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!
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,
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY UPDATED:
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,
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY UPDATED:
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,
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY UPDATED:
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,
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY UPDATED:
London on Film | Zafira
Hi!
If you read my previous post, you'd know that I spent a week in London and it was so great. It was nice to have a week away from the chaos and craziness of college life and just take time to spend with my family. I didn't really get to out and explore as the main reason we were there was for wedding shopping but I managed to sneak away for a day and these are the film photographs that I took, enjoy!
I like to organise my photographs into categories when doing these posts but these two don't really fit into any because I took them on a different day.
Like I said earlier, the whole purpose of our family London trip was to shop and shop we did. We bought so much stuff and it was such a long process but most of the shopping is done and I can't wait for the wedding.
I can't remember where I took this but the sunlight is what really caught my eye, it just created such a calm and serene environment in a busy city like London.
The Tate Modern is quite a peculiar place but I love it nonetheless. It's definitely for the more artsy fartsy people but it's still such a cool place to walk around.
The two photographs above were actually taken in a pitch black room. In order to see the work on the walls you had to use flash which is usually not allowed. It was such a beautiful and moving collection of photographs.
Covent Garden is one of those days you'd go when it's sunny and warm. Thankfully, the day I went, the weather was so good even though the Beast from the East 3 had hit a couple of days before.
There's so many pretty flowers in Covent Garden and if the Sun decides to be your friend you can get some super cute shots.
The British Museum is just built in the most beautiful way possible. The outside looks quite historic and old but on the inside, it has the most stunning minimal yet breath taking interior. It's all white and when the sun shines through, it just creates such an amazing atmosphere.
I was running pretty low on film so I didn't get to get as many shots I initially wanted to but I completely adore these Greek sculptures.
I'll be posting these photographs plus a lot more over on my Instagram!
Lots of love,
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY UPDATED:
Exploring London: Tate Modern, The British Museum & Covent Garden | Zafira
Hey!
It's been quite a while since I've been to London but I was there for the first week of my Easter holidays. The main reason I was there was to shop for my cousin's wedding in the summer which literally took an entire 3 days. Don't even ask it was a very very very long process but just know me and my family will be looking quite cute on her wedding day if I don't say so myself. Anyway, my week was filled with not only shopping but visiting family I hadn't seen for a while which took up the majority of my time there but eventually, I had a day spare and spent it doing what I love most which is wandering the streets and taking photographs. A lot of the photographs will be used in my last ever photography project at college based on the structure and composition of everyday life which is why the majority of my photographs look like I've spent the entire day stalking people.
My little day adventure began at the Tate Modern. I think every hipster/indie/tumblr child has been here but I've always put it off until now. It's cool but weird at the same time. Contemporary art is a strange thing but it's always fun to see what unique things people have created.
From the outside, it doesn't look like a very modern building but inside it's pretty amazing. This particular part drew me in because of the bright coloured text and windows opposite each other. It's a cute corner.
Here's some close ups of what the text says, they're a quite cynical but the quote "Panic drives human herds over cliffs" on the yellow square is my favourite bit.
I don't know what it is but I frickin' love neon lights. I've been contemplating getting a neon flamingo light for my bedroom but they're just waaay too expensive for me at the minute. These two particular pieces are by Bruce Nauman.
I love it when photographs are organised like this.
When I did Fine Art in my first year of college, this famous urinal by Marcel Duhamp was bought up when we were studying what art actually is. It was really cool seeing it in real life.
This was really adorable because they're just staring at an older version of themselves.
For this piece they had several screens and each screen was a different argument for a question that went along the lines of "If you post your art work online does it still belong to you?" It was so fascinating reading the different viewpoints.
It was also really exciting looking at Martin Parr's work as he is one of the photographers who I had used for inspiration for my final photography project at college. I love this sort of stuff.
It's really interesting watching how people react to art. Especially at places like the Tate Modern where the art is so different and unique.
I'd love to give you some context about these last two images but I honestly cannot remember what the story was behind them but they me remind of Neanderthal/monkey-esque creatures.
The next place on my list was the British Museum. I never even knew this existed but I was extremely glad that I went. The building itself is so beautiful inside and out and if I had a lot of time to explore, I could most likely spend an entire lifetime in there.
Look at this beauty.
I have quite an admiration for stuff like the globe and golden details on the clock on the two photographs above. I think they're insanely pretty and I'd fill my entire house with stuff like it if I could.
Whenever I look at a vase like this I always think of the opening scene of Hercules.
When you have your exams 4 weeks and you still haven't revised a single thing.
When you try and act casual when you see your bae.
I actually adore these Greek sculptures, I really wish someone would make one of me.
The boys.
How cute does this father and son look in the sunlight?
I have so many photographs of the British Museum building but they're on my rolls of film that haven't been developed yet (keep your eyes peeled over on my Instagram to see when I post 'London on Film').
The last place I ventured to was Covent Garden which is the perfect place to go on a sunny day. Thankfully, I was blessed with amazing weather when I went last week and I'd definitely be going back there a lot more. It's such a nice place to go with friends and family. It's filled with little market stalls but also a huge variation of shops to fit your every need.
I tripped and almost fell before I took this. I just thought you should know.
There's so many cool acts going on around Covent Garden to keep everyone entertained.
I 100% will be having my lunch here some day.
I'll be posting these photographs plus a lot more over on my Instagram!
FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO STAY UPDATED:
Summer on Film | Zafira
Hi!
So I've decided to start a new series on here. I'm going to start doing a blog post about whatever month it is but shot in film. I hope it gets me experimenting with film a lot more and also one thing I really love doing is talking about my photographs and why I took them which is why this series is pretty much perfect. I love love film. I can't even get over how much I adore shooting on it. I'm always trying to find new and fun ways to document my life and so far, using film has been my absolute fave. I just love how it looks and shooting on it is so so so much more fun that digital. It's exiciting, you don't know what the outcome is going to be.
The first post in this series are some shots I took over summer, I honestly didn't get out much. I spent a lot of time travelling to see family but I was either indoors or in a car most of the time or just at home lazing around.
Here are some of my favourites from over this summer!
Like I mentioned earlier, I want to document my life and I feel like I've currently hit my peak teen years, next year I'm going to be an adult which I don't even wanna talk about. But here's the door to my room which makes me feel so young and childish and I love it.
I own a troll that looks like a roadman. I don't really know why I bought this but it's sat on a shelf in my room looking quite cute.
I remember I took this when the weather because extremely bipolar and it was raining cats and dogs once minute and the next it was so sunny. You can see the grey clouds clearing in the top of the picture. I love taking pictures of the sky.
Just the view outside my bedroom window.
I wanted to take a picture of the moon but obviously considering it was the middle of the night and it was pitch black, the picture didn't come out as great as I had visioned it too but it still looks semi cool.
Here's my cat that isn't actually my cat. I think it belongs to our neighbour but it seems to love me a lot.
Here's my cousin looking pretty cute, I spent a lot of time with family this summer and it was really nice.
A cute tiny little vase thing with flowers in with pink water because my obsession with pink has honestly hit a new level of extreme where I'm basically killing all my plants with this pink water that consists of paint.
I also bought a hat (from New Look) and this shirt (from Zara, also in my prev blog post) which I wore like everyday. It's a cute combo.
I also took this on digital which you can see over on my Instagram, links to everything will be at the end of this post.
Of course there was some pictures of the lovely Hannah on my camera as always. She's my go to model and I had to take some images for my photography project for college. These film ones are quite blurry because I didn't use lighting and I didn't really want that artificial look to them. But, I really like the different tones and hues in these and I don't mind the blurryness at all. These were all inspired by the photographer
.
Here's a behind the scenes of the star face shot, this is my fave image I've ever taken.
Also for my college photography project, I had to choose another phtotographer and create images inspired by them. So I chose
and here's a behind the scenes. If you check out my Instagram, you can see one of the final versions from this set! Links to all my social media will be at the end of this post.
It was Eid on September 1st and here's me looking overly happy in my Eid outift.
I took this the day before college started, pretty sure I was procrastinating and avoiding all the work I had to do.
Make sure to follow me on Instagram and my other social media to find out when I post the next post in this series and when I just post in general!
Exploring Manchester: Cat Cafe | Zafira
Helloo and welcome to today's post!
I've lived in Manchester my entire life but I've never really had the chance to explore it so I thought, as I explore more of Manchester, I'll document it and write about it on here!
Today, me and friend Britt finally decided to go to the Cat Cafe. Since she loves cat and I have no idea how I feel about them we thought it would be the perfect place to visit. First thing I noticed was how friendly the staff are. I've never felt so at home and welcomed before in my entire life. We only stayed there for about half an hour which came up to the grand total of £6 which is not bad at all considering all drinks are unlimited. It's such a chill and relaxing environment, there's soft music playing in the background and the room is filled with homely furniture that adds to that overall comforting feel.
The cats are basically everywhere doing just about anything but mostly chillin'. It's so lovely to see all these cats with so many different personalities. I think one of the things I was pretty scared about was like a cat jumping onto me or attacking me or something like that just because I've not really had a lot of experience with cats. But I can assure you that nothing like that happened lol, the cats are pretty friendly and won't jump onto you but will come and walk around and near you which is pretty cute.
There's just something in the air whilst you're in there that makes you feel so happy. Me and Britt were almost in tears from happiness whilst we were in there and even after we left. It was such a pleasant experience and will most likely become sort of tradition for us. I think it's perfect for a little get together with friends, dates or just as a stress reliever. I can imagine myself sat in here a lot when exams are going on. It's such a wonderful place and I can't wait to go again!
Here's a few pictures I took today!
I should become a cat photographer.
Not a cat but she might as well be.
Heaven.
Just look how chilled out this angel is, what more could you want in life?
This is Bert, you can follow this qt on Instagram by clicking on the following link:
As you can tell from this, Britt was pretty much crying once we left the place.
Make sure you check out my Instagram for more snaps! 💮
A Month In Bangladesh | Zafira
Hi guys and welcome back to my blog!
So during this summer, me and family headed up to Bangladesh to visit family and to also explore the small South Asian country. For me, this was an eye opening journey as I discovered a lot about Bangladesh, it's traditions and the people there. In all honesty, Bangladesh isn't one of the prettiest places in the world at first but you can see the beauty of the country in the people there. What I loved most about Bangladesh was the amount of pride people had in their country and how much they love it. A majority of the people there don't take anything for granted like many of us do in countries like the UK where important factors of life such as education are handed to us on a plate. Last time I went to Bangladesh was about 7 years ago in 2008, I was too young to understand of how much an important holiday it was and how much things would change when I next came back. Bangladesh was very different this time for me, I focused too much on the minorities and things weren't important such as bugs and the fact that it was about 40 degrees and I was melting . The only thing that should have been important was grasping hold and creating memories of what could be one of the last visits to my somewhat home country. ALTHOUGH I was a major fusspot throughout a big quantity of this holiday, I did create a few memories and on here, I'll share a few with ya ;)
ALSO ALSO ALSO, I'd just like to let you know I didn't use a fancy shmancy camera, I only used my small Canon Powershot A2500. It's not got top notch quality but it took decent pictures and was easy to carry around.
I hope you all had a lovely summer and enjoy my pictures!
I'm really really pleased with how these shots and edits came out. I hope you like them! Make sure you follow me on Instagram and Flickr, I post regularly :)
To keep up with what I am doing follow my other social media accounts: