Come closer and see, see into the trees, find the girl, while you can.

A few months ago, I worked on my frist shoot with the amazing superwoman behind cupcake brand, Temptations Creations. With a genuine belief that birthdays are just nature's way of telling us to eat more cake, I knew that this was a brand who I had to somehow get involved with!

The cupcakes themselves are like delicious handmade pieces of edible art. Customised to amazing levels, they are almsost too yummy to eat - although one sniff of the icing will put an end to that. Om nom nom.

To launch the brand, we did a series of editorial images losely based on an idea which squished Alice in Wonderland via Marie Antoinette. Whimsy and decandence were key, as was sourcing an incredible team of people to help bring the vision to life.

This was one of those strange shoots where we actually had the time to plan things properly. We scouted for a team, but in the week leading up to it, disaster seemed to hit at evey turn with members falling to the wayside one after the other. With literally three days to go, and the possibility of posphonement a real possibility, we were suddenly saved after being contacted by an amazing stylist and accessory creator. Hurrah!

Our next mission was the weather. With beautiful sunshine streaming in through the windows of our base whilst preparations were underway, the second we left to walk towards the location minutes away, the clouds crashed together and we were faced with terrencial rain. With any other people, this could have been an utter diasater, but the friendly individuals banded together with brollies and reflectors covering the model, sets and equipment. Although we were soaked, spirits were high and I could not have asked for more incredible people on the day.

Brand: Temptation's Creations by TC_SugarMama.
Model: Katerina Martinovska at M&P Models.
Hair and Make-Up: Sarah Frasca
Styling: Dario Bentivegna with dress by Joanne Fleming and red velvet jacket by Sarina Poppy.
Accessories: Hayley Kruger.
Assistants: Howard Burdett and Mike Warner.

These photos taken by Hayley and Dario show just how insane the weather was!

Temptation's Creations cupcakes truly are an amazing treat! I'm currently working on images for Valentines Day and Halloween, but in the mean time, here are some festive ones and a few from her main range.

Christmas images assisted by Chloe Douglas.

I don't know about you, but I am in dire need of some tea and cake after that...

I'm knitting jumpers, I'm working after hours

Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to combine two of my favourite pasttimes in one wonderful afternoon - photography AND vintage shopping.

The Rag Factory on Brick Lane was playing host to London's best vintage bargain shopping event - The Vintage Kilo Sale, which is brought together by the people at Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair and Glass Onion.

With three rooms rammed with all manner of vintage clothing and accessories from the 60s - 80s, the event held a staggering 2.5 tonnes of wonderful quality, on trend items. And with the stock priced at £15 per kilo, you can restock your wardrobe for less than the price of a night out!

The items are helpfully seperated into racks of denim, dresses, jackets, tousers and shirts to make rummaging through the rails that little bit easier. The staff will weigh everything for you once you're ready to purchase, but as a guide, a kilo is roughly five lighter items like cotton dresses and shirts, or three heavier items such as denim and jackets. And for those of you who only want to buy one or two items, individual pieces can be purchased for a set price.

A small selection of photos from the event can be found below, and I'll be shooting at their next event which is "Judy's at Spitalfields' - The January Sale!" on January 7th 2012. Dress up, say hello and come and get your photo taken by me.

Starry Eyes

It's also worth noting that the support for Wild Flag were the excellent Veronica Falls (The Sexy Kids). Very much worth checking out!

If you want a pretty picture, You better look away

As many of you know music has always been another big love of mine, but it had felt like a very long time since a band had come along and really caught my attention.There have been some amazing albums this year (True Widow, Destroyer I'm looking at you... P J Harvey... not so much.), but there hadn't been a band where I had found myself genuinely excited and in love with.

Well thanks to fellow photonerd / music journalist Tom Perry, Wild Flag came along and swept me off my feet. Within seconds of seeing the music video for Romance, I suddenly felt like a teenager again, and with all the musical mischief and guitar based girl crushes that came along with it.

It was an easy transition to slip back into, with half of the band making up Sleater-Kinney, and with stints playing with the likes of Steve Malkmus, Bright Eyes and Helium. It stands to reason that Wild Flag are the essential teenage mixtape in my head, with their debut album making me feel like a grungy pink haired kid all over again.

Last week I was lucky enough to see them twice - firstly photographing them for Tom's interview (asking the legendery question of whether Steve Malkmus was as handsome in real life...), and then again at their show at The Lexington the following evening for The Fly magazine.

Anyway, I could talk for ages about how amazing they are, but that would be boring, Here's their second video for Electric Band instead, and of course, some photos!

The first photo is an extremely jetlagged portrait of Rebecca Cole (keyboards) and Janet Weiss (drums) at Premier Inn, Inslington. Both were lovely, but clearly wanting to crawl into bed. The rest of the photos are Wild Flag (including Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony, both on vocals and guitars) at The Lexington show the next day on 8th December.