Mike contacted me a few weeks ago to organise this photoshoot for his wife’s 60th birthday.  I met them at their house in Victory Park to start the shoot in their garden with the dogs, and we ended it at Delta Park.

It was nice having a gentle shoot in a garden with a short walk through the park… I realised today how much of a workout my photoshoots are for my clients.  One of the things I did enjoy was trying to capture their dogs… they’re border collies, and the youngster Fletcher was such a bundle of energy… running around their garden at a rate of knots!  And the older dog, who was 16, did her best to stay up with young Fletcher I’m glad they did part of their shoot at their home with their dogs… it makes the photos just that more real, and reflective of their lives.

It was quite amazing to see how different Delta Park was compared to the shoot I did there a few weeks ago… the cosmos flowers have all but disappeared.  It was lovely going to park with Heather and Mike… because they stay so close to it, they walk their dogs there all the time. With Heather being so interested in the environment, it was interesting listening to her talk about the trees and which ones were indigenous and how the park had changed over the years.

Melanie Minnaar from Halo contacted me last week… she needed some photos for her social media profiles as well as some photos suitable for the press.

And we used the most amazing location too… a restaurant in Parkmore called Eatery JHB... are the textures incredible?  I’ve heard that their food is amazing too, so I’m definitely going to try it!

Look out for her in the coming months on Twitter and other social spaces as she starts planning this year’s Twitter Blanket Drive. Last year it was big, and it sounds like it’s going to be even bigger this year… such a worthwhile cause to be a part of!

One of my colleagues got a tattoo last year, and he asked me to take photos of it today.  The tattoo stands for the form of Kung Fu that he practises, Jow-Ga Kung Fu,  and he had it done in Hong Kong last year while on holiday.

It’s a pity you can’t see the details in this work of art, but the tattoo artist even tattoed brush strokes in the letters.  It’s just incredible!

So this week is Week 2 of the Brooke Snow Advanced Pro photography course that I’m busy doing, and this week’s assignment was about posing.

Because my family shoot that I had booked for Sunday afternoon was cancelled, I asked my sister to meet me in the veld (same location as last week) for a quick shoot after work today.  I’m thrilled with the results.

For my preparation, I compiled a rough pose list as per the instructions… rough because I have a list of inspirational images anyway on Pinterest, so I just looked for a few more to supplement it.  That wasn’t new to me, I tend to prepare like that with all my shoots, especially when I’m shooting in an environment that I’m unfamiliar with.  No, I don’t look at images from that particular location, but I have a rough idea from my pose list what I’m going to be aiming for.

What also wasn’t new to me, was “working the pose”.  I could be better at it though, so this weekend I really worked on that… and it showed in the results of the boudoir shoot I did on Sunday (that you can’t see yet), and with today’s shoot.  It made such a difference.

One thing that I LOVED in this week’s tutorials were the posing guides, and Brookes “rules” for posing.  I know them instinctively, and I’ve read them… but the videos just hit home, and there were some small adjustments that I made this weekend as a result that’s made a huge difference.  I like the images more… and because of that, I really really struggled to only choose 3 for today’s assignment.

So, for today’s assignment results, I kept Elaine in the same spot.  She really didn’t move much at all, I just changed where she looked and what she did with her arms and legs.  One thing that did change during the shoot was the sun… I was ecstatic when the clouds moved while I was busy and I got the beautiful golden summer light (it was about 5:30pm)

The rest of my favourites from the session can be found in an album on Facebook

My first photoshoot for 2012, and what a special one it was!! Karuna and Bei Li have been friends for a number of years, and Bei Li is about to emigrate to New Zealand with her husband… so they decided to have a photoshoot to get proper photos to celebrate their friendship.

I wish Bei Li and her husband safe travels… and all the luck and best wishes for their new adventure