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.

Metamorphosis (Part 2)

I suppose I could have said everything I wanted to in one post, but I know I sometimes give up halfway through reading something if I don't find it interesting and I'm not sure how interesting my life is to other people.

So besides all the stuff that I mentioned in Part 1, here, there is even more happening and that has happened. My life is changing at a 1000 miles an hour.

As you know I have plans for world domination *insert evil laughter*. Seriously though, I am planning on going to America which you can read about here and here. That being said. Three weeks ago (Monday; March 3rd) I received a reply from Zack reading: "So sorry getting back to you late. C'mon. I don't know what we'll do with you when you get here but we'll figure it out when you do. We'll take part in your adventure"!

How f**ing exciting is that?! Man!

I have to admit though, I had some doubts for a while, because of an opportunity arising here. I have in the meantime prayed about it and I spoke to some friends and that has put things into perspective for me in a big way.

So, it looks like I might be going to America soon if I'm lucky and things work out for me.

Anyway, let me move on. Another awesome thing I did, was a shoot for local acoustic guitar duo CH2. These guys can flippen shred, but not in the sense of how metal guitarists do (well, they could probably do that too), but they play a mix of classical, flamenco and latin influenced instrumental music. We shot in studio - something I wasn't too keen on at first, coz I like doing environmental/on location type shoots, but I am really happy with the results.

They also had a make-up artist come in and man; what a difference that makes. So rad to have worked with Melissa. We met years ago and now our paths crossed again to make something rad. Go check out her work here.

Here are a few images from that shoot.

Thank you for reading

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