This weekend I worked – we were shooting a short film to be submitted to Cannes for their 2012 selection.

Thursday: [the weekend started on Thursday]

Hanging out with Sherrie and Maria and talking about boys...

Dan Patlansky playing to me from Cape Town over the internet - I got a personal shout-out which made my night.

Sherrie and I discussed tu-tu's and played ballerinas

Sherrie let me play with her toys

Friday I took the train up North for the short film.

The guy from Fringe...

Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were one big blur of movie mania:

Penny helping me learn my lines

Dressing scared for the chase scene/nightmare

Dressing up as the journalist meeting her childhood obsession

Dressing up as the journalist meeting her childhood obsession

Dressing up for the "dream sequences" (happy)

Chief sound mistress Lou

El Director

Illegal foods

Wardrobe and flapjacks: Sal

Paul/Johnny consufed as to why a girl like me would wear a boot like "that"

Dressing up as an idealist - oh wait - that's me

It's a wrap and I'm in a short film

B&W make me feel like a vintage film star

So who wants to hire me next? - Actress for hire - will work for wardrobe

Seriously though – I love acting for film – I hope I get the opportunity to do it again soon.

A cat simply cannot resist climbing into a suitcase.

It’s FRIDAY which marks 1 week until I fly to Cape Town, and the start of my last weekend in the UK until I come back in 2012.

My schedule goes a little something like this:  Travel for the short film – Friday – Tuesday (28th-1st November) act in said short film with manically long hours to finish on schedule. 2nd November – travel back to Woking to collect Summer S.A. suitcase and put wintery clothes worn on set but off screen into storage. Travel into London that afternoon/evening. Have as much fun as possible evening of the 2nd and 3rd (Wednesday&Thursday) – stay tuned for a bumper “weekend in pictures” . Breakfast at either St Ali or The Botanist on the 4th November  - last piccolo at Kaffeine – then to Heathrow to not miss my flight.

I arrive in Cape Town November 5th – I know I said I would try to fly via Johannesburg to see all you lovely Jozi people and squeeze in the odd shoot or two – but there simply isn’t time.

November 5th I step off the plane, shower, then have an 11am tea with my mother and godmothers (yes, I have many godmothers – if you meet my mother my personality will probably make a whole lot more sense than it does on the screen.) I then spend the afternoon hanging out with Princess Natasha (my baby sister) and one or two other precious friends who want to immerse themselves in the explosion of my suitcase. I then head into town to deliver a promised hug and a handshake to a stranger - and to further complicate the situation will be in lingerie as is declared to be my bridesmaidly duty for Emma’s hen night which kicks off straight after aforementioned introduction. The hen night goes on.. all night apparently – and then from there we head into her kitchen tea (hungover with her grandmother – fun) and then I have the evening free to enjoy a Cape Town sunset and watch Dan Patlansky.

Why am I giving you my schedule? So as to avoid polluting the timeline of my followers with continuous question answering on twitter.

When will I be back in London? I’m not sure… not before 2012 as I won’t know whether I’ve made the top 10 or not (all I know is that I’m in the top 100) in FHM’s Top 100 Models of 2012 until January 2012 – so I’ll be in Cape Town parading around in swimwear at fashion shows and the like until then. I will be back though – I have a return ticket to London and no winter work for Cape Town (Europe’s summer) at this point in time…

It’s been an amazing six months – I started off in Dubai…

My view from bed...

Where I met my darling friend Mary-Anne

I visited the largest desert in the world…

I visited Oman…

where I had an altercation with the bottom of a swimming pool late one evening…

and went back to Dubai unable to wear any makeup for a few weeks

one week after the incident - no makeup or special effects and lucky to be alive.

I then went to the UK… where I

met some interesting people at Collect-a-mania

rediscovered freedom

and had my first catwalk experience walking the ramp at Brighton Fashion Week

backstage at Masato

I went back to Dubai…

My view from bed... there were no curtains, only one way glass.

yeah... I'm going to use the treadmill...

And then I went to Lebanon

wrote lots of postcards to my mum (whose father was from Lebanon)

did some sightseeing

Took lots of photos (blog post coming in SA when back at a PC)

I visited what was left of a 6000 year old castle

and then I headed back to the UK… where I have been exploring for the last 3 months

I went to the UK Comicon

I watched Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler live in Nottingham

I viewed the world through rose tinted glasses

I have so many photos to show you… they will come… but for now I’ve got lines to learn and “Marilyn the journalist” to turn into for the short film we are busy with…

Every day is an adventure. I look forward to seeing you Cape Town – 8 sleeps until I land.

Remember that awesome photographer doing that awesome Project 50 thing I told you about yesterday? Well not only did he shoot me for day 11, but he also shot me for day 12.

Rick ordered an “o flash” online and decided I was a good test subject for his first shoot with it.

An “O flash” or “ring flash” is a ring of light that fits around the lens of the camera. Here is a picture to illustrate.

As you can see, the o-flash can be attached to the camera which makes it a popular choice for photographers at festivals or on the move as they do not have to carry bulky softboxes (those big square boxes on stands covered in sand bags and often with wires connecting to a generator or plug point) or beauty dishes (those big satellite looking lights.)

The advantage of a ring flash or “o flash” is that it distributes light towards the subject at the same angle that the camera is shooting the subject – it is attached to the camera so cannot be 45 degrees more to the left than the “line of capture” for the camera etc – the ringlash/o-flash will always send out light waves parallel to the light waves bouncing back onto the lens.

This illumination would be the enemy of a photographer trying to create mood and feeling through high contrast and dark shadows -but for the photographer hoping to catch as much detail as possible – it is ideal.

this is an example of dramatic lighting caused by one light hitting me from my right - go to the aforementioned yesterday's post to see the detail

Now where the o-flash and ring flash can especially shine is in portraiture. Faces are tricky things to light well, noses can make odd shadows, and brow bones often cast shadow into the iris of the eye, causing the eye colour to appear darkened and dulled. Many photographers restore brightness with photoshop, but there is only so far that most images can be pushed before they start to look like they are stolen from low budget beauty catalogues. The down side of all of this illumination is that without shadows the face can appear flat or one dimensional – but I’m all for variety – and in this case eye focus – when it comes to photography.

When Rick unpacked his “o-flash” and asked if he could take a picture of my eyes I was so excited I literally jumped up and down.  Most photographs I appear in show very little of the colour of my eyes – I have pretty strong bone structure (so easily made shadows) and without light shining directly into my eyes they tend to look dark blue/grey.

This shot was originally going to be a crop of my eyes only, as a result I paid zero attention to what my mouth was doing, didn’t really apply makeup to the rest of my face save for  some hurriedly applied and later nibbled lipstick (cause eye make-up looks weird without lipstick) .

Rick went for a wider crop because he felt it worked better with the image and his chosen text and the layout – and I’m ok with that because it shows off more of the awesome bokeh that we see appearing from the Ritz behind me.

There is a full lighting setup explaingin the distances and the other light Rick used on this post on his website. There is also a video where Rick explains how he lit the shot while Adam and I play silent supporting roles – mine being the role of “manic smiler.”

Notice the "0" in my pupil

One really cool thing about the ringlash/o – flash is that you can tell when one is used by the “o” that appears in the pupil of the subject. In fact with beauty shoots, if you look carefully at the model’s pupil’s you can generally work out the lighting setup for the shoot – so long as the eyes are not photoshopped to hide the reflections.

You should definitely take a look at this photo in its original enormous size on Rick’s flickr to take in the detail and the unique lighting (and pupil reflection.)

Here’s a behind the scenes shot taken by Adam Rhoades. You can see the Ritz (which is where the awesome bokeh comes from) Rick taking his photo, and me trying to keep my eyes wide open and my face as neutral as possible in the wind.

Tell me what you think… and if you haven’t seen the main image before, it probably means you aren’t following me on Twitter or Facebook – which would be a good thing to do if you want to keep up to date with my shenanigans.

I don't know who wrote the bio... I don't like boybands (who does?) - except the Beatles - best pop group ever!

Thank you to Rio for bringing me a copy of the magazine, all the way from South Africa so that I could scan in the above photograph as well as the whole page:

Yep – I beat Ke$ha, Selena Gomez, Britney (99 – she barely made it this year), Kim Kardashian, Eva Longaria and a coupe of people I’ve never heard of. I had never entered a beauty pageant before or any sort of competition like this – but thanks to a series of online votes from the interwebs at large I was honoured with an official sexy stamp which I find puzzling, amazing, delightful and with a history of childhood bullying and low self esteem, a tad bizarre.

Thanks to you – my lovely readers who voted  - without your help and my crafty omission of all evidence that I’ve been wearing Ugg boots for a large part of the year – I would never have been given this incredible title of the 89th sexiest woman in the world 2011.

A huge huge huge thank you to Kass Photography who took the photograph FHM used as well as many other amazing shots of me. She is so talented, suo supportive and so patient. If you need a photographer for anything I urge you to contact her and see if she is available.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for all of the time you must have taken to vote, and for your continuous support  and assistance in achieving my dreams.

~Update~

This October of 2011 the FHM Top 100 Models of 2012 were announced. FHM have placed me on that list and have now opened the votes to the general public for Top 10 positions. If you are based in South Africa you can SMS “Model 68″ to 33441 or if you are somewhere else in the world you can vote for me online by clicking the button on the right hand side of this page until your fingers twitch.

Thank you again – I simply cannot thank you enough –  xox Sam

Cape Town’s “Southern Ink Xposure” tattoo convention brought an assortment of alternative inked models to the mother city, and we all know that there’s nothing quite so inspiring to photographers as a uniquely beautiful girl. Southern Ink Xposure was painfully timed to compete with the birthday weekend of yours truly, so alas there was not much model grabbing and photo taking on my behalf, but luckily one or two of the beauties stayed behind, and I was given the opportunity to work with a suicide girl and official suicide girl photographer. Lumo Suicide (the name of this particular Suicide Girl) asked me to curl her hair and make her look a mix of classically beautiful and interesting. The pink heart is obviously not present on the purchased set.

Photographer: TaLamia Photography

Model: Lumo Suicide

Hair and Make-up Artist: Samantha Laura Kaye

Pro Tip: To get the structure behind these curls I lightly finger-combed “Grip” Mousse  (from the OSIS range by Schwarzkopf ) through her hair, then slowly, section by section made tight GHD curls. While the curls were hot, as soon as I released them from the iron, I rolled them neatly into a tight curl and pinned them with a grip clip and some tissue (to prevent tension marks where the clips grip). I then added hairspray, left the curls for around 45 min, and then took them down and combed away any stray hairs. Finally I used the Loreal “Play Ball” shine serum (which is a spray!) to bring out the texture and colour.

This shoot is one I smile upon the memory of. The photographic industry is an industry laden with weight upon one’s reputation, yet so often I find the reputations, especially the big ones misleading. Sean Laurenz is as talented as he is genuine, taking photographs that are masterpieces from their first sight as large postage stamps on the back of his canon, to their reception after his careful and genius processing – which unlike some he does entirely himself. Nena Hugo surpassed all of my expectations, fluidly migrating from fashion icon to bohemian beach babe with endless energy and exceptional attention to detail, as well as standing as a phenomenal stylist in her own right. Nick held palm leaves, reflectors and smiles on our faces with equal aplomb. This whole experience was a treat for me

Make-Up and Hair: I kept her skin as translucent as possible with MAC’s Face and Body Foundation, contoured the cheeckbones with MAC’s D Powder in “golden” and then applied “Sunbasque” blush to her cheeks. Eyes were kept simple using MAC eyeshadow in “cork”, “vanilla”, “brule” and “good as gold”, eyes were lined and smudged with MAC’s “Costa Riche” Eye Pencil. Brows were groomed with clear brow gel and MAC’s “Lingering” Eyebrow Pencil. Lips were lined with MAC “Subculture” lip pencil and then filled with MAC’s “Pink Clash” (limited) gloss. Her hair was damp and simply did its own beautiful thing.

Photographer: Sean Laurenz

Photographer’s Assistant: Nick Raper

Model: Nena Hugo from Trigger

Stylist: Nena Hugo

Hair and Make-Up: Samantha Laura Kaye

Shot in Cape Town, 2009

“A Moment in Time” is the brainchild of Boss Models and Artist Management along with Bell-Roberts Gallery. It is an exhibition of photographic works by some of South Africa’s most talented fashion photographers, stylists and hair and make-up artists, all of which are 1/1 and signed by the artist. The exhibition opened on the 22nd of October, and patrons are invited to bid for the works online up until the 30th of October 2009.  All proceeds go to “Missing Children SA Charity.”

I worked with Bevan Davis for some of the images in his part of the exhibition. Bevan asked for make-up that was simple and clean, but still sexy rather than nude. Bevan is not only a fantastic photographer, but also a master of post production, all of which he does himself. For me, Bevan’s series is timeless, and I gaze upon the images the way I do a painting, rather than a fashion photograph.

Make-up:  Kudzani has amazing bone structure and in order accentuate said bone structure I focused the majority of my time with this make-up look on her skin. I started with Face and Body Foundation (for hydration and glow) thinly spread over her entire face. Mixing it with some “Golden Bronze” loose powder, I used this paste to further accentuate her collar bones, cheek bones, shoulders etc. Witha #187 brush I then buffed in some Studio Fix Fluid, lightly over her nose, cheeks and forehead where needed. This allowed me to matte certain parts of her skin, and further even out her skin tone. Using the #224 brush I buffed studio finish concealer into the few remaining discolorations on her skin, with the exception of the skin around her eyes. Around her eyes I used Studio Moisture-Cover in a NW shade. The NW shade neutralizes the purple undertone often found around the eye area on medium dark – dark skin, whilst the texture of moisture-cover is lightweight, glossy and moisturising, allowing it to care for and moisturise the eye area (rather than drying into a matte line accentuating paste) and it is glossy enough to bounce light out of the shadow created around the eye socket, much like the theory behind the touche eclat and other such eye-brightening creams. Finally I dusted her skin with Mineralize Skinfinsh Natural, and further accentuated portions of her face and her body with Mineralise Skinshimmer. For her lips I used “Part-Nude” gel-liner lip pencil (limited ed.) followed by clear Lip Conditioner. I lined her eyes with “Fascinating” Kohl Liner and coated her lashes with Prolash Mascara.

Photographer: Bevan Davis

Model: Kudzani from Boss Models

Make-up: Samantha Laura Kaye

Shot in Studio in 2009

If you would like to bid or see the rest of the exhibition click here

Photographer: Justin Polkey

Model: Megan Wright (center),  Stephanie Stander (Trigger)

Hair and Make-up: Samantha Kaye

Art Director/Stylist: Hayley Baxter

Location: Noordhoek

The beautiful Gabi-Lee from Boss Model Management.

Main Make-Up ingredients: MAC: Face and Body Foundation finished with mineralize skinfinish powder and Prep+Prime Transparent finishing powder , brow pencil in “lingering“, eye-shadow “shroom”, “vanilla”, “malt”, Pro Longlash mascara in “PitchBlack”, lip pencil: “Redd”, lipstick: “Lady Danger“.

Main Hair ingredient: A great blow-dry, OSIS “magic”. I simply tied a pony, sectioned off the “fringe” part, and then combed the front into a “swirl” rather than “teen-punk’s” signiture girl-do.

Photographer: Stphane Santinelli

Model: Gabi-Lee Smit from Boss

Hair and Make-up: Samantha Kaye

Location: Cape Town

2009