Zen Zulu Wildlife Workshop - A note on keeping it steady

This last weekend I had my inaugural workshop at Zen Zulu Lodge in the Zululand Rhino Reserve Complex. This is a truly secluded little lodge that only caters to 6 guests. It is the epitome of 'getting away from it all'. It's still work - running a photography workshop - but I can think of far worse ways to spend the weekend than residing in the lap of luxury while spending time with avid photographers. Once again I need to pinch myself when I realise that I do this for a job.

Luxury besides, photographing in the rain can be troublesome at times and yet again we were unable to do any star-trail photography as the clouds seemed to have descended as we all arrived, and parted as we left (absolutely typical). Still, despite the rain we had some wonderful sightings of Giraffe and Rhino, as well as two of the reserves lionesses. Photographing in the rain also added something different to the usual sunny portraits of animals. It also meant for some spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

Location Portraiture and a Big Ole T-Rex

 Two years back I spent a day doing some creative portraiture at the Durban Natural History museum which I wrote about here. Turned out they liked the work that I did, so was invited back again, this time create some more images of the Director, Allison Ruiters and some of the Exhibitions Staff. Being a director of a large institution such as the museum meant we had to try and cram in as much shooting as possible in as short a period of time...naturally (not to mention the fact that state institutions - despite what critics would say - have rather limited budgets). Thankfully, shooting at the museum is always fun, with a wealth of 'things' to use in the imagery.

Jammin with Lynch - low light black and white

Band photography isn't something that I get to do that often, being known more for my industrial and commercial work in my home 'territory', but I grabbed at the opportunity to photograph Lynch as they go through the motions of recording an album. To start with we're just putting together some casual behind the scenes images that are likely to be used inside the CD jacket. Bevan, their frontman and I are stilling working through ideas for the cover, which no doubt I'll write about once we hit the nail on the creative head. 

Why I Call Myself A Landscape Photographer

For as long as we know, humans have had an innate desire to classify everything. Despite modernism we have, since Linnaeus, rigidly set objects, ideas and things into neatly ordered boxes. Religions, world-views and beliefs have suffered much the same fate. It was one of my university professors, Chris de Wet (he went on to supervise me through my masters dissertation) who pointed out to me the human construct that is classification. There is nothing under the sun that we do not try to classify. So too, do we find ourselves dividing our photographic niches into this or that genre, ostensibly separating ourselves from other styles, movements and photographic specializations. Why on earth would I then throw my lot in with landscape photographers, one of the least likely groups to earn a sizeable living (when compared to some of the better paid niches of professional photography)?