All posts by Mike Turner

High Quality Royalty Free Stock Photos

Getting your hands on quality images is pretty easy to do, there’s lots of stock photography providers if you’re willing to pay for them. If however you’re working on a tight budget or bootstrapping, supply is much more limited, and generally the quality of free images is poor, unless you’re happy with cheesy amateurish photos. I would recommend avoiding the use of poor quality imagery with any of your work as this reflects poorly on you and your business.

So if you’re looking for images for a blog post, or presentation and you don’t want to pay a penny, i have some good news for you. Below are six sites that provide high quality royalty free photos for FREE, check them out for yourself. The image at the top of this blog post is from one of the sites, so you get a sense of what’s on offer.

Pixabay is site I stumbled upon, try to download a couple of images, the higher resolution images require you to create an account, but the lower resolution images 1920 x 1280 can be downloaded without an account. Some of the images are very good. Images are “Free for commercial use” and “No attribution required”.

Pixabay website screen grab, mike turner photography

Gratisography – free use as you please, high resolution pictures for personal and commercial projects. Just click on your selection and download the high resolution version. New pictures added weekly. No copyright restrictions.

gratisography-stock-photos

ISO Republic stock photography provides high quality, free photos for creatives covering architecture, nature, people, textrues, urban and more. It’s aimed at designers and developers who don’t have the budget for quality photos.

ISO republic

Magdeleine is a photo gallery for your inspiration. Magdeleine offer a daily pick and feature high resolution pictures

magdeleine stock photos

New Old Stock – Vintage photos from the public archives free of known copyright restrictions

old stock photos

PicJumbo – Totally free photos for your commercial and personal work. Only limitations include redistributing and selling

pic jumbo stock photos

Stocksnap.io – Beautiful free stock photos with hundreds added weekly. No attribution required either.

stock snap stock photos

Gutenberg,org – Public domain – offers over 49,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. Many of which are free from copyright (in USA). As public domain you can repackage this content in any number of ways to create your own products (check copyright law in your country first)

ulib.org Public domain with lots of free content

StockSnap  – they offer beautiful, high quality stock photos for just about any use you can think of.

Pexels – Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos. All photos are nicely tagged, searchable and also easy to discover through our discover pages.

Unsplash – Probably the best known of the free stock sites.

Burst – Burst was launched by Shopify to help new businesses find quality images for their marketing.

Foodiesfeed – Looking for high quality, mouth watering food photography, Foodiesfeed is where it’s at.

kaboompics – Kaboompics is one of the most popular sources of free images for lifestyle, interior design and specialised bloggers in World.

What’s the Perfect Gift for Anyone you Care about?

gift ideas

If you’re anything like me you struggle to find fresh ideas for gifts for the people in your life that matter most. You’ll know how easy it is to opt for the predictable choices such as flowers, chocolates, and perfume/aftershave, and if you’re a dad, socks seems a favourite.

While all these gifts have their merits, they don’t exactly shout originality.

So what combines the best aspects of gifts like flowers, with gifts like going for a meal at a fancy restaurant?

Well let’s first look at the type of gifts available and the benefit they offer.

Flowers are for sure a classic gift choice for mums, daughters, sisters, and partners, less so for the men in our lives. They bring beauty to our homes in the form of visual and smell stimulation, but only for a few days or a week, if we’re lucky, then they’re gone. Plants are a more long term solution if you’re looking to extend the shelf life of your gift. A typical bunch of flowers can set you back £30 – £40, plants are usually in the £10-£30 range.

Chocolates are another option open to you, but if you’re looking to spend a decent amount on close loved ones, then you’d have to buy a lot of chocolates for even a modest amount like £30, and most of us wouldn’t welcome having to eat through £30 worth of chocolate would we? Chocolates are a consumable gift so by their very nature aren’t a long term solution.

If we want to buy a gift that the recipient can keep for years to come, jewellery, or electronic items like phones, game consoles, TV’s and the like come to mind. But these will usually set you back a few hundred pounds at the very least.

Now another increasingly popular option is not to buy physical products like we have mentioned above, but instead opt for experience based gifts. Experience gifts are all about doing the things we might not do or have not done before but we fancy trying out. They are outside our normal daily routine.

Experiences vary from adrenaline fuelled pursuits like hot air ballooning and race days to more sedate pursuits like pamper experiences.

So which is best? Do you go for the product based gifts, and if so, consumable or keepsakes? People have so many possessions these days do they really need more stuff? If not then how about experience based gifts? Would they rather crank up the heart rate and jump out of a plane or pretend to be the next Nigel Mansell or would they prefer to have a more relaxing time at a spar?

Well how about combining the benefits of an experience with those of a product based gift, and not just a generic product but a personalised one? Well I am delighted to be able to offer you such a prize.

Our Photoshoots Gift Experiences are just what you’re looking for. A fun experience: having a professional photoshoot in a purpose build studio and a print keepsake from the session to keep for a lifetime memento of that personal experience.These shoots are great for the family to enjoy, for the kids, even for the pets in your life.

having makeup applied by our professional makeup artistOur Makeover photoshoots are even better with a professional hair and make-up styling session prior to the shoot, which is an experience in itself, and again you get to keep an image as a keepsake, all included in the gift. These experiences start at the special price of £49, which in the context of the other possible gifts options discussed above. is a bargain in our opinion and in the opinion of so many of our clients.

Check the range of photoshoot gifts here. They are available as gift vouchers so you can give the recipient the voucher on their birthday or whatever occasion you’re buying it for, and they can book at their own convenience, and with no expiry dates on vouchers, they don’t have to rush to get it booked in either.

Beauty Quotes

beauty quote
beauty quotations

“There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others”

– Mandy Hale

beauty posters

“Outer beauty pleases the EYE. Inner beauty captivates the HEART.”

– Mandy Hale

beauty posters

“Happiness and confidence are the prettiest things you can wear”

– Taylor Swift

beauty posters

“Whole life is a search for beauty. But, when the beauty is found inside, the search ends and a beautiful journey begins.”

– Harshit Walia

“If people were more concerned with how they looked on the inside, then on the outside, the world would be a nicer place to exist.”

– David Walsh

“Inner beauty never gets older”

– Unknown

“A great figure or physique is nice, but it’s self-confidence that makes someone really sexy.”

– Vivica Fox

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

– Confucius

beauty posters

“Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.”

– John Ray

“The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.”

– Francis Bacon

beauty posters

“Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

beauty posters

beauty posters

“I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.”

– Anne Frank

“The world’s biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.”

– Chanakya

“Taking joy in living is a woman’s best cosmetic.”

– Rosalind Russell

“For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.”

– Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

“Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.”

– Aldous Huxley

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”

– Saint Augustine

“The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Beauty is in the heart of the beholder.”

– H. G. Wells

beauty posters

“Beauty is whatever gives joy.”

– Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Beauty is not caused. It is.”

– Emily Dickinson

“To love beauty is to see light.”

– Victor Hugo

“There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.”

– Maria Mitchell

A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.

– George Meredith

“Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.”

– Aristotle

“Beauty is a fragile gift.”

– Ovid

“Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal.”

– Dante Alighieri

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”

– Albert Einstein

“Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.”

– David Byrne

“Things are beautiful if you love them.”

– Jean Anouilh

“Let us live for the beauty of our own reality.”

– Charles Lamb

“The problem with beauty is that it’s like being born rich and getting poorer.”

– Joan Collins

“Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?”

– Clara Schumann

“Integrity reveals beauty.”

– Thomas Leonard

Brigette Bardot’s 1960’s Glamour with Modern Day Twist Makeup Tutorial

makeup tutorial
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60s makeup tutorial finished 60s makeup tutorial finished 60s makeup tutorial finished

This Makeup Tutorial was demonstrated by Professional Makeup Artist Stevie Brook Colley you can find more about Stevie at:

Twitter: @CoileyStevie
Instagram: steviebrookmua

I created this look based up Brigette Bardot’s 60’s glamour , Smokey eye and nude lip, yet show how it can be used in modern day with a sleek hair up.

Eyebrows:

Mac Brun and Embark through the brows using a slanted eyeliner brush.

Eyes:

Topshop grunge stick all over the lid and blended with a mac 217 brush, blended slightly under the eye finished with eye liner and false lashes.

Face:

I primed the face with a pore minimising primer and used mac face and body in c4, to contour I used mac sculpting powders and mac soft and gentle to highlight the top of the cheekbones and down the centre of the nose and Cupid’s bow

Lips:

Prepped with mac prep and prime for lips, then lining the lips with a Nude lip liner and filling a nude lipstick.

East Asian Makeup Tutorial

asian makeup social share
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east asian makeup

east asian makeup

east asian makeup

Professional Makeup artist Hollie Kempton has provided the latest makeup tutorial covering the topic of East Asia Makeup application. You can contact Holly on Facebook here

Step by step – East Asian Makeup.

1. Start by prepping the skin, I’m using ‘Clinique daily defence moisturizer’ and I’m putting that all over the skin.

2. Next I’m using ‘Fix plus’ by Mac to give the skin the refreshing glow.

3. Then I’m adding ‘Baby skin – instant pore eraser primer’ for a good base for the makeup.

4. I’ll start by doing the eyebrows using my Sleek pallet in the colour dark. Using the wax to start off with, getting a sleek looking brow and go over it with the powder completely filling in the brow. Using the eyebrow brush by Real techniques.

5. Underneath the eyebrows I will apply a concealer, to give the eyebrows more of an edge finished look, with a flat C170-4 brush.

6. Go back over the eyebrows with powder if needed.

7. Next I’m applying ‘Select cover up’ by Mac NC20, all over the lid for a base to help the makeup not slide during the day. Blended with a 217 brush by Mac.

8. Applying ‘Buck’ from the Urban decay naked 1 pallet in the crease of the eye to create a deeper socket line and again blend up with a 217 brush.

9. Using the colour ‘Verve’ by the Urban decay Naked 2 pallet apply all over the lid using flat eye shadow brush by Fraulein.

10. To get the full intensity of the purple pigment, I’m using 3 different purples. First I’ll be applying from ‘Elf purple pigment’ colour in the crease and outer corner of the eye lid. Using an angled brush by Royal & Langnickel.

11. The next purple I’ll be using is from the Electric pallet by Urban decay using shade ‘Urban’. Again into the crease and outer corner for more intensity.

12. To get a darkened out edge I’ll be using ‘Young punk’ by Mac. It has a mixtures of colours as it’s from the Mineralise eye shadow line. Also apply some fix plus to your brush so you can get the full effect of the pigment.

13. To get a perfect shaped eyeliner flick, I used a bit of tape from the end of the eyebrow to under your lower lashes.

14. Using a mixture of the new ‘Benefit push up liner’ and Mac ‘Black track B43’ to create a nice eyeliner finish.

15. Now take off the tape from under the lash line and you should have a nice eyeliner finish.

16. Next apply a tiny bit of mascara, I’m using the ‘Collection 2000’ by Max Factor.

17. Apply some false eyelashes to enhance the look, using Duo glue and tweezers.

18. Apply the ‘Elf Purple pigment’ under your lower lashes to enhance the purple eyes, with a small angled brush and blend with the Urban decay – Naked 3 blending brush.

19. Apply ‘Select cover up’ by Mac over blemishes and dark circles with a concealer brush.

20. Next for the foundation, I mix ‘Face and body N1’ by Mac, with ‘Studio Sculpt NW25’ by Mac. I mix the two to because I don’t want the end result looking too oily and wet. Applied with an Expert face brush by Real techniques.

21. Next apply ‘Set powder’ by Mac to stop the makeup from sliding. Apply with a Powder Brush by Real Techniques.

22. For contouring, starting at the top of the cheek bones, I apply ‘Sculpting powder’ by mac with a Contouring brush by Real Techniques. Using it over the cheekbones and jawline and temples.

23. After contouring, apply some bronzer over the cheekbones, I’ll be using ‘Baked blush’ by Elf.

24. I’ll apply highlighter, sitting on top of the cheekbones by using the product ‘Urban decay Illuminator’.

25. Apply ‘Spice’ by Mac Lip pencil.

26. Next apply ‘Baby lips’ by Maybelline to give your lips Hydration in prep for the lipstick.

27. Lastly, apply ‘Hug me’ by Mac all over the lips to give your make up the beautiful finish.

Hope you enjoyed the makeup tutorial. Check out our Makeover Photoshoot Experiences which are also available as Gift Vouchers