Ava & Us

Throughout this summer, I had the upmost pleasure of shooting Ava Hindley, 

our little neighbor from next door..

Born on the 24th July 2010

Ava is a lovely young girl with a lively attitude,

Her smily and happy personality is one that radiates even through the pictures..

She rarely cries, and is almost never upset 

I Really miss you, baby sister !

When Ava was younger,

Her Parents had taken her to a shoot, and forgotten her Taggie

(The little pink blankie)

so when I shot these, her mum cried..

While shooting babies, I love to shoot their "stuff"

Blankie, crib, cuddly bear..

I always tell the mothers to bring their children's favorite teddy

or anything else that resembles that!

Last shoot (yet to post) The mother brought books !!

because thats what the baby liked !!

Another really important thing for me is to capture expressions

really unique expressions that make you go:

"Whaaaa!"

and laugh..

With Ava I got real funny ones:

This first one: PRICELESS!

The concentration ! haha

And her poker face:

I swear these were taken less than a second apart!!

Her dad loves this next one, says Ariel's eyes in ball mirror Ava's..

I'll leave you with some pictures:

THE EYES !

Like a little girl from an old French movie

Mummy loved the black and white pictures,

so I tried to make lots B&W

Balls, her love of balls !

that little dress: To. Die. For!

A little Photobooth session

A little more ..

A little colour to a previously monochromed picture:

Ending with a firework !

I miss you pretty girl!

much love, Showg

xx

Photo: Contest.

In honor of reaching my 1000th tweet

I have decided that I want to launch a photo contest.

very simple, very straight forward:

"Send me your favorite photo" 

Thats it! be it conceptual, non conceptual,

 black & white, portrait, child, pet,

macro, abstract, product, 

even design is accepted !

anything, the list can go on forever!!!

no rules no guidelines !

the sky is your limit!!!

Whether you are an amateur, or a professional..

 you are welcome to join..

The winner will win 3 action packs for photoshop

*all created by me*

(GIMP may also be available upon request)

+ will receive a 75% discount on any product.

Action Packs:

1. Greyscale:

2. Dry Tears:

3. Purpleberry Macaroons:

~

This is how it goes:

1. Send me as many pictures as you like to

showgiee@gmail.com

(if you send more than 3 pictures, the best 3 will be considered )

(the best 3= the 3 with the highest score)

* adding a description is welcome but not a must

* you may send actual pictures or links to pictures

I accept anything I'm not picky, 

as long as I can view it

I'm ok with anything..

2. Each email will get a response..

* You will get a detailed critique of each picture sent

* Each image is rated out of 100:

(you will be told your score)

- 5 points: first impression

- 50 points: Idea

- 25 points: composition

& placement 

- 10 points: Tones, colour,

& overall colour seperation 

and saturation

- 10 points: finishing touches 

& overall cleanliness of the image.

**Extra 5 points bonus for description and how well its presented !

because sometimes its not the idea, its how its presented !!

3. If you wish to be kept anonymous 

* send me the links to the pictures you'd like to submit through formspring

click here

* once you submit the links sort these animals in whichever order you like:

then add them under your links

Rabbit, Cat, Butterfly, Dog

then add any 4digit number

for example: cat, butterfly, rabbit, dog 3341

(if the space isn't enough use bit.ly to shorten your links)

* the reason I ask this is if you win, to claim your prize,

 this will be your password to put into the email you will send.

so that I know its you and not someone claiming to be you.

4. Each applicant has the right to chose 2 out of 12 actions.

or a 10% discount

* I'm giving out 3 action packs, each comes with 4 actions.

* The winner will receive all 3 with no extra charge

and a 75% discount.

* Second place will get a choice of 2 of the 3 sets 

and a 50% discount if he/she choses to purchase the other one

(or on any other product: this includes but is not limited to

photoshoots, designs, future or previous action packs... etc. )

* Third place will have to chose one of the 3 sets 

with a 30% discount if he/she choses to to buy the extra sets 

(or any other product: same as above)

* Each contestant gets a choice of 2 actions from any set they wish 

(they can mix and match from any of the packs)

In the email with the picture they should state which ones they would like

*They will receive the actions in the response email

* If you chose to be anonymous, 

you forfeit your right to these action packs

and discounts.

*Should you chose not to want an action pack, 

you may receive a 10% discount on any product 

(same as above)

* You may take one action + 5% discount.

5. The deadline

* The deadline for submission is the 15th September 2011

winners will be announced by the end of the month.

6. Email format:

To: showgiee@gmail.com

Title: Photo Contest

Body: 

Name of contestant

Actions required: [name of action 1] - [name of action 2]

[Image 1] 

[ description + title: if available]

[Image 2] 

[ description + title: if available]

.

.

.

.

~

Thank you for reading, and happy shooting !!!

Beautiful Ballerina..

I got the honor of photoshooting one of the loveliest people I know,

How it was decided neither of us know..
it was all ballet themed..

She is a beautiful Ballerina..

~

We started the shoot in the garden, catching some of the light before it disappeared..

I have a little construction site in the garden, 

which gave us some pretty edginess to the pictures,

Made for some interesting backgrounds and sites..

I'm really crazy about ballet shoes

A little comparison

between the two styles :)

and we took some silhouettes..

we took a lot of pictures.. 

by the end of the day we were both exhausted and sore

I'm really happy with the results..

Though, sadly, I can't post my favorites here..

much love,

Shaunie xx

Red Velvet Cookies

Hello awesome people of the web..

Today I have a little treat for you..

~

First this deserves an introduction..

I was lying in bed with a massive headache that wouldn't go away..

so I everything came to mind..

From Dubai, liverpool and Paris..

to planning my next photo..

to planning my study schedule for finals

and finally..

cookies..

and as I was raking my brains for new recipes.. 

I realised I have never heard of 

Red velvet cookie

and so I started planning the recipe, combining the cookie and red velvet recipes together..

and here is what I came up with:

So I did half the recipe, which gave me around 24+ cookies..

you could probably get by with 30..

after the first batch went in, I realised there wasn't enough flour in

so it was more muffin tops rather than cookies..

I'll post both recipes at the bottom

so now, finally, there is a Red Velvet Cookie recipe :)

~

before you begin, freeze the Kiri 

(or Philadelphia)

any cream cheese would do really

~

First of all we will measure the sugar

Then add the butter

doesn't matter if it was softened or melted..

and mix in the egg

in a separate "smaller" bowl

mix the red food colouring with the cocoa powder and vanilla

and fold it in

Fold in half the flour

then half the buttermilk

keep going until all is well incorperated

I love how I only used 1 measuring cup for this

minimum washing C=

Mix the bicarbonate of Soda

(baking soda)

with the vinegar,

then fold it in

Chop up the cream cheese

how can we have red velvet without cream cheese !!

I found that if I fold it in the dough, 

it would stick to the bottom of the pan

so you can add it on the top of the dough 

before it goes in the oven

Fold in the white chocolate bits

All dolled up !!

1/2 tablespoon is enough

or a small cookie scoop

use an icecream scoop if you like 

* I like to use cupcake trays so that they are all the same size*

some chocolate and kiri (cream cheese) topping

to make the topping, melt the white chocolate

with some cream cheese in a double boiler

and drizzle it on cool cookies..

please please please 

PLEASE

I can never state how important this step is:

do NOT get any water in the chocolate

that can basically ruin it !

a little tip for how you know if any water go in

is checking the water in the bottom pot

it the water is murky

then there is some water in your chocolate..

so please be careful.. be VERY careful..

my makeshift double boiler..

it was 11:00pm and I was half asleep

I needed to "make do"

  lol

after these came out of the oven,

 they are more muffin tops rather than cookies..

not that I mind,

muffin tops, are amaaaaazing..

but since I had cookies in mind, 

I decided to fix it, so I added 

some extra flour

SUCCESS !

look at those beauties in the oven !

once you take them out, place them face down until they cool

be careful, these tend to stick..

when they are cold flip them C=

try letting them cool on parchment paper

or a baking sheet.

So you can see the difference:

(right cookies - left muffin tops)

Recipe:

(makes around 24-30 cookies)

1 stick butter (100grams)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 tablespoon red food colouring (more or less depending on how red you want it.)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour (1 1/4 for muffin tops) + 1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup buttermilk or whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 cup white chocolate bits (1/2 a bag of chocolate chips) + 1/2 cup for topping.

1/4 cup chopped up cream cheese slices (frozen) - around 3 kiri cubes + 1 cube (10grams) for topping.

after retrial.. I'd suggest you skip the buttermilk.

baking time 10-15mins in a 180*C preheated oven.

Enjoy !!