Category Archives: bonnie rose photography

Self Portrait: ‘From the Ashes’

For those of you that will remember last year I did a Self Portrait Challenge to take one self portrait every week. It was a lot of fun and was something I was able to do while traveling through Europe as well. Being inspired by a few self portraits I was commissioned to do recently, I have decided to restart this again invite you all to be involved! I have created a link up which will start every Saturday and end every Friday night. You can link up to old or new self portraits as long as they are a self portrait you took of yourself. So set your self timers and get your tripods ready and I look forward to seeing your creative spirit come alive on the weekends. The self portrait ‘From the Ashes’ was one of the test shots on one of the self portrait concepts I was working on last week. I really liked this one and decided I would save it for this challenge. While I usually would have gone with the black eye shadow, I used actual charred wood from our back garden. A bit of inspiration taking from my sons who showed up in the house with faces covered in black one day. I took this one right next to our dining room window to take use of the natural light. I think the reason I like it so much is it reminds me of the Afgan girl photographed for the cover of National Geographic. Maybe it is because we both have hazel eyes. If you have not heard about Sharbat Gula‘s story, I recommend that you check it out.

DO YOU LOVE SELF PORTRAITS?

I try to do one every week and post on a Saturday.

If you would like to link up with me, add this button to your blog. I would love to see your photography!

*Image original to A Compass Rose blog by Bonnie Rose Photography

Model of the Month: Ginger & Red Heads

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When I was living in Hawaii I was reminded continually that I was on a small island. You ran into the same people, in the photography world everyone was shooting the same models, and you had to search hard to find anything that in a photograph would not scream ‘I live in Hawaii’. Perhaps that is why I was surrounded by so many male photographers who shot only young females in their bikini on the beach. I was on a hunt for something unique and that was when I discovered Alysha. I believe I was specifically looking for models with long hair and it was her striking ginger hair that caught my eye. Living in an asian melting pot of cultures you do not see a whole lot of pales skin or red hair. We found out we were both here because of the military as her boyfriend was stationed on Oahu at the time. Instantly my head flooded with ideas for shoots and that is how my ‘Model of the Month’ project in 2010 began. I decided I would work with one model every month and see what body of work we could produce together. I would then release her ‘cover’ shot and my favourite images from the shoots.

This shoot was one of our last shoot togethers though you might remember seeing her from In the Middle of a Dream shoot, Living Doll Shoot, the Mermaid Cove shoot, and the Colour Pop shoot. We shot this series all from my living room with the aid of my Alien Bees lighting. I pulled out a few props and we worked together for a few fun portraits for an outcome of her cover shot. I basically chose my living room wall as the backdrop to make sure her hair just popped in the photographs. When our month did come to an end I was quite sad because we had so much fun together. The best shoots I have done are the ones where the model and I were close or had worked together before. It is something I definitely miss about living on Hawaii. The network of models, photographers, stylists, and hair and makeup artists is quite like a family. I loved having an idea to shoot and calling up someone I had worked with to get together for a shoot. I did end up calling Alysha again to cast her for a photo shoot for a magazine publication…because of her red hair. I have to say that is her most distinguishing quality about her as a model and it is why I wanted to work with her in the first place.

Side note: I am glad I made use of this wall because I have never spent so much time doing a DIY painting project before. This was our first home to own and where I could finally paint my walls. My husband and I of course fell in love with a labour intensive technique that involved not normal paint brushes but a metal spatula of many coats for a faux finish. It looked pretty but took days to complete.

Did you see the Behind the Scenes video

for making In the Middle of a Dream shoot?

In the Middle of a Dream from Bonnie Rose on Vimeo.

‘Crushed’ Bridal Self Portrait

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'Crushed' Self Portrait by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved

There are fifty days until our tenth wedding anniversary and vow renewal ceremony in the Snowdonia region of Wales. Final travel arrangements are being confirmed and my to do list is being prioritized. There has been one task that I have been putting off until ‘closer to the date’. My husband urged me this weekend to finally try on my wedding gown. It has been perserved in a box, inside another box for safe keeping since our wedding in 2003. In the last ten years it has been moved six times and lucky has never been lost or damaged. Taking the gown out of the box and feeling the smooth duchess satin, I was reminded just how much I loved this gown. I had fallen in love with the idea of it once I laid eyes on the blue sash gown by Amsale in my Knot magazine. Since it cost as much as my entire wedding budget I found a seamstress in town to make a replica for a fifth of the cost. Other than choosing to keep the sash the same colour of the gown it was a perfect comparison. I honestly could wear this gown every day for the rest of my life because it is that beautiful to me. I could never sell it and would love to see my future daughter wear it one day. Be it as a wedding gown, or repurposed for a baby.

Another reason I had been putting off trying it on was that there were three issues before me. Aside from having only worn it once ten years ago I have had two kids since that time. I also wore a full bridal corset that I no longer own as I sold shortly after the honeymoon. The third is that since Christmas I have not been eating a strict paleo diet and can tell that the carbs from bread, porridge and potatoes (chips/mash/roasted) have gone right to cover up my abs. When Ryan exclaimed, ‘Wow, its tiny!’ as he held up the gown for me I started to get worried. I stepped into it and held the bodice up to my chest as the final test awaited us. Could we get the zipper to go all the way up?

I cannot tell you the answer to that as the zipper broke in the process and my excitement about putting on my favourite gown plummeted with it. I attempted to make a status message or send a tweet about it but then canceled it as I was too heart broken. In six weeks and a couple days I am planning on wearing this gown and now I not only have to figure out where to get it pressed but how to fix the zipper. Not to mention I need to get a corset, keep all carbs away, and stick to Paleo until after we return from Wales.

So here I am with a a dress out of its perserved box and I will admit I am crushed that I do not know if I can now wear it. The practical part of me is saying that Ryan’s DIY idea of fixing the zipper himself will work out and that I will most definitely shed the carb baby I’m currently carrying before we get to Wales. The dress will fit. I hope to hold onto that shred of optimism

I will be honest that the last couple of days I have been pretty down about it. I lacked the motivation to take this photo at all and it took me two sessions of it on Tuesday to get my shot. The first time around I ended up just laying on the bed with my gown still on and taking a nap. The toll of it not fitting was not conducive to working with my creative needs. However, I got a few shots I liked in the second go around thankfully.

I like my self portraits to come across like paintings and this photograph I feel fits the bill. I love the gown, I am crushed that it will no longer zip, and my hair cascaded down in front of my face to hide the tears.

Browns Folly & Monkton Farleigh

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This weekend we were blessed with a break in the rain and a lovely sunny Saturday. We took the opportunity to explore a new area near our home in Bath, England. As active participants of country walks through the English countryside, we love finding new paths to enjoy. We begun our walk through the town of Bathford up to the woods in the area known as Browns Folly. My eldest had come here on a school trip this year and we had heard much about the mines and the ground flora we could find in the area. We indeed did find some of the King Alfred’s cakes and the wild garlic. We also found a lovely horse that was very friendly, got stung by nettle, and covered in pollen as our path took us through a massive yellow field of blooming rapeseed plants. It was yet another day out in England where every ten minutes one of us would exclaim either how beautiful it was or how much we never want to move. It is hard to feel sad or stressed out when you are outside scenes that look ripped out from a storybook. Not to mention the tower that was so Rapunzel-esque and the beautiful view of our town below. Here are a just a few of the many photographs I took on our country walk journey through Browns Folly and Monkton Farleigh.

Photography: Mermaid Cove

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Day 31, Friday: A Vivid Memory

It was was the last Saturday in March of 2010 on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. I had just driven up from my home in Mililani where I had gotten model, Alysha ready in hair and make up. With glittery eyes and long red hair in waves she was now ready in wardrobe as my mermaid for the evening conceptual photo shoot. I had obtained the costume at a vintage store in Tucson, Arizona on a visit at my mum’s house and had only used it once for Halloween in 2008. Coincidentally Halloween that year had fallen on the night of my first photo exhibition in Honolulu and now it was being used again before my departure back to the mainland. I had a whole list of concepts I wanted to complete in the final months of my island life. While many male photographers were content with shooting just bikini clad models on the sandy beaches, I had my heart set on photographing a mermaid. Of course in my mind what mermaid photo shoot would be complete without a Prince Eric? So as we got out of the car we met Samart, our leading man to complete the vision.

On to the beach we went in one of my most favourite areas of North Shore for being secluded and devoid of tourists. I have almost always had this area to myself on my many drives to the area. With my camera and equipment and a bagful of props we started up the rocky cliffs for the first half of the shoot. It soon became the golden hour and the soft warm Hawaiian sunlight lit up Alysha and Samart as they portrayed my versions of Ariel and Eric. Which was good because the trade winds were having a field day with my light reflectors. While on many shoots I had the luxury of a photography assistant, today it was just the three of us. I remember before the shoot I had run down to the touristy section of walmart to pick up a collection of shells. These I had then hot glued onto fishing wire. This made it quite easy to display the smaller shells, with easy clean up since they were all attached to the same line. I had a few bigger shells and a nice starfish that I moved around the scene.

For the second part of the shoot I wanted to draw on the idea of Eric being shipwrecked and either saved or discovered by Ariel. I even had Eric catch Ariel in his net. We had a vintage table, originally from Russia, as our token piece of washed up wood. All in all it was a really fun shoot and I despite having a very small team for the day I got the images I was hoping to come away with from concept. All though my secret desire as a girl to become a mermaid was never realised, it was fun to orchestrate story I loved as a child. Thank you to Alysha and Samart for making my vision possible.

Here were my top favourite photographs from my concept shoot from ‘Mermaid Cove’.

Like that we are complete with the Blog Every Day in May challenge. If you would like to see my other posts for the month click the label/tag ‘maychallenge’ below. Thank you for joining me on this month long journey and I look forward to seeing you in June with my regularly scheduled posts about photography travel, third culture kids, and expats.

Freshford by Photographs

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Day 28, Tuesday: Only Pictures

For today’s post I share with you just a few…because my family knows I took so many…photographs from our Saturday which was spent in the town of Freshford. We went on a country walk throughout the town and countryside with dinner at the pub in town. Six hours later it was time to go home but we had a fifty minute wait until the next train home. We decided to not wait and take a two and half hour walk back home along the Avon Canal to Bath. It was a beautiful day and we spent most of it walking and enjoying the sunshine. Without further adieu here is my post in only photos.

Self Portrait: ‘Unanswered’

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I took today’s self portrait before breakfast while my thoughts were focused around the basic human need of interaction with others. We were not put on this earth to be alone. While I love my personal time away from the world if I had no one to share it with my life would be void and without purpose.

I owe my fondest childhood memories, the stories that span across Europe, to my parents. The good and bad days of the past have formed me into who I am today. I have been told I got married as I was just a few months shy of turning twenty one. When I met my husband at Uni I had that moment of clarity that we would spend the rest of our lives together. Why wait years down the road to experience an inevitable life together. I always wanted a family to experience a world of travel together like I had with my parents. So we began our family and eventually found our way to return to Europe.

Sometimes it can be hard to keep the lines of communication open. Life can get busy and the world can push itself forward ahead in the priorities. However sometimes it can be as simple as remembering to make sure that ‘you’ are plugged in.