Oh I do love it when clients are fun and adventurous!! And this family has it in spades!!

Desere booked this photoshoot a few months ago and she was very specific about going to Newtown.  She wanted the urban vibe and mentioned using the graffiti walls… I was thrilled.

I had an absolute ball with this shoot… partly because I got to take photos where I’d been dreaming of going for ages… in the old Park station next to the Mandela bridge! Travis mentioned while we were at the graffiti walls that he’s always wanted to go into the station and he’d really love to have there photos done there, and I warned them that I didn’t think we’d be able to get in.  Every time I’d tried before, it was barricaded or swarming with security who’d turned me away.  Not this time though… the gate were open and even though we were being watched by police on the bridge (who were at a film set that was set up on the bridge), we had free reign

And it was SO SO SO worth the effort

He was stretching his dragon wings…  because he had a dragon hair style

LOL he was so cute here… trying to copy the expression of this “sad” man.  He couldn’t quite get the winking, so used his hand.  The reason his hand is on the floor is because he thought that’s where the claw would go

I had the most incredible day today at the Branson Centre in Braamfontein, and because I cannot possible do it all justice in one blog post, I’m going to split it into 2 parts.

I was privileged to be asked to take the photos at an event hosted by Richard Branson at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurs today.  It was aimed at helping local entrepreneurs, and took the form of a speed dating session where a whole host of local and international businessmen and entrepreneurs mentored a few Branson Centre entrepreneurs.  It was amazing to walk around and listen to the conversations.  What an incredible opportunity for these young guys, as the advice was readily forthcoming, and in some cases really good business connections were made.

Tony Banks with the guys from Afropark

Jean Oelwang from Virgin Unite

Steve Bailey from Virgin Mobile and Vinay Padayachee from Virgin Money

Richard Branson with two of the Virgin Media Pioneers from the UK

Maakaplan from Soweto Internet Radio listening intently to some sage advice

And we could not miss out on a photo opportunity with the whole Virgin team and the entrepreneurs from the Branson Centre next to their new signage

I can only see magnificent things coming from these meetings today

… and then we all had to dash to the launch event at Randlords, where Richard Branson launched his new book “Screw Business as Usual”

I had the most amazing day today.  I got to take photos of some extraordinary and very energetic and inspiring people today as they met and travelled around Johannesburg and Soweto.  3 Virgin Media Pioneer entrepreneurs from the UK came to South Africa this morning and met up with 3 South African entrepreneurs associated with the Branson Centre in Braamfontein.

The Virgin Media Pioneers are Ashley-Rae Tapping (creator of Loud Culture clothing which was launched this year and already has a celebrity following), Amman Ahmed (creator of a7records and his labels include EasySleepMusic, RelaxingRecords and Relaxmydog)  and Jade Carlisle (founder of Global Moguls who focusses on promoting and developing emerging artists across various genres between the UK and SA).  The Branson Centre entrepreneurs are Lesego Malatsi (Mzansi Designers, and he’s just come back from showing his clothes at London Fashion Week), Freda Sebolai (who designs beaded jewellery) and Maakaplan Mchunu (creator of Ouleik Records and Soweto Internet Radio)

They were joined by people from Virgin Media, as well as a Times journalist, and presenters from Pioneer TV and SBTV.

Everyone met up at the Branson Centre in Braamfontein and told a bit of their stories…

… before we headed off to Lesego Malatsi’s studios in downtown JHB.

By then we were running late, which was a huge pity so we didn’t have time to stop at the Walter Sisulu Square in Soweto, and instead we went straight to Sakhumzi on Vilakazi Street in Soweto where we had lunch.  I think the noise in place was a huge shock to the visitors who only arrived this morning… LOL!! It was loud and very very festive in there!

We then did a tour of the Mandela house.  I’ve actually never been there before, and it was so very interesting!!  Hardly any of the South Africans on the trip had actually been there before, and we all commented about how much we enjoyed it.  The memorabilia in the house is just amazing, and the stories told by the tour guides about the bullets and walls and how the house had changed was interesting.  I did however leave feeling that it was too clean… by this I mean that the structure of the house is there, but everything else around it has been upgraded, and it’s a pity as I felt they’d stripped the character and the story out of it.

And then we went to Maponya Mall to visit Lesego’s shop

And tomorrow is even more exciting… I’ll be taking photos at the Branson Centre again, where Richard Branson is speaking to entrepreneurs and launching his new book, Screw Business As Usual,  in South Africa… and then there’s a gala dinner that I’m also attending.

If you want to follow the day on Twitter, the hashtag is #sbau (Screw Business As Usual)… and I’ll be posting there and on Instagram as I go along.  I’ll be tweeting as much as I can between taking photos

I worked downtown today, and I took the opportunity to tag the Nikon V1 along.  Unlike yesterday, where I was shooting in RAW, today I decided to try the JPEG option. Again, like yesterday, I gave up on taking photos with manual settings, and rather went with the clever auto settings that the camera seems to love.

We spent most of the day working from a coffee shop called Chalkboard Cafe.  It’s under the 12 Decades Hotel in the Maboneng District in Johannesburg.  LOVED it… apart from the long-life milk… the coffee was AWESOME and the Chalkboard bagel with ham was fabulous!! Loved that there were plenty power points for people to plug in and work… and one dude even brought his entire desktop with big screens and headphones to work with in the afternoon!! Loved the chilled vibe and we actually got quite a lot done.

And yes… each table is a massive chalkboard and they provide chalk and dusters

Just before we left, we went to the offices in the 12 Decades Hotel and then went up to the viewing deck on the roof of the hotel… and WOW!! Loved the view.

And of course, I was in my element in the city!! I’m going to be working there next week again, and I’m definitely taking my camera again and having more fun up on that rooftop and in the streets.  In fact, when I left in the afternoon, there were a whole bunch of kids on skateboards on the streets… I was wishing I’d had a longer zoom to take photos of them (with their permission of course)… so I’ll hopefully get to do that next week.

Suren and Pooja got married yesterday.  It was an epic occasion, that started with their wedding ceremony at the Hindu temple in Lenasia South and ended with a reception at the Sandton Sun.

Suren and Pooja contacted me a few months ago at work, after someone in the office had told them that I do photography. I’ve been really looking forward to the wedding since then. It was the first time I’d taken photos in a temple… and then as the plans started unfolding I got more and more excited about it.
You see, Pooja was in the dark about part of the day. She thought we were going to do their creative shoot in Newtown… after she’d got her hair and make-up redone and she was in her evening outfit. Well, that was not to be. Suren’s friend had contacted him a few weeks ago, and offered the use of a helicopter to transport them from Lenasia to Sandton. So, between Suren, Shaun, the MC Carla and myself, the plans were changed.

As a surprise for Pooja, the helicopter arrived in the veld close to the lunch venue, and Shaun and his co-pilot Wessel, flew them and me to the top of a mountain in the Magaliesburg for their creative shoot. And then it zooted us to Sandton, where we were met by a driver from the hotel who took us to Sandton Sun for a quick change before the evening reception.

My second shooter for the day was Alana Meyer, who had the important job of capturing the heli leaving Lenasia with us on board.

But first, I need to show you the photos from the 2 hour ceremony at the most incredible temple.

I love the look that I caught Suren and Pooja sharing as they waited outside the temple.

Considering Joburg is experiencing a heatwave at the moment, the fire made the temple unbearably hot, and Suren must’ve been baking in his velvet jacket.

I took this photo while Suren and Pooja were circling the fire

Suren had to put toe rings on her feet

and then they exchanged their garlands…

And they played some kind of cute fishing game with the guru’s ruby ring…

… before exchanging rings

And then after a stunningly delicious lunch, it was time for the helicopter to arrive, and Pooja was still none the wiser.  She did however start asking a few questions when Suren was waiting outside with his friends… but he still didn’t say a word.  And it was only after the helicopter really came close that she realised something was happening.  But it took quite some time before she realised what was going to happen… and in fact, how many people kept it a secret from her.

LOVED that we even got flight tickets!

As soon as we were up in the air, Pooja started taking photos and BBM’ing her friends

and after about 20 minutes, we landed on top of the mountain…

It was such an incredible experience and so special for me too… a helicopter ride to take photos of a city was on my Bucket List… so I got to tick something off in the process

We landed at Inanda on the edge of the polo field, and the driver came up in his big black Merc with tinted windows to take us to the hotel.  It was so funny to watch the other people at Inanda trying to peer in the windows to see who had arrived in such style!!

As soon as we got back to Sandton Sun, Carla whisked Pooja off to the hair salon to have her hair done for the evening

There are a few more images from the wedding and the reception on Facebook, and if you were a guest at the wedding, you can tag yourselves in the images there when you “like” the page