Lifestyle blog with business tips for creative entrepreneurs, bloggers, photographers. Korean beauty product reviews. Travel guides for Asia. Styled Portrait photographer in South Korea. Banting Recipes. Owning a dog in South Korea Brand photography for businesses. Creative headshots and professional portraits in south Africa. South African photographer
Hello friends!
You might have noticed a few changes around here lately, and I'm so excited to share more about them with you now.
If this is your first visit here, welcome! I'm Roxy and I'm the blogger and photographer behind CGScreative the business, and CityGirlSearching the blog.
Confused?
Let me explain.
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World, meet little Caleb Bear Honsbein. Caleb is the happy baby boy of one of my special friends here in South Korea. Caleb's mom went to the same University as both Farmboy and myself and we've spent many happy weekends together (including for her Winnie the Pooh baby shower). It has been so wonderful being able to celebrate the arrival of her little boy.
Here are some photographs from Caleb's newborn shoot which we did at their house in Yeosu. Granny was visiting and I was able to also capture a few special moments between her and Caleb too.
If you're looking for a photographer to capture some special moments, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me. You can see more of my work by hovering over the Photography menu bar above.
Enjoy!
x
A few weeks ago a group of really awesome creatives arrived at my house in Buan, South Korea to work on a bridal inspired photo shoot to showcase a beautiful set of wedding stationery made by Bohemian Mint.
This is the second styled photo shoot I have done with Marketa (the talented lady behind Bohemian Mint). Our first shoot was a wild flower, bohemian bridal inspired shoot (click here to see the photographs) with a very light and feminine feel. That shoot was so much fun and has even been featured on a number of wedding websites. After it's success we have felt inspired to continue creating more. These styled shoots are also a lot of fun and working with likeminded creatives to create something beautiful is what I love doing.
Marketa and I 'met' over Instagram, and with the help of a group of local creatives here in South Korea, we were able to bring to life our next idea of utilising the changing seasons into another bridal inspired theme. We created a Pinterest board and Marketa used all of our ideas to create the beautiful wedding stationery set pictured below. Before the stationery arrived I worked on finding a model, stylist and makeup artist who would all share our same vision.
Once the stationery had arrived from the USA, the idea behind the shoot changed slightly and Sam (our stylist) and I started leaning towards something a little more fairytale like. What we ended up with was a loose Red Riding Hood fairytale theme with a twist. After lots of brainstorming with Farmboy, he gave us the idea of incorporating a few apocalyptic shots to make use of the stunning Autumn harvest setting surrounding my town here in Korea . After a late night of creating flower crowns and persimmon baskets (persimmons are in season right now here in Korea) Sam and I created a story board for a shoot. I'd love to hear from you in the comments below if you are able to follow the story we created through my photographs!
The shoot would not have been possible without the following incredibly talented ladies. Thank you to all of you for all your help, for all your talents and for being so easy to work with:
And now the end result of our Fairytale Bridal Inspired Styled Photoshoot.
Enjoy!
x
Thank you again to each and every one of these ladies:
Last month I got together with Rachel from KIT Makeup to work on one more styled shoot before she left Korea to go back to the UK. Rachel did the beautiful bridal makeup for the Wild Flower Boho Bridal Inspired shoot I did a few months ago, and so I was very happy to work with her again.
For this shoot, the initial idea was for a forest fairy using an inspiration board of cream, white and blues. Then our ideas changed when our gorgeous model (Rhea) mentioned that she had a black, lacy slip that she wouldn't mind wearing for the shoot and we decided to go for a darker, almost nymph like fairy. We then used the forest nearby my house as inspiration for our makeup palette and I am so happy with how it all turned out. I was very nervous about the light in the forest as I knew there would be a lot of shade and dappled light and I don't like using flash. The light ended up being much easier to work with than I had expected. We chose two slightly different looks and had so much fun playing with the ivy. After a near disaster (whereby I formatted my memory card without checking to see if I had backed up the RAW photographs first...blog post to come soon on the amazing recovery software I found!) here are the results of our collaboration.
If you're here in Korea and would like to book me for you own styled or themed shoot, please do get in touch! You can email me using the contact form above or using citygirlsearching(at)gmail(dot)com.
In the mean time, here are the photographs of our Forest Fairy shoot.
Enjoy!
x
All photographs taken with my Nikon D700 and 50mm 1.4.
Edited gently in Lightroom.
This styled photo shoot has been three months in the making and came out of an email conversation after a chance meet up with fellow creative Marketa from Bohemian Mint. I found Marketa on Instagram one day while searching for illustrations (her work is amazing!) and so began a friendship despite us living hundreds of miles away from each other. Marketa is originally from the Czech Republic but is currently living in the USA. It was after interviewing Marketa for my LifeAfterTheDress series that she asked me if I would be interested in collaborating with her on a styled wedding inspiration shoot. I couldn't contain my excitement as I love doing styled shoots (you can see more of my styled shoot portfolio here) and so began the process of brainstorming and putting both of our ideas onto paper.
As I am living in South Korea we both thought incorporating a Korean model would make this shoot very unique, and Marketa also chose to design the wedding stationery with a Korean bride in mind. We chose a soft pallet of neutral colours, with pops of pastel shades throughout.
On one of the Korean Expat groups I found a makeup artist (Rachel) who had been looking for models for her makeup course and so I got in touch with her asking if she would like to be involved in a bridal styled shoot. Rachel is from the UK and is also teaching here in Korea, so we had lots to chat about while planning the beauty aspects of the shoot. Then we needed to find a model, and after a disastrous experience with a professional Korean model I was at my wits end, resorting to a last minute group post on Facebook. A friend messaged told me that she had someone in mind, who just so happened to be on her way to Seoul the weekend of the photo shoot, and would be free to stop past my town on the way. It really couldn't have worked out better, as Jess (a fellow Korean Youtuber) was just such a delight! Both Rachel & Jess were happy to run with all of my ideas for the shoot, and both had so many good ideas to add.
I'm looking forward to many more collaborations and working on more styled shoots while here in Korea. You can find all the creatives contact details below if you'd like to get in touch with them.
Enjoy!
x
If you're a makeup artist, model, photographer, stylist or graphic designer and would like to work together on a styled shoot, please do get in touch with me! You don't have to be professional in any sense of the word, it's all about having fun! You can also see more of my work by clicking here.
A few weekends ago my stylist friend Storm and I met up with Jonathan and Rachel for their engagement photo shoot. Rachel & Jonathan are a Canadian couple working in Jeonju, who are finishing up their time teaching here in Korea before heading back to Canada to get married in June next year.
I had such a wonderful time capturing these two. The love and friendship between them was evident from the moment I met them, I simply had to press the button and capture it.
To Rachel & Jonny, I wish you all the very best with the next few months of planning. You're wedding day is without a doubt, going to be one filled with laughter and love. Thank you for picking me as your photographer.
We shot these photographs at the Hanok Village in Jeonju. The shoot was scheduled for the same day as the famous Jeonju Bibimbap festival and we were expecting hoards of people. However we were pleasantly surprised to find lots of unexpected photo opportunities down side streets and back alleys. The soft Autumn light was dreamy and a wonder to work with.
For any photographers who may be interested, these photographs were all shot on my Nikon d700 and 50mm 1.4 prime lens.
Enjoy!
x
This is the third styled shoot that my friend Storm and I have worked together on so. We seem to feed off one another creative energies and have loved the planning processes that have gone into each of our shoots.
For this shoot, Storm suggested a picnic, and I have been wanting to photograph one of the secret beaches nearby, so we combined our ideas and I am so happy with how the pictures came out. My friend Hillian contacted me, wanting to be involved in some way, and so we had our model...isn't she just lovely?
The weather changed constantly during the few hours of daylight we had to work with, and the local creatures (one of which I managed to capture, balancing on a tea cup) descended upon as as soon as were began. We had to be quick as every flying insect took an immense liking to any exposed areas of skin, and we left covered in bites and scratches. Thank you Storm and Hillian, for a great afternoon filled with lots of giggles and stuffing of faces with grapes and delicious sandwiches.
Today is the third month that I have been contributing to the wonderful Photography Styling Challenge that Redesigned By M started back in June this year.
My first submission was Morning {click here} and then Bedroom {click here}. Each theme or concept is open to interpretation by the photographer, and it has been awesome seeing how each of us has handled the theme in a different way.
This week's theme is Order (organization) and there are elements in this theme that we have to use for the next theme, which is Chaos.
So that sure made things a bit tricky.
The photographs cannot be edited in anyway (this was so hard for me and the horrid green tables and artificial light in the classroom just wan't doing my images any favours) but I was able to resist. Also, only five images can be posted, this is always difficult for me as I am tend to take so many photographs and I struggle to choose the best ones. Each one appeals to me in a different way. So yes, this series has been challenging, but I've learnt so much about myself as a photographer and about my equipment too.
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I love all things pretty, and dainty, and full of pastel and pretty pink bows. But, as this is a photography challenge, I really wanted to challenge myself to take some photographs that are different from my usual subject matter. I decided to shoot one of my classrooms here in South Korea. At the start of the school day all the students have all their things in order, and wait patiently for the school bell to announce the start of the day. By late afternoon, the classroom is in complete disarray. Papers flying all over the show, girls screaming, hair curlers lying on desks and milk cartons scattered about. It's quite a sight. You can check back next month for photographs of the chaos of a Girls Middle School.
For now, here are a few shots of order and calm at the start of a school day.
Make sure to pop on over to the other members of our team, to see their interpretation of Order:
At The Corner Of Happy And Harried
Last weekend I took some photographs for a new friend. Readers, meet Laura. Laura is a newlywed, she is married to Rich who is Korean American, and they have just landed on South Korean soil for the start of what will {hopefully be} a long stay.
I am helping Laura re-brand her blog, which at the moment is housed over here. She writes hilariously about her adventures here in Korea (she is a whole lot more funny than me, and she writes so well). If you'd like to get more of a feel of life here in Korea and the odd things that happen to us on a daily basis, pop ob over to her blog and say hello. I will let you all know when her new site is up and running, and you can get a little feel for the other creative things I have been keeping myself busy with (blog re-branding).
A little while ago I posted a sneak peek of Melah Rose, just to give you a little hint. Here are the rest of a delightful morning spent with this gorgeous little one. She belongs to a dear friend of mine, Carmen, who is also a co-owner at Little Vintage {a boutique vintage clothing store} right here in Pietermaritzburg}. I hope you enjoy these photographs, and I look forward to doing many more!
xxx
