My experience with the Helmut Newton photo machine!
Today I went into the city centre with two uni friends, Hayley and Liz. Liz lives about 6 hours away so I won’t be seeing her until late September. Before she travels home tomorrow we all wanted a day out and we decided to go for a little look around the shops and some lunch.
As I was heading into the city I realised that the Helmut Newton machine was in town already! I was planning on going later in the week but I thought it would be nice for us all to go together to have a photo, and thankfully I wasn’t wearing sweatpants and uggs. Here is my experience:
When we arrived in the entrance there were commemorative booklets about Newton in the foyer for people to take away, I must confess I picked up a few extra to keep! As we made our way up to the machine section of the store, there was a little bit of a queue and all together we probably waited around 40 minutes including makeup (but during our wait the computer processing the images crashed so the machine was out of action for a little while.)
Inside there were NARS makeup artists and a rail of clothes and some shoes and accessories. I should point out though that the clothes were all size 8 and 10 so if you are differently sized its probably worth wearing something of your own that you like. My friend is a 14 and since she was wearing jeans and a hoodie, asked if she could bring something off the shop floor and she was allowed, but I’m not sure if that happens all the time so its best to wear something cute to be on the safe side. I was wearing a dress and decided to stay in my own clothes, but I had my makeup done (fuschia lips!!!) and changed into some topshop heels. I told the makeup artist to do whatever she wanted, since I wear neutral makeup usually and I thought it would be fun. She kept my eyes neutral with pinky shades and added doll-like blush and bright lips which was fun because I never wear more than a slick of benetint and gloss on my lips. She was pretty excited because apparently everyone else wanted nude makeup or just eyeliner so I think I made her day.
As I was about to enter the photo bit I realised that the strawberries I had eaten earlier had stained my cream dress so I was limited with my poses, I had to make sure I held my dress over the stain as it was too late to get changed. Oh well!
The machine itself was cool, the area is private so you don’t feel self concious and even the makeup area is closed off from the main store. The machine is open from 12pm till 6pm and it seemed to be always in action, but the queue was bearable unless you were in your lunch break. Normally one print per person is selected because of time constraints but my friends and I got two, one all together and then one individual one each. I don’t however, think they advertise this fact and we had to call back an hour later to get the second print once they had time to do it. My only criticism is that you don’t get to see the images that you take, you wait outside and the print that the photographer selects as the best image is brought out to you. (How very ANTM panel! haha) I would have liked to see the rest of my pictures since I cringe when I look at mine, but I guess that would happen no matter what the picture. I’m hoping to go back with another friend, the pictures are such good quality (and free) that its almost like going to a professional photographer to have a nice picture done (minus any awkwardness.)
Here are the images! I don’t have my scanner set up here so these pictures of the pictures will have to do for now!!! Click here, here, here and here for bigger images.
Overall I think it was a fabulous idea, and a fun experience, especially as something to do with friends. Go now!!!!
I had originally wanted these in a pinky nude colour but they only had the size below me and although they fit, they were so uncomfortable and I knew getting them would mean they would end up at the back of my wardrobe, which they just don’t deserve. The beauty of these is that I can change the ribbon for different occasions.
