pictures and whispers

6.3.12

Oxford Meetup..

Three weekends ago Sev, Sarah, Niz and Gina arrived in my little town for our monthly meetup.

The location this time was Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxford. If you live in England then I would definitely recommend a day trip out to visit it. It is so stunning and every time I go back I discover new locations and fall in love with it all over again.

That particular weekend we got lucky as there was still some left over snow from the weekend before which added to the atmosphere and magic of that location. By the end of the day we noticed the snow melting and by the next day there was hardly any left at all.

I know I say this often but I genuinely mean it, I LOVE our meetups. It's a chance to catch up, experiment and enjoy the company of ~~crazy~~ likeminded individuals. I do realise that if it wasn't for the internet I might never have met these girls. So thank you Flickr for bringing us together!

We arrived just after midday and after a little photo session against a gorgeous view we followed the path from the main entrance round the palace and deeper into the landscape. Here are a few behind the scenes photos and random snaps I grabbed that afternoon.

Some geese.

Gina with her lovely red coat.

The beautiful Niz

Niz setting up the scene with Sarah..

It was absolutely freezing that day but like troopers everyone pushed through!

Gina setting up her little scene..

Sev with green smoke..

Check out Gina's stream for her version of this picture. It's beautiful!

There were tripods and bits of camera equipment everywhere. It was pretty cool actually :)

Sev taking a self portrait. (Check out her stream for this picture)

Having some flowing dress fun!

More tripods :)

Niz and Gina

A freezing Sarah

Thank you Gina for taking these!

Sev and the girls. Taking a short break to admire the sunset..

Sev

Niz

Whoever took these, thank you I love them!

Sarah shooting Niz and Sev..

Lovely Gina

On the way back we drove under a low flowing river of cloud and not being able to help ourselves we promptly doubled back and tried to capture it on camera.. as you do!

Niz took this hilarious photo! Spot the odd one out! ;)

Niz and I ^_^

And finally a group photo of us all together courtesy of Gina :)

Check out the girls' streams for their photos from that day!

And if you would be interested in joining us for the next meet up, please feel welcome to join us on Saturday the 21st of April at Hampstead Heath Park in London. Details of this can be found here.

Thank you for reading and here's a little video of random clips taken through the day :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnuBJUqfztA

29.1.12

Print Giveaway

Hi guys!

So as promised, here are the details of how to enter the giveaway!

I'll be giving you all the opportunity to win, not 1, not 2 but 3 prints of your choice (A4 size) and 2 books (Embarrassing youtube video - here)

So there are several ways that you can enter.

Facebook

1. Be a follower of my page

2. Comment on this post. ONCE only please. This will count as one entry.

Bonus! If you share this post it will count as another entry!

Twitter

Follow me and tweet this phrase "Entering Bella's photo giveaway at www.facebook.com/bellakotakphotography #bellakotak"

Tumblr

Simply like/reblog this post

I will be closing this in one week and will draw the names on Sunday the 5th of February.

As this is my first time holding something like this I will also be doing a bonus draw and give 5 more people who enter a chance to win a print (also A4) of their choice!

Ok so there you have it. 4 ways to enter and 6 winners!

Thank you all and Good Luck!! :)

Bella

26.1.12

Thank you!

I hit over 1000 followers on my facebook page earlier today and to say that I am happy would be an understatement. It always humbles me when people deem my work worthy of a follow, leave me positive comments and go to the extra effort to send me an email or message. You're the reason I have the courage to put myself out there. (Haha cheesy I know but it's true!)

I take pictures because I love it. I don't remember a time when I haven't taken photos. From using my dad's old film Kodak to saving up and purchasing my first dSLR, I've constantly been fascinated. I used to paint on canvas and now I paint in my photos immersing myself and my subjects in a world of emotion and colour. It's personal and there's always a feeling of excitement plus a little scary when I upload a new picture. But somehow it's always ok in the end.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is THANK YOU to all of you guys whoever and wherever you are, for supporting me. If I could photograph every single one of you I would! It would be my pleasure.

To repay your support I'll be outlining a big print giveaway tomorrow. To be eligible for a chance to win any of the prices you'll have to be a follower on my page - here

Until then, thank you and goodnight!

17.1.12

an autumn meet up..

in the dark she waits..

The lovely Sevgi is the model for this photo. This image was taken in October last year. God that seems a long time ago. I came across it whilst going through my albums and couldn't believe that I hadn't put it together. Doesn't she look ethereal. While I was at it I realised that I never shared the meet up we had in Hampstead Heath that day so long ago. So here it is!

I remember it was an unseasonably warm afternoon when I joined Sarah, Nizaad and Sevgi in London for a woodland ramble. We'd all met earlier in the summer when the girls visited Brighton so this time it was like meeting old friends again. We wandered deep into the woods on a ground covered with all the hues of orange until we came across this secluded and magical spot.

I didn't have any idea what type of image I wanted to make. All I had were the few pieces I'd brought with me and the use of everyone else's props and ideas.

As you can see we take photography so very seriously(!)

In any case here are a few images I caught during that afternoon.

The great thing about these meetups is that all 4 of us take self portraits so already we have that awareness of being both in front of and behind the camera . We're happy to share what we know and help each other to take better pictures, like suggesting different compositions and convincing Sev to climb that tree because the light was very pretty..