Posts Tagged 'urban'
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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
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6
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.
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3
Mari works with me, and over a year ago said that she wanted to book a shoot with her husband as soon as her braces were removed. So a few days after they were removed, she did just that, and today’s photoshoot was the result. I met them at Delta Park this afternoon, and took them to a spot in a forest that I noticed during my last family photoshoot there. LOVE that my clients will walk up steep hills and across marshy land to get to spots that I think will work )
And while you’re here, don’t forget to vote for my blog in the SA Blog Awards 
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4
I haven’t shared one of my thank you’s from my clients in a long long time, and when I got this email from Marcia the other day, I just had to share it. It really really makes my day when I get emails like this… it means that I’ve made a family happy… and that I’ve succeeded in my quest to tell their story…
Because I know Marcia quite well now, and I’m linked to her virtually everywhere, I checked out her Pinterest boards the day before the shoot. I remembered seeing pins in my stream where she’d marked ideas for family photos. That way I had an idea about what she liked and was looking for from the shoot. This is one of the images that I just love… and one that I didn’t put up in the original blog post.
Anyhoo… this is the email I got when she got the couriered box containing the DVD.
Jeanette, I got it!
And I am ECSTATIC – the photos are everything I imagined and then some. I love the ones with the teddies (and they were a last-minute idea!)
Thank you so very much – gosh, I should have done this type of shoot ages ago!I am OVER THE MOON!
And I’ve just checked her blog too, and I see she’s posted something there too It made me smile A LOT!
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9
I met Marcia and Dion and their twins in Newtown this morning. We were supposed to do a couple shoot in Newtown, and then hook on a few family photos in a park on the way home… but once we started we decided to stay in Newtown for the whole shoot. The kids were in their element in the city, and loved the bright coloured doors and graffiti painted walls.
Kendra and Connor made a beeline for pieces of wood and small leaves, and by the end they had quite a collection of things that they were carrying with their teddy bears, named Thursday and Friday. Kendra started as soon as we got there, when she picked the ONLY flower for miles around!
Connor was so cute… he waited for his daddy, and he was so pleased when he could stand in the next doorway to his daddy
See the hand that Connor is holding up… we realised just after this that he was signing “I love you”
and then Kendra joined in with the sign language
I only saw the writing on the building while edited this image… and I think it’s so apt for the photo!
And so very funny that the next lot of photos with the writing on the stairs was what I’d planned for them
It was an awesome morning… and I just love Newtown so very much!! I know that most families choose to have their family photos in a park because they think it’s prettier… and it is… but somehow the city and the buildings bring out “more” in the portraits that you take there. Because the backgrounds are not as busy as bright leafy parks, people tend to stand out more and become more of a focus in the photo.