The Spanish Dancer

February was a really busy month for me. I photographed fourteen portraits for my “Dudes with Beards” project and did 18 shoots in total. 3 of those were paying gigs and only one of those was really worth my time to be honest, but hey. Bills need to be paid right?

Did I reach my goal of shooting the final four images for my portfolio that I have been waxing lyrical about? Well; no. Things didn't work out that way and that’s okay. I did however finish one of those shoots and that is what I'm sharing today.

One of the concepts I came up with was photographing a Spanish Dancer and along with my good friend and awesome stylist, Pierre du Plessis, we refined it a little and set a date to go make some photos in Pretoria’s city center. Ultimately I wanted to shoot it in Johannesburg’s CBD, but scouting would’ve taken two trips and loads of gas money, so I decided to keep it close to home. The subject was my good friend and make-up artist (that has been partnering up with me for a while now), Missy van Heerden.

Spanish Dancing has been a passion of hers for 17 years. That’s a long damn time and I am super grateful she was on board for this shoot. So she organized some traditional dresses from her dancing instructor (thank you, whomever you are) that were 50 plus years old and all from Spain and we loaded up my car and made our way into the city.

I want to thank both Pierre & Missy for their time & effort. Pierre who played assistant as well as stylist, all whilst battling a summer cold and Missy for just effing WORKING it on the day with heavy dresses and the damn hot sun.

Anyway, I have blabbered long enough. Please enjoy the photos.
 

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Sifting Through The Bullshit

It's been an exciting and busy two weeks since I've returned from visiting friends and family at the coast. I needed to break away from the city a little. I was on edge and frustrated and I needed the quiet of sitting around and not doing much.

Breaks are good. They center us and give new perspective and new life to old ideas or let's us sift through the bullshit of said ideas and filter out the bad and good. So, that's what I've been doing. Sifting through all the bullshit and trying to get things done.

I have a handful of Dudes with Beards (Part two here) portraits lined up and then I am retiring the project. March 3rd will be the 2 year mark and I think that is a good amount of facial hair. I'll then be focusing on getting a book done and out there to complete the final chapter. Lord knows how long that's going to take, but that is the plan. I'll be releasing a limited amount. Right now I am thinking 50 - or perhaps whatever the total is that I finish on.

I'll also be looking to redo my website a little. It's almost two years old and I think it needs a little bit of a revamp, but first I need to shoot some new work which is what I've been busy organising the past two weeks.

Meetings, brainstorming and trying to figure out what I need to create the images that I have in my brain. I'm stoked and I think the work that I am trying to create is a little out of my comfort zone which will ultimately push my skillset a little further and I don't know of any other way to accomplish that.

On top of all this I am now also a contributor to DEDPXL and my first post for 2015 is up right now. It - and future posts - will basically chronicle my journey from interning with Zack to where I am now and where I see myself going. Scary stuff!

Last but not least here is a detail from artwork for my friends' band, "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me". I have one more image to create and I am putting out a call for a couple who wouldn't mind posing nude for the photo. It's fairly conceptual and "fine-artsy", so there isn't any full frontal weird stuff.

That's it from my camp for now.

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What Now?

That's been everyone's question to me & I've only been back a week. Gimme a break ;P

To be honest I thought I'd land and walk into a job that I put a bid in for, but that is yet to materialize & I also shouldn't place all my bets on getting it although I do hope so.

My plan in a nutshell is to get my portfolio up to scratch over the coming month or so, by removing what isn't good enough any longer & then making a print portfolio. Then in the new year I want to approach some agencies and get myself out there. I'd also really like to approach some non-profits or some organization regarding my "Dudes with Beards" project & of course get it done in the next coming months.

On top of that I need to digest what has happened in my life in the past 5 months & how I am going to apply that to my daily life & my photography & relationships with people.

The latter part is the difficult one in my opinion. Affecting daily changes to a lifestyle I've crafted to (im)perfection for twenty nine years. That's a tough ask. Don't get me wrong, imperfection is a great thing. What I am talking about is unlearning bad/lazy/negative behavior toward myself, my work & other people.

That in a nutshell is my plan. If I have one.

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Take Chances

You know that thing that terrifies you? That one thing you long to do? That step over the edge you're afraid to take coz it might mean plummeting to your death? Take it! Go ahead, I promise it'll be okay.

The first person I approached for what would be the start of "Dudes with Beards" and second dude I photographed.

A little over a year and a half ago I approached a dude about a photo; - Jason above was that dude. This was to be the start of what is now "Dudes with Beards". It was a little scary & uncomfortable, but I am currently 52 portraits in - and thus far no one has said no - and I have 48 more to go to finish it. I did this primarily to get over the crippling fear of approaching people. It's still there, but it's a little more manageable. I do however still make the mistake of not approaching people and I pretty much always regret it.

Then 8 months after "DWB" I wrote a letter to Zack Arias about interning for him. You can catch up on that, here, here AND on Zack's site; Meet the Intern. Even before I knew if he'd say yes, I quit my then day job to pursue photography as a career. It's probably the scariest thing I have ever done - next to getting on a plane and flying halfway across the world to work with Zack - and you know what? It's been exhilarating!

I've stepped over the edge and miraculously I have not yet fallen. It's as if there is this fog and I couldn't see the rest of the path and I wouldn't know it was there unless I took that one step further. The rest of it is still covered in fog, but the further I move along it, the more I realize that I can still keep going. I'm sure I'm going to reach a point where there will be another leap of faith needed and I'll hesitate, but ultimately I will take that step.

A thing I did recently was; I emailed the press contact for a band I absolutely love and whom I'll get to see on Halloween in New York and now I have a pass to photograph them. It was a shot in the dark, but you know what? It worked. And for a second I wasn't going to hit send, but I did and look what happened.

My journey in America is speeding to an end, so if you haven't yet checked it out you can do so by clicking on the above image. There has been no slow crawl, except for maybe the first week when everything was still new and unfamiliar.

Even the fact that I extended my stay by 2 months has not made it feel any longer. In a couple days I'll be headed to Seattle again to help Zack with some stuff he is doing for DEDPXL. Then October is pretty much pedal to the metal. I've got projects I need to finish and people I need to photograph and I have less than a month to do so. Here's to my last few weeks.

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