A viewfinder full of Angry Elephant.

A while back me and my mother and son went on holiday to stay in my brother's house in Alexandria, close to Kenton on Sea in the Eastern Cape.

My brother , Jaco , and his wife, Tanya, are game rangers at a luxurious game reserve called Shamwari, between P.E and Grahamstown.

They use the little house in Alex as a getaway on their weekends off. Whilst we were there we had the run of their house.

Jaco invited us to come and stay with them for a day or so on the reserve. We gladly accepted. While we were there , Jaco took us on a game drive in the Shamwari Land Cruser.

We spotted lots of game. At some point we spotted a lone elephant bull walking across the plains.
Jaco decided to drive closer as we were a long way of on a koppie. We set off in the general direction of where we saw the elephant.

As we rounded a turn , we were confronted by an angry bull elephant. This guy was not a happy camper. He was in must and had a terrible temper. I found myself clicking away feverishly while everybody else cowered in their seats and Jaco negotiated the terrain whilst trying to keep us out of the elephant's way. Tanya later remarked that all she heard whilst trying to hide under the dashboard was my camera's shutter clicking like crazy.

Upon retrospect I realize that I had complete confidence in my brother's driving skills and knowledge of animals. Because I could trust him to keep us safe, I could concentrate on getting the photo's I wanted.

Maybe that was a good lesson to learn in life. If I surround my self with people I can trust, then I can be free to pursue my dreams in life.

a Little inspiration

Sometimes we all need a little inspiration. A little kick under the rear end to get you going again. To wake you up to new ideas and opportunities.

Last weekend was such a time for me.
Me and my Wife had to fly to Cape Town to attend her sister's wedding. I promised my sis in law some wedding pics as a wedding gift. A photographer friend of mine , Sybrand, invited us to sleep at his place. A friend of my wife's , Pete, offered us the use of his 4x4 for the time. (thanks Pete and Sybrand !)

And so it was that we ended up in Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon. Sybrand was busy setting up for a wedding expo over the weekend , and I had the chance to see some of his work for myself.

Man , was I flabbergasted !!!
This guy's wedding portfolio was awesome! It was such a treat to look and see and learn. I came home with a new sense of direction for what I wanted in my own photography business. It really helps sometimes to just sit back and look for new ideas. Find some new inspiration.

And so here I am planning new things. Setting up equipment. Feeling positive and happy about what I'm doing and where I'm going.

Tomorrow (Monday) I drive to Johannesburg , so that on Tuesday I can hang out of a Cessna 172 and photograph parts of J'burg as an assignment.

Will post some pics when I am back.

in the meantime here is a pic or two of Sis in laws wedding :

.

Time Flies

It has been a LONG time since I last posted on this site.

Time has moved on. I now live in Bloemfontein, Free state , in South Africa. I have gone from being a sales clerk over the counter a large camera department store to being a full time pro photographer.

This change especially has moved me to come back to blogger and share my experiences. I decided that it would be a nice idea to report on my jobs and assignments as they happened , and so share some of the things that I learn as I learn and make sense of it.

I am not going to promise to post every day, because I know that that will not happen. I will however post as I have news and as assignments teach me valuable lessons in this trade.

So . Sit back. Hang tight. And let us see where this takes us... ;-)

PS: As part of going pro I have built my own website. As I am not really very advanced when it comes to web publishing this was a major achievement for me. I do find that a lot of my work comes from this website.

You can check it out here : http://www.perfectpic.co.za