Getting to the point

I have about seven working days to go in Cape Town before I join my family in kwaZulu Natal where we are starting from scratch. I have been a little pensive lately as I am not moving to a job but will freelance in a place we have been away from for close on seven years. I am a little nervous to say the least.

It is at a time like this when inspiration in some form is needed, and mine came in the form of a little girl called Zintle Ndindwa who turns three years old today. During a dance workshop for which she was too small to be a part of, she showed the most incredible interest. She loved just being there! Thanks for reminding me that sometimes it is good enough just being there Zintle.

And so I look ahead to our relocation wondering what lessons there are to be learnt, and from which incredible teachers those lessons will come.

On the road

A curious find from along our travels. A book shop window with Nelson Mandela's book sitting next to Magnus Malan's in Plettenberg Bay.

Thanks to Candy and Zane for the place to stay and great company.

Exciting times ahead

The process of packing up ones life, boxing it and moving it is difficult. We are doing that right now, and soon we will have the absolute bare necessities. The clutter will be gone and for a short while we will live with only the things we truly need.

It feels good to be stripped down to the basics. Sometimes it is good to go back to the beginning. I sometimes like to go before my beginning and shoot a couple of rolls of 120 film in my old Yashica D which I picked up at a charity store for R150.00. And the D does not stand for digital: it is the model after the Yashica C. The shutter is cocked with one lever, and the film moved on with a seperate dial. There is no light meter. And the horizontals have not travelled through a pentaprism therefore to move left in the frame one must turn the camera to the right. No zoom lenses, just a fixed 80mm. What could be more limiting?

Yet when I use this camera I remember to think. I have a limited number of frames so I compose carefully. There is no rattling off of 3 or 4 shots on motordrive. I enjoy the fact that because it is such an old camera people are less intimidated than when I shove a big modern lens in their faces.

Most of all I like remembering that a camera is a camera. The photograph is more than that. The image is as much a part of oneself as we allow. And I am ready to give...

Oh, and this image was not shot on the old Yashica but I wanted to show it anyway.

In the beginning...

The first posting. How to begin? Five minutes ago I had so many things to say, but now that I have the platform I am frozen in stage fright!

Okay, I'm over it. By way of short introduction the most important aspect of my life is my wife Lucy, and my daughters Jen (6) and Sadie (2). They are my reason for being.

This blog is a guide to my work. My work is my passion for which I am very grateful. I am a photographer. I make photographs. I am a documentary photographer first and foremost, and do much editorial and newspaper work.

This blog is to be updated regularly, with information on my current work and interesting views relating to photography.