Kids at the beach

Remember the days of happy snaps. When taking photos was cool and every one had a photo album with lots of prints of events from their lives. I remember those days too. Film was expensive and I had to be careful what i took pics of, but as a kid I had a blast taking images, and waiting with anticipation for the outcome.

Being a photographer and shooting images for a living, I sometimes get bored and it becomes just a job. I sometimes struggle for inspiration, and find I don’t always give it my best. Well that has all changed now, because of a little thing called an iPhone.

I never ever thought I would use my iPhone as a camera, but having it with me all the time, I started taking a few images and looking at things differently. trying to capture things in a different way so that i could look at them later and see the whole experience in my mind. Then I discovered there were lots more people like me, taking images with their phones and sharing them on the interwebs.  There is even a name for it, iPhoneography.

I discovered the simple pleasures of taking images from a different perspective, and sharing what I captured through the lens of my phone. Editing, coloring, etc all on the phone, and uploading it for like minded people to see. This was my introduction to instagram, an iPhone only app/site, where you can share images, gain inspiration, follow people, comment on images, etc etc.

It has renewed my passion for photography in a way I never thought possible, and now I look for something to capture every day. Even the simple things have beauty and character. It has also provided a much needed boost for my career, as the passion is back

Long live iPhoneograpy.

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I was lucky enough to be asked to shoot some stock for the worlds largest microstock library last week. It was not something I had done much of before, and I didn’t really know what to expect, but I agreed to go to the initial meeting to see what it was about.

I went off the the house they had rented in Sea Point, and the initial meeting went very well. I was told that I would be on probation for the first day, and if they were happy with me, I would then return and shoot for a further 5 days.

I arrived on the set at 8:45 on the Friday morning, not really knowing what to expect, and was soon in the deep end. Without going into too much detail on what we did, it was a non stop shooting spree from 9:30 till 5 every day. Over 7000 images per day, in many different settings, with a large variety on models. The most difficult was shooting the kids. Youngsters have a mind of their own, and don’t always want to do what you tell them. Needless to say they always booked more kids than were needed, so we would at least have a few co-operative ones all the time.

The 5 days of shooting was relentless, and I learned a great deal from the experience. It looks like ill be doing it one day a week from now on, and I am really looking forward to it.

Just a few images from my phone, as i never had much time to shoot anything else. hahaha

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I was asked to do another advertorial for Adidas. This time the brief was a bit different and they wanted it shot at an athletics track. They also wanted something a bit different i terms of angles etc, so I tried to shoot as low as possible to give a different perspective.

Now finding a track to use was the hard part. With it being school athletics season, everything was booked out. Luckily I managed to secure some time at the Stellenbosch university track, but could only use it for 2 hours from 2 to 4. The light is not ideal, and the wind was howling, but I managed to secure the lights a bit of a distance away, and pumped up the power, so i could get a decent fill.

The clent was happy, and I am awaiting their final choice. Once I have it, ill post the final ad here.

In the mean time, here are a few behind the scenes shots. Thanks to Alfred, my amazing assistant for the images and all the help.

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Final Imaged used

Recently I shot an advertorial for Adidas. The brief was quite simple, and I had to create it in the style of the magazine it was to be used in. The magazine is called Modern Athlete with a circulation of 35000 copies, distributed free to running clubs, sports shops and subscribers.

The idea was to shoot this at the beach and keep the look and feel of the magazine. I arranged models from Fanjam, and we started shooting early in the morning on Blaauwberg beach. Lucky it was a wind free day.

I used an 2 lights to fill in the shadows and had the models running to get the images I needed.

Here are some behind the scenes images.

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So Another shoot for Layla and Jeff gets going. this is the 5th one in the series we have done so far. Dranged is a new clothing label for guys (and soon Girls), with the emphasis on street wear. The theme was again to be a sexy, boy meets girl, girl falls for boy story.

We arrived at the house in Camps Bay at about 14H00 and started setting up.

I used one Elinchrom Ranger pack with one light, to fill in the shadows from the harsh sun. I shot at ISO 50, I love it. I feel it is better than iso100 and i get great results.

Here are some behind the scenes images

The models were great and put up with the hot sun. Never once complaining. I managed to get some decent images from this shoot.

Here are a few final images

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