Surfer Girl

Sometimes, I am fortunate enough to do a shoot where what I wanted exactly (and more) was met. I have been wanting to do a "Billabong" style shoot for ages now. Something that was bright, funky, vibrant & full of life! Finding a girl who fitted that style was another challenge.

Then I met Jessica. What a girl! She has gone into my books as one of the nicest models to work with to date. It hardly took much to get her into the vibe of where I wanted to go with the shoot & she just took the stage like a pro.

I'm super happy with this shoot. I tend to shy away from doing too many bikini or scantly clad girl shoots, as it's so easy to get labeled. I always try dress my girls/guys up instead of down. I sometimes tend to think that some people try get their models as nekkid as possible, so that the photos will be liked by as many as possible. Because lets face it, sex sells. Proven fact for centuries. It's why I try get away from following the masses & go for super elegant styles.

On the Rocks with Anke

An idea I've had for some time now, as well as specific location. I finally managed to get a girl who fitted the profile: great legs, killer looks, striking eyes, sophisticated, classy. Anke was great in this regard. Really nice girl to work with.

Fayyaz Test Shoot

The first of 2 test shoots with a modeling agency I've started with. Emphasis on highly varied styles of shooting, lighting, styling, mood. It made it rather challenging & interesting at the same time.

Freelancentral Highlight of the Day

I have finally joined a website called Freelancentral. Focused on the guys much like myself, who work for themselves, work for everyone & nobody. Seeing as I have just joined them, I get a spotlight as "Freelancer of the Day". Yay me.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some interesting contracts from being associated with Freelancentral. Perhaps even some things I haven't tried before! I certainly hope so, as I'm constantly trying to find things to shoot that are new for me.

Tear: TopCar Aug 08 (Camaro)

I'm going to break my general '3 images per blog post' here, as I want to just add that bit extra. I'm very happy to finally have the issue of TopCar come out that had my Camaro shoot in it.

I won't go on too much about the car itself or the shoot (as you hear about it in so many other posts), but I rather just want to make a special note of the layout of this article: I love it! I absolutely love how this one was lay out. It was big almost double page spread flowing moving images, minimal text... ah, I just was very happy when I saw it. (There are a few more pages to the article, but I'm not going to post them all. You can go check out the mag yourself!)

This is the first of lots of stuff happening for TopCar magazine. I'm glad to find myself back once again, walking the corridors & offices again of Media24, with the great guys that bring us all these fantastic mags every single month.

I think one of the reasons why I love shooting mag work so much, is the people I get to work with. It's not people that hate their job, come to work with long faces, or you have to poke with a needle to get a response out of them. This applies for all the publishing houses I work with, not just TopCar. I am honored to get the privilege to work with these guys & girls.

Tear: Wiel Aug 08 (SEAT vs Mazda 5)

This shoot was a bit of a "soccer mom's" car shoot-out. Or at least the Mazda 5 looked the part. I'm no motoring journalist on any scale, so that's just my opinion. The Mazda 5 did have these very cool remote slide doors! I was rather fascinated with those. To get a proper run down on these cars, I would suggest picking up the new issue of Wiel rather.

Just a note on the opening DPS, it was another style driven by the "Advertisement" type of image. I rather liked how it came out. Now to just get both SEAT & Mazda to let me do their commercial work. :)

Tear: Wiel Aug 08 (Merc)

Mercedes SL63... Not much to say, except this was an amazing car to shoot! I put a lot of personal extra effort into location, which I think paid off very well! Special thanks to the house owners for putting up with us for a few hours.


And then one more which I personally liked, but wasn't used in the mag feature:

Oh the Prizes...!

I have several things to post for my published work for July/August mags. I want to first mention a rather nice surprise I got a few days ago. A while back I had submitted a photo to PiX Magazine, and then as all things go, forgot about it.

I got a surprise email telling me I had won the Readers Pic of the months July/August. With that bit of news came a brand new Tamrac Camera Bag. I recieved it this morning via courier and have only had a few minutes to check it out. Looks very neat! When I have a bit more time (before I shoot again on Friday morning at sparrows fart) I'll transfer all my gear & get it all nice.

For those of you who follow my work, you will notice it's a pic you have seen before. One of my favourite from the Eleanor shoot.