I feel like I have been in a flurry of self promotion lately and looks like its continuing (whoops)!
I love the folks at Interiors Addict and all the good they do in the world helping folks make their homes beautiful. There is inspiration for making your nest special is endless.
They recently did an interview with me about my two series, La Vacanza Italiana and Jeune Fille En Fleurand its fabulous (eek).
To celebrate them spreading my print joy I am giving a 20% discount on all prints with code print love
The full story on Interiors Addict is HERE and you can start decorating in my shop HERE
I know many of you purchased the recent copy of Harpers Bazaar in Australia and have seen this shoot but I wanted to share this beautiful fairytale with those who haven’t.
People often ask me after 17 years of photography do I still love it or do I get excited and inspired? Well folks, the answer is YES, YES, YES!!
I had the chance to photograph Heidi for Gourmet Traveller last year and had an instant girl crush, I adored everything about her, her warm generous spirit, being so very present and her beautiful fashion.
So for me doing this Harpers shoot was like the night before Christmas, I knew Heidi would have all the elements that make photographs magic but she certainly exceeded my photographer’s dream.
There were her daughters (arrrrrr) you just wanted to hug them on first sight, the house, the calm, the clothes and of course the magic Heidi. And I had the good fortune to have the world’s best folk working with us, Eliza O’Hare and partner from Harpers, Veronique Marot and Loc Boyle and Kellie Hush and the team that put this magic together!
This shoot and the good times and memories will be in the memory bank of shoots for the rest of my times and I can’t express how fortunate I feel to have had the chance to spend a day with people so clear, warm, generous and loving as Heidi, her family and the creative team on the day.
In case you don’t believe, creative dreams do come true! You can follow Heidi Middleton on Instagram HERE
Sending love
Carla x
Ps: There were a lot of ladders involved and holding big cameras and balancing like a trapeze artist at the same time trying not to fall off..
My whole life I have wanted to help people and this has been my aim on the blog throughout the years. I have shared my story, my techniques and experiences so that others who have chosen the same path will have less hurdles to jump than I did.
It’s been fifteen years now and so has much has happened and dear universe I will always be grateful – eight books, hundreds of magazine articles and the chance to photograph so many wonderful people in private portrait and personal branding shoots.
Although many people have previously asked me to be their mentor or coach them with their business it’s only recently that I have felt ready in all the senses.
Throughout the years I too have continued to do courses, study and learn. I have always followed my heart in terms of what I have chosen to focus on creatively and in my business and for me the next step is a decision of the heart.
I am currently doing a 12-month business training and coaching certificate so that not only can I help photographers improve their business and photography skills but so they can change their mindset, improve their money story and have the life they have always dreamed of.
If you are you struggling with different aspects of your portrait or photography business and want to give it an overhaul or feel your photography skills are holding you back from taking it to the next level I would love to help.
In a one-on-one mentoring session (either in person or on Skype) we create a ‘made-to-measure’ package that will cut straight to the heart of your specific needs. We can delve into your portfolio or fine-tune who is your dream client and how to communicate with her/him to give your business a clearer direction. It can be a drill down and fresh start for photographers who are already in business but have lost their way and need a fresh perspective.
I can trouble-shoot your photography if want to learn specific photographic techniques or create a more effective time-efficient workflow and learn some post-processing tricks. We can discuss where you are on your photographic journey and where you want to go.
If you are an amateur and want to fast track your photography skills or get some behind the scenes information about a career as a photographer, I am an open book.
The idea for this shoot actually came from my wedding!!
I loved getting married in Paris, it was the most fuss free event of my life. I was dressed at home, did my own make-up (hadn’t met my fab make-up artist at this point) walked with a couple of friends to our local cafe, dropped into the boulangerie to say hello and was shot on the street with my darling, dogs and Paris in the background. Our wedding was in the middle of market day in the 4th and I loved coming out with a simple bouquet of flowers to be welcomed by friends amongst the fishmonger, the butcher and my favourite florist. It felt so Parisian!
When the gorgeous Helene from Cest Ma Robe told me she wanted to shoot a range of designer wedding gowns I thought it would be fun for our gorgeous ‘bride’ to be an Urban bride.
Now gals not only can you get married in Paris but you can be married in Matthew Williamson, Azzaro, Rachel Zoe and vintage Dior.
Sounds like a dream? Helene had the genius idea to gather together a collection of designer bridal gowns for the chic, the boho, the hippy, the romantic and the funky bride and here’s the great news..drum roll.. you can rent them. Yes you no longer need to get a mortgage to get married. Ain’t that the best news.
So if you are soon to be married in Paris (shout out to gorgeous friend Louisa) check out Cest Ma Robe.
Imagine a town that has survived for hundreds of years on making beautiful hand-made ceramics. Add a twist of Southern Italian charm, workshops dug into soft stone to form grottos (grottaglie – that’s where the name comes from) and hundreds of artisans turning clay into pots, jugs, plates, cups, saucers, statues and other works of art – then you would have Grottaglie.
I discovered Grottaglie a couple of summers ago when Francesco and I were at the beach and it became too crowded so we decided to head inland for lunch (no Italian in their right mind would do this in August) but this is one of our tricks to finding something magical and real.
And that is exactly what happened. We found the magical Grottaglie.. I could hardly wait to finish lunch to start snooping around the hundreds of ceramic workshops.
So when I started planning the Caravan Travel Photography Workshop I started to think of all the things I loved about Puglia and Grottaglie sprang to mind.
I decided to include the things I would do if I was to shoot a story on a region, include the things that I love, that visually excite me and I knew would make for interesting pics.
Collection of antique water jugs Mimmo Vestita Ceramics
So back I went to Grottaglie and with the help of Francesca Frisa we toured many beautiful workshops and met many great artisans.
hand painted plates in the workshop of Giuseppe Patronelli
Grottaglie has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age and is just up the rode from one of the first Greek settlements in Italy, Taranto.
The local stone is called tufo In Italian and is soft enough to be able to dig into. Since Medieval times there have been caves dug around what is now the castle and slowly they were taken over and used as ceramic workshops.
But on any given day you can turn up in Grottaglie and walk the area known as the Quartier dell Ceramiche and go from one workshop to the next and see artisans turning clay, painting, dipping statues in white and creating every imaginable statue possible.
Whilst walking from workshop to workshop with Francesca she told me about Mimmo Vestita who had an incredible Mediterranean garden right in the middle of town and who recently whilst renovating the garden had discovered the floor of a Roman Villa and a byzantine crypt.
I had co-incidently seen his garden and crypt in the beautiful magazine Cote Sud and begged to have a look.
Ancient wine pots in the Mediterranean garden of Casa Vestita
It was a garden like I had never seen before. So beautiful in it’s simplicity and it’s devotion to the Mediterranean climate, plants and his collection of over 4000 pieces of ceramic.
Mimmo Vestita in his splendid Mediterranean garden Casa Vestita
Mimmo generously opened his garden to the ‘Caravaners’ and kindly showed us the floor of the Roman Villa his renovator found whilst restoring the garden.
Whilst restoring another part of the garden and pulling away broken debris and trees the gardener found a carved column. They called in the archaeological society and together they went on a magical mystery tour and found a true treasure the underground crypt.
Grottaglie’s Mediterranean garden in front of the castle entrance.
If you are in Puglia don’t miss a visit to beautiful Grottaglie. She’s real, she’s artistic, she hasn’t been trussed up for the tourists and there are many wonderful photos to be had.
The fabulous Ceramics Museum has a collection of ceramics from the beginning of time, it’s a journey through history and habits, of simplicity, decoration and form and…. it’s free.
A giant round of applause to the all the artisans who gave their time and talent to us, who allowed us into their bottega’s to see how they work, create and maintain an ancient tradition. True southern hospitality at it’s most generous. I look forward to showing the participants work soon.
This is a private Mediterranean garden and the best one I have seen to date. Mimmo Vestita, the owner has a ceramics workshop up the road and not long ago unearthed a Byzantine Crypt underneath his garden and the floor of a Roman Villa. He opens the garden to the public for a small fee in August from 6pm to 10pm and regularly has exhibitions of some of his 4000 pieces of antique ceramics. DON’T MISS IT!! Follow on Facebook here.
Mimmo’s bottega is up a little set of stairs and removed from the street but worth sourcing out. He sells beautiful objects for the home, vases and water jugs.
This is the local tourist office and one of the most helpful in Italy. This should be your first stop when you arrive in Grottaglie to gather information on what you are looking for and where to eat!
“Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet is is the same with this art as with all others: only the capacity for it is innate; art itself must be learned and painstaking”. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
If you want to know how you can live more wholeheartedly, reconnect to your joy, creativity and purpose, download my Free Workbook above.
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