Photography for new businesses *limited opportunity*

Are you a new (start up in 2010) business in Norfolk/Suffolk?

If this is the case, continue reading....

Up to the end of this week, I am running a limited opportunity for local businesses to obtain a full portfolio of images to use in their marketing.  Are you planning a new website?  Do you need images for your brochures or for advertising?  Are budgets running very tight? If so have a look at my offer...

Please send me an email to contact@antonellamuscatphotography.co.uk stating, in not more than a paragraph, why you NEED Antonella Muscat Photography to provide you with stunning images of your product to improve your marketing.  I will also need a brief description what your company does, and a link to a website/twitterfeed or Facebook page if you have any of these.

I will choose the three strongest entries on the 28th of November so get your entry in quick!!!

Kindly note that this offer is applicable for clients in East Anglia and mileage rates may apply.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Helen Sylk's photoshoot

Acutely aware of the fact that I don't blog as much as I would like to, albeit in a little of a rush, today I close the month of October with a shoot I did for Helen Sylk.  Apart from being my trusty MUA for my shoots, Helen also writes music and lyrics for techno and trance tracks, and works closely with her partner and DJ Marcos, producing music.

Helen needed some photos to update her profile and for promotion purposes and I used both the Orbis flash as well as my SB 600 and natural light on my trusty Nikon 50mm f1.4

I hope you like the images as much as I do and look forward to your comments. :)

The Painted Tree and WIRE East Norfolk

When you're working as an independent professional it's very easy to spend lots of time labouring at your desk working at developing your craft and also producing work for your clients.  Although I make sure my shoots are fun, both for myself and particularly for my clients, I have been through a period of feeling isolated as a business, particularly as a start-up one, and wondering whether the issues I was facing were common to others.  If they were, how did these new start up businesses tackle these issues?

After much research I decided to become a member of WIRE. Women in Rural Enterprise, which is a business club and networking opportunity for women who run businesses in rural areas.  Having joined WIRE  I will now never look back.  I have attended several area meetings in Norwich, Waveney and South Norfolk, I have met dynamic network leaders who have inspired me, and some lovely people who I've been networking and formed friendships with.  I have had the opportunity to develop myself as a more self-assured professional - workshops, training, inspiration and support, and only for £40 a year!

One such lovely person I'm really pleased to have crossed paths with is Maureen Chadwick.  Together with her partner, Arthur, Maureen runs a local business called The Painted Tree.  They create lovely hand-crafted, hand-finished, bespoke furniture, according to clients' specifications.  

I came across Maureen when I emailed WIRE in reply for a request for network leaders.  The East Norfolk branch had laid dormant for a while and I got in touch with WIRE to let them know I was interested in becoming a leader, but only if I had somebody to share the leader role with.  I was given Maureen's number as she was also interested.  

I'll never forget that phone call.  Maureen, asked me if I was French (blame my funny accent! :)) ).  When I told her I was Maltese the phone went silent...Turns out Maureen is half Maltese.  Two Maltesers in little ol' Yarmouth!!  Love the Maltese in her, extremely creative and ready with a smile, she reminds me of the warmth of my people!

I was therefore very pleased to take up the opportunity to do a quick portrait session with her as she needed some shots for her WIRE profile.  5 minute portraits I call these sessions!  Not enough time to get the client to worry about posing, a quick grin and a joke and we're done and the shots are in the bag.  She was chuffed with them.... :)

I'm so looking forward to start taking photos of her lovely furniture, and wondering what she means by that request for stilettos as props for the shoot.  I wonder what she has in mind!!! :)

By the way, if you are a businesswoman based in East Norfolk and would like more information about WIRE, please do get in touch!  We're planning to kick start activities early next year and would love to hear from you.

x

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1.03.01

sneak preview for Suzie Lindesay's Octopus Designs photoshoot

I thought about posting a quick sneak preview of some prep images for a shoot I held last week for my friend Suzie Lindsay's Octopus Designs.  Suzie is a textile designer and produces a fabulous range of knitwear which is a combination of felting and texturing via colour and use of interesting patterns. An avid knitter in the past myself (I used to knit for a Maltese designer in my early twenties - unfortunately don't have time for this anymore!), as soon as my eyes laid on Suzies' fantastic designs I just fell in love with them, for the ideology and pattern design just as much as the technique used to produce these knits.  Suzie also produces fantastic textiles through an original process and these materials capture the light in such a brilliant way.  I just hope the photos do the materials justice!

Today I decided to blog about a few of the images taken during shoot prep, and I will blog a full post later, as I have around a 1000 images to choose from.

Just to show how excited we were about the clothing, I kick off the series with an image of Charlotte, totally in awe of the top she has been given to model in.  It totally suits Charly's character, bubbly, fun and lovely! :)

I took the opportunity to try out my new Orbis Ring Flash, which is a wonderful piece of kit.  I was amazed to discover that the creator of the Orbis is James Madelin (aka JamMad) who was a fellow poster on BlatChat an excellent forum for Lotus and Caterham Seven owners.  I remember James posting about leaving the UK for NZ and planning to start a photography business years back.... So glad his business venture has been successful and he has designed such a useful tool for fashion photographers! :)

My partner Paul, took the opportunity to take a few videos of the shoot in his iPhone, so here is me testing out the Orbis with Charly, trying out different shots, and disappearing off to explain stuff to Suzie.... ooops sorry Charly! :))

I've also posted one image from the Orbis ring flash set with Kiki, just to show you what lovely light it produces - I'm really happy with the purchase but would like to test it extensively in different conditions over the next few weeks, so watch out for more images using it.

It was my first shoot with Kiki, a stunning model and I must admit little tiny me struggled with her and lovely tall figure (I haven't posted the iPhone video of me going up on my stepladder to take these shots or you would have been bent double with laughter! :)  I hope Kiki will join me again soon for other photoshoots as I really enjoyed working with her!

Helen Dickenson worked with me again to produce some stunning make up for the girls...

Suzie's assistance was precious with choosing what clothing best suited each model as well as keeping an eye for details as the shoot progessed and helping the girls get dressed.

I hope to be posting a full blog post with lots of lovely images from this shoot very soon.  Meanwhile, if you  are a clothing designer would like some special images of your collections for marketing purposes please get in touch.

I just wish to end this blog post with a big thank you to all, and particularly to Paul for the help, support and video!  Hope to work with you all again very soon! :)

Have a great week everybody!! x

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1.03.01

Vampire Make Up Shoot

A few weeks back, my friend Helen Dickenson, who is an excellent MUA  based in Bradwell, asked me if I would be happy to shoot a few photographs of vampire make up she wanted to try out on a model.  Of course, always ready to take up a challenge, I scouted a few suitable locations in Great Yarmouth and set about thinking on how best to photograph this.

I chose to take three different approaches for this shoot.  I shot solely in natural light, with and without a reflector, using a video light and with a single strobe and silver brolly.  I like the change of feel the different types of light give and only used my trusty 50mm 1.4 on my Nikon D700 throughout.

Our model, Charly, was brilliant, and I look forward to working with her again and with Helen, very soon.


I especially love the monochrome shots, with Charly's sultry expression that reminds me of an early Sofia Loren or fiesty Anna Magnani in Italian fifties Noir...

I leave you with my favourite images from the shoot and a slide show, and look forward to your comments! :)

Maltese Culture Movement shoot - Imnarja Day

I have now been in the UK for 4 years.  Although I consider myself well settled in East Norfolk, I still get bouts of homesickness at times.  This isn't necessarily missing home, as my home is here! :) I miss talking freely in Maltese, talking as quickly as is customary for us, and gesticulating lots too :))

I also miss the food, not so much in that I can't find what ingredients I need for my recipes, as most stuff is available freely now, but then I can't manage to cook all  Maltese goodies well enough, (have I mentioned pastizzi yet?!!!).  My ever present interest in food, together with a tingle of homesickness, took me to London a few weeks ago, to cover the Maltese Culture Movement's Imnarja Day Celebration.

I hope the photos cover the essence of the day, which started with a celebration of the feast of St Peter and St Paul (l-Imnarja) during Mass.  His Excellency the Maltese High Commissioner, Mr Zammit Tabona, and Mrs Zammit Tabona were in attendance for both the Mass and the fair afterwards, and the commissioner was gracious enough to spend a bit of time with ourselves for a little chat.  The commissioner was not aware of us being motorsport enthusiasts (he is a Jaguar fan) so we had a bit of a chat about footy instead!

The second part of the day consisted of a fair selling Maltese products, including pastizzi, ravjul (ravioli), biskuttini (biscotti) etc.  We had our fair share of pastizzi whilst many others sat down for a hearty Maltese lunch. As it was a very warm day, we did not stay too long, and left for the long drive back to Norfolk whilst others were still enjoying themselves, however Malta Day is only two weeks away now, and we shall be going back for more pastizzi, Maltese chat and some photography :)

Hope you like the images and look foward to your comments as usual!

Have a good weekend everybody!! x

Creative block

I've stolen an idea for a post today... yeah, really...
I've grabbed an inspirational video from a fellow Maltese's blog, a great illustrator and graphic artist called Jimmy Grima, whose work I was admiring earlier...

I recently spent time looking up friends and friends of friends in LinkedIn and I've realised, just very suddenly, what a large number of Maltese are doing fantastic work in the creative arts .... I felt fantastically humbled and a bit disillusioned, as if my work was just scratching the surface of the reality of it all... and I actually still had to work very hard to reach the level of creativity that I aspire to...

I generally put a lot of effort in my work, a lot of thought and planning goes in to achieve what I want...  I look forward to the adrenalin kick that I get when an image of mine flashes up on my monitor and makes me stare and grin, and when I impress a client with my work.

Posting to blog is very difficult sometimes, as I look back at my previous postings and wonder whether the latest work is up to scratch and a little bit better, or in a different direction, to my other work. I would not post just any photo so I scrutinize my work and only post the very best, the work that is up there for me and that I am happy to move forward on with and share with you. This often leads to a creative block that makes it increasingly difficult for me to come up with new ideas to share with the world (well actually, my very small audience) on here.

How do you move on after you've produced what you think is your greatest work? Do you worry about it, ponder to infinity, procrastinate? Or do you just labour on, and keep finding inspiration in the little things that surround you, and the ideas just keep flowing, just very naturally?

I thought the following talk by Elizabeth Gilbert was very inspiring - beware, it is about 20 minutes long, but worth listening to and pondering on...

Enjoy x

Sneak preview - eshoot R&L

Hello everybody! Just a short update to my blog this evening as I'm working through images taken at R&L's eshoot.  They're a truly wonderful couple, and a joy to work with.  The shoot was so much fun, with lots of laughter, and we are really looking forward to their wedding in a few weeks time!

Just one shot from this session, a little taster ... :)

Hope you like it and look forward to your comments!!

Will try and catch up with my blogging very soon... :)

Wish you all a good week!  x

Sizzling Summertime offers....

The holidays are nearly here, and the kids are waiting with trepidation for the lovely long days, the trips to the beach and masses of lovely ice cream.  Sluuuurp!

The lovely coast line in East Norfolk harbours the Golden Mile in Great Yarmouth, as well as the lovely promenade in Lowestoft and miles and miles of golden beaches that stretch out all the way from North Norfolk, into lovely little coastal villages full of character, dotted along the coast like Happisburgh, Southwold and Aldeburgh.  

The weather here has so far been fantastic - we've had wonderfully blue skies and high temperatures the sea temperatures have warmed up too!  Will it keep?  Who cares!  There is really so much to enjoy on the coast that it really does'nt matter if the skies aren't quite so blue :)

Just to make sure that you have some lovely keepsakes to take home from your stay on the coast this year I'm offering FREE family photography all through these six weeks of summer holidays!  That's right!  An hour's session with myself will cost you absolutely nothing.  You will then just pay for what you decide to purchase, whether it's a large framed print, and acrylic block with your favourite image for your office desk to brighten up the rainy days, or a lovely coffee table book full of images of a happy family enjoying their holidays.

If you're not really a beach family and prefer relaxing holidays in the broads, my offer still holds, it's holiday time wherever you want to spend it!  Bad weather should not be a problem either, unless it is raining heavily, as sometimes images taken in strong wind and a little rain tend to be very interesting, and can be a lot of fun to shoot! :)

If you are interested in taking up my offer, call now, as dates are limited, on 07748 197522 or email me on contact@antonellamuscatphotography.co.uk  Conditions apply.

Happy Holidays!! x

Broad Beans

Yep!  It's the modest little legume I am writing about today, not about my ISP or download speeds...

as food is another important passion of mine, but one which I probably have been blogging about too little about.  Food is one of the influences in my work.   I can honestly say good food makes me happy :)

When I was little, my parents owned a villa in what was then a rural village in Malta called Fgura.  My dad's business was prospering and we moved into a villa in the fields with a semi made road for access.  Mum had a sizeable garden as well as a pool and at Easter time ( that's when broad beans get to season with the warmth there) we used to have the first taste of the produce from the gardens there.  Spring onions, early tomatoes, a taste from some Kumquat fruit and lots of crunchy baby broad beans to add to our crunchy rustic bread spread with tomato paste and lovely olive oil. 

Having had my first taste of broad beans this season earlier today took me a long way back.... back to my childhood when I learnt to appreciate tastes, colours and emotions, and my holiday times were spent curled in a corner reading volume after volume of historical novels  and splashing in the pool in the baking hot summers - all stuff that has influenced the way I see the world and ultimately affected my photography.

The taste of fresh broad beans reminded me of a  wonderful broad bean and goats' cheese risotto eaten at Nicolino's in Emsworth after a lovely time at Goodwood last year... mmm, a lovely rustic broad bean soup eaten at La Fontana in Edinburgh

Going back to the succulent, crunchy and very modest broad bean, hardly even given a nod by shoppers passing by the veggie stall....

Many people don't bother preparing their food today, thousands of shoppers dwell in the take away and the ready made food sections in supermarkets every day. They might think they appreciate cuisine, but they aren't ready to go into the bother of preparing it, they aren't open to getting down to cooking, trying new things, new tastes, to make up new recipes with what's left in the fridge.  To appreciate the difference between a product and another, the difference in quality between an item that's prepared to strict standards and one that's not.

I put in a lot of research into everything I do. I like to get to the point of perfection in most things... I like to construct images like I would be constructing a recipe.  I build up complementary foods to get to the taste I am looking for, that lovely lingering taste that embeds in the neurones and recalls lovely memories when it tingles the taste buds.

That's how I like my images, lovely, cooked at the right point, leaving a lush taste that becomes a beautiful memory, a lovely thought to think about and smile.

I hope that is the effect my work gives you....

now... back to my crunchy broad beans and lovely thoughts... :)