THE NAME OF THE ROSE (PART TWO). ROSE WATER LEMONADE and BASIC INSTINCT

Today I framed the skies in a mirror and made them bed for my rose water lemonade.

I chiselled pieces frozen roses, chipped off bits from the ice blocks and watched them slide on the mirror with sensual and uncanny reminiscence of the movie Basic Instinct...

Morning breeze scattered the rose petals and the citrusy peels were snaking in and out of the lemonade jug.

Refreshment was bursting out of everything and I had to capture it.

For quenching your thirst and senses here is my little recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1 litre of plain spring water

1 litre of San Pellegrino sparkling water

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of Bulgarian rose water

Handful of edible rose buds

Lemon peel

Orange peel

METHOD:

Mix the plain spring water with the sugar and the citrus peels.  Let it infuse overnight.  Before serving add the sparkling water and the rose water.  Decorate with few swirls from the citrus peels and a bud or two of roses.

I promise you, this rose water lemonade will make your day bright, fragrant and sparkling!

Until my next post!

Ciao,

Sophia

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved

THE NAME OF THE ROSE (PART ONE). AGE OF INNOCENCE and LOVE, LUST AND VORACITY

Most of my posts are sprung from the nostalgia in my taste buds, my tickled nostrils or old dreams that have flown away but still linger in the sky of my mind.

I feed my senses with fragrances of my early days where the things were weightlessly happy and blithe.  It was each morning that we splash our faces with rose water and we never realized how precious thing that was.  It is the Bulgarian Rosa Damascena.  It is the Rolls Royce of the roses.  It is the Champagne of all Damascena roses ever produced all over the world.  That undeniable uniqueness is that makes any drop of Bulgarian rose water or rose oil just stands out and literally fills a big room with its magical perfume.

I miss having the generous amounts and access to Bulgarian rose water and as it is now the time when in Bulgaria is celebrated the harvest of the Rosa Damscena in the Valley of Roses with the worldwide famous Festival of the Rose, I decided to have my own feast of senses.

Here I dedicate my impression of what rose is – beauty, purity, love or lust, indulgence and luxury...  I hope you enjoy my artistic interpretation of the timeless splendour of the rose with these series of posts-fusion of high-end sweets and Bulgarian rose water.

My special thanks to the very talented and young pastry chef Daniela Forzosi from Pasticceria Dolce Mia, who was enthusiastic to take on this visual and culinary challenge.

Until my next post!

Ciao,

Sophia

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved

RUSTIC DINNERWARE, BOX OF SCROLLS or 7th to 13th April 2014 – 365 DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Time is a sneaky thing; it seems to tiptoe out of my sight before I turn my head around...  A blink and it’s gone!

Here is another week for me to share with you.  I had a chance to shoot more of my kind of things – food, kitchen utensils and all about cooking.  To end with, I included three of the images I made for baking company Box Of Scrolls for their upcoming website. 

Enjoy the “little walk” through my kitchen, stash of props and studio!

And thank you for stopping by.

7th April 2014

8th April 2014

9th April 2014

10th April 2014

11th April 2014

12th April 2014

13th April 2014

See you next time!

Ciao,

Sophia

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved

ELVIS FROM THE CORNER SHOP, BIRTHDAY PICNIC ON THE BEACH or 24th March to 6th April 2014 – 365 DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Hello again,

I have missed you all!  Two weeks went fast and so many things did happened.  In the mean time I managed to get some nice piece of leather from the corner upholstery shop and the shop owner was happy to pose for me.  Yep, that’s him – Elvis Presley from the Corner Shop!  He was proud to show me his gold chain collection and had few pelvis moves to show me he can shake it like The King himself...

The next day I shot a wild roquette salad with smoked Tasmanian salmon, sixty/sixty eggsand Himalayan pink salt with my new leather in the background.  Salad was delicious and the recipe is self-explanatory.  However, if you would like, let me know and I’ll post the detailed instructions.

The following days were like riding the wind – fast and swirly.  I had my Saturday spent in the Stylist Lab studio for our Hands On class and believe me, that was fun!  This time for a change I was styling and Marty Lochmann was taking the shots.  You can see them on here.

Sunday was my older daughter’s birthday and we went to celebrate it on picnic on Maianbar Beach.  We had lots of fun, lots of sun and lots of splash in the water.  And you know what – when Daddy is around, the sea is only knee deep!

Oh, yeah – on the way home we passed some nice cliff full of paragliders and then we stopped at the Hindu temple at Helensburgh.  Wow, that was a big day!

The rest of the week went in shooting images for a pastry and sweets client and I hope I’ll be able to show you soon some of my work.

I hope you enjoy my latest 365 photography update and thank you for stopping by.

24th March 2014

25th March 2014

26th March 2014

27th March 2014

28th March 2014

29th March 2014

30th March 2014

31st March 2014

1st April 2014

2nd April 2014

3rd April 2014

4th April 2014

5th April 2014

6th April 2014

Until my next post!

Ciao,

Sophia

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved

THEY CALL ME THE ASSASSIN...

They call me The Assassin...

My shooting method is pretty plain and straight forward – shoot to “kill” on first sight!  No misses.

In my humble suburban home I am the marksman-housewife in disguise.

Only few close friends of mine know in what predicament I live and work.

I have two very imaginative, energetic and artistic girls.  They are part of everything I do and breathe and doing food photography is inevitably part of their life.  They can’t have it any other way.  I always allow them to be part of my creative work – let them hold the reflector, play with styling and even have the first 5 minutes to shoot their own photos of the setting from my camera.  My oldest girl likes to arrange the food.  My little girl likes to sit under the tripod as if this is a tipi Indian tent.  All I have to do is shouting “Hold!” before I press the button and then they are back to their normal mischievous activities...

Most of my shots are the final product of what and how I dream them.  I pre-visualise them, I sketch them with words or drawings, or I just throw in my note book words as chain of lexical-semantic network and trying to draw out of it what mood has been lurking under my deepest thoughts and feeling.

Then the moment of shooting comes.  And this is the time I am as a trained and briefed special operations soldier on a mission.  I have it in my head.  I know how it has to look.  It has to be done with military precision.  And I have only 30 minutes to cook, set, plate, style, shoot and clean.  With a bit of luck, if the girls are watching TV, I don’t have to let them be stylists and photographers, but I always have to allow for that spare 5 minutes.  I don’t have room for mistakes or re-shoots.

Yep, they call me The Assassin and I cook, style and “shoot to kill”.

Until my next post!

Ciao,

Sophia

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved

THE COUNTRY TRADER or 17th to 23rd March 2014 – 365 DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Psst! Did I tell you?

Aladdin’s cave is in Waterloo!

Yes, that’s right!  And it is called The Country Trader.

I found it during that Saturday when I went to Stylist Lab for the 'Unlocking Your Personal Style' class with the prominent stylist Parish Stapleton.  Being generous not only in sharing knowledge, he took us for a delicious lunch break at The Chalkboard Café.

It is on the second floor above the Café and when I walked in I felt like a school girl that walked in ice cream shop during recess and was seriously thinking about wagging from school.

It is a bottomless treasure cave for all the styles and trends that one can think of or desire.  I was surrounded by wonderfully chosen collections, gathered from many countries and large scales of fashion or history of interior mode, including the Ralph Lauren Home Collection.

Did I manage to see it all?  Hardly!

I have to go there again.

...and again!

...and again!...

Please enjoy some of the images that I was kindly allowed to take from this beautiful store.

17th March 2014

18th March 2014

19th March 2014

20th March 2014

21st March 2014

22nd March 2014

23rd March 2014

Thank you for visiting!

Until my next post,

Sophia

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved

FINDING MY VISUAL STYLE LANGUAGE IN 'UNLOCKING YOUR PERSONAL STYLE' CLASS

 

Discovering our personal style

What a busy week!  I almost forgot to brag about the wonderful time I had last Saturday in the Stylist Lab studio where I took part of ‘Unlocking Your Personal Style’ class.

We were learning from the very best in the field Parish Stapleton how to find and release the inner visual language with which we communicate our own style.  I met amazing, very talented and genuine people that I am happy to call friends.  By the end of the class I could say that the group and the atmosphere in the studio were like wind under my wings – I felt daring to dream and let my creativeness blossom.

 

Styling in progress for my shot

We were given not only the secrets and insider’s know-how about the art of styling; we had the opportunity to style our own shots with the gentle guidance of Parish and his styling assistant Nicole Ritchie.  Oh, and did I mention that our styling was shot by Marty Lochmann.  It was very inspiring and very professional.

But beware – it is addictive!

So I can’t wait for the next class ‘Hands On’ in a week time.

Till my next post!

Ciao,

Sophia

photography: Marty Lochmann via: Stylist Lab blog

© 2014 - sophia terra~ziva.  all rights reserved