I only have a few photos to show you today. You see, little Dimpho was very ill when I met up with Ling-Ling and her family today.  After taking a few photos, we decided to postpone the shoot until next week… I did get a few gems but it’s very clear in them that she’s completely under the weather.

I did have some fun though I LOVE doing photoshoots in Newtown!

So consider this Part 1…

Sometimes I wonder why I lug around my big heavy 70-200mm lens to shoots, because I really don’t use it often.  However, after yesterday’s photo shoot with Tasneem’s family, I’m never leaving it at home!  I only used the long lens for this shoot, because I had to hide to take most of the photos. One year old Taulha liked me, but not with the camera in front of my face… in fact when he spotted me with the camera he just started crying! At one point, to let him forget about me, I was taking photos from behind a tree!  Because I was so far away from them, I just watched how they interacted with each other as a family  and I seriously love the more natural photos that have resulted.

I met Taulha and his mom and dad at their home.  We did a few shots at home, before we went to Emmarentia Rose Gardens for the rest of the session.  He’s such a little cutie, who was not interested in taking direction, and he was fascinated by the water fountains!

And then right at the very end of the shoot, I discovered his secret… peek-a-boo! I could have kicked myself! He let me come closer, still with my long lens though, and gave me beautiful smiles

I’m thrilled we went to the park actually, I just LOVE the autumn colours and the time of day was just perfect!

This is one happy photographer

I met the Milne family this afternoon at the Walter Sisulu gardens in Roodepoort for a family photoshoot.  For some reason, I haven’t been there in a while, so it was great exploring the place again.

It was especially nice because the family had never been there before, so I couldn’t resist taking them all the way to the waterfall too.  It’s so much fun having 2 boys in a family, and 4 year old Jack and 6 year old Jamie really made me smile today. They’ve got such a special relationship!

Jack spotted a spider, and James wanted to find it

It started calmly… and then this set ended in another wrestling match

Extended family shoots are always so much fun.  There are always plenty people to keep kids distracted and happy.  There are always a wide variety of kids ages… in this family the kids ranged from 2 to 16… which keeps me completely on my toes.  This means I have to think about catching up with little kids and posing them, as well as more appropriate poses for teenagers… and of course not forgetting all the adults.

Today’s family photo shoot was a LOT of fun.  We went from running through the fields of cosmos, to sitting in long grass, standing under trees, climbing on rocks… to posing against graffiti walls

Michelle works with me, and she’s been speaking about her horse Garland since I met her, so I was thrilled when she asked me to take photos of him with her family at their home north of Johannesburg.  She wanted a lifestyle shoot at home with a focus on Garland.  She wanted me to capture him as naturally as I could, and she wanted a few portraits as well as photos with Hayley and herself with Garland.

OMW he’s a beautiful horse! He’s only 4 years old, and he’s still learning… but oh so beautiful

Her daughter Hayley, is 19 months old, and loves feeding Garland carrots and giving him water in her little bucket.  It was amazing how quiet he became when she went on his back… so gentle!  Although he was quite spirited in the beginning of the shoot, and we did have to move Hayley out of the way a few times.

LOL and I love how dirty Hayley was by the end of the shoot typical toddler!

I must tell you, I struggled to cut down on the images for this blog post…

We then walked down the road to an arena so Michelle could ride him…

Hayley was so sweet, and brought Garland his ball to play with… and then decided she wanted it rather.  Garland was so sweet and gentle with her… and eventually she won…