Vimage Media joined forces with Shemei Productions to do modelling photos together. The owner of Shemei is Shaney Maharaj who was also the contestant on Miss India Gauteng 2009. She won the “Miss Personality” title in that competition. Just to kick things off, I went to visit them and hang out a bit and take a few photos. Shaney came with her Mom and brought her very cute 4 year old cousin, Jaiden. He stole the show quite a few times from Shaney. Posing is in the family no doubt.
This shoot came about when I had an idea of just doing a portfolio at the Emmerentia Dam in Johannesburg. This dam is at the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens and it was in ideal place to try out portfolio photography. I asked a friend, Ruby (Rubia Manuel) to do this using a fancy dress, a ball gown if you will. Unfortunately a ball gown was not available on short notice but none the less she took the effort, brought a fancy dress and did her hair up so beautifully as well! She brought a bubble maker, just to add to the fun. Good going Ruby! I won’t blame her if she uses this for her “Shaadi” proposals
I experimented with some colour filtering in these shots to somewhat match the dry grass we experienced at the gardens. It is winter after all, and thus we made full use of the dryness. Thanks to Emily and Smija for helping with the reflector lighting and the dogs! Here’s some of the photos from the shoot.
I will be printing out my first Vimage Media landscape work based on two pictures I took at different places. Somehow, I feel these pictures really blend together so well. The left picture is a road (middle of nowhere really) on the way to Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province. The right picture is a peer on a guest farm in Machadodorp. If you want these prints, let me know
It was the long weekend in South Africa on the 10th of August which happens to be Women’s Day. What’s better than taking pictures with beautiful women on a nice long weekend away to Machadodorp in the always-magnificent province of Mpumalanga. The trip also included visiting Dullstroom, another lovely town. We were quite lucky to to enjoy some great sunny weather. It is quite certain summer is upon as as it is hotter than the last few weeks that we’ve had. All in all a great relaxing weekend of good laughs and a good braai. Having a quite dinner around the table was also quite different. So quite, it seems I chew lettuce quite loudly.
Went to a gathering of geeks (Netweb event hosted by Mongezi) in Capello’s in Ghandi Square. This is way into Marshalltown in Johannesburg and is quite a drive from Pretoria especially with the usual highway traffic. I loved the red lighting in this location and took some shots in the cafe. Not the best of cafe’s, I must admit, for they closed the kitchen by 7pm. Who eats supper before 7?! Anyway, the positive light of all this was the photo of Telana (the first photo). She owns an idea called “matchstick for an office”. An interest concept of giving one gift for another and then to hopefully arrive at an office (more here on http://onematchstick.blogspot.com/).
Photography isn’t just a way to snap a picture that composes well. Its meant to ingest emotion because one gets to see what the photographer feels at the moment of taking it. Even more amazing is being at the right time in history and go to places normal people would simply not endeavour to go. I was going through a list of photos that really changed the world and way we perceived it. Here’s a list of amazing history making photos through out history:
Since my acquisition of the 5D Mark II camera, I’ve been experimenting with it to see how much it can help me with my photography. Besides the usual bells and whistles, I was quite intrigued by its video capabilities. The problem with video on an SLR, as of now, cannot auto-focus like a video camera. It uses a painful process called contrast detect (here’s an article on auto-focus) which tends to be quite slow. There’s no way of doing action or live video with this one. One must use manual focus to get it right and that can be painful as well. Interestingly, the manual focus method works wonders on slow moving laid back video, where one would expect from a wedding, for example. This process would be great even for a Stanley Kubrick style film (a series of slow panning, painstaking movements for carefully planned shots). Therefore, if the work is slow moving where the shots can be planned ahead, the 5D Mark II shines supremely. A wedding video done professionally by Bruce Dorn:
A shoot that I personally loved about a singer who also studies foreign relations. A singer named Sihle. His demeanour was of a person who is laid back and articulate. Thus a proper setting would be one of class and glamour. In this one, the shoot was done in in a nifty cafe called Tribeca in Brooklyn Square. The setting inside was brilliant and made for a shoot with great ambience. The lighting was key to this one and tried a little variety with colour and black and white. It was pretty dark but the 5D Mark II camera with a wide aperture lens certainly helped me here and allowed me to be creative with low light glamour work. Two fantastic models joined us in this shoot, Portia and Sukena. The people were natural in their posing and certainly made my job easy. One only hopes his music is politically correct!
While Vimage Media runs in its own pace, I envision that it will start to grow in new areas and interests. In order to propel this, I’ve been speaking to a photographer named Disa (Dee Photography) who I met when she brought us Sylvia. You may notice a few posts of photos with Sylvia in the previous posts. Disa works through a fantastic network of people and has worked with some prominent people in South Africa. I loved her work and just meeting her, I could see how she likes her photos. Over the next few weeks I drew up an idea to work alongside Dee and she has agreed to work with Vimage. This collaboration will be huge for both of us. As it happens, it was her birthday recently on the 14th June. By accident, I called her on that day to find out she was having a party! She asked me to come and in the excitement, I bought a fine bottle of wine by Nederburg, a sauvignon blanc merlot, 2007 (yes, its a good year). I arrived at the party and we had a great time discussing how we could work together and for the first time I felt a synergy between us to get things going. I even brought my 5D Mark II camera and showed how I did my work. In that process I snapped a few photos of the birthday and it was joyous for everyone. The children were wonderful models to say the least. They were especially chuffed to see photos done in black and white.
A Wedding Anniversary shoot that took place Saturday night in St George Hotel and Conference Centre in Irene. Rudi and Sylvia were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary in style. They were eagerly waiting in the car for all the guests to arrive before they showed themselves. I then saw Sylvia for the first time walking up to the hall in a red dress and it was quite stunning. Always wanted to take photos of beautiful gowns and here’s the chance to take good ones. The wedding anniversary was a reaffirmation of their wedding vows and their lasting love. As it turn outs, the pastor was late for the event and in his own words, “I had to drive here at an ungodly speed”. That was funny indeed and it set the mood for a laid back celebration. As a surprise to me, Yvonne Chaka Chaka was a guest there too.
