Girls, girls, girls

Right before I left South African shores my friend and awesome make-up artist (which I am not saying just because we are friends), Missy van Heerden called me up and wanted to know if I'd be keen to do one last shoot before I headed to America.

Of course I was. The past three times working with her have been a blast and we've gotten some great results together and she just manages to find good looking people as if they are in an isle at the grocery store. This time she mentioned that it would be a girl I'd be photographing which I have to admit made me slightly nervous. Girls are sometimes a little tricky and fussy when it comes to being photographed :) No offense ladies, you know these words to be true.

Tayla was a breeze to photograph though and I didn't need to coach her. She pulled it off with style, which is great for me coz I dunno how the heck to pose people. Mental note: Work on this.

Besides modeling, Tayla is in her final year of studying marketing at The University of Pretoria. She used to be a DJ on Tuks FM as well and she seems to be always on the go :)

There really isn't much more to add to this post though, as the photos speak for themselves. We had about an hour's worth of good light to work with, which was a little worrisome but I am very stoked with the results we got.

As always, Missy's work was rad and I want to thank her again for including me in her schemes :) I am planning on doing a shoot with her as soon as I am back in South Africa.

Enjoy the rest of the shoot.

Thanks for reading

Photographing Loyiso Bala

Right now I am on the other side of the world sitting in the dining room of a photographer I admire very much. I never thought this would happen. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd hop on a plane to America.

I feel incredibly blessed. In a very short amount of time my life has been flip-turned, upside down (a little reference to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air if you didn't notice :P). And it's probably going to flip over a couple more times, but this is exactly what I asked for.

I was terrified and excited. I told a friend the other day I was scared and she told me, she wants to be scared again. I thought that was quite beautiful. It's not a fear for your life kinda scared; more a fear of the unknown and it's exhilarating :)

A month ago or so I mentioned that I was doing a shoot that I wasn't allowed to share until the end of May. Well, the time has come and I can finally talk about it.

At the beginning of April I received an email from a local record company (Merchant Music) who wanted me to photograph one of their artists. I was stoked. I've been making music in some way or form since I was 15 and even though my life has taken a different turn I will always love making music.

So, right before easter weekend I shot the local artist Loyiso Bala's latest CD/DVD combo cover and the inserts.

The cover image

He wanted a "backstage" look and feel for it, so by some luck we managed to get permission to shoot at the Pretoria State Theater and man was it awesome! It was also a little tricky! That place swallows light! Everything is black backstage. The "ceilings" are like 5 stories high and swallow massive steel doors. It's cavernous!

BTS shots by the awesome Ett Venter. Thanks dude.

We had 3 hours to play around and it was glorious. Loyiso is such a kind and friendly dude, just patiently waiting while my assistant and I set up for each next shot. Very chilled out even though right after the shoot he was hopping on a plane to Cape Town for a show, then back to Johannesburg and then off to Port Elizabeth for a stint of shows over the easter weekend. It's awesome being so passionate over something.

It was such a good shoot and I came away from it very happy and also managed to get out of a tricky situation with a police officer for being on my phone while driving to another shoot. I guess he was feeling generous with easter being a day away :)

Here are some more shots.

Thanks for reading

Living in Beta

Seeing as I'm on a roll here, I might as well get another blogpost out there for the world to see. If you missed yesterday's post, you can go have a read here.

I've been busy... very busy in fact. It's a blessing. I love every second of it. It's kicking my ass and I am making mistakes, but with that I am growing and learning and talking to friends and learning from them the ins and outs and trying to remember it all as I am hurtling towards the unknown at blinding speeds.

It's all one big rush. I recently finished one of the biggest jobs I've done so far and what a great bunch of people I have had the privilege of working with. One of those people is Tasos Calantzis. Himself, his wife (Anya) and their business partner Frederick has an awesome company called Terrestrial and along with the SABS Design Institute they are doing very cool things.

After all the madness of the 43 Challenge I've been busy with personal work and other smaller client jobs. Tasos contacted me last week and asked if I would shoot his portrait for an upcoming trip he'll be taking to Australia. I said yes; thinking it'd be a quick headshot and I'd be out of there. Then we had to postpone it until Monday of this week and as I was driving home Thursday evening from a thing at church; I had an idea.

He has been building this rad little boxcar for his daughter and it struck me like a punch to the throat. I HAD to get him in a suit and tie and get him in that thing and shoot his portrait. So Sunday I decided I'd email him and see if he was keen on my whacky idea. Here is his response: "Hey Bernard; that sounds awesome! It's actually great that the car is half built! The process and all that you know. Living in Beta. "

I love that slogan: "Living in Beta". As creatives/artists/creators we are constantly living in that in between of the concept and the finished product. Always striving for something better, never quite satisfied with the results and if we are, it lasts for a very short fleeting moment and then we move on to the next thing.

So here is the image: Living In Beta

Thanks for reading

Create. Fail. Retry.

Are you sitting down? Are you ready for what I am about to tell you? My VISA application to the United States has been approved. It's been quite a ride to get to this point, but I would not change it for anything. It has been a while since my last post and so much has happened and as you well know by now, I only post when there's something to talk about. So that is pretty damn exciting. Now to book plane tickets and then come June I'll hop on a plane and be there for a couple of months.

Moving on.

It's been a little more than a month since I quit my day job. I have since moved out of my apartment and moved in with a really good friend for the time being. Other than that I have been busy and what a blessing it is to be busy with something you love doing. I had to play catch up a little after the move, coz that threw things on its head, but I'm on top of things again; for the most part anyway :)

I've shot some cool stuff in the last week or so and I have a bunch of cool shoots lined up as well. Some for clients and some personal work. One shoot I am sharing here today and the other one I have to hold off on until the end of May, but I am damn excited to show you all. There's also a bunch of new work up on the site so go check out the portrait section here and there are two new bearded dudes as well. I'd hoped to be at 50 by now, but I've been kept busy with other things.

It's damn exciting to create new work, but with that comes failure (sometimes; a lot of the time).

I spoke to my friend a couple nights ago after he had shot a wedding and he wasn't stoked about it. He said there were moments where he doubted his own abilities, just coz of stupid little things going wrong, things that shouldn't go wrong, but for some reason just do. I've had those days and we all do. From pro's to amateurs to beginners. Days where just nothing seems to be going right. Whether it's gear failing or the light being crap or the client being difficult to work with or whatever other reason. You WILL have days like that. It happens and it's okay. You've tried to create something, you've failed, now you have to admit that failure; stare it in its stupid face and then retry.

It's not always going to be easy, in fact it hardly ever is, but when that next shoot goes amazing you are on top of the world again and it seems like nothing can kick your ass; right up to the moment where things just aren't working out and then the cycle starts all over again.

Pick yourself up and try again.

Here are some photos from my latest shoot I did. The awesome Melissa van Heerden who did the make-up for my CH2 shoot here, organized it and I am super happy with the shots and look forward to working with her more in the near future, so if you have a shoot and need make-up done get in touch with her here.

Here are the shots and as always; thanks for reading.