Metamorphosis (Part 1)

Oh man! So once again, I've had a post ready and waiting, just to be trumped by something else. I warn you, this post is a BIG one, so I'll be doing two parts. 2014 has been insane! In less than two months the amount of changes happening in my life are outweighing all of the changes in the past six years I have lived in Pretoria.

Today is my final day of working an office job and it feels good. I'm much calmer about it than I initially thought I'd be. It's probably one of the scariest things I've ever done though. Giving up the security of a monthly paycheck to pursue a career in photography. I prayed about it for a long time and asked for wisdom and peace in my heart that I was making the right decision. And I believe I have. I have to remind myself that I'm not in control. God has a much bigger plan.

I am thankful for having had a job, to pay bills, buy some worthless crap (and some awesome crap too) and to just stay alive. My mom played a big part too and I'm hoping with this decision, I can start giving something back to her as well.

So that's only part of what's going on with my life. I've been involved in some pretty awesome projects. After I did the shoot for The Watermark High, he (Paul) asked me to be part of a music video for one of his songs. I'm the dude with the long hair and cap!

Watch it in HD if you can.

And at the end of last year I helped shoot some videos for a friend's record company; Emote Record Company. Click on the name to check that out. The six newest ones are what I helped shoot along with the super talented Ett Venter and I'm sharing one of my favourites.

I'm also part of something called 43 challenge. Busy documenting this whole process - at the SABS Design Institute - of designers and entrepreneurs and generally creative people doing some amazing things which you can go check out here as well as follow, if it tickles your fancy. They're on Instagram and Twitter as well. This was probably the biggest proponent of why I felt the need to quit my job and pursue making and taking photographs. Seeing people doing really inspiring things and come up with possible world changing ideas. It's inspirational.

The Watermark High

Meet Paul van der Walt (The Watermark High).

Paul messaged me a couple of weeks ago about doing some new press shots for him. This was weird, because a few days prior to that, he posted a photo to his Instagram account about the progress on his new EP and I thought; "I wonder if he needs new photos"?

So yeah, I'm clairvoyant or something.

I was keen. I've been following Paul's work since 2009; I think. He's undergone a metamorphosis since those days of dreamy ambient post-rock/electronica to where he is focusing more on the electronica side of things. That's not a bad thing though.

You can check him out at the following links:

Website

Bandcamp

Facebook

Thanks for reading

Remember that letter I wrote?

I had another post ready to go, but in lieu of yesterdays events I have decided to push it back just slightly.

For the four people that check out my site, I'm sure you'll remember this post I did at the end of last year; "So Here's The Plan". Remember? Good! Now seeing as I've already told the four of you, there's nothing to share actually, but I'll do it anyway :P

This happened yesterday.

If you're sight isn't too great, it reads: "Well @Bernard_Brand00 you've definitely gotten our attention. Well done. We'll be in touch".

Who is Meghan Arias you may ask and why does this matter? Well, Meghan is the wife of Zack Arias whom I've mentioned before here. And why does that matter?

Well, Zack is the guy I wrote the letter to that I mentioned in that post from last year. He's the guy I want to go intern for and he's the guy that replied to me via email yesterday morning (depending on where you live in the world). Now I haven't gotten a definitive answer yet, but the fact that he replied and said he'd be in touch and that a seemingly meaningless letter made it halfway across the the world and into their hands is just awesome!

I can't even explain how often I would track where the letter was and how often I checked my email - after it was delivered - to see if Zack had replied yet.

So yesterday was a pretty rad day and I am still somewhere outside myself for what this could mean. I met with awesome potential clients and might have a big job coming up. So I am hoping and praying that these things comes to fruition. Thanks to everyone that believes/believed in me when I didn't and the support and kind words. It's all a little overwhelming and I don't always think I deserve it, but I do appreciate it. What a blessing you all are.

Next up will be some shots from my shoot with The Watermark High.

Thanks for reading.

Rebirth

So it's 2014 already. It seems 2013 was a tough year for a lot of people, judging by Facebook statuses, Tweets, Instagrams and whatever social media outlet we use to "voice" our troubles.

In a lot of ways I think having a bad year can be a good thing. It can get you focused on more important things or challenge your perceptions and get you "in line" so to speak. It's not always fun - hell it's never fun - but that's how we grow and hopefully better ourselves; through those hardships.

Not to dwell on it too much, but the last couple of months of 2013 wasn't easy for me and I think that goes for pretty much anyone. Those final 2 months before your holiday, start grinding you down mentally. Especially with myself, I've noticed that; after more than a year of working from home, I felt miserable. That's my own fault though. I have a knack for isolating myself from the world and with the holidays that were coming up and knowing that I'd probably be alone on Christmas I just felt like crap.

But lo and behold, Christmas came and I actually didn't feel completely miserable. I actually felt kinda blessed. Millions of people are alone over the holidays and I felt that I needed that to put some things in perspective for myself. I think what also helped was the fact that I got to hang out with a good friend the day before and just dump some of this "darkness" I'd been carrying in my heart.

That being said, I really wanted to create a photo for my "Arguing with Myself" series of conceptual self-portraits. And I had the perfect place in mind, knowing that I would be going to my old hometown area over Christmas and that I would be alone, so there was no excuse to not go and make this photo.

The only reason why I almost didn't do it, was because I felt too calm on the inside. There wasn't this crazy inner turbulence that I had when I made the first two, but I decided to press on and do it anyway.

This is the image. I call it "Rebirth".

I love this spot. It looks out over the town where my mom now lives and is about 10 kilometers from the town where I grew up. It's pretty quiet up there and I was alone for an hour and a half before the sun was at the right angle to not completely blow out the highlights.

It's between 12 and 16 images stitched together. Four of them was just to get the sky to not be completely blown out. I'm happy with it and the reason for the title is, I think I MAYBE found some answers (or perhaps more questions) while pursuing this personal project. I think it might be a turning point - a "Rebirth" - of some sorts. It's not over yet and I'm thinking of expanding it and adding other people too, coz we're not in this alone.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year.