I met up with a whole lot of tweeters in Newtown this morning for a photowalk, and I really enjoyed it.  We didn’t get to really spend time in Newtown during the Worldwide photowalk a few weeks ago, and I’ve always wanted to walk around there, so this was an ideal opportunity.  I learnt a lot in the process about functions on my camera that I never knew existed, and I was in awe of some of the equipment that some of the guys were carrying.

First up, I have to show you my favourite shot of the day… taken right at the very end of the walk…

These painted silhouettes on the steps outside the Market Theatre were so very cool!

Some public water fountains next to the Theatre

I tried to push myself on this walk and take photos of things I normally pass by… as you can see there are almost no people shots! Next time though, I’m definitely not going to forget my tripod and triggers for my flash so I can try some strobist stuff like the other guys were doing!

So, after last week’s beach theme for my Weekly Winners post, this week is ALL urban!  Hope you enjoyed it

I was going to split the photos from yesterday’s photowalk into 3 posts, but I’m too impatient so this is a HUGE post!!   These are my favourite shots from yesterday, I liked the others I posted… but I love these!

I’m posting them in the order in which they were taking.

This church is an Anglican church in Braamfontein, on the same block as Wits University (where the walk started).

We walked over the Nelson Mandela bridge into the Johannesburg CBD to get to Newtown.  These are the cables on the bridge.

This is taken from the bridge.

A Malawian guy we met on the bridge…

Once we got to Newtown, we steered clear of the crowds that had gathered to celebrate Mandela’s birthday (hence all the flags).

This guy was a street vendor in Newtown selling posters

We’d spent so much time on the bridge, that by this time we had to make our way back, and we walked along a busy street with shebeens on every block, to get back to the main road to get back to Braamfontein.

This yellow building was actually a butchery.

Then we came across this group of kids that were dancing and singing on a street corner.  It was definitely the highlight of my day…it was also then, that I realised just how fast my new camera is! Love it!!  I took so many photos of these kids, here are just a few…

I wish we could have stayed there for longer, but it was getting late.  We passed a taxi rank before we crossed the Queen Elizabeth bridge back into Braamfontein, and I just HAD to stop and ask this man whether I could take a photo of him.  These makeshift barbers are all over the city, and I’ve been dying to take a photo of one… I know… I’m strange

And what’s a trip to the city without spotting a little crime… these guys were sitting under the bridge stripping copper wire that they’d probably stolen… blissfully unaware that I wasn’t taking photos of the city scapes like the other photographers

And the last photo… of the trains under the Mandela bridge.

It was a fabulous experience, and I actually want to go back to the city to “do” Newtown properly. These are definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, my weekly winners for Lotus’ weekly challenge.

My biggest problem now, is singling out my one image that I can submit to the photowalk site for prizes. LOL! Impossible task!

The second Worldwide Photowalk organised by Scott Kelby took place today in 900 cities across the world. As soon as I saw that the registrations had opened a few months ago (I follow his blog), I signed up for the Johannesburg walk. There were 27000 photographers in 900 cities that registered for the event.

It was a blast! There were 100 photographers that registered for 2 Johannesburg walks.  We all met at Wits University in Braamfontein, and walked over the Nelson Mandela bridge into Newtown.  My only regret, is spending too much time on the bridge, as I would have loved to have spent more time in Newtown and the Johannesburg CBD.

As you can imagine, I’ve taken stacks of photos, so I’m splitting my blog posts over a few days.  In case you’re interested, I used my new Canon 50D, and I primarily used my Sigma 24-70 f2.8 lens, and some of the shots were taken with my Sigma 70-300mm lens.

This building in Braamfontein used to have a revolving restaurant on top.

We met this Malawian on the Nelson Mandela bridge

These guys were sitting around a burning tyre

A community cop in Newtown

A dancing car watch dude in Newtown

Small wooden statues are mounted on bollards on every street corner in Newtown

… and I’ll post more tomorrow night

What fun!! A few weeks ago, a few friends and acquaintances on a local online moms forum decided to organise a Trash the Dress photo session – for fun and for portfolio building.

A Trash the Dress session isn’t  about destroying the dress, it’s more about going somewhere and doing something in the dress that you wouldn’t ordinarily do.

After much deliberation about the venue, we eventually decided to go to the ruin in Muldersdrift where I’d taken photos of my sister last year.  I warned everyone that there would be bundu-bashing involved, but I’m not sure everyone realised just how overgrown the place was… we had to make our own path from the road!

But it was more than worth it!  I had an absolute ball.  There were 5 photographers including myself, Suz, Colleen, Mandi and Fiona; and we had 3 ladies in wedding dresses and 2 in evening gowns.

First up are photos of the 3 brides, and then the entourage of photographers…

… and here is the result of the fun we had…

I got so many good shots, that I cannot possibly put them all into one blog post, so I post more on Tuesday.

I had the pleasure of taking photos of my gorgeous sister, Elaine, and her equally gorgeous best friend, Robyn, this morning.  We had loads of fun on a friend’s farm between Tarlton and Magaliesburg today, even though it was icily cold!  The plan was to take photos of the two of them in evening wear as well as casual clothes, and although they schlepped their fancy clothes all around the farm, it just never warmed up enough for them to change.

I love how the photos turned out though… they’ve never had photos taken of the two of them before, even though they’ve been friends from early school days.