After Dark

Thought I'd post this quickly because it's been long overdue. The people at Dressestylist were kind enough to send me this custom-made number weeks ago. The colour (supposed to be cobalt blue) was not as cobalt-y as I expected but it makes it more demure. Add a modest thigh split and the cute back and it's probably something I'd wear to a wedding or more formal/ sensible event.

I figured the rich deep colour of the dress was perfect for a sundown shoot but unfortunately Richard and I left it a bit late and the 'shoot' turned into a 15 minute quick snap in near darkness after the sun went down. Still, did my best to salvage the photos in Photoshop and I think it turned out ok? I'm definitely thinking of re-shooting it more creatively though in the future...

As always, comment what you think and defintiely check out Dressestylist if you're on the lookout for well made, cheap and custom-made formal dresses!

India & Nepal Photodiary: Delhi Part I

...in which we wandered around a strange new city by ourselves for a couple of days.

 |Cycle rickshaw drivers taking a nap. I thought his neatly tucked away shoes in the roof of his rickshaw was quite cute! |

Yes here it is finally- the trip we took in January!!

So maybe we should start from the beginning...

via

R and I decided to do an overland backpacker trip from India to Nepal, starting in Delhi and ending in Kathmandu, with a whole bunch of fun stuff thrown in like camping on the Ganges and trekking around Kathmandu Valley at the end of the trip. It was one of the (if not most) craziest things we have ever done and the craziness began as soon as we touched down in Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi at 3am after almost 24 hours (literally) of being in transit. After successfully buying Indian simcards and avoiding being scammed by taxi touts, we hailed a cab and attempted to find our way to our accommodation for the night; where we would wake up the next morning to well and truly begin our adventure.

I actually remember falling asleep saying "We're in India, Richard...can you believe it!...". After months and months of planning and waiting and talking about the trip we were finally there.

| Inside Delhi airport | From our window |

This is the view from our room window and was the first thing I saw on the first morning; 6am and everyone was already bustling around. By 7am the street below was noisy with dog barking, shouting men and beeping traffic. 

First thing we did was hop on a tuk-tuk/auto-rickshaw in Karol Bagh (where we were staying) and go exploring in the loud, colourful and hectic city.

After a morning of just taking everything in, we walked through Nehru Bazaar after stumbling into a street off one of the main roads we were walking along (after ditching our slightly dodgy tuk-tuk driver)

Nehru Bazaar: | Richard dodging traffic || Beautiful spices || Typical market alleyway || We somehow ended up lost in this cemetery || Little boy strolling alleyway || Dense shops || Smart Wear 4 Smart People || Shops with living quarters on top || Cheap clothes ||Businessman || Local kids |

I didn't take many photos since I was so busy taking everything in and trying not to get run over. But I loved how everything was just so fast-paced and vibrant...which I came to realise later pretty much describes India in a nutshell. Oh yeah I successfully bargained myself a kaftan top for 100 INR (roughly $1.75AUD) in that market.

We also visited Connaught Place (an upmarket Western shopping hub where funnily enough I didn't buy anything):

Connaught Place: | Stray Dogs || Connaught Place || Strolling shoppers in Connaught || Local Maccas menu || Random monkey || Street Food || Street wares || Woman shopping in a pretty sari ||Men buying blue jeans at a street stall. |

 Blue jeans are like a staple in almost every Indian man's wardrobe. We got tired pretty quickly looking at all the brand name stores like Nike, A+F, Esprit etc.

All the window-shopping tired us out so we had lunch at Zen, a Chinese/Jap restaurant (turns out Chinese food is super popular in India, there was almost always a Chinese section in every menu we ever looked at...which is a lot of menus).

Because it was getting rather late but not late enough to dinner, we decided to squeeze in a visit to a small tourist attraction. So after being waylaid by several touts and  "students" trying to lead us to the wrong location, we walked (traffic is even worse at peak) to Jantar Mantar which is like a small park filled with several weird architectural astronomy instruments built in the 1700s.

| Passed this house/estate/hotel? on the way |

| Various structures in Jantar Mantar. Can you spot the giant sundial? |

We finished looking at all the structures in under an hour and just sat on the grass with our Lonely Planet that we were lugging around (if you have seen the India guide, you'll know it is one massive brick) and planned our evening - the park seemed like a super popular hang out place for local families and canoodling couples. 

| Food consumed: top photos are from Lunch @Zen and bottom is dinner @Embassy, both at Connaught Place |

We returned to Connaught Place (again!) for dinner and a movie, but it turns out our movie night plans went out the door because they weren't showing any with English subtitles at the time. But that was ok, because it meant we could just go back to our hotel and have an early night- R is extremely fond of sleeping. And besides, a couple days later I would discover my great love for watching Indian music videos on TV ;)

| More street vendors seen while walking around  |

And- just because I can- here are some more photos of sleeping rickshaw drivers:

| Even his dog is having a siesta! |

Sorry this took a while (aha understatement) to post up, it took several attempts in between settling into a somewhat hectic schedule between uni (just finished Cardio block), my new job, and shuttling back and from from Sydney. And then I went back and re-edited some more photos I wasn't happy with. Get it together Annie!

But thanks for trawling through this post and my lame commentary, I tried to keep it in roughly chronological order for my records (and reminiscing purposes ;) ). The next post will be Part II, the last half of our time in Delhi (I think we only spent a bit more than 3 days which is nowhere near enough). And that will be coming soon for real because it is all edited and ready to go! 

Comment and let me know what you think, or if you've been anywhere interesting lately! :)

A Little Different

Today, I'm posting something a little different to what I normally do...

| Dress c/o Dressestylist | Photography by Richard | 

 As you know, this has never been a fashion blog. I do, however,  like photography and sharing it so when Dressestylist emailed me saying they wanted to collaborate, I was pretty surprised. And then stoked, because how fun would it be to try something new with photography by experimenting with some incredible dresses?! So when I came home from overseas to find this amazing custom-made dress waiting for me, Richard and I drove to the nearest park as soon as the rain stopped and started snapping. This was his first serious time behind the camera and our first real 'shoot' together, so we were pretty clueless. After a lot of exchanging instructions, rolling around on the grass and running back and forth... I have to say, he was so patient with my demands and the photos turned out beautiful. (If I say so myself).

Dressestylist has hundreds (I really mean that) of affordable event/prom/formal and wedding dresses that can all be made to your custom size (just put in your own measurements). After inspecting my dress, I can also tell you that the quality is top-notch too. So if you have an event coming up in the near or far future, it might be a site you want to check out!

Anyhow, what do you think of the photos? Which is your favourite, and would you like to see more fashion-y photography posts in the future?

P.S. I promise India/Nepal photos will come soon.