It’s that time of the year again – Halloween! and even though we don’t really celebrate it much in South Africa, there are still a few people who get in the spirit and dress up and have a bit of fun! We have been celebrating Halloween for the last 3 or 4 years thanks to The Brightwater Commons in Randburg (previously known as the Randburg waterfront)

Every year they have trick or treating for the kids followed by parades and all kinds of fun and entertainment. (see details below) It really is a good fun evening and the kids just love getting dressed up and getting tons of sweets (watch the sugar rush after that!)

So this year, we can’t make Halloween so Granny and Grandad are going to take our angels trick or treating and they are soooo excited! They are going to sleep at Granny and Grandad’s house afterwards and then they are going to see “Jump” – the Kung Fu Comedy show – at Gold Reef City…. So you can just imagine their excitement!!!

So we went to get their outfits today and it just amazes me how their little personalities come through when choosing a costume. Jamie has decided to be a Wizard as he thinks he is a genius wizard these days… Mikey decided to go as a little devil…. need I say more…. and Demi-Leigh is a little princess – as always!

They looked so adorable and I even managed to catch a few pics for the album though Jamie refused to have any photos taken today (think he should have been wearing the little devil suit today!@#@)

Hopefully, I will get a few pics of him tomorrow before he leaves for their big night out with their grandparents…. and ryan & I will have peace for almost 24 full hours…..  Thank heavens for grandparents!!!!

Here’s more info on the Brightwater Commons Halloween Event:

(taken straight from their website) 

“Put on your Halloween masks and costumes for an evening of trick-or-treating at The Brightwater Commons on Friday 31st October.

This year’s theme will be GREEN… in line with the centre’s new “green” initiative that will be launched in the month of October, so come dressed as a green goblin, monster, leprechaun, bug, Shrek, or anything else green and you could stand a chance of winning a prize.

Starting from 5pm, trick-or-treaters will be able collect sweet treats from tenants around the centre and meet various Halloween characters such as the Apple Blossom Fairy, the Hulk, a wicked witch on stilts, a balloon sculpting troll, a goblin on a sax, and a leprechaun in a car, amongst others.

Whilst face painters transform little faces into “scary” Halloween creatures, a spooky ghost house filled with “creepy” characters is certain to ensure lots of chills and thrills.

Visitors can also enjoy a variety of entertaining performances, starting with the Mad Chef Magic Show at 5:30pm. This will be followed by a colourful Circus Show (from 6pm to 7pm) to featuring slack wire and balancing acts, fire and chainsaw juggling, a human dartboard, plate spinning and disappearing acts, amongst others.

The centre’s annual Halloween parade will start at 7pm and people of all ages are invited to join Frankenstein, an alien, a clown, bagpipe player and other costumed characters as they “march” around the centre. Before the announcing of this year’s best dressed characters in the centre’s annual Halloween competition, will be a fire act from 7:30pm to 8pm

Trick-or-treaters can then gather around the centre’s promotions stage for the annual Halloween fancy dress competition with R2000 worth of centre vouchers to be won. The area around the stage will be cordoned into sections according to the competition categories of pre-primary, primary, high school and adults. To enter, one can just step into the appropriate category section. K-TV presenters will choose five characters from each section to step onto the promotions stage where the winner and runner-up will be chosen by audience vote.

The entry fee for Halloween @ Brightwater will be R25 per car. This is gooooooing to be an exciting evening.”

They all came in green… And what amazing photos it made!  Amanda, Dario & Henko were telling me how this was the only colour they all had that was the same.

I immediately felt this prickle of excitement as green is my absolute favourite colour   They are really laid back people and that always adds to the shoot.  I asked them to take their shoes off for a more relaxed feel.  Henko is eleven and still goes to school barefoot so we ended up with a few brown footprints on my white backdrop (ha ha ha) Kind of reminds me of myself when I was that age, my mom had to threaten us to wear shoes to school when it started getting colder.  Their dad’s birthday is coming up and they decided there isn’t anything more personal they could give him than photos of themselves having fun.

Photographing older kids in studio is a different challenge altogether.  They’re very self-conscious about what they’re wearing and how they look.  They start to develop an image you know…   Try to engage them in your shoot, have them suggest poses that they’re comfortable with and just go with the flow.  Ask them about their favourite sport  or find out what they’re passionate about and they’ll soon relax and interact with the camera.

 I even asked the boys to come stand behind me and pull faces to catch mom with a natural smile…  Can’t wait to hear what dad thinks of the pics!

Now there’s something that I’m absolutely passionate about.  While studying at The National College of Photography (best photocollege around BTW, I would recommend anyone to completing a part-time or the full time course with them) we were shown the art of photographing cars.

We went to a studio situated across from Gallagher Estate named Foghound studios (apparently all the Hyperama ads are shot there)  The studio is humungous, you could comfortably fit at least 7 cars in there.  It’s hard to get used to the infinite space, as there is no sense of where the walls meet the floor, it feels like a gaping hole at first.  The walls have been made into an infinity curve. so instead of a ninety degree angle they are curved.

They prepaint the walls and the floor black/white depending on what your requirements are.  To photograph any car you need a lightsource that is twice as big as the car itself.  So the lecturers had to construct their own massive lightbank (basically a box with black sides and the bottom with white translucent material, with lights strategically positioned inside to create smooth lighting)  Once the lightbox was switched on we had the opportunity to walk around this setup (on our socks of course otherwise we would have left footprints all around the car)  I cannot begin to describe the way the light moves over the smooth contours of the car….  Engaging, awesome, breathtaking, just to use a few words.

Still studying I vowed to do my own car photos in studio.  One of my mom’s scrapbooking clients offered her husband’s car. Wait for it…. yip, a silver Ferarri360 spider!  I spent my months salary (I was working part-time at a studio) on hiring the lights and a SMALL car studio in Rosebank.  Because of the studio being so small it limited me to doing high-key photography) Have you ever looked at a car and seen how many things reflect on its shiny surfaces?  Well I hadn’t either until then….

It is the hardest ’still life’ I had photographed while studying and it turned out to be quite a challenge.  I had great fun and turned up I think 30 decent images out of a total of 200.  But you learn something every time you try something new.  Less isn’t more, more is definitely more.  Next time I will hire the big studio to be able to do more low lighting photos.

It was a fantastic experience and Louise & I are planning on doing it again sometime next year.  So if you know of someone with a great vintage or flashy sports car (or you want to have yours photographed) please let us know!

Riani

Photographing children in studio: There’s a few words I can use to describe this experience:  Busy, hard work, tiring, great fun, hilarious and totally worth the effort!

They come in a few stages, newborns are easy, keep the studio warm and their tummies full and they will sleep right through it.  At six months they start to get more mobile.  Pushing themselves up on their arms, playing with their tongues and rolling over onto the opposite side that you want them. And they also start giving you those angelic smiles which just melt your heart.  Sitting and crawling babies are a bit harder but they can’t move that fast yet…   This is where we start introducing props like a shell full of balls or a bathtub which they can’t climb out of.  So we can keep them entertained but they stay on the backdrop and in range of the studio lights.  Toddlers are probably one of the most challenging subjects I’ve photographed in my life.  They now have a mind of their own, and are very independent.  They know what they want and will do everything themselves.  To ensure good pics, get some colourful toys and make everything a game.  Play peekaboo, have mom tickle them or let them take a horsey ride on dad’s back.  This will soon get them to relax and give you the chance to catch some beautiful natural smiles.

Photographing kids in studio requires a lot of patience and an understanding of how their minds work (which we have loads of experience with Louise having 3 kids and me watching my brothers 3 boys most days)

Some tips on photographing children in studio (or anywhere for that matter):
- Keep it fun and natural.  Get them to play with their favourite toys, sing their favourite sing along songs like ba-ba-blacksheep and old macdonald (I can’t tell you how their little faces light up on hearing a nursery rhyme or kiddie song they know and love)
- Keep shooting, digital cameras allow you to take a lot more photos than film did.  You can look at our photos and delete the ones you don’t like later.
- Switch your camera to sports mode and off you go. 
- Timing is of the essence, if it’s close to their nap time rather postpone it till after.
- Don’t expect them to look at the camera and smile the whole time as it ain’t gonna happen, you’ll only frustrate them.  Try catch the intense concentration on their little faces when discovering something new, or just them gazing into the distance can be just as spectacular.
- Take photos when theyre playing outside and just being themselves because those are the moments we want to remember…

Have fun!

Riani 

If you are anything like me, roundabout this time of the year you start thinking about what to give everyone for christmas. CD’s? No. Books? No. Socks (ha ha just joking, but that’s almost what you start to feel like isn’t it?)  It needs to be something different, something special that will be treasured for years to come…

Ever thought about giving Grandma and Grandpa christmas photos?  Not just in an ordinary album, but in a exclusive leatherbound coffee table storybook.  Photos are something personal, different, and unique.  Traditional photo albums have become something of the past.  With a coffeetable storybook you dont have to worry about photos falling out, or having to arrange and mount the photos.  We do everything from shooting the pics, designing the book and having it printed. You can have any size from a 15cmx15cm book up to a 30cmx30cm book, starting with 20pages going up to 60 pages.  We also offer personalised calendars, canvas prints, box mounts and traditional enlargements and framing. One photoshoot and you could have all your christmas gifts for the entire family wrapped up in one!! What a pleasure….

Think about it, have you ever met anyone’s grandparent who doesn’t want to sit you down and take you down memory lane while showing you their photo albums? I haven’t. I believe you can never have enough photos (I might be a little bit biased as photography is my passion)  Photos have always been a great a way to remember someone. It’s invaluable.

Did you know nowadays you can even subscribe to a service who will write your kids a letter from the likes of Santa Claus and the Easter bunny on the appropriate day?  Imagine that…

Come to think of it, Christmas photos are also a great way to remind your kids that christmas is around the corner and if they don’t behave themselves, Santa most certainly will not be bringing them any gifts….

Only 2 months left till Christmas!!!!!

Photographing Jamie – by Riani

Have you ever spent some time with a two year old in a confined space?  If you have you will know that this is when they become a lot more independent and insist on doing everything themselves.  Little Jamie was no exception.  Let me tell you, small kids always have something better to do than sit on your lap, smile at a camera and pose for your family pic.  So the key as a professional photographer is to make it fun for them so that they will enjoy the photoshoot (if not you will end up for very unhappy children in your family portrait albums and we wouldn’t want that…..) So we did what we love to do – play….. And boy did we play with li’l Jamie!!!!

We had him kicking up a storm in the coloured balls, jumping on dad’s tummy (which I wouldn’t recommend to any dad) but Jamie seemed to be enjoying himself.  You can play any music to this little guy and he starts to jiggle and dance to it (supercute)  I would say it went quite well for his first studio photoshoot and all in all the photos were cute and I can’t wait to do more! 

He had us singing old mcdonald, baa-baa black sheep, incy wincy spider and loads more…  (At least I’ve got a good singing voice ha ha)  Hope you like the pics!!  Riani

I received this article in an email today from The Demartini Institute in South Africa and thought it was worth sharing. It shows how we can always find blessings in any crisis and in so doing remain present and grateful in any given situation. I especially love this part:

“When we are challenged, we calm our unrealistic fantasies about life, it quells our need for instant gratification. It forces us to be introspective about what we really truly want out of life, it teaches us not to live beyond our means and it brings us back into equilibrium.”

Now that’s food for thought…..

Below is the entire article as per the email: