Five Photographers I want to be

As you all know, it's no secret that I'm a huge blogstalker. Especially wedding photographer blogs. Don't freak out, but I have 129 blogs in my "favourites" folder alone. And that's the small folder! I tried to count the rest but I got tired when I hit 180-something and I wasn't nearly finished, but take it from me, it's a lot. Most of the time I don't even get to look at some most of them, but I can't bring myself to delete them. I'm a frickin hoarder, people. Didn't you know you can hoard online? Oh yes, you can.

So when people ask me who my favourite photographers are, I don't know how to answer that question. I can't have 129, obviously. And I do know that I like some of those more than others, but that I can't keep dividing the folders into more and more subdivisions: "Perfect Photography", "Near Perfect Photography", "Usually Awesome Photography", "Really Great Photography", "Pretty Good Photography" - yeah, those are the types of categories I would need to start having. So, for now I just have favourites, 2nd tier, and The Rest. But to pick the favourite favourites out of the Favourites? How do you do that?

Well, when I started thinking about it, I realised I could look at it in another way: Which photographers do I want to BE? Whose style and use of colour, lighting, settings and imagination do I want to emulate? Whose portfolio gives me the same feeling that I want my clients to have when they see their photos for the first time? Hmm. This was slightly easier. You see, while there are numerous photographers I admire and love, their style just isn't mine. I'm excited to look at their work, but I can't picture myself producing work like that. It isn't "me". So that immediately cut the list down...a bit. The rest was just a long hard look and an even harder cull. But here is my list, in no particular order. Getting them to five was difficult enough. Ordering them would be impossible.

1. VUE PHOTOGRAPHY

Oh, the bliss. The HAPPINESS that I get from pretty much every single one of their pictures is indescribable. The colours are saturated while still being light and fresh. I don't believe that every one of their weddings can possibly be so beautiful and perfect in real life. But somehow they make them look like it! Feast your eyes on some more:

2. CAMERON INGALLS

Magical is the word I associate with Cameron Ingalls. His photos feel like stepping into a beautiful wedding-fantasy land. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a lens filter called "fairytale magic" that he uses, because, whoa, are his pictures gorgeous. Take a look and see what I mean:

A rainbow? Are you freaking kidding me with the magicalness? Or is that "magicality"? :-)

3. CHRISTINE MEINTJES

Fresh, clean and simple. That's what Christime Meintjes' photos always say to me. I love her use of light and how bright and happy her photos are. And yes, it was her workshop I attended some weeks ago. I really want to steal emulate be inspired by her style! :-)

Here are some more:

 

 

 

 

 

4.  SUSAN STRIPLING

The magic light photographer. That's what I call Susan Stripling in my head. Because somehow she seems to take any light she has, and turn it into a magical glow. I don't think I really appreciated this until I started photographing myself. Now I have deep admiration and huge respect (and a lot of envy) for how her pictures turn out!

 

 

Delicious light, can I marry you?

5.CHELSEA NICOLE

I chose Chelsea Nicole for this last spot because her work really stands out for me. There's something "fashion shoot"-ish about it, but it never looks overposed or overflashed. It still has a natural look for me, and I'm sure it takes a lot of hard work to achieve that behind the scenes! I want to learn how to do that!

 

PS - If you want to see the cutest dog ever, go see this engagement shoot Chelsea did! ADORABLE.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dear:

Trista Lerit, DrewB, Andrea Carlyle, Shooting Gallery, Bobbi & Mike, Ed Pingol, Ksenija Savic, Lauren Clark, Mario Sales, Leigh Taylor, Tinywater, Natasha Du Preez, Lizelle Lotter, Sarah K Chen, Clayton Austin and Marie Labbancz, you totally rock my world as well. Some of you are beautiful, some of you are funky, some of you are fashiony, but you're all brilliant.

Today, I...

...nearly freaked out at the sight of a parktown prawn on my floor, till I realised it was an old leaf that had blown in under the door. Then I came downstairs later and did it again. My husband obligingly stood on it and crushed it to smithereens. It definitely wasn't a parktown prawn. They aren't killed that easily.

I really need to get a doorstop of sorts so this doesn't happen again.

...went shopping for the first step of my home improvement program, and bought four sturdy wooden boxes to stand our computer screens on. Why they don't just make screens the right height for your head, I'll never know. But these will be a huge improvement on the magazine piles and old cardboard box we've been using, and we can also use them to store things we never use. Ooooh. I love storage. Mr Ruby Slippers was quite excited by the trip, mostly because he loves boxes. "They're so full of potential," he explained. I love him.

...had to sing Le Jazz Hot for the first time holding a microphone. It wasn't easy, but it sounds so much nicer! We also had to work out how to pass the four microphones around the six soloists during "You can't stop the beat". That was...interesting. Five and a half weeks till opening night. Yelp.

Home improvement

A few months ago, I was whinging  complaining mentioning that I really wanted a house of my own. I just have this idea that once I own a home I can decorate it the way I want, and it will all by beautiful and matchy and fabulous, and I can take you on virtual tours of its awesomeness, like Blue-Eyed Bride does with her yummy home. At the moment we're renting a garden cottage, and we've been here for three years and four months. And I haven't really done squat to decorate it. Why?

Well, partly it's the age-old money issue. We don't have the cash to buy matching furniture (or a dining room table) or pretty things. The other thing that's holding me back is we don't own this house, so we can't paint anything or put up shelves (we asked). We have hung a few pictures; I hope they don't mind those holes. I don't want to make curtains because every house has different sized windows, and "when we move out" (our constant phrase for the past three years) they might not fit the new place. And that would be a waste...and I hate waste. Thanks for that, Mom. :-)

But we're not moving out anytime soon, it appears. So why the heck can't I bring myself to make the place a bit more...I don't know.... How I'd like it?

It's funny, because the type of rooms that appeal to me are bright, clean, and minimalist. And I think that's only appealing to me because I've never had it. I am a Hoarder, people. It's not like those scary shows on tv, but I have bits and pieces everywhere, and tons of books and dvds and albums and mementos and a gazillion little thingymabobs and whatyoumacallems and doodymalairys. So I figure I'm just hankering after rooms that look like THIS because I've never had them, right?

 

I mean, come on. Could I even keep a room like that clean? Never mind tidy??

As proof, I offer you these photos. I can't even believe I'm doing this. I just took two photos of our computer room (affectionately known as the Spare Oom) and one of our bedroom. I didn't pick up or move anything. This is how untidy we are. I also apologise for the bad quality pics. I didn't feel like unearthing batteries for my flash.

Ok, so it's not 'crazy hoarding people on tv' material. But look at the piles of clothes by the bed (especially Mr Ruby's side!) Look at the stuff on the floor between my bedside table and my bookcase. Look at the stuff ON the bedside tables! And the cute kitty sleeping under the window on the left hand side :-) He makes more mess with his hair and little pawprints than we do.

This is our Spare Oom:

Yes, we each have two screens, because we're nerdy like that. Just look at all the crap on the desks, though!

And here's the opposite side of the room:

(Yes, we have a sink in our computer room. We don't use it, though. As far as we can tell, our house used to be an office, and this was their kitchen. It also accounts for the fluorescent striplights in the bedroom). Anyway, just look at all that random stuff on the floor and on the sink. It makes me sad.  How pretty are my dvds, though? :-)

A few days ago I stumbled upon a darling little blog called Life in the Fun Lane. Thank you (and I mean that sarcastically) to whoever linked me to it, because I'm completely enthralled by the author's adventures in renovating and in refurbishing old furniture and making it look all white and beautiful and shabby chic. I want some of that shabby chic action in my house, please.

LOOK at this. I mean, come on. No house should be that adorable, right?

The Halloween decor - elegant and delicious!

One of the items of furniture she's revamped.

And then, to make matters worse, I found these two pictures lurking on photography blogs, and they just leapt out at me and made me crave them. Seriously. I desire them in an unhealthy way.

Not the baby. The TREE. The beautiful, gorgeous tree, spreading its branches protectingly and lovingly. Swoon.

AND:

The BIRDS. Flying free from those cages that I love so much right now. I could cry, it's so beautiful. Waaaaaant. So badly.

And actually, this shouldn't be too hard, because I have a husband who can paint. I just have to convince him that he wants them too :-)

The other day that same husband of mine made me have an epiphany. I said, "I want to decorate our living room in black, white and green one day." And he said, "Why don't you start now?"

And I said. "Why DON'T I start now?"

Sometimes I'm so obtuse it frightens me :-)

I ♥ Faces Fix-it Friday

Another one!

Here's the before. Not too much wrong with it, right?

 

But look what you can do!

or

I was going to keep him in colour because of his beautiful blues, but when I tried the B & w (with cinnamon) he just looked adorable too! Children look so gorgeous in black & white.

The main thing I had to do on the original photo was even out the shadows on his face using the clone tool. Then I lightened, warmed, sharpened, made it contrasty, and voila.

Full of Pride

On Saturday I went with my friend Paul to the Johannesburg Pride Parade. Paul wanted to hand out flyers for our upcoming show, Babes on Broadway, and I wanted to help with that and take photos of the festivities. Mr Ruby Slippers decided to come along too, which was fab, mostly because he kept steering me out of harm's way when I was looking through the camera instead of where I was going :-)

It was SUCH fun! I love bright colours and clearly I had my fill of those! They closed of one of the busiest streets in Johannesburg for us, which left quite a few disgruntled motorists, but for the most part people were waving and cheering and hooting as we went by. I loved it. I loved it so much I didn't even notice we walked six and a half kilometres. This is not normal for me, and I felt like I'd been hit by a bus the next day. It was totally worth it, even though I had to go and dance at rehearsal. Ouch.

PS - apparently neither Mr RS nor myself can put suncream on properly, because we both have a lovely red rim around our hairlines.

Onto pictures!


These rainbow robot guys were AWESOME.


It takes balls to be a fairy..mwahaha.




Look at the little dogs! Awwwwww.




The girls on the left's T-shirts say "The Right to be right here right now", in case it's too small for you to read. And I love how they'd decked out this wheelchair in the middle pic!



These guys in the first three pics were representing a church that accepts everyone. Actually there were three churches there like that, but these guys had the best props! I loved the big crosses and the "Jesus inside" shirts. (To be clear: I don't care for religion particularly, but I do think it's good to be accepting of all people. Basically I just liked their props and things.)

The bottom pic shows us filling up Jan Smuts Avenue. It was such a pleasure not to have to stop at every traffic light as one usually does!


Two of the parade traffic guys, dressing up for the occasion. Loved them!


Bright colours and fairy wings. I was in my element.

Next:

Top left: this van was stopped in the traffic jam we were causing, and the group of guys in front of us had this idea for a photo. I thought it was hysterical!

Middle left: I wanted to take some close-up pics that showed the love and closeness of the participants. I caught this nice casual moment of the one guy tucking his hand through his partner's belt. There are a few more like that scattered through the other storyboards.


My favourites were the crowd reaction shots! These guys were hanging out on their balcony the whole time with a "We heart you" sign:



These construction workers all stopped working to hang over the scaffolding and see the crazy rainbow people:

A general "Um, okaaaay" look from passersby:


These guys were my favourite! Look at the middle guy. You could put his face in the dictionary next to the definition of "What..the...hey...?"

I had the most fun! And, while not wishing to use this blog as a politican platform, I'm so glad gay marriage is legal here. People who love people should be able to marry said people. The end!