Zafira Ahmed 2/27/20 Zafira Ahmed 2/27/20

February on Film | Zafira

Hi!

I have probably one of the most exciting and adventurous ‘On Film’ posts for you today because February has been a roller coaster of a month and I’ve adored it.

It’s been a pretty amazing month and here it all is photographed on a roll (or two) of Kodak Ultramax.

We begin this month miserably living my life at uni which I don’t know how, but was extra boring this semester.

Here’s Victoria looking very happy at the Whitworth Art Gallery which if you saw last month’s ‘On Film’, then you’d know that it’s become of my favourite places to hang out.

Me, Victoria and Divine were all ‘coincidentally’ matching in our funky boiler suits one lovely Media Law & Regulation 2 hour lecture.

Then we roll around to 14th February, the day of lurrrrrve and also, the first day of London Fashion Week! It was truly one of the best things I’ve ever been to, even though most of it was spent hanging out in the rain. The man is the funky 70’s esque blazer is my fashion icon, he’s called Hassani and you can follow him here.

You can also see all my non-film fashion week pictures here.

I loved seeing all these different and unique looks, it gave me a looot of inspo for my wardrobe and also an idea of what a lot of people are into wearing.

That girl’s eyelashes were stunning and I loved her bright blue beanie!

Red for spring is well and truly in. It’s never a colour I ever think to wear because it’s quite bold but seeing people in full-on red outfits such as this lovely lady or with little hints of red has made me question the lack of it in my own wardrobe.

This outfit gives me big Twin Peaks vibes.

You can follow the guy in the two red hats (iconic) here.

Told you, red is in.

The headband gives me 80’s workout vibes and I’m living for it.

You might see this photographer in the green coat a lot in these pictures, his name is Alex Amoros who very kindly photographed me in the rain. You can see the very surprisingly pretty portrait of me over on my Instagram.

Here’s another kind man in a red hat as well as a little old me in front of Somerset House with my yellow umbrella.

I read somewhere that Somerset Home was once the home to most London Fashion Week shows so I thought I’d pay a little visit since the building is so incredibly beautiful.

These shots are a little shaky if you couldn’t tell lol since my hands were frozen due to Storm Ciara or Dennis or Jorge or whoever was blowing vast gusts of winds right in my face.

One of my favourite things to do in general but especially in London is to go to museums and art galleries. This is the National Portrait Gallery which I think I’ve been to quite a couple of times now but the building itself is so stunning.

I love seeing different types of art, especially paintings of portraits of people and the way they had been captured oh so many years ago.

I’m also quite partial to a bit of people watching in places like this lol.

I also spent this month sewing quite a bit. I successfully made this top which was the biggest pain the butt, mainly because the last time I had really used a sewing machine was during textiles in Year 9.

I’ll have to do a separate blog post featuring a few things I’ve made recently but this top is made out of a scarf for one of my older Asian dresses. I’ve loved up-cycling loads of my older clothes to make more trendy or modern pieces.

Thanks for checking this post out!

Lots of love,

Zafira Ahmed 2/23/20 Zafira Ahmed 2/23/20

I Went To London Fashion Week! (kind of) | Zafira

Hey!

So, if you’ve been keeping up with my Instagram this past week you will know that I went to London Fashion Week! Well, I didn’t exactly go. It was more of a stand outside the event spaces in the rain and hope some well dressed people go in and out so you can take some pretty pictures of their outfits kinda thing.

Even though I was stood in the rain for two days, the entire experience was so incredibly good. I loved seeing everyone all dressed up and the range of people that were there. It was definitely an experience that I’d remember forever.

I took a lot of photographs so feel free to have a little browse :)

Thanks for checking these out, I’ll be posting my film shots in my February on Film sometime in the next few days so make sure you follow me over on my socials to know when it’s up!

Zafira 9/21/18 Zafira 9/21/18

Exploring London: Old Spitalfields Market, Kensington Gardens & Kyoto Gardens | Zafira

Hi!

A few blog posts ago, I did a post all about the National Gallery & Tate Britain as a part of my 'Exploring London' series that have been reoccurring over on here for the past 3 years. I spend the majority of my holidays in London as it is the perfect the place to explore and photograph. Throughout the years I find myself falling more and more in love with it. In today's post, I'll be talking all about Old Spitalfields Market, Kensington Gardens & Holland Park. These are three of the most beautiful and amazing places I visited whilst I was in London.

We begin this post with one of the best markets I've ever been to. If you're quite into that whole hipster-y sort of thing then this is defo the place for you. It consists of a massive range of stalls fluctuating from food, clothes and all the way to home ware. It's perfect place for lunch and just somewhere to kill a few hours.

There's a bunch of designer shops around it too so if that's your sort of thing then Old Spitalfields Market is definitely for you!

There's so many cute places to eat.

The next place I visited was Kensington Gardens. This place wasn't really on my list but since a bunch of my younger cousins came with me, I thought it would nice for them to go somewhere where they can just run and play around. I'm so so so glad me and family came here because it is literally the most perfect place to take portraits. I ended up taking so many family pictures which were the cutest but unfortunately I can't show them since I'd like to respect my family's privacy. I ended up getting some photographs of myself and funnily enough some animals? You'll see further down lol.

It was so weird even seeing this Grey Heron. I felt as if I was in the middle of nowhere shooting for Nat Geo.

This is my favourite shot!

I came to Holland Park with intention of visiting Kyoto Gardens which is inside of it. Most of these photographs are taken in Kyoto Gardens which is so beautiful. It's filled with so much culture and is the perfect place to get some concentrated and highly saturated shots since it's filled to the brim with the most vibrant colours. However, the only downside to Kyoto Gardens was that it was so small. From what people had said to me and reading the reviews on Google, I thought it would be quite big. When I got there, I was slightly disappointed by the size but this was out weighed by the beauty of it.

I recommend that if you want to go see Kyoto Gardens then you should definitely spend a couple of hours walking around Holland Park and see everything it has to offer since it is extremely pretty.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the peacocks. They really add to the 'je ne sais quoi' of the place.

My hair was doing that whole 'Mulan' thing and I was not happy about it when it came to editing.

The rest of the photographs are from around Holland Park.

There's so many pretty flowers around Holland Park. This would also be an amazing place to take some portraits or family pics.

I'll be posting these photographs plus a lot more over on my Instagram!

Lots of love,

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Zafira 9/7/18 Zafira 9/7/18

Exploring London: National Gallery & Tate Britain | Zafira

Hi!

So I'm sort of back and settled into somewhat of a routine after what feels like the most eventful summer of my life which means it's time to show some pretty pics I took whilst I was out and about!

If you follow me over on my Instagram or even if you read my previous blog post, you would know I spent quite a lengthy time in London. Although my exploration days were quite limited due to having a lot of family to visit, I still made the most it and got to see nearly everything on my list.

We begin my little adventure over at the National Gallery and it was such a beautiful place to begin. I love art. I always have but unfortunately my skills within the artistic field aren't quite on Monet's level. Anyway, the National Gallery is the perfect place for an art-lover like myself and it's so stunning to walk around and spend hours admiring the paintings on the wall.

I love galleries and museums that have that sort of elegant, Palace of Versailles kind of vibe it's makes me fall in love with place instantly. The Victoria and Albert Museum (also in London) has the best 'Palace of Versailles' kind of interior and it's my all time fave place.

This pink-ish coloured dress reminds me so much of the latest Collina Strada collection.

I've always wanted something like this painted on my ceiling.

This painting stood out to me so much because my family village in Bangladesh looks the spitting image of this. It's so weird, especially because this painting is of somewhere in America in late 1800s.

She just looks like she's living her best in life in some sort of Dolce & Gabbana gown. This is exactly what I want to be doing in about 10 years.

Absolutely beautiful.

This is just outside the National Gallery.

I then headed off the Tate Britain which was just as wonderful as the National Gallery. I was in awe of the place as once again, it had that 'Palace of Versailles' kind of vibe but it also had a strange modern and minimalistic twist. It was weirdly cool. I guess it's quite hard to explain but once you look through my photographs you'll understand. As soon as you walk in you're hit with a bright, white, minimal environment but as you start walking through the place it transforms into an old and elegant place.

The most creepiest painting I've ever seen. I was immediately drawn in by this. Maybe it was the way they had lit the painting but it's so so so nightmarish. I think I had a good look at for about 2 minutes and decided to swiftly move away because I know I'd have some sort of unpleasant nightmare about it.

This is one of favourite paintings ever! I can't remember where I saw this first but I've been in love with it for years. This is 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose' by John Singer-Sargent. It's beautiful. I even bought it in tote bag form.

I wish I had enough patience and skill to sit and draw in a museum or gallery.

I think I was in year 7 and we'd have these English lessons every other week or so which were so chill and we'd read poetry and just talk about stuff and I remember so vividly reading the poem behind this painting. This is 'The Lady of Shalott' and the poem is bit miserable but still quite good. I used to try and draw and painting this painting so much when I was younger.

Also some of the frames around these paintings are just as stunning as the paintings themselves.

If you're wondering whether I took these on film or not then the answer is no. Preparing for uni has made my bank account a bit non existent alongside living the city life in London so shooting on film wasn't really something I could do. I took one roll of my usual Fujifilm Superia 200 and used that one 36 shot roll for the entire trip. I'll post those in a few weeks but these are all digital photographs that I've edited to make it look like they were shot on film.

I'll be posting these photographs plus a lot more over on my Instagram!

Lots of love,

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Zafira 7/23/18 Zafira 7/23/18

Blackpool | Zafira

Hi!

Since everyone enjoyed my Wales video so much, I thought I'd make another one with some random clips I had lying around. About a month or so ago, me and a couple of my family members headed over to Blackpool to just relax and watch the sunset. I think if you live especially in Manchester, you have this very vivid image of Blackpool because as soon as it gets a tiny bit hot, you know you would probably be going there to spend the day since it's pretty close by. When I was younger, Blackpool seemed like the coolest place ever but in more recent days, it's become a somewhat overrated and downhill place to be.

When I went to film this video, the beauty that Blackpool once had offered to me as a young child didn't appear to me straight away but something happened at sunset I was hit with all these amazing and very surprising sunlit surroundings and found that it was the perfect opportunity to film some bits.

I used the song 'The End of Love' by Florence and the Machine because it was on one of Spotify discover playlists and I'm not quite sure why but it reminded me a lot of being at the beach. I feel like it's pretty in-tune with the montage.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Lots of love,

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Zafira 7/18/18 Zafira 7/18/18

Wales Video FAQ | Zafira

Hi!

So if you've been following me on my social media, you'd know that a few weeks ago I made and posted a little video montage of my weekend away to Wales and ever since I've had so many questions about it so I thought I'd answer them all on here.

I've seen quite a few videos in the film and 'Super 8' style and I completely adore them. I love the grain and nostalgia feeling behind them. I wanted to replicate that with my montage of Wales because this was the very first time my entire family had gone away together and it was one of those things I know we'll look back at for the rest of our lives. It was most definitely a trip to remember. I wanted it to have that sort of home video-y feel to it but also still be something very visually appealing. I used the song 'Fear of the Water' by Syml because if you know me very well then you'd know I have this weird relation with water. I can't swim so large amounts of water are a big no no but I adore the sea and the ocean and everything that comes with it. I was listening to it on the way to Wales and it's what really spurted the idea of this video.

Okay so the most asked question is how did I get it looking like I shot on film or on a Super 8 camera? A lot of people have also asked what camera I used but my secret really is Adobe Premiere. I am a student so even affording something like Super 8 camera is ridiculous without even thinking about getting the film developed which is another huge dip in the bank so using Adobe Premiere and achieving something that looks pretty authentic was amazing. I just started off my filming with my DSLR and then imported it into Premiere, cropped it into a square shape, added a dash of grain, lowered the contrast, increased the saturation and added the film reel sound and I was good to go. You can even get away with filming with your phone and anything really, the quality of the video isn't really as important because when the overlays and grain and stuff are added on top, the overall quality lowers.

I used two videos I found on YouTube to overlay and help create a perfect and central square shape and to add effects and here they are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZM9bcUYonY

This first one helped to create those orangey/pink hues that appeared spontaneously which is common when using film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1rCxzJnmiM

And then the second one is what I used to get the square shape. I wasn't sure on how to get the rounded corners so that's why I stuck with the square. I didn't really like the effects on this so I used as a stencil and guide of where to place each clip and then ended up only keeping the audio from this.

I watched quite a few YouTube tutorials to help which were really handy but when it comes to doing the little things like altering colours and such it's pretty much up to your personal preferance. I added a slight yellow tint to emphasize that nostalgic feel and then a handwritten title and subtitle. I got a lot of questions about that too, some people thought it was a font but it's just my crappy handwriting lol. I used a graphics tablet which is actually my little brothers but it's become very handy for me so we'll just say it's mine. I used Photoshop and started off with a black landscape A4 sized document and wrote in yellow. I used a black background because when you usually insert titles in Premiere the background is always black anyway.

Here's the most helpful YouTube tutorial that I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmmJK9QwPo

The last thing I had a loooot of questions about was where this was filmed and as you can probably tell from the title, it was filmed in Wales but more specifically in the small town on Pemaenmawr alongside Llandudno and Snowdonia. They are amazing places to photograph (click here to check out my 'Wales on Film' post) and film because it feels so calm and serene. It's so beautiful to be out in nature and be surrounded by beaches and hills and mountains which is something I tried to capture in my video.

I plan to do a lot more of these because I adore making them, it's so much fun to film and make so make sure you follow my social media to find out when and where I release my next video!

Lots of love,

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Zafira 7/2/18 Zafira 7/2/18

Wales on Film | Zafira

Hey!

So if you've read my last blog post (

click here to read if you haven't already

) or have been keeping up to date over on my Instagram, you would know that I spent the most magical and absolutely beautiful weekend away in Wales. It was just what I needed after the stress of exams and college.

We begin our extended weekend away in the small but pretty town of Penmaemawr. If you're thinking what in the world, how do you even pronounce that? Well after a lot of practice and help from this website, I can finally enunciate it like a proper Welsh gal. My family is pretty big, there were about 40/45 of us on this trip which is a loooot of people but this is what made it so so so good. We stayed at this place called Mountain View which is sort of like an Airbnb kind of place. It was just like this huge house with 20+ rooms and it was the coolest. It was based in this cute and quaint town which was most definitely the most picturesque place I've ever been.

What station house looks this pretty in 2018?!

To further emphasise the beauty Penmaemawr had already blessed us with, there was a beach literally down the road from where we were staying. I love love love love love beaches. On extremely sunny and warm days, it almost felt as if we weren't in the UK. It was so calm and is completely different than beaches near Manchester such as Blackpool. It's just stunning. I think we ended up at the beach pretty much everyday.

The next place I explored whilst at Wales was Llandudno. I'm not exactly sure which bits of it we went to but we visited the famous pier and some hilly areas too which were absolutely captivating. It's so weird how you can go from the hilly areas that are completely isolated to areas such as the pier which is filled to the brim with people.

The last place I went to was just as encapsulating as the other two. I was so blown away by how stunning Wales is I can see myself going down there for so many years to come. I had no idea it was as alluring as it was. It took my breath away. It's so strange to go from a busy city like Manchester to somewhere like Penmaemawr and feel such a stark contrast in the way people live. It's even stranger that this is literally 2ish hours away from Manchester and it's so different. Anyway, Snowdonia was the last place we went to. We actually went on my birthday which was the 24th of June and I loved it. It's crazy how amazing the weather was when we went too. The sun was shining, the water and sky were as blue as ever and mountains were this amazing luscious green.