Category Archives: photography

The Roman Baths (Bath, England)

This weekend our walk led us not into the English countryside but into our town of Bath, England. This is the home of the historic Roman Baths and location of a natural hot springs. The history stems before the Romans built their temple in 60-70 AD to the Celtics who built a shrine here dedicated to the goddess Sulis, and whom the Romans identified with as Minerva. I had come here a very young girl, drank the water, and I do not remember a moment of that occasion Needless to say it was a wonderful place to re-experience with my family as they came here for the very first time.

As residents of Bath we were able to cut the lines of tourists and apply for our Discover card, which got us into the Roman Baths free of charge. The electronic handheld tour guides are complimentary and come with a variety of tours which you can follow at your leisure. With two sons who would gladly play their Nintendo DS all day, this was a huge hit with them both. We ended up spending three hours touring the sights and we could easily come back to see and hear more at another time.

I definitely recommend coming to Bath, England not only for the lush and beautiful views of the country but for the historic sites in town like the Roman Baths. You can also check out the Jane Austen Museum. We have not been yet but plan to go especially during this year of anniversary. After viewing the Baths you can kick your feet up and relax at the modern day thermal spa and enjoy the natural hot springs as the Romans had many years before.

Visiting the Roman Baths in Bath, England.

The Bath Abbey overlooks the Roman Baths.

With my husband, +Ryan Aherin, at the Roman Baths.

Loved the image of love in photo on the left and the details as shown on the right.

Only the ducks are allowed to bathe in the steamy warm waters today.

For a girl who grew up in Italy, I love the Roman aspects of Bath, England.

Visiting the historic sight with my bella familia.

Details of old and details of new were visions we saw today in Bath, England.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram
Here are the highlights I shared from over the weekend.

**Images may not be used or altered without written consent. Please get in contact for more information.

Photography: Looking Back at the Beginning

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Continuing on in my series of looking back at the photo shoots that brought me to where I am today, I go on to
my first fashion shoot with models on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. On an island in the Pacific there are many
people like me who are not all that tall. It quickly became my first initial filter for looking for new models to
photograph. I added to that list of criteria models who were just starting out and did not have a lot of looks in
their portfolio. One of the first few models I found who met both of those items was Polish born, Karolina, who
was currently working as a nanny in Hawaii. After messaging her on model mayhem I met her for coffee to go
over the ideas for shooting and from there we met up on the day.

This was the one of the images from Bonnie Rose published in the Look Hawaii magazine.

Goals, big or small, along the way help to push us and shape our endeavors in life. One goal I set out with
Karolina was to see how many different looks we could put together in the short hours of the morning. We
literally brought everything we owned that might work and laid it out nicely on the grassy hillsides of a local park
new my home in Mililani. Aside from losing my newly aquired iPhone a few times, we were able to work
smoothly from one look to the next with the aid of any other stylists or assistants. Do not get me wrong, I would
have gladly loved another extra hand and creative on location with us. Working with in our means we were able
to achieve the goal I set out and acquired several new looks for the start of Karolina’s modeling portfolio. She
went on to work with many other creative photographers on the island and soon was jet setting off around the
world to continue her work. It was a very modest shoot and I believe nothing was bought for the shoot. I say
this to then tell you that one of the images we created went on to be published in a Hawaiian magazine, featuring
Karolina as a new up and coming model. I learned that day and later on in retrospect that all it takes is action
and a creative drive and you can start a spark that will go on into a fire.

In this case that spark went on to work with several other models and clients in a very short period of time. I
pulled from both the online modeling community in my local area and personal contacts that I had already
established. I would like to touch on my work with someone from each of those groups whose images were
some of the first in my new career path. Phoebe was a former roommate and a friend I had made several
months back when living out on the Kailua side of the island for the previous summer. She is a natural beauty
and I had gotten her to model for me once before as a hair model for my work with extensions. She brought
with her a few choice outfits and together with my youngest son we went out to shoot on Kailua beach and
around my favourite running ground of Lanikai Loop. Due to the fact that we were both quite familiar with the
area I had not set out specific spots to shoot at in advance. We walked around to our favourite areas and I
photographed her as we went on. One of my favourite shots from the day was an outtake photo with my son,
Maddox. One or both of my kids sometimes were with me shooting since my husband was often busy with his
job in the military. These images with the models are some I treasure because it ties in both my love for work
and my love for family.

Veronica is a model that I came into contact with by word of mouth from Karolina. This would be my first
example of how word of mouth, especially on a small island like Oahu, can be quite beneficial for finding people
to work with and future collaborations. I contacted a friend and make up artist of mine to join on the shoot and
the three of us brought together our ideas for the fashion shoot. My husband and I had scouted out previously a
spot in the hills of the Mount Tantalus loop that overlooks Honolulu. Dhyana did Veronica’s make up while I did
her hair and laid out the outfits between what the model and I had both brought. What I really loved about this
shoot was working with Veronica in the beautiful Hawaiian backdrop. Oahu has been really great to me and
one of its most beautiful gifts is having such diverse backdrops. Quite a few male photographers only shoot on
the beach, however I have really enjoyed seeking out many varied locations which you will see in the
continuation of this series of looking back.

The images featured in this post are from the photo shoots with Bonnie Rose Photography on Oahu, Hawaii.

Models: Karolina Caro, Phoebe P, and Veronica Smith.

Hair & Make up Artists: Dhyana Leung (of Face, Art, Beauty) and Bonnie Rose

Travel Thursday: Be Smart with your Vacation Photos

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Ryan and I on the funicolare in Napoli, Italy taken by my friend and photographer, Liisa Roberts.

I have always considered Napoli, Italia fondly with a special place in my heart. I had the pleasure of living in this historical city twice in my life during my childhood. For a total of six years Napoli, also known as Naples, still holds the ranking title of the longest place I have lived in my lifetime. I begin this travel post in this way to explain quite clearly why ‘I should have known better’. That was a statement I said quite frequently after having my phone stolen. It is pictured here in a newly acquired (but not for long) case from one of the amazing markets in downtown Napoli.

When I go on vacation I travel with my DSLR, which I carry like my baby and protect with my life. However I have not always been as smart with that precious item either. Whether you plan to take photos with your phone, a small point and shoot digital camera, or a higher end DSLR with a range of lenses, these would be my tips for traveling with said items.

Be Smart with your Vacation Photos:

1. Be prepared. Decide which camera/s you will be taking and make sure you bring all the necessary accessories. Depending on what is normally in your camera bag, pack accordingly. Make sure you travel with your battery (and spares), your charger, memory card/s, and a memory card reader. I would also suggest your lens cloth to clean your lens.

2. Be smart. For those with multiple lenses a tip I would share is making sure your lens caps have an elastic attachment so that when you take them off they are still tethered to the lens. Its really easy to lose a cap or look like a target for a thief when you are juggling many items. I’ve nearly dropped and lost a lens cap or two trying to capture a photo in slightly dangerous spot. The less you have to worry about can be the better.

3. Be cautious. Do enjoy your vacation and do not allow negative stimgas to ruin a memory. But with that said remember this ‘everyone is suspicous’. So if you are in a more crowded area, tighter space like a train, or just out in a busy part of a city be aware of your surroundings. I lost my phone while I was holding my DSLR tightly but then snapping a photo of a delicious Neapolitan pizza. My phone was quickly and easily grabbed from my hand and it went on a chase with a thief who jumped on the back of a moped and was gone in a flash. I was too comfortable being ‘home’ and should have really been more cautious. Lesson learned.

4. Less is More. Piggy backing off of the previous tip I have learned that less is more in regards to the digital age. When I lived in Italy before I was taking photos by film and new exactly how many exposures I had left on that roll of film. No I can easily take hundreds of photos in a day with both my phone and my camera. I will use my camera for certain shots and my phone for less conspicuous and more artsy shots with fun filters. I would say rely on one camera for one moment and don’t get so distracted by capturing that you miss out on the moment or let someone take advantage of your touristic endeavors.

5. Keep it safe. Back up at the end of every day when you are on vacation. Clear those photos off your phone and onto your hard drive. Load them online to a drop box, flickr account, etc. Its best to have your photos saved and stored in more than one place. If you do happen to get something stolen or lose a bag, you can rest assured that your photos are safe.

My favourite thing about traveling is being able to reminisce the moments and memories in the years to come and share with my family and friends. I have lost photos from my phone being stolen and from back up cds being lost in a move. Enjoy your travels and be smart when taking and saving your vacation photos.

An extra word of advice: Do not let your photos collect dust inside your computer to not see the light of day. Photographs are getting lost and forgotten in this digital age. If you are going to take the time to capture your experiences, print them and display them in your home.

What advice or lessons have you learned why traveling with your camera? I would love to hear your stories, comment down below.

Ask B: How did you get started into photography?

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I love photography. It has been something I have enjoyed since being a young girl. I started with film and now I am predominantly shoot digital, while still collecting film cameras. Since that time the age of digital cameras has improved vastly. The first digital camera we owned used a floppy disk! The quality of photos that phones take now a days is incredible. If I do not feel like lugging around my big DSLR camera, I simply just rely on my iPhone. Technology is always improving. What has gotten me is seeing how our expanding knowledge of the subject tied together with practice also evolves the quality of the photographs. It is that natural progression as you strive to get better that has propelled me into my continual love for photography.

In 2005 my father gifted me with a Nikon Coolpix 8800. It was not as tiny as the coolpix cameras are now. It actually looked like a DSLR in size and shape although you could not change lenses. I had just become a mum for the first time and had a great little subject of which to take photographs. In 2007 a few months after having my second son I had really gotten interested in learning to shoot manual. I started going to photography meetup groups with other military wives. Almost all of them were shooting with DSLR cameras (primarily Nikon or Canon), talking about the lenses they used, and shooting in manual. There was only so much I could do with my Nikon Coolpix and I was so entranced by the quality of photographs the other mums were producing of my own kids from the meet ups. When my camera started giving me a lot of difficulty it furthered the need to move up in the camera world. That was when we we got the Nikon D70 DSLR.

Let me just say that it is not the camera you own that determines how well your photographs turn out. Yes the quality of the camera and the lenses do make a difference. However its the person behind the lens knowing how use the camera and their vision for what gets captured in the frame that counts. I took so many out of focused and badly exposed photographs while I was learning to shoot manual. Not to mention having little subjects that move very quickly!

I have included in this post a few of the very first photographs I took on our first DSLR and all though they look nice enough I can rip them apart years later as a photographer. From the camera settings, to the lighting, to uneven shadows, the composition body parts being cut off, the subject too centered, too many distracting items in the frame, etc. I really think its true that we can be the worst critics of our won work. I was looking at the photographs below today and realized something. It is not about the level of experience at that moment, but why I took the photograph that is so important to me. All my photographs at this time in 2005 – 2007 were of my kids capturing their innocence and their moments of happiness. I got into photography to capture the memories and to be fair, my reason for staying with it is pretty much the same.

These smiles are why I continued my study in photography.

Q: Why did you get into photography and of what do you like to take photographs?

Romantic Getaway to Paris

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The infamous lock bridge in the Paris, France

Happy Valentines Day to all my readers! To celebrate the day for ‘Travel Thursday’ we will look at a romantic trip to Paris. Having grown up in Europe there are many places that I wish to return to now as an adult. Getting to return to Paris on the arm of my husband was the perfect beginning to a romantic two days in the city of love. While you do not necessarily need a reason to go, we went this past August for our 9th wedding anniversary.

“In French, you don’t really say ‘I miss you.’ ‘You say ‘tu me manques,’
which is closer to ‘you are missing from me.’ I love that. ‘You are missing from me.’
You are a part of me, you are essential to my being.
You are like a limb, or an organ, or blood.
I cannot function without you.”
– unknown

Using the website Airbnb we rented a studio flat in the Belleville, Ile-de-France. This beautiful neighborhood is about a twenty five minute commute by public transport to the Musée du Louvre. We really enjoyed in the parisian flat in lieu of a room at hotel because we felt like we were living in Paris and could not easily spot another tourist in the area. The neighborhood was peaceful and the view from our window was beautiful as it overlooked Parc des Buttes Chaumont. The nearest metro station was minutes away and we were able to purchase fresh bagettes and french cheeses at a nearby shop.

Parc des Buttes Chaumont includes the belvedere of Sybil, which sits atop of the 30 metre peak of the island in the park’s partially surrounded lake. The other sights include several English and Chinese gardens, a grotto with waterfall, and bridges.

We were recommended by the owner of the flat to check out the park at sundown to see the spectacular views from on top of the highest point. We enjoyed a dinner one evening doing just that and having a picnic together on the gentle sloping hill. I would also recommend taking photos at the belvedere of Sybil. It is a Corinthian-style monument, modeled after the ancient Roman Temple of Vestain Tivoli, Italy. I think it makes a beautiful backdrop and so I had my husband model for me.

I brought a pair of heels to wear for our anniversary. But to be fair I knew we would be doing quite a bit of walking on our anniversary and so I opted to wear flats. My husband and I love going out on walks together and walking around Paris taking photographs of the beauty around us was just heavenly.

Also I might add that we went to the famous cemetery in Paris where it seems everyone who is someone is buried. I will blog about this at a later time because I took quite a lot of photographs. It was a short walking distance from our flat.

After our walking tour to see the parisian sights we spent our 9th wedding anniversary having dinner at the Le Pre aux Clercs. I will say this was the most expensive meal we had on our trip but it is Paris and it was a special occasion. Besides the amazing service, nice atmosphere it was the food that won me over. To this day I had one of the best steaks I have ever eaten in Paris, France. It was a perfect place for us.

Le Pre aux Clercs 30 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France

How do you spend your anniversary in Paris fashion? Our answer was to channel Audrey Hepburn and go to a jazz club. We chose Caveau Des Oubliettes which is a jazz club underground in a dungeon. Epic. It was laid back and very chill. Next trip I plan we are definitely coming back. Perhaps a Jazz club hop?

We also made a detour to make sure to check out the Moulin Rouge for our photo album.

How do you end the perfect romantic trip to Paris? Definitely if you see the Eiffel tower during the day, make sure to see it at night time. The best part is when they turn the blinking lights on for the light show. C’est magnifique!

Snowing in Bath

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I knew I had acclimated back to life in England when I started using the weather app frequently on my phone and actually talking about the weather in conversations. This morning I saw we had 90% chance of snow fall in the afternoon and started to get excited. Sure enough after lunch my kids started talking excitedly about the heavy snowflakes falling outside. Unfortunately it only lasted a little while and we were left with no reminder. After our first snow fall of 2013 last month we are left longing for more. We had so much fun going into town and seeing all the architecture covered in the white snow. Of course back at home there were plenty of snowball fights, snowmen and snow forts that were built. In England we get plenty of rain but the snow is always so magical to me.

Here for the first time on the blog are photographs from the snow we had fun enjoying while it lasted.

My husband with my sons enjoying the snowfall with plenty of snowball fights.

Our neighbourhood looking beautiful covered in a blanket of snow.

Icicles hanging from our house in Batheaston, England

For everyone else getting snow this winter, what has been your favourite thing about it?

Self Portraits from 2012 Pt. I

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I have not shared my self portraits on this blog before and would like to commence doing so this year. I will start with sharing the first thirteen of my favourite self portraits from 2012.

Want to see Part II?

‘In Your Eyes’ Self Portrait

Wanted to show how a person would look in the eyes of someone who all they can see is the other person. I created distortion and blurs in camera using a wine glass positioned in front of the lens. I took this self portrait with aid of a tripod.

www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

Flying

Self-Portrait by Bonnie Rose
for 2012 Self-Portrait Competition for the theme: Flying. I used trick photography by putting together two images, exactly the same though one contained a chair. Wanted to express the height that music can take us when we give into the music and/or lyrics and put our worries and worldy stresses aside.

Bridal Self Portrait

Taken at my home studio.

Gotta Move

For the Self Portrait challenge 2012, theme: ‘You Gotta Move’. I really want to do more and push myself more, but sometimes its a little scary to just let go and be free creatively. I tried to express that in this image. The force, depicted by my hair being blown up and the feathers of my skirt being blown about. The not wanting to let go and to hold onto old perceptions that I cannot go further or push myself more. The birds being that ideal of being free and following off in the direction of breeze.

Aint no Sunshine

www.bonnie-rose.co.uk Image for Self Portrait 2012 challenge for ‘Aint No Sunshine’. I took two images the same day. The first is from inside a castle I visited. When I got home I took a shot of me in the dark with just the light of three candles. Two below and one to the side (that is still in the image). I put the two images together for this composite.

Orange Crate for Self Portrait 2012 challenge.

www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

Black or White

For Self Portrait Challenge 2012 for the theme Black or White. Chose to play with shadows to see the toying of the choice of the darkness (black) or the light (white) and the shadows (Grey) in between.

Have you Seen the Rain

For Self Portrait Challenge for theme have you seen the rain shot with a 50mm. Bonnie Rose Photography @ 2012

Bonnie Rose Photography

‘Out of Time’. I took this spontaneously while walking through Pompeii. I wanted to show the movement of time passing too quickly with me in many places at once amongst the left over remains of a fallen city. Time is always passing and we often talk about how quickly it just slips out of our reach. We can wish that time would slow down or we cold go back in time, but we are always moving and racing forward till the end of our life.

Holding back to memories.

Waiting.

Self Portrait taken at the Jersey Shore in Seaside Heights from the boardwalk looking down on the beach.

Far, far, away.

Want to see Part II?

* All photographs belong to Bonnie Rose and cannot be used without written consent.

http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

‘In Your Eyes’ Self Portrait

Wanted to show how a person would look in the eyes of someone who all they can see is the other person. I created distortion and blurs in camera using a wine glass positioned in front of the lens. I took this self portrait with aid of a tripod.

Flying

Bridal Self Portrait

Gotta Move

Aint no Sunshine

Orange Crate for Self Portrait 2012 challenge. www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

Orange Crate for Self Portrait 2012 challenge.

Black or White For Self Portrait Challenge 2012 for the theme Black or White. Chose to play with shadows to see the toying of the choice of the darkness (black) or the light (white) and the shadows (Grey) in between.

Black or White