Shoot like a Pro with Topshop and Olympus Pen ~

Hey Surfers!

So this week I met up with my friend and fellow blogger, the lovely Josie of A Pretty Post It, headed up to London and took part in the Photography Summer School hosted by Topshop and Olympus Pen. The hour long workshops were held in the flagship Topshop store in Oxford Circus hidden amongst the racks. There were several different options to choose from but we went with "How to Shoot A City Scape" which was led by Mademoiselle Robot and R.Cleveland Aaron

We were given the option of borrowing one of the Olympus Pen camera's to try but as I had my own camera with me I declined, though I do wish I had had a chance to have a play with one. The Olympus cameras had a lot of functionality and produced some really dynamic shots with the press of a button that you would have to spend quite a while setting up on a DSLR; they're also wonderfully compact which would be perfect for trips such as this one. Josie and I soon had aching shoulders from lugging a pair of DSLRs around London.

Everything you need for a day out in London ;)

Once the introductions were over we were split into two groups; half went with Mademoiselle Robot and the others, our group, went with Cleveland. Before we left he gave us some instruction on what we were to take pictures of: Old meets New, People, Reflections and Shapes (either circles or triangles) we were then set loose on the streets of Oxford Circus.

Oxford street in selective colour

Cleveland was an amazing teacher, he pointed out things on the street that I would have never noticed, let alone thought to photograph. Looking for triangles made me see so many new and interesting angles and buildings that would make stunning photographs such as the one above; it's actually the top of the Boots store! I was in Oxford Street just a few weeks ago and had no idea that this was even there, Cleveland showed us his own picture of this building before we left so I had to try it out myself. 

Twins

We were accompanied by a representative of Olympus Pen on our excursion and she pointed out to Josie and I how our reflections in this building's window would make an interesting picture. We'd unwittingly worn similar colours which worked really well in the picture.

A little bit of old meets new.

More experiments with reflections

I really love this shot; it truly captures the insanity of Oxford Street. When I saw the bright yellow awnings I had to stop to get a shot; even though the picture is grey the yellow screams summer.

Triangles :)

I'll have to admit that I cheated on the "People" part of our assignment. Having a willing model for the first time I asked Josie to pretend to be taking a picture and snapped a shot with one of the effects on my camera.

This cafe was located down one of the quieter side roads; the sandstone building and the woman in her sunglasses paints a picture of the chic side of London. Almost feels like the opening of a movie.

"make MINE yellow"
Name courtesy of Cleveland :)

Our final stop was the BBC office, yet another building I had no idea was just down Oxford Street. When we had first headed out Cleveland showed us an effect on the Olympus cameras which made the dull British sky look stunning. I wanted to see if I could replicate it on my Nikon and managed the above using the "Low Key" effect; not quite the same but still pretty cool.

The stone tiles around the BBC building was dotted with the names of cities, I wanted to get more pictures but unfortunately we had run out of time and it was time to go back to the store.

Once we were back we were presented with an amazing gift bag! It was a complete surprise and filled with some awesome goodies. The Olympus Pen cameras actually had WIFI capabilities so you can send your pictures directly to your phone (after downloading the app) which meant Josie was able to keep all of her pictures from the day without having to wait for them to be sent over to her.

Having a look at our goody bags whilst enjoying an iced coffee.

I have to say I am quite sold on the Olympus Pen camera; while I love my DSLR it would be nice to have a camera with so many amazing capabilities but a lot less bulk! 

The Topshop Summer School was an amazing experience and I cannot recommend it enough. We both learned loads and had so much fun! Thanks to Cleveland and everyone who came with us around London, you were all brilliant and so friendly.

I believe that they still have some workshops coming up,  I'll put a link to their website here definitely go if you get a chance.

As the workshop was quite short Josie and I were left with the rest of the day to enjoy, but I'll save all of that for next week! 

I hope you enjoyed the post, Josie's blog is linked at the top of the page, make sure to pay her a visit!

See you next week.

Love Lily

x

Birthday shopping on the Champs-Élysées - Parisian Getaway ~ Day Three

 Hey Surfers!

Please excuse my long absence, the injury to my arm was worse than I'd realised which means very limited (if any at all) laptop use.

Today I'm bringing you the final day of my trip to Paris; my birthday! It was definitely one of my most memorable. I woke up in Paris to presents and a day filled with shopping, though that was after frantic packing and leaving our suitcases behind in the lockers of Gare Du Nord.

Our first stop was the Galeries Lafayette; an enormous, Harrodsesque shopping mall which had a focus on high end products. Their displays were beautiful and I had to hold myself back from buying everything in sight.

The Galeries Lafayette

Their Christmas decorations were absolutely stunning, but I didn't want to pull out my giant DSLR in such a place so did some incognito papping on my phone.

I had a specific goal in this shopping centre. 

The only souvenir I wanted to bring back from Paris (other than two full memory cards) was the Pandora Eiffel Tower charm for my bracelet; though I was well aware that nearly every other owner of a Pandora bracelet would have had the same idea and...I was right. 

When we finally found the Pandora stand they told me that the Eiffel Tower was completely sold out! but they did have the version which was somewhat more expensive and featured a small gold heart. As I had decided I would buy the charm whilst planning the trip I couldn't help myself and bought it. :)

After picking this up we had a look around the rest of the shopping centre and found some gifts for friends and family. I also found this delicious French coffee which I have been enjoying since we got back. 

In the background is one of the presents my mother bought for me. Pop up map of Paris :)

A good few hours later we decided to make our final stop The Avenue des Champs Elysees to see another one of Paris' most famous landmarks: The Arc de Triomph.

So wonderfully detailed

It was a beautiful and imposing structure; I must have taken a hundred pictures before I realised we were running low on time and still wanted to explore the street for the famous shopping experience.

a picturesque side street

Found the Pathe offices!

Didn't have the time to go in here :(

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves strolling down the Avenue in the winter wind, choosing presents for my siblings. I bought myself and my mother some small perfumes as I wanted to purchase something that was exclusive to France (later found out that you can apparently get them over here!) The scent was so unusual and intoxicating, though it has to be used sparingly as it is very concentrated.

Caramelized Pear Perfume!
 Mum's gift making a perfect background here :) 

Unfortunately we had to leave soon after to navigate the Metro back to Gard du Nord and collect our suitcases. By the time we got on the Eurostar I was utterly exhausted but was looking forward to getting home and seeing the rest of my family for my birthday.

Overall it was an amazing experience and I will definitely be visiting Paris again as I still have so much to see, though next time I may brave the crowds and make a summer trip. 

Don't forget to check out the blogs at the top of my page, I've added a few new ones ;) and you can

look back to Day One and Day Two !

Love Lily.

x

So...I've been shopping :)

Hey Surfers,

Anyone else suffering from hay fever? my house is wall to wall flowers so there is literally no escape!

Today I thought I’d do a bit of a haul post, I have been spending inordinate amounts of money lately and figured I would share my purchases with you.

Firstly I visited the Superdry outlet store which recently opened in my town (where everything is 40% off of the RRP). I was amazed at how cheap everything was and really had to hold myself back from buying up half of their stock...luckily for me I was strapped for time so could only spend a few minutes in there; still, I managed to pick up a couple of nice things.

 The first is this dress, I’ve seen it on the Superdry website many times and have always kind of wanted to purchase it, so when I saw it in the store, reduced, I picked it up right away.

Sorry about the rubbish picture guys, just couldn't seem to get a good one...

I’m not really one for dresses but this one just really caught my eye. Unfortunately, after trying it on at home I decided to return it to the store. The dress looked great on the hanger but would have been more suited to my four year old niece than myself. I didn't know that Super Dry don't actually do refunds, its either a swap or a voucher so I had another look and swapped the dress for this hoodie.

It's really warm but not too bulky which is nice for spring time, the only issue is I'm terrified of spilling something on it which is always a problem when wearing white. I did wear it for Mufti Day at work, and am proud to say that despite eating berries and drinking coffee it remains stain free!...for now..

I also purchased this t-shirt. As soon as I picked it up I loved the feel of the fabric, definite quality. Again, something that I have had my eye on for a while so was really happy to find it. Tried it on when I got home and am really pleased with it, can’t wait for the weather to warm up so I can wear it out.

Paired with a pair of jeans and a light leather jacket, perfect casual outfit.

Switching to a different shop now,a little while back I bought myself a card holder from Biba. The yellow Bershka bag I got from Westfield  is actually smaller than my day to day wallet...so I had to get a smaller wallet for when I use it, or any of my other small bags. It's also perfect for days when I don't want to be weighed down by a bag at all; I can just throw in my debit card, I.D and some cash and I'm good for the day :)

Really love the patent leather, it's a very elegant piece.

It will even hold coins :)

I've used it a few times so far and its very convenient, though takes a bit of getting used to, especially when you usually lug around a hefty wallet which holds about a thousand loyalty cards and a small ecosystem of receipts. :)

Last, but by no means least, a little technology: as a photographer, and I use the term loosely :D, I take hundreds of pictures and then, instead of just keeping the good ones, I will just save the whole contents of both my memory cards to my laptop...*guilty face*

This bad habit of mine was quickly filling up my hard drive so I decided to get myself an external one to use for all of my pictures, though I swear one day I will delete the rubbish ones...maybe..

I chose this Seagate because it was 1 Terabyte of storage at only £60.00 which was pretty good, I've now emptied my laptop of junk and keep everything on here. The one disappointing thing about this hard drive is that some of the space is already used up by the programs which come pre-loaded, such as the back up function, so you don't actually get a whole terabyte, but its still a hefty amount of storage and those programs have to be somewhere, so I'm not going to complain :)

I hope you enjoyed this little haul post, there will be no more shopping for me (lies)

 I'll be back next Sunday.

Love E

I don't understand what she is doing...

Grab your swimsuit and flip flops; ITS A SPA DAY!

Hey Surfers,

I think the sun has remembered that this is England and has gone back to its true home, California. I hope you haven't packed away all of your jackets and jumpers just yet!

So this week was my elder sister's birthday and we headed up to Covent Garden to the Sanctuary Spa. It's the second time I've been and I still get super excited about it.

The spa has a strict no photography rule, so I don't have any pictures unfortunately but I'll link their website here:  http://www.sanctuary.com/en-gb/
As we spent most of the day in a photo free spa and I was out with my family I decided to leave my DSLR at home, so all of these pictures are taken on my mobile-I use a Samsung Galaxy S4 :)

This is the shop on the ground floor.

We had an amazing time, I got to experience a Infa-Red sauna which felt like sitting on a blazing hot beach, they're supposed to be great for sweating out toxins and such like. After that I had a splash about in one of the pools which has a giant swing and most likely irritated all of the other spa goers who were trying to nap...sorry.. :)

There were also hot tubs, Jacuzzis, a normal sauna and a steam room but by the end of the day I think I had really over done it and become quite dehydrated as I had a pounding headache (they do advise you drink a lot of water when you're there, I guess I just didn't have enough). I didn't let that stop me though; after a hazelnut latte and some delectable chocolate covered banana chips we got changed and left for a late lunch. I had fun using all of the products which are provided for cleansing and toning and will definitely be purchasing them on my next trip to Boots. I didn't get them there and then because I wanted to ensure they didn't upset my skin.

The spa is located on a street filled with designer shops :)

The spa is unfortunately closing for good in May 2014 so I strongly recommend that you go and check it out before it does!

We went to a nearby restaurant called Dishoom for our meal which had very unique decor and a great ambiance.

This circular table was ours 

These were on the toilet doors :D

The food was so delicious, I had the lamb chops which were, oddly enough, served with pomegranate seeds. I was slightly disgusted by this but when I tried the lamb and fruit together it was phenomenal, completely converted.

For desert I had a mango kulfi and something called a chocolate chai; the chai has cinnamon in it which is a spice I just cannot stand so I have to say I wasn't a fan. The kulfi, however, was delicious, I would most definitely order it again!

It was a really nice restaurant. If you do decide to go there it's best to book in advance as they are very popular.

After dinner we decided to have a roam around the nearby shops. Below is one of my purchases, a glittering turtle necklace which I picked up from Urban Outfitters. 

Nikon.

Can't wait to wear it

We finally left the area and headed toward the Westfield shopping centre. My head was still pounding so I didn't really shop much. but I did pick up this little bag from a shop named Bershka which felt like a slightly smaller version of New Look; in fact my mum bought it for me as a gift <3 I have been after a tiny bright yellow bag for a while, not sure what made me want one but I was thrilled to find this for only £9.99. 

I think I just like yellow things..
Nikon

After a while we headed home, gave my sister her gifts and everyone crashed out. All in all an awesome day out.

Enjoy the rest of your week and I'll be back soon.

Love E

The blog to check out this time is:

http://marksgotproblems.wordpress.com/

Also have a watch of this little Youtuber: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk-8E-SZnqA