I went on a bit of a jaunt today to find some inspiration for a wedding I’m photographing in 2 weeks time. I did find some promising spots, I must admit

We’ve just come back from our seaside holiday in Shelly Beach, which is a town on the south coast of Kwazulu Natal.  This is a catch-up post with photos that I took while we were away… and yes, I’m still on top of my Project 365, I haven’t missed a day yet

Every evening we went for walks along the beach, and the kids caught sand crabs (there’s a tiny sand crab on Bradley’s hand in the first photo) and wrote their names in the sand and waded in the shallows

Bradley and I went for a walk on the beach on the second afternoon while Connor had a nap.  We noticed a cormorant perched on the edge of the tidal pool, so naturally, I had to get as close as I could for my photo for the day!!  Thankfully I went to the beach with my 70-200mm f2.8 lens! What an amazing experience, the bird let us get quite close to it, before he dived into the pool for a swim.  It was amazing to watch him dive over and  over again looking for fish for his supper. He caught 3 fish while we were there, but it happened so very quickly, that I only managed to get the moment on camera once!

The mornings were spent on the swimming beach at St Michael’s on Sea… doing what you’re supposed to do on holiday… swim and play in the sand!

Then I had another fortunate encounter, this time with a few seagulls that let me get quite close!

The weather on our last day was awful, so we went to the Riverbend Crocodile Farm in Southbroom to have a wander around.  I wasn’t as impressed with that farm, as I had been with a similar farm close to Ballito that we’d been to a few years ago… in fact it was quite disappointing… but the kids enjoyed it.

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

When Dean contacted me a few weeks ago, asking me to take photos of the Amazing Race for Charity, I’d never even heard about it before.  What an incredible event it was, and I’d love to get involved in the next one too!

Dean from Brand Halo hosted the first Amazing Race 3 years ago, as a celebration for his birthday with 20 teams consisting of all his friends.  Since then he’s run one every 6 months in Johannesburg, and at some stage he started giving all the funds raised to the SOS Childrens Villages.

There were 150 teams of 4/5 people (all teams had to have a female driver) that took part in the 7th event yesterday. All teams have to have a name, and preferable have to dress to a theme… and that included dressing their cars!

Basically, there are 10 cryptic clues that all contestants have to unravel in no particular order, and the race sends them frantically driving and running around spots in Johannesburg collecting passwords.

Some of the awesome team costumes at the starting point at The Baron at 24 Central in Sandton…

Tinto grew up in a SOS Childrens Village. He’s an amazing man, who started school when he went to the home at the age of 8. Now he works as at Anglo Platinum after getting an honours in Finance at UCT!

All the movements on the race were tracked on a *120* number on Vodacom. At all times, you could track which position you were in, and you used the system to submit the passwords too.

Some of the amazing cars… the first one won the best dressed car award

Some teams took their time planning their route before they started using laptops and phones. You couldn’t finish all the clues without having a laptop.

Clue 1 took the teams to Ernest Ullman Park in Wendywood (although one team managed to misinterpret the clue and ended up in Soweto!), where they had to climb through the enormous jungle gym

The soccer fun at Sandown High was hoot!

Dean showing us his skills with the phone and the ball

At MiBar in Rosebank the teams had to down a shooter, before playing a little indoor golf and then they had to join the Amazing Race FB group

Paintball at Paintball Xtreme in Bryanston looked awesome with one team member trying to shoot another team member across a field (they had masks on)… even though it was raining by this stage.

The winning team… Where is Wally… getting back to The Baron in Sandton

The army men won the best dressed prize.

Celebrating the winning car…

Where is Wally… drinking their tequilas

And lastly, a photo of Dean with his friends after the prize giving. The really happy looking one is Alex, who’d just found out that his wife was in labour!

If you’d like to take part in the next race, or join as a spectator, then join the Amazing Race Continues group on Facebook, and all messages will be posted via that board.

We planned this weekend months ago with our friends Madi and Pierre.  You see Lance turned 40 last weekend, and Pierre’s 40th birthday is next weekend. It was the perfect excuse to go away for a night to Forum Homini in the Cradle of Humankind.  Yes, we’ve been there before, and we enjoyed it so much that we had to go back again

One night only, because it’s expensive… and your stomach would never cope with eating that amount of excellent food for 2 days in a row!

And on the subject of food… it was good, very good! Dinner was a 6 course affair with wine teasers chosen for each dish, and included a honeydew soup with truffle foam, deep fried risotto, rooibos smoked beef fillet and ended with blue cheese ice-cream with honeycomb.   Oh and then breakfast of course was just as filling with 4 courses including a frozen yoghurt and poached fruit with chocolate shavings… and then salmon frittata… before a full English breakfast.

Because it was their birthdays, when we got back to the suite after supper, there was an enormous bunch of roses on the table, and the bed had rose petals on it… very romantic

Pierre and Madi while we were sitting on the deck having drinks in the afternoon.

We took a walk in the late afternoon…

We were so very lucky to see the resident hippos! You get warned not to go walking after sunset because the hippos come out the water, and last time we went we didn’t even see them. We saw 3 this time… and they were watching us pretty closely so we didn’t want to get too close to them… I could have done with a longer lens actually.

This is the hotel, as taken from the bridge… the dam with the hippos was behind me at the time. Just beyond the small dam, you can see little pieces of wall… those are the suites that we stayed in… the hotel is built to blend into the environment and veld/grasses have been planted on the roof of every building.

Oh and then my favourites… the sunsets… the sky was absolutely magnificent last night!!

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

Adina had her Batmitzvah last night at the Capri Hotel in Savoy, Johannesburg; and it was quite a bash!  Her mom booked me for this evening months ago, and in the build-up to it, I also did a portrait session with her and her family and produced a photobook which was used as a guest book last night.

The tables were so prettily decorated with pinks and purples and loads of butterflies; and the food was awesome… they even had milkshakes on tap for the kids!

I was so pleased with the way the photobook turned out!


Last night it was Purim, and so the Megillah was recited from these scrolls. Some of the guests were even dressed in mock prison gear for the occasion.

And of course there was LOTS of dancing, and giggling and fun to be had by all

It was a fabulous evening, and Mazeltov to the Davidovitz family again.

Catering:  Riva Flax from Capri Hotel

Band:  Zenith

Flowers: Kari Berkowitz from Flowers by Kari