PREVIEW ENGAGEMENT SHOOT IN LONDON - ANNA&PAV

Just want to share this image from yesterday's beautiful pre-wedding shoot with a very lovely fun couple)) Full post coming soon ;-)

LONDON PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER - BUSINESS PORTRAITS FOR A WEDDING FLORIST

Kerris is an amazing florist and she designed some flower arrangements for my previous bridal shoot (which I will share with you in the nearest future). She got the brief spot on and I can't wait for you to see her creations! I adore flowers, so when Kerris asked me if I could take some 'behind the scenes' photographs of her at work for her new website, I was thrilled. It also meant that I got a chance to see some of the flowers before the shoot, so I knew in advance it was going to be beautiful! I enjoyed watching Kerris at work - calm, collected, concentrated (apart from times when Angel, her cat, was trying to steal our flowers) and with meticulous attention to details. It was great to see how the whole piece comes together starting with just one flower.

Angel is such a crazy, but adorable cat! He was a great help, I mean distraction... errrm, I mean help!

He was overlooking the process to make sure we were doing the right thing and giving him flowers to play with

 

I strongly believe that portraits and behind the scenes photographs are very important to a small business owner. If you have them on your website/blog, potential clients can see the Person behind the business, they sort of get to know you and get the feel of what you do and therefore there is more chance they get in touch.

If you need to update 'About' page of your website or get portraits for your business - get in touch using the form at the top of the page. I would be happy to discuss what is it that you are looking for!

ABOUT PARENTS

I was on the train on my way to the shoot the other day. It was very early in the morning and I was listening to my favourite tunes to stay awake. I like times like train journeys like that, it's quiet, most of the people on a carriage are asleep, and I have time to think about things that normally would not come to my mind. So that day I started thinking about my parents. I was thinking about myself and my character, how my parents influenced me and brought me up to be the person I am today. 

When I was little, I didn't like a lot of things mum and dad made me do. I didn't like that I was forced to learn English since I was 7. All the other kids were outside running wild and free, while I had to sit with a book for an hour to learn new words and phrases, before I could go out. I hated it. English is my second native language now. It helped me travel the world and meet a lot of people, who in one way or another influenced my life experiences. It helped me travel to the USA and meet my husband there (we've recently celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary). When I was little, I didn't realise these things could happen to me. But my parents did. I'm pretty sure that it must have been hard for them when I was rebelling, because I didn't understand. They stuck by it, and I am so grateful for that! 

My father always said: "If you are asked a question and you don't know the answer, never say 'I don't know'. Say I don't know/I'm not sure, but I will look into that for you.". At first I just didn't get it. For me it was like black and white, you either knew the answer to the question, or you didn't. For years that advice has been in my memory, and I realise now, that it has taught me to be inquisitive, and made me learn about a lot of things, as well as develop common sense. That encouraged me to have my own opinion on things (my husband says I'm too opinionated, but that's a different story ;-) ), which helped me in life a loooot. 

My parents brought me up to be a strong, but sensitive and kind person, and I'm so so grateful for everything they'd done for me, even though I didn't like it or understand it at first. I can see how little things work together as a puzzle now and make me a person I am today.

And that's my family together with my husband and your truly on New Year's night in 2008. I miss them))

WEDDING INSPIRATION SHOOT - SNEAK PEEK

As always, can't reveal much just yet, but all I can say is yesterday was AMAZING! This shoot was so much fun and we had a great creative team involved! Weather and light couldn't be more perfect, location was beautiful, but it's the people I got to work with who shared the vision for style and went that extra mile to ensure everything was spot on, and who made this shoot absolutely stunning, even if I say so myself ;-)

This image is just a tiny tiny sneak peek, there is so much more I want to share with you. Watch this space! ;-)

Happy Monday! x

MODERN VINTAGE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY - VINTAGE INSPIRED WEDDING FASHION SHOOT

For a while I've been teasing everyone on this blog and also on Twitter&Facebook about some of my projects. Today I can finally reveal the first one (there will be two more, so don't go far ;-) ). 

When I moved to London, I became a big fan of Love My Dress wedding blog. Annabel, beautiful lady behind this blog, writes about vintage inspired wedding and bridal inspiration (make sure you check out her blog, as it is truly stunning and offers so much information for brides to be). So, I started following her blog closely. One day I read a feature about vintage headband and accessories designer Yulia Kunze . Name sounded very familiar and I got in touch. While chatting about all things weddings, we decided to do a shoot together. Yulia wanted to showcase her beautiful hair jewellery, and I... well, I don't need an excuse to photograph gorgeousness)). The inspiration behind the shoot came from art deco era. However, we didn't want to do something details oriented. Less is more was our approach. We wanted to achieve elegant, chic, art deco inspired , couture look. We got fantastic team involved (which, if you are a bride to be, you should totally do!). Steph from Fairy Nuff Flowers made 2 beautiful wedding bouquets. Stunning dresses were provided by Adamo Bridal boutique , impeccable makeup applied by London wedding airbrush makeup artist Mariam Jensen (she does magic, trust me!) and hair styled by wedding hair designer Cassandra. I must say Mariam and Cassandra are absolutely brilliant at what they do. They paid attention to every single detail to achieve complete look for models, and that's exactly what we wanted! One Marylebone - wedding venue in London was perfect for us. Its Galleries have huge windows and are flooded with natural light - just what we were looking for to showcase gorgeous wedding dresses and the whole attire. 

It was a pleasure to work with such a fantastic team and photograph everyone's creations. If you are a bride to be - check everyone out, cannot recommend highly enough!

Feel free to leave comments below and let me know what you think about styling))

Happy Tuesday!

Team involved:
- Photography by (yours truly) - London wedding photographer Dasha - Exhibit Emotions
- Venue - One Marylebone Wedding Venue London
- Jewellery - Yulia Kunze Hair Jewellery
- Makeup - London wedding airbrush makeup artist Mariam Jensen
- Hair - Wedding hair designer Cassandra
- Flowers - Fairy Nuff Flowers
- Dresses - Adamo Bridal boutique
- Models - Kara Wenman

Check out the feature about this shoot on Love My Dress wedding blog.

THIS POST IS ABOUT A CAT

I had been dreaming about having a cat or a dog ever since I was little. We lived in a flat and didn't really have space for neither of them. Instead we had little fishes and a hamster. Which was great, but not quite the same as having a cat. Or a dog. Fishes did not really show any affection, and the hamster was either stuffing his cheeks, sleeping or spinning his wheel. They were not greeting us when we were coming back home from school, not playing with us, not purring, not barking, not wagging tails. So, when my husband told me there was a cat in the house we were renting (when I moved to London at the beginning of last year) - I was so happy. A real cat that does all the cat things! She was too old (15) to move her to another home, so we kind of started to look after her. She was sitting on the stairs every morning when I was going downstairs for breakfast. If I wasn't coming down for too long, she would start winging at our bedroom door and scratch the carpet (as I said - she was doing all the cat things). She was sitting beside me in the kitchen when I was cooking, or just outside if the oven was on - she didn't like the noise it was making. She followed me around the house and myawing until I picked her up and held her like a baby. She was sitting between Michael and me when we were on the sofa watching tv. There was a rule that we had to ask each other to do stuff if Kat was on our laps, because obviously we couldn't disturb her by getting up)). Last week she was sitting beside the table while we had dinner, and patiently waiting for a piece of something delicious to fall her way. Yesterday she was quietly sitting on her cat-chair watching us eating dinner. Today we are having dinner without her... She is asleep... Kat, you will be missed...

PRE-WEDDING SHOOT GREENWICH LONDON - DENISE&MARK

Denise&Mark and I first met on the day of their pre-wedding shoot in Greenwich. It was pouring down all day, but we were determined to get some beautiful photos! I like discovering places in Greenwich, so I was delighted when we found a small hidden coffee shop in a narrow side road. Agh, we needed that coffee! We chatted about their wedding plans and they are both so excited! Denise and Mark are having a relaxed garden party wedding in May, in the place where they grew-up. It will be a gorgeous spring day full of blooming flowers and I'm so looking forward to it! 

Despite the rain, the engagement shoot was so much fun! Denise and Mark are so comfortable with each other - my job was easy ;-)

I decided to blog the whole shoot in black&white, because... just because ;)