I don’t often take on photo clients during the week, but tonight I did a corporate event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sandton (not the Gautrain one – it’s all so confusing with the 2 hotels being so close to each other… some of the guests went to the wrong hotel).  Anyhoo, I can’t show you photos from the event, but I did have fun with some “me” photos for my 365!

The conference rooms at the Radisson are on the 12th floor, and have the most incredible view over the city, and you’ll have to just believe me when I tell you that the group photos taken on the balcony against the red-orange skyline are just amazing!

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

I met Nicole at News Cafe at 24 Central in Sandton yesterday to have a spot of lunch and to give her my old Sigma 70-300mm lens to use for a while to see if she likes it.  I couldn’t resist walking across the road to RMB to take photos of their stunning World Cup flag display again.

Oh and that reminds me, if you’re in Johannesburg next week, there’s a march happening in Soweto called the One Million Flag march… there should be awesome photo opportunities there

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

There were thousands of flags and vuvuzelas amongst the estimated 185000 people (and me) that stood on the sides (and the middle) of the streets of Sandton and cheered for Bafana Bafana today.  It was a blast!!

After wandering the streets for a while, trying to capture the “gees” (which means spirit for those non-saffers who have been wondering on Twitter what the G’s were for), Henti and I managed to perch on top of RMB’s waterfall for a bird’s eye view of the goings on… we froze in the process because the spot was in the shade… and in hindsight, we probably would have been better off roaming the crowds but anyhoo.

We waited forever for Bafana to actually appear on an open-topped bus, outside the Sandton Southern Sun Hotel… and I must admit that it was a little disappointing when they finally appeared and then disappeared down the street.  So much so, that a lot of the crowd actually dispersed before they came back.  I’m glad I waited though, because the atmosphere when they did eventually come back, was quite something!  It was well worth the wait.

I felt it, I was there…

The crowd got all excited when this bus arrived, only to see that it was the Netherlands team arriving in Sandton

And finally, Bafana Bafana appeared on the bus

The flags on RMB’s building are JUST magnificent


These dudes wearing masks and makarapas were leading the parade

I just LOVED the way this vuvuzela was decorated
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Captain of the team… Aaron Mokoena

Some of the players

The bus with players was filled with local celebrities, including Cindy Nel

The only problem is… I have no idea who the players are apart from Matthew Booth and the captain, Aaron Mokoena.  LOL!

I’ve put more photos in an album on my Facebook page.

When I saw a tweet on Twitter about the road closures in Sandton today, and subsequent tweets explaining what the reasons were, I made sure that I packed my camera in my car with my trusty 70-200mm lens!  Thankfully, I had no meetings at the time of the parade, and 2 of my colleagues had their cameras ready too… and off we walked.

And I’m so glad I made the effort.  I got awesome photos, and got to chat to a few of the cops as well!

The parade was organised as a “show of force” to show that the police and army are ready for the Soccer World Cup that is due to be hosted in South Africa next month. It was also organised in celebration of the 3rd anniversary of Crimeline… which I’m guessing is why it all ended close to Primedia’s offices.

It was a very noisy few hours… with vuvuzelas blowing, music blaring and sirens and helicopters and people cheering… but the best part was seeing the pride.

Standing on Fredman Drive with the throngs of people and police watching the procession, I tweeted a photo of one of the vehicles and a policeman was watching me.  I told him what I was doing… and he said “It’s good, the world must know… we are ready”.  It was so so awesome to hear the pride in his voice and the look in his eyes.

And then I had to go back to work

I’ve also put more photos in a set on Flickr, if you want to see more

I met Tanya and her 2 girls, Lemon and Saige, at the Field and Study Centre in Sandton yesterday morning for some family portraits.  I had a ball with the 2 girls, as you can see in the photos below.  Because they know me quite well, it didn’t take long for Saige to get comfortable with the camera, and as for Lemon… well she’s at the perfect posing age.

This is little Saige…

According to Tanya, this was Saige’s first trip down a big slide

This was such a sweet moment, because Saige had gone up to Lemon looking for her hand to hold

And the last one… Tanya on her own…