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Interview: Meet Amelia Aventine – The photographer behind the "Secret Garden" lookbook

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Hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend:) Mine was very relaxed – I’m taking things slow now as I’m anxiously waiting for the baby’s arrival. Andy and I finished watching Boardwalk Empire season one this weekend. I really enjoyed the show, and can’t wait for the second season to come out! 

As I wrote before, Amelia was the photographer/stylist/make-up artist and creative inspiration behind the Secret Garden collection and lookbook. I was utterly inspired by her work, and wanted to share with you more about her. I’m so sad that she went back to UK after her short term visit to Japan… 
Anyway, here is Amelia:) 


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1.Can you give our readers a quick self introduction?

I’m Amelia, a UK based photographer. Recently my focus has been on fashion, but I enjoy all type of photography that involve people.

2.When did your interest in photography start?

It actually didn’t really start until I graduated University 2.5 years ago and found myself unemployed. I had in the past thought that photography might be fun, so I decided to use my new found free time to explore it. I started off with self portraits, then also started to use friends as subject matter, and eventually in January last year I started to shoot fashion with local models and creative teams.

3.What was the first shoot you did? How did it go?

It was a bird themed fashion shoot. I found a local model on ModelMayhem, had a artist friend do the make-up, borrowed some lighting equipment off another friend and collected the props myself. I was very nervous and probably a little too shy, but the end results weren’t too bad.

4. Where did you learn about photography and who are some of your influences?

I learnt photography mostly from just taking photos. I also picked up tips from books, internet forums and friends, but definitely a lot of trial and error.
Influences are definitely people with huge creative vision. People like Tim Walker, Annie leibovitz and Kirsty Mitchell. For me photography is about creating something from the imagination, a world more beautiful than is really there.

5.How do you find models and other people to work with?

I mostly use the networking site ModelMayhem. It is fantastic resource, especially in the UK where there are thousands of creatives on there. I am also lucky to have talented friends to use, and when it comes to models there is always the odd person who you see on the street who would be great to shoot.

6.You live and work England but recently spent time building your portfolio in Japan, How long were you in Japan? Why did you choose Japan? How was your experience working here?

I was there from January to March 2011. I actually ended up in Japan because my partner (also a photographer) was given a work opportunity in Tokyo.
I had an amazing time – both traveling and working. Tokyo is full of so many talented people and I was luck enough to get to meet and work with some of them. Every one is so enthusiastic and skilled, and as a result I have ended up with some incredible additions to my portfolio. I feel the whole experience and improved my confidence and fueled my excitement for photography a great deal.

7. You and I recently worked on the Secret Garden photo shoot. How did you come up with the idea?

As usual the path to the final idea was convoluted and involved many small pieces of inspiration. I saw your designs which gave the initial feeling of where the shoot should go, and I also looked through the inspiration posts on your blog and saw that there was a definite feel that linked them all.
I was then out exploring Tokyo and stumbled across the beautiful location we ended up using.  It instantly made me think of of your designs and so the idea began to take form. I then started to look around online for images liked to ‘Secret garden fashion’ and other whimsical fashion images using nature as a backdrop. From there I found a model I thought fitted the look, and formed an idea of the styling I thought would work – and then just let it all flow. 
This is a pretty usual situation, in the way inspiration came from many different things and the idea evolved over time and changed as new components were added.

8.What would you say is your biggest strength as a photographer, in what area would you most like to see your work improve?

I think my main strength is my creative ideas. As I said in the previous question I get inspiration from many different mediums – books, paintings, emotions, nature. I am a very visual person and I find myself taken by a particular element of these mediums and then daydreaming about the visual representation of them.
I often find myself frustrated that I can not produce what I see in these daydreams however, so I would say the area of improvement is definitely my technical abilities. In particular I would like to improve my knowledge of studio lighting, and also my skills in directing models to show the emotion of the ideas.

9. Do you have any up coming projects?

I head back to England at the beginning of April and I hope to keep the creative momentum I have gained in Japan. I would like to continue to build my fashion portfolio (I always have more ideas than time to execute them), and I would also like to explore other areas of photography. One of these is a more art based project, focusing on the visual representation of happiness – and how it is different for everyone.  

10.Do you have any people in particular that you would like to work with in the future? Why?

I am always on the look out for enthusiastic and creative people to work with. My Japan trip was the first time I had worked with designers, and shared creative control of the shoot. I enjoyed this so much – it was great to have another person to give input and bounce idea around with. I was very luck to collaborate with people who had a similar vision for the end result, and so the process flowed wonderfully and the final images were just what we all wanted.

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Check out more of her work on her website, or follow her on twitter❤
Entire Secret Garden lookbook can be viewed here. 

Scrap heap project

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Look at this mess. This is my fabric stash in my closet. sigh…
I don’t know what happened. I thought I cleaned it up pretty nicely when I moved into my current place last August. I love fabric. As I wrote in the guest blog post over at the cupcake goddess, visiting fabric shops became a hobby in and of itself. I always buy way too much, but in my defense, the majority of left overs  come from pieces bought for custom orders.  The reason being that I don’t like to worry about not having enough fabric to fill the order, and so I often end up with much more than I need.

I am going to be on maternity leave soon. I’m excited and nervous at the same time about this. I’m excited for the obvious reasons – to have some vacation time and time to spend with the baby.  I’m nervous because I am a bit of workaholic. I get jittery if I’m not busy. So, as soon as I get out of the hospital and am able to get up and move again, I want to start a project called “Scrap Heap”.   For this project I will make something  from this fabric mess. I plan to make one item a day, Monday through Friday for a month. I think this will give me some schedule so I won’t be sitting in front of my TV wearing pajamas all day long. Have any of you done something like this?  Has anyone found a post pregnancy, maternity leave hobby?

During my leave sabattical, I also am thinking of learning how to create patterns on computer. Does anyone know any good software for that?

By the way, thank you so much for those who commented on my last post – I feel so relieved that I don’t have to pinch my own nipples! I will leave my nipples out for the time being:)

P.S. Check out my interview post over at Willow Would..thank you Amber! 

36 weeks

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Hi! I’m 36 weeks this week! I can’t believe this “pregnancy series” is coming to a close. I really enjoyed documenting my pregnancy. I’m thinking, maybe I can continue the Thursday series as something related to the topic of motherhood, baby stuff, and crafts related to being a mom (nursing friendly clothes?) and baby craft stuff. Any suggestions or recommendations?

This polkadot dress was another purchase from the vintage shop, “sanbiki no neko” (three kittens).  if you remember I posted about shopping there during my baby moon a few weeks ago. As soon as I saw this dress, I knew I was going to take it home with me.  I love polkadot prints, and the front button design  works perfectly for nursing. I shortened the length, because the original form was calf length, which I thought was a little too long. But now, looking at these pictures, I think I hemmed it too short. I didn’t take into account that the length would  raise an additional 3 inches because of my huge belly.

With the dress, I’m wearing a white cardigan my mother gave me and a Forever 21 skinny belt. I picked this belt up for 280 yen (about 2.5 USD), and it has turned out to be the second most frequently worn item from my closet.  Second only to my black opaque tights. I like to wrap it around my waist.  This effect gives me some recognizable shape other than shapeless blob!

On Wednesday, I had a doctor’s visit. The baby is healthy, and is estimated to weight 3100 grams.
I had some weird pelvic pressure a couple of nights before the visit, so I thought I might have started to dilate, but the doctor said I’m not dilated yet.

At the Dr. office I had a weird experience, the midwife gave me a nipple massage.  It really hurt! Basically, she took out my breasts, shook them a couple of times and started to pinch my nipples hard. She said if I do this everyday, I won’t have problem producing breast milk for the baby. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It’s painful and I really hate the idea of pinching my own nipples..:(

Up to this point in my pregnancy, I haven’t had any pain from pregnancy , but this week I’ve been having aches in my pelvic bone area.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be going away. The midwife told me it’s a good thing since the pelvic bones are opening up for the baby.  This, however, does not give me any solution to my aches and pains. At this point, I kind of feel like an old person.  I struggle to get up and have pain taking my first step.  I will look forward to this little trial being over with.  Any thoughts on how I can alleviate this?