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Beauty and the Best of the Rest

~ A lot of beauty and a little bit of everything else

Beauty and the Best of the Rest

Tag Archives: George Square

Toast of the Town Photography Workshop

13 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by masquerade21 in Glasgow, Photography, Scotland

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Blogger Event, blogger meet-up, blogger workshop, bloggers, Buchanan Street, cone-head statue, Dreghorn Photography, Edinburgh bloggers, flowers, George Square, Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games, Glasgow bloggers, ISO, Joes Bloggers, lion statue, Millennium Hotels, photography, pigeons, Royal Exchange Square, Shutter speed, Statues, Toast of the town #toastofthetown, workshop

So on Saturday I was lucky enough to attend the Toast of the Town photography workshop hosted by Millennium Hotel in George Square ( a gorgeous hotel, see for yourself at http://www.millenniumhotels.co.uk/millenniumglasgow ) in partnership with Joes Bloggers and Dreghorn Photography.

The workshop was very useful and I learned how to properly use the ISO and shutter speed settings on my camera. I also learned the most important rule of photography – NEVER USE AUTO! 

We learned the basics about ISO and Shutter speed and then we got to practice with our cameras to reinforce what we had learned.

I am so glad that I learned about how to use my camera’s shutter speed settings because now I can go from this:

20140712_130837To this :

20140712_131028We also learned how to pick the right background for portrait photos. My partner for background exercises was the lovely Laura from http://www.lifeasanhourglass.com/  and here are some of the images I took of her :

20140712_12373720140712_124116Then it was time to break for lunch.

20140712_132738I had a haggis bon bon, a mini burger and a venison sausage hotdog. I have never tried venison before but I was very impressed with the venison sausage, it was a little tough but tasted great. There were also gorgeous looking desserts on offer but I was too full to go and get one.

After lunch we visited George Square, Royal Exchange Square and Buchanan Street and were let loose to put our lessons into practice and take interesting photos.

I spent most of my time experimenting with what I had learned about ISO and shutter speed so I took a lot of rubbish photos but there were some that I liked:

Photos from George Square

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Photos from Royal Exchange Square

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Photo from Buchanan Street

20140712_150527At the end of the workshop I was given a nice goody-bag by Millennium Hotels which contained, among other things, a camera cleaning kit which will be very useful 🙂

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To see the pictures taken by other bloggers  during the workshop checkout #toastofthetown on twitter.

Thank you to Millennium Hotels, Joe’s Bloggers and Dreghorn Photography for a great workshop, I learned a lot!

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

 

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Mmm…Milllennium

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by masquerade21 in review

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Billionaire Shortbread, Breviewed, Chocolate, Christmas, Copthorne, Drops Gemstones, Eton Mess, fairground, George Square, Hotel Chocolat, ice-skating, Millennium, Millennium Hotels, review, Salted Caramels, Smiley Lick

 

As far as blogging gigs go, this one is the tastiest one that I have had yet. 
At the moment Millennium and Copthorne Hotels are trying to decide which chocolates from the Hotel Chocolat range they should place in the rooms of their hotel guests. This is no easy feat since the Hotel Chocolat range has a wide variety of beautiful chocolates to offer. So that’s where I come in, Milennium and Copthorne Hotels have sent me and various other bloggers a gorgeous bag filled with Hotel Chocolat goodies to review and to pick our favourite chocolate from. Don’t mind if I do 😉

Here is the lovely sample pack that I recieved and what was inside it :

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Obviously I couldn’t wait to dive in and start reviewing.

First of all I tried the Salted Caramels.

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This was the first time that I had ever tried salted caramel so I was quite excited. The chocolates were a good enough size to give me a nice satisfying bite when I tried them. The first taste that hit me was unfortunately the salt which, although I was expecting it, I found quite unpleasant. After that the caramel taste kind of kicked in which improved things and then I finally got to the not so salty chocolate which was a relief. I think that people who like salted caramel would enjoy these but these just helped me find out that I am not a fan of salt in my caramel. With regards to the packaging I think that it resembles the packaging for tablets which, lets face it, is not very enticing but the look and shape of the chocolates themselves was quite inviting. I would say that guests who like salted caramel would enoy these but it is unlikely that all guests would enjoy them so I don’t recommend these for Millennium Hotels.

After the Salted Caramels I opted for the Smiley Lick.

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This was a nice and simple chocolate lollypop. It was easy to open and the chocolate was lovely and thick so you get a real mouthful with each bite. I liked this so much that I couldn’t stop to note down my thoughts after just one bite. It ended up like this before I could stop eating it long enough to take notes :

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The chocolate was very smooth and it melts in your mouth almost instantly. Out of all of the samples that I recieved it was the only one that protected you from getting chocolate on your fingers since it was on a stick. Although this was so nice that I felt like eating it all in one go, I think it is a little too goofy looking and not quite elegant enough to look at home within Millennium and Copthorne Hotels. If it were up to me I would stock this at the hotels but reserve it for the child guests and give the adults something a bit more elegant.

When I finally managed to put down the Smiley Lick I moved on to the Billionaire’s Shortbread Selector.

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I thought that the presentation of the Billionaire’s Shortbread was quite appealing, to me it looks like something that would fit in with the elegant and luxurious feel of Millennium Hotels so it ticked that box straight away. Then I opened them. They have such a strong smell! They obviously smell of chocolate and caramel so nothing unpleasant but I was surprised by the strength of the smell, it hits you as soon as you open the packet and I found that a little off-putting. After that I expected these to be very rich and sickly-sweet. It turned out that they were really quite nice. Like the Salted Caramels they were a decent size and gave you a nice satisfying bite. I was pleasantly surprised by the filling, I had been expecting runny caramel and instead I got some kind of caramel-praline blend which I actually quite liked. I loved that the shortbread cookies were on top instead of at the bottom. I thought that was quite a nice twist. The Billionaire’s Shortbread is a contender.

Once I had sampled the Billionaire’s Shortbread I moved onto the Eton Mess Slab.

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This smelled exactly like strawberry ice-cream. It wasn’t an overpowering smell either, you just got a faint whiff of it as you lifted the chocolate to your mouth. It was lovely

When I bit into this it was so flavoursome. The bar is a blend of strawberry and vanilla chocolate with scattered pieces of strawberry, merigue and cookies on top and inside. Each bite tastes a litte different depending on what kind of mix of strawberry, meringue and cookies you get. I really really liked this but there was just one problem. It was so messy. In the image above on the right you can see all of the debris that fell off of the bar when I snapped a piece off to eat. When you are staying at a nice hotel you really don’t want crumbs all over you so if Millenium and Copthorne Hotels do decide to offer this to their guests then I think they should offer it as a small bite size bar or in a selctor pakage like the Billionaire Shortbreads.

Last but not least I tried the Drops Gemstones.

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These are my winner! I would strongly recommend that Millenium and Copthorne Hotels pick these to offer to their guests. Each drop is a fusion of white and dark chocolate and they just taste great. They are quite small and very moreish and I imagine that they would be something great to snack on while unpacking your case.

If I go to a Millennium Hotel in future it will be the Hotel in Glasgow which faces right on to George Square. I’d go at Christmas time when George Square has a nice big ice rink in it and is filled with fairground rides. I would hope that the chocolates that I found in my room would be Drops Gemstones as not only could I snack on them while unpacking, but they are also small and portable enough that I could fit them in my pocket and take them with me when I go on all of the rides at George Square.

So that’s what I think but what about you? If you went to a fancy hotel which of the chocolates above would you hope to find in your room? Which would you least like to find?

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

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