Remember the photos I took at the Johannesburg launch of Richard Branson’s book “Screw Business as Usual”?  Well, some of the images have been published, and I just have to show you!

Last week, the photo of Richard Branson and Cleo as well as a few images from Friday’s day with the Virgin Media Pioneers were published in the Times in the UK… and Jim was kind enough to buy the newspaper that day and put a photo of the page onto Facebook for me to see. I was not very happy to see that I wasn’t given any credit for the images, but anyhoo, nothing I can do about that!

And then on Friday morning I got a call from the Sunday Times.  They were publishing an article about the Cleo Filander video that was played at Richard Branson’s daughter’s wedding, and they wanted to use my photo.  I was thrilled when I got the newspaper yesterday (the newspaper came out a day early because of Christmas) and saw the size of the image that they published… and that the article was on Page 3… this time with my name underneath )

And if you’re wondering about the video that was played at the wedding, here is it… hasn’t she got an amazing voice?  And the video was shot by the videographer who joined me on Friday with the Virgin Media Pioneers…

“Proud” performed by Cleo Megan Filander from Brett Michael Innes on Vimeo.

After the entrepreneur event held at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, Sir Richard Branson held a gala event at Randlords in Braamfontein last night to launch his new book, Screw Business as Usual… and I was there to take photos of him.  I didn’t actually do the entire event’s photos, Greg Hack took those images… my role was to take the press photos.

So, lucky me, I got to follow Sir Richard around the whole evening… I had NO problems with that at all.

But first, a photo of the magnificent view from the venue… Randlords is just amazing!

Louis Janse van Rensburg got to shake his hand  It was actually fabulous finally meeting Louis too, after speaking to him for so long via Twitter only!

Jane Tewson, one of the co-founders of Comic Relief in the UK, was also there, and actually, that T-shirt that Sir Richard Branson wore in the afternoon at the Branson Centre (see previous blog post) was one of her designs.

Zuraida Jardine and Mongezi Mtati (he’s also an entrepreneur from the Branson Centre) introduced the speakers for the evening

Jean Oelwang from Virgin Unite

Tracey Webster, from the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, wore a magnificent dress made by one of the entrepreneurs, Lesego Malatsi (who you may remember from a previous shoot)

And then… this little girl came up on stage, and stunned us with her singing.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the house while Cleo Filander sang… she was amazing.  She’s only 11 years old

After her performance, a few things were auctioned off to raise money for the Branson Centre.  This lucky couple won time with Sir Richard Branson, including flights to London!! How AMAZING!! You cannot put a value on that!

And then… Tony Banks beat off stiff competition to win a tea date with Desmond Tutu.  WOW!!

And then Cleo got invited back on stage to sing again, and Richard gave her a gift of a dress, which will be made for her by Lesego

Then Sir Richard went up to the top deck and spent time with the entrepreneurs who had displays on site.

It was such an incredible evening, and I cannot thank the Branson Centre and Virgin Unite for giving me the opportunity to take the photos.

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

A few weeks ago, one of the mom’s in Bradley’s year asked me to take photos at their Grade 2 year end party.  Thankfully it only entailed taking photos during the drumming session that was organised, so I could take a few hours off work and attend.  It’s not often that I get involved with school things, and it was about time I did something.

What a fun morning for the kids.  The Drum Cafe came to the school with 110 drums… just enough for every child in the year to have a drum to play with.  And OMW what incredible music they made.  They got into the rhythm so very quickly (compared to the work drumming session I did years ago where it took quite a while for everyone to start drumming in time)

Because I don’t have permission from most parents, I’m only showing you a few images of Bradley and the friends that I know won’t have a problem with their images being online. I’m also using this post to try out my new MCPActions presets

If you’re one of the Grade 2 moms and you’re trying to find the rest of the images, they’ll be put into a password protected online gallery for you to download in a few days time.