Malaysia in black and white

Here are a few  black and white photographs of our recent  trip to Malaysia in August this year. 

There's something special about black and white photography, too much and its over kill, but just the right amount and its perfect. 

I used to think black and white was the lazy photographers best friend, but I have since changed my mind. 

Sometimes, simple is best. 

Here are my favourites:

How to edit photographs for Instagram

When I first got on the Instagram train I was intimated by all the incredible images on my feed. Never in a million years did I think I would ever get more than one like (thanks hubby!) and never did I think people would comment and tell me they loved my feed. 

I'm still learning as I go, but here are a few tips that I hope you'll find useful. 

The best piece of advice anyone ever gave me was this: "If you're feeling uninspired, find images that you feel drawn to and try and recreate them". You'll stimulate your creativity and learn just how to create the images that you enjoy looking at. Then use that knowledge to create your own original material. 

I recreate images I love for my own personal use, I don't want to infringe on anyones copy write, but at the same time we all have to start somewhere, and thats a pretty good place to start.

Here are a few tips of how to take your photographs and what apps I use to edit. The photograph on the left is the original image, and the one on the right is the 'after' product.

All of the photos below were taken with my iPhone 4s.

Think carefully about what you want to photograph. Think about the different angles you can take the photograph. Think about using/not using props, as well as your background. Some of the most beautiful images I have seen have plain, white backgrounds that don't distract.

Then snap, snap snap. Take 2 photo's of the same thing, heavens go ahead and take 100! Each time try change one thing and then look at which ones you like the best.

Natural light works wonders! Try placing objects near a window for soft, natural looking images. Bright natural light when enhanced with Instagram effects, for example Valencia, will give you a similar look and feel to these two images below. 

I mainly use the wonderful A Beautiful Messapp when editing for Instagram. It's one of my favourite apps for adding text, frames and cute doodles onto photographs. A lot of the images in my Instagram feed have been edited in the A Beautiful Mess app, and then uploaded to Instagram and run through different effects until I am happy

A Beautiful Mess app can be found on the Itunes store (click here). The app itself costs $.99 and is packed full of features. You can purchase additional effects/doodles/borders/text easily through the app itself. I have the basic $.99 version and its perfect for what I need.

To see more of my photographs on Instagram, follow along @roxypearce.

I hope you've found this helpful, if you have any questions please pop me a comment below.

Happy snapping!

xxx

August through Instagram

A quick recap of August as seen through my iPhone & Instagram...we visited a dog cafe in Seoul, went to Malaysia, I did nail art with my kiddies at school, shopped up a storm at Forever 21, washi taped my laptop charger and went on a fascinating teachers trip to Dokdo Island. 

How was your August?

x

Giveaway {Winner}

Oh my goodness! 

I was completely overwhelmed at the response for the WashiTape Giveaway

held last week with Sarah from Polkadot Stripes. For those of you who took the time to enter, thank you. Thank you for the tremendous support you've shown this little ol' blog of mine. 

The winner of 5 rolls of lovely washi tape and a gorgeous wooden washi tape dispenser is....

Well done lovely lady! I will be popping you an email shortly, and Sarah will be in touch with you soon to get these goodies sent to you.

Thank you again to everyone who entered. I have some more exciting things in the pipeline as far as stationery goes (follow my Instagram feed for more lovely stationery inspiration!) so stay tuned.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

x

A trip to Korea's most prized possession...Dokdo Island {Instagram}

Farmboy and I were lucky enough to be selected to join a small group of other English Teachers here in South Korea on a trip to Dokdo Island. Dokdo Island is currently part of South Korea territory, but there is constant unrest between Korea and Japan as to who it really belongs to. Us "Foreigners" really had no idea just how patriotic South Koreans feel about the Island, and this trip really opened our eyes to their passion and fighting spirit to keep Dodko Korean.

It was an incredible opportunity that a mere 1% of all South Koreans will ever get a chance to actually see and experience, and for that we are so grateful. The trip was 4 days and 3 nights, full of very long bus trips and ferry rides, strange meals for breakfast and sleeping on the floor. But we were rewarded with spectacular scenery, history, culture and powerful understanding.

Here are a few of my Instagram snaps from the trip.

Enjoy!

x

Snaps from Seoul

Just before our early morning flight to Malaysia (we spent a week on the Perhenetian Islands for our summer holidays here) we spent the night in the capital of South Korea, Seoul.

 Here are a few iPhone snaps of here and there (including a few of the Dog Cafe we visited...click here if you missed the post!).

Washi Tape {Giveaway} CLOSED

As hinted last week, I am very excited to be hosting a giveaway today of lovely washi tape goodies from Sarah at Polkadot & Stripe. 

There are literally hundreds of different ways to use washi tape, and here is your chance to get crafty with your own supply of 5 pretty rolls of washi tape and a lovely wooden washi tape dispenser.

To enter, use the giveaway button below. You can enter through a variety of methods to make things easy for you, and each method is another entry. Good luck!

{I am using trying out a new giveaway platform called Punchtab for this giveaway. Please let me know if you are having any problems with it. There are many ways to gain extra entries ie leaving a comment/following me on facebook/sharing with your friends. It should walk you through each step and be very user friendly. Please do let me know if you have any problems!)

Good luck!

x

Competition closes Friday 30th August. 

{Please note this giveaway is only open to South African readers}

1. Cake Bunting // 2. Power Adaptor // 3. Journals // 4. Glass decal // 5. Tea light candles // 6. Cookies

Smitten with Forever21

We don't have anything like Forever21 in South Africa. I mean Typo, Topshop, Forever New (and H&M soon!) have hit South Africa's sunny shores and while those stores are lovely, they just don't have anything on Forever21.

I mean, look at all this pretty?!

There was definitely a lot of punk, rock and lumo in the branch I went into here in Seoul, South Korea. But what made my heart go pitter patter was all the pink and the pearl. 

Soft, sweet and feminine. 

Just lovely. 

{Un}Luckily for me I live about a 5 hour journey from the closest Forever 21 so I had to load up on goodies and will have to wait a {long} time before I step foot in there again. And with the huge sale going on, I was able to go a little girl crazy and still have enough for a Baskin and Robbins ice-cream on the way home...oh sale time I do love you!

What colour accessories are you into at the moment?

{Nail Art} class with my school girls

Farmboy and I are teaching English in South Korea. We up and left our cosy little lives in Pietermaritzburg in June 2013, and headed back to Asia to make our millions and of course travel the world! 

Farmboy teaches at five schools, two of which are on an island...Crazy stuff! But, every day is different and exciting. He teaches at both elementary and middle schools. I am at one school, an all girls middle school. At first I was really nervous to start teaching the girls, I am after all, foundation phase trained and loved teaching my little kiddies. But after my first day I am convinced God has put us in these different situations for his gain. All our schools suit our different personalities and talents in just the right way.

Besides, now I get to teach English classes like this one:

{DIY} Washi Tape your computer cord

I'm feeling rather inspired with my latest washi tape collection, and after reading this lovely post by Design Love Fest I thought I'd try something similar with the power supply part of my computer cable. 

View fullsize

The white parts of the MAC cables look really spiffy, but being white in colour they aren't very practical. The washi tape should keep the power house clean now.

It was really easy, and took literally 3 minutes to do. Let me know if you try something similar, or better yet, upload a picture to the blog Facebook page  to share with all my readers. 

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

x

CityGirlSearching Photography

Hello friends! 

I am now available for freelance photography work. I am currently based in South Korea and so will only be able to photograph locally here for the time being.

Here are a few photographs I've taken at weddings/engagement shoots or while out and about having adventures. If you would like to see more, please click here to see my Facebook page!

Feel free to drop me a line for my rates and packages. I look forward to hearing from you.

xxx

Washi Tape {Giveaway} coming soon!

Just a little snippet of what's to come up here on the blog next week...

{Dog Cafe} in Seoul, South Korea

Many of our friends who have heard our tales of South Korea will do a double take when reading the title of this post...so let me quickly clarify! Dog (and cat) cafe's are playgrounds for furry friends to meet new people while giving us a chance to play with creatures we might not normally come across or be able to keep at home.

Here in South Korea space is limited, people live in sky rise apartments, and so are only able to keep small pets (the most popular being rabbits, hamsters, lizards and beetles!). At these animal cafe's, you stroll in, order yourself a yummy beverage, and get petting. 

Here are some snaps of our first experience with a Dog Cafe, in Seoul.

Don't let the sad eyes fool you! These pups are happy chappies in their home, they get attention all day everyday, and when they're not googoo eyeing you they are fast asleep. What a life!

This cafe is called Sunnyne, here is the address if you're in Seoul and want to pop by:

16, Yanghwa-ro 18an-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul 

서울특별시 마포구 양화로18안길 16 (동교동)

>>>here is the link for their website (it's only in Korean but gives you a good idea of the place).

Open from 10am to 10pm, and on the second floor. Just look out for the bright yellow signs.

The Perhentian Islands {Malaysia}

Here are some of the highlights of our incredible holiday in Malaysia. We landed in Kuala Lumpur and speedily made our way straight to the Perhentian Islands on the East coast of mainland Malaysia.

These are my photographs of our trip, from our afternoon in Kuala Lumpur, to the Islands, and to the incredible market in Khota Bharu. Later this week I'll try and post Farmboys photographs too.

For information on getting there, where we stayed and other useful travel info, head on over to our travel blog Farmboy & Citygirl where I'll have a post up soon on the nitty gritty of our trip.

Enjoy

x

Anna Inghardt Photography

Lately I have been developing a deep appreciation for film photography. There is something special about film. Although the film effect can be reproduced through various editing programs, the feel of holding your very own roll of film, patiently waiting to get them developed, and finally holding the finished photographs in your hands is something that digital just can't beat. 

I'm not sure if these images from the very talented Swedish photographer Anna Inghardt were taken on film, but they do have the light and whimsical feel associated with it. 

I am in love with each and every one. 

Do you like the white on white colours? How do you feel about the grainy texture? Do they make you want to whip our your camera, find some white percale linen and get snapping as much as I do?

x

I'm back!

Farmboy and I have just settled back into our little apartment after an incredible week in Malaysia. 2 flights, 3 taxis, 2 buses, 1 subway & copious amounts of walking...we finally touched back down on Korean soil this afternoon...what a journey home, I'm shattered!

I can't wait to share the photographs with all of you, and let you know what it was like. Here are a few instagram snaps until I get editing. I hope you are all having a wonderful relaxing weekend.

x

All of these photographs were taken with my iPhone, and most were edited with the wonderful #ABeautifulMess app. Click here to find out more about more about it.

{b}logging off for a week

I hope you are all enjoying the eighth month of the year. As I'm sure you're all thinking, this year has truly flown by...next month hubby and I will be celebrating our one year wedding anniversary, I can't believe it. It's all gone incredibly fast and I love him more and more each day. How he puts up with all my nonsense ill never know, but I'm so glad he does :)

We are spending the night in the fashion capital of the world, Seoul, before catching an early flight to Malaysia tomorrow....eek! So excited! We are heading to the Perhentian Islands for our summer holiday here in Korea.

I won't be on the blog until we get back, and I'm looking forward to some quality time away from all the social media (although you might catch the odd instagram pic here and there if you follow along @roxypearce that is if we manage to score any wifi).

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and a good start to the end of the year.

x

Here's our new headgear for next week :)

TheFaceShop ~ Oil Cut Sun Cream {review}

Oh what a wonderful find here in South Korea. This suncream from my favourite South Korean cosmetic brand, The FaceShop, works like a charm on my combination to oily skin. In the 100% humidity, it is still vital to protect your skin from harmful UV rays. But layering on a whole bunch of products usually leaves me looking like an oil slick once I head out the door.

The 'oil cut' range of sun care from The FaceShop takes care of that for me. It sets all my skin care products (I am still loving this Chia Seed range of skincare I bought a few weeks ago) and is the perfect base for makeup. With an SPF of 40, not only does it protect my face, but it prevents my skin from becoming shiny throughout the day. It is seriously long lasting, and I mean its a real Long Wearing product, you really have to cleanse your skin to remove all traces of it. This suits me just fine as I know that even with the humidity, I'm not going to be sweating it off. 

I do apologize for all the sweaty talk, but unfortunately, no matter how glamorous us Westerners here in South Korea may start out the day looking, within the 10 minute walk to school I am reduced to a hot, sticky mess, complete with frizzy hair, and rosy red cheeks. At least I won't have any wrinkles to add to the mix...

x

Have you tried any other great suncreams? I have heard good thing about Innisfree and Neutrogena too. 

Pretty in Pink, Cream, Lavender & Mint

We have been here in South Korea for just over a month now and are slowly starting to settle into small town life. We've met a great bunch of other teachers, found some local food that I can eat and actually start to crave at every meal, and found that the beach is only a 30 minute bus ride away.

What we haven't gotten used to however, is the 100% humidity...all day...all night. We are dreading our electricity bill for this month as our aircon has become our new bff. 

This week I'm attempting a hair cut at a local salon (although I use the term 'salon' very loosely to describe the hairdressers here). 

Wish me luck!

x

A few snaps through Instagram (@roxypearce). I'm really into my pastels and creams at the moment, can you tell?

Happy Weekend everyone!

Go out there with your camera and snap away. 

Often the best photographs and the unscripted ones. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, just point and shoot, delete, retake. And most importantly...have fun.

x

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