock, elegance, and casual. We also put a great amount of time to help them to perfect the stopping & pose (3 seconds) at the end of runway, the t-stand turn, and walk back routines.

After 3 to 4 sessions, we then started on practising different routines...coz then I still havent had the chance to look at the venue and to see what the stage would be like. So I had them practising the timing on how to walk together as a pair, coming out from the sides and meeting up mid runway or crossing each other mid runway ...these usual kind of routines, etc. with different background music tracks to accompany the mood they should portrait.

Meanwhile, I was still waiting to see all the collections we would have on the show, so I can make a decision on the music tracks and how to put the collections in order, also the order of  for the models to be on the stage, etc.

to be continued...

I am very happy to say I am appointed to be the face for Naja Harris spring collection launching in March 2008 first in Malaysia, then in Dubai and London.

On 2nd Jan, I have worked in a photoshoot with Naja Harris (the designer), Tom Hayton (Photographer), Michiko (Assistant), and Giada (MUA), also a few helps around, shooting at a few very nice locations in London. For the day, I also had my bf accompanied me, which meant a lot to me. The whole team has absolutely been very professional, very good at what they are doing, and been super wonderful to me. I can say this is the first time at work that I felt being taken care of so well. They are absolutely wonderful people, the best people I've worked with in the modelling industry so far.

During the day, we have been separated the day into two halves..arrived at the designer's hotel room at 7am for make-up, then arrived location shooting in a beautiful garden at a boutique hotel around 9.30am; After finished at the hotel, we also had a few quick shots at Bond street (there were so many people walking through...people were looking at you and say something silly, coz seeing you freezing, wearing only with a party dress on and posing in the middle of the street, but you could only ignore them...Its a job!) :p

n the second half of the day, we then shot at one of the top nightclubs in Mayfair, mainly for modelling all the party dresses, and da THE DRESS in this collection!

The day has been long and very hard working for everyone... especially during this cold weather... we had to heat up ourselves indoors or wrapped around each other in our arms to gain heat!!

While we were shooting outdoor, I felt really warm (although my body was already frozen) when I had to stay in position but not shooting, Naja and Giada always would came over to cover me up with a big coat and then they would wrap around me, one in front and one at the back then keep rubbing my arms to keep me warm  =^.^=  Its a really nice feeling...

And I am really grateful that because of their caring and protection during the whole day, even though I was wearing so little in the cold weather for at least 7 or 8 hours....I didnt get a cold, don't even get feeling any unwell after the shoot.

Of course, exhaustion is hardly avoided. I slept nearly 13 hours that night ;)

Now I'm very much looking forward to see the end result of the shoot, the final products that is going to be in the magazines... possibly on billboards too in KL, Malaysia... that's what the designer says she would try to get...but then... it is beyond my dream to hope that I would be on a big billboard in one of the most amazing city in the world.  So I am right now, just hope to see the final edit photos and have them in my book :)

This is one of my best experience ever!! I love it!!!

Bernadette
xxx