Love from Stockholm.

Around the corner from our hotel is a little place called the Giraffe Restaurant, their motto: Love, Eat, Live. I love the funky interior and they make the most delicious oatmeal porridge. So I think we found our breakfast spot.

I was very lucky to inherit a beautiful classical ring from my grandmother, so for my engagement I wanted something totally different. Clean lines & quite contemporary. Now I can swop between the two :) Lucky me!

I received my ring the day before I left for London and now I’m still getting use to the fact that I’m wearing a diamond! But that sparkles make me smile every time I look at it :)

As soon as the tickets were released for the Cape Town games iaan and I jumped online and bought 10 tickets for the Cameroon vs Netherlands game. I literally killed my bank account, but there was NO way I was going to miss out on this once in a life time experience. Soccer world cup in Cape Town, now that’s not something you see every day! We also knew the tickets will be sold in days. So 8 of our friends bought the other tickets and we were ready to go watch the game.

As the weeks came closer I had a look at my closet and with a little sigh of disappointment saw that I was quite a boring person when it came to colorful clothes. I love colour…On a picture, but not on my body! In some way I’m brave enough to walk to a red coat and try it on, but I always end up buying the black one. It’s just more practical, right? Consequently I ended up with a closet filled with black, grey and brown clothes…how exciting…So for this game I wanted to go all out!! I walked around in the mall and I found the perfect set of pants! Yellow, I’m talking banana! As in Bafana Bafana, here I come! I was so proud of these yellow pants, I felt like a kid going to an awesome dress up party!

I even got Adri to buy a pair…don’t think I was so brave to wear it all by myself! Seriously. In public. No way, I needed an accomplice. And just by the way, we looked so normal when we got to the fan walk, cause what the other people were wearing was just in another league!

But appart from all the fun and games there is one thing from that day that will stick with me forever! The night before the game we found out we had an extra ticket…the ticket could have been sold to anyone, but instead iaan and I decided to try something, what if we sold this ticket on my website..not for profit, but to change someones life?

As you probably realized by now, I’m a bit crazy! And I love crazy ideas! I love thinking outside the box and I love thanking risks! So we decided to auction on my site…and we only had 8 hours.

All profits would go towards the KIKI outreach program i’m running in Kayamandi. The KIKI outreach program is a photo school I started this year. It aims to share and teach kids in underprivileged communities about photography. (A little video about this will be up on the next post..)

The ticket was sold to a very generous lady, who bought it for R5000! And she asked us to take someone else to the game, as she was in Johannesburg. So I phoned Ncumisa, one of the girls helping me in Kayamandi. She screamed so hard over it was much worse that any Vuvuzella! :)

And that night Ncumisa walked the fan walk, she entered the stadium and stood in awe. A few tears formed in her eyes as she couldn’t believe she would ever have the opportunity to see a game in real life. They were happy tears. And in her own words from a letter she wrote to me:

“I really never thought it’ll happened to me.. WORLD CUP LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now that was really AYOBA..while we were sitting on that restaurant seeing people going to the stadium, it felt unreal. The moment i stepped into the stadium and saw all the people, it felt like I’m in a dream, i will wake up and it wouldn’t be true, but it was, i just felt tears coming into my eyes, i couldn’t control them, i was super excited.

It was a great surprise ever, i would never ever forget the 24th of june 2010. You just made my history, when i heard about the world cup, i really wanted to attend at least one match, i wanted to say i was there, but i knew that it was imposible, but today, im saying I WAS THERE!”

(Note: The author of this post does not take any responsibility for that actions of the people in these photos… But gives a Waka Waka award to each on of the following people: Lizelle Lotter, Iaan Van Niekerk, Adri Rupping, Monica Dart, Lydia Meintjes, Lance Van der Spuy, Sjan-Mari van Niekerk, Anske Van Niekerk & Ncumisa Siko :) You guys did well!)

If you’d like to contribute to the kiki project, cameras, cash, anything…please mail me.

So please be patient with me. I promise I will prioritize the workshops as soon as I have more time, but at this stage I think only Johannesburg will see a workshop before the end of 2010 :) It looks like it will be 14, 15, 16 September. More info will follow closer to the time.

But I have a solution!! I’m compiling a list for all the cities, and if you fill these forms in, you will receive first priority! So reserve your seats for the next workshops, by clicking on the city.

Cape Town

Johannesburg

Durban & Nelspruit forms coming soon.

Thanks guys! Looking forward to meeting all of you! x

I’m very very excited to announce that I’ll be in New York & London next month…so I’m putting together something called: FUNshops. I decided to re-”brand” my workshops, cause essentially they are not normal workshops. They are totally informal, totally fun and a place where, as Jasmine Star says: You have to leave your ego at home! So the new word on the block is FUNshops!

My Funshops include bits and pieces of me, how I started, what I learned along the way, how I shoot, how I edit and how I market. In my workshops there is no right or wrong, it’s just how I do things and what worked for me. To see previous workshop look here: The shoot & The workshop

We’ll also be doing a fun styled shoot and then I’ll show you how I edit.

So if you’re up to listen to my story, learn, share, meet other great people and have some photofun, please fill in the following forms. Please note that at this stage there is only 10 seats available per city, so if you’re nr 11, 12 or 13…you’ll be on a waiting list. Also note that all the details are still being finalized, as soon as everything is ready, you will receive an information pdf as well as an invoice, payable via Paypal.

Your investment: 750 USD (I’ll make you a deal and give it to all of you for 500USD if 10 people sign up…so tell your friends :)

Book your seat:
London Workshop
New York (Probably actually Montclair, NJ…but still waiting for confirmation on the venue)

Can’t wait to meet all you guys!

1. I thought nothing less than 4 months from our engagment, becasue 4 months to plan a wedding is already a bit nuts. But, on the other hand iaan and i have been together for 8 years and to start a life with him as my husband sounds just so fabulous… to wait 12 months, just to make sure I have the perfect flowers or venue does not sound right! So the quicker the better :)

2. I had a look at my calendar and searched for two open weekends after each other. One to get married on and one to go away on honeymoon.

3. I’ve always thought spring would be the perfect time for our wedding. The beginning of something new. A new season and the beginning of the wedding season, which gives me the winter months to plan my own wedding :)

4. So we picked 23 October…we’re getting married on 23 October, yes, this year! Woop woop!

If you’d like to follow more of the creative process, planning and read some tips from my side, make sure you follow my posts on The Pretty Blog.

Happy Monday!

I’m a big believer and supporter of dreams, business and crazy ideas. I just love them! But then on the other hand, the most exciting part comes when they become reality.

Yesterday I saw a great quote. I read somewhere on Facebook or the net (sorry I can’t remember who’s quote it was) “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit, there is footprints on the moon!” and that really made me think…What I saw in that quote was 1. Don’t be limited by other people’s thinking 2. You have to do something to prove that it’s possible.

Believing is key, but it doesn’t make the dream happen..you have to put in lots of hard work, research and figure out how to make your dreams come true! I think one of the flaws with the general perception of dreams are that they fall out of the sky and then with a little bit of magic, they mysteriously happen. The way I see it, dreams are there to encourage us to get our bums off the couch and make things happen! With my journey I’ve been VERY blessed, which makes it easier, but the fact of the matter is, things are not going to happen all by themselves :)

And that’s how I feel about The Pretty Blog. The Pretty Blog has been a dream for the past 2 years.  Since I started my photography business, I realized that there was a big need for online bridal inspiration in South Africa. A place that shared ideas and great quality visuals with brides, a place that made them feel at home, almost like a (online) coffee shop. Where you can take a break from the hectic demands of your job and just page through some beautiful pictures with a cup of coffee.

Nicola and I talked about this idea for months and little by little things came together and last week we were the proud mothers of a little blog called The Pretty Blog!

Apart from real weddings, we also share ideas from other bride’s perspectives. We share DIY ideas and also some stylish mood boards that can spark some ideas for your own day. But The Pretty Blog is not wedding from begin to end, it also strives to encourage you to make pretty things and be inspired whether for a tea party or decor for your own home.

The Pretty Blog is a place where not only the bride should feel comfortable, but also the AWESOME service providers. The Pretty Blog hand picks each of the service providers to fit the profile, look and feel of our blog.

One thing that gets me and Nicola most excited is the fact that there are so many new businesses and ideas starting every day. And with The Pretty Blog we want to encourage new businesses to strive for excellence. Be creative. Be innovative. Be AWESOME! So if you think you’re company fits this profile, make sure you fill in our advertise form.

The other opportunity that we offer is to feature your company/products on the blog. If you think you’re worth featuring, please fill in our feature me/my product form online.

We’re also very excited to share with you that we’ve already had 8056 page views in the past 5 days! These hits mainly came from South Africa, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Argentina, Norway, Austria, France and even Portugal! :) *happy dance*

A big thank to the following people: Fresh01 for the awesome design! Iaan & Cindy from PlusPlusMinus for making the site work super fine! For Nicola for all the hard work! And also to all the photographers for their great photographs! Also a bit thank you to the other blogs that have already blogged about us, for all the people spreading the word online! You guys are precious!

(Tip for service providers: If you’d like to track your website stats and see how many visitors you receive, from which countries and from where most of your traffic is coming, make sure you have Google Analytics installed in your website. It’s for free and a MUST have!)

Petra and Barri told me about their wedding and their farm and what it was going to look like, but never did I imagine such an amazing experience!

I first met Petra when she attended my first workshop. She is also a wedding photographer . (I wish I could link this post to her blog, but she doesn’t have one yet…I suggested she get one asap and she promised me it will be up in the coming year. So keep a look out for Petra’s work.)

So..we arrived on Barri’s parents farm and this is something I have to admit, people from the country side are so friendly! I loved being there. You walk in, meet everyone and all of a sudden you’re part of the family for that weekend. It was awesome! The people, the place and the food, but the best of all was the amazing landscape!

The wedding took place on their farm, on a red sand pan. I don’t even know if that is the right word, but I think it is :) The wedding was literally in the middle of no where! Just to give you an idea, they only started having mobile reception there a few months ago! Seriously! No telephone lines! No electricity… they use a generator. They actually made a joke to say if the world is coming to an end we can just to move there, cause it will take a few more years before it will affect them. :)

Ok, so brace yourself, there are 56 images in the post. If I selected any less than these, it wouldn’t have told the full story and that’s what my photos are all about…telling the story. xox

ps. My second shooter: “Mr i” aka iaan van Niekerk! My fiance!

The word became popular after a marketing campaign of a local mobil company MTN. But apart from it being a clever marketing campaign the word is now used to express excitement or to say something is “cool”. In short it’s become a funky slang word :)

The weekend of the 12th of June, iaan and I traveled to Upington in the Northern Cape. I’ve never been there before and I was super excited to see it. Not only was iaan born in that area, but I’ve heard such great things about the people and the landscape. So I packed my bags for Petra & Barri’s wedding and off we went.

We arrived the Friday and we were warmly greeted by a friend of Petra’s. She picked us up and took us for a little sight seeing. Upington reminded me of the days when I was still a little girl. We would travel up to the Freestate to our family for holidays and stop at all the little farm stalls. All the home made cookies, biscuits and rusks. Sweeties in tins and glass bottles. Home made jam and all the dried fruit.

While we were driving I saw this guy. I just had to stop. I was in awe! He had no legs and he was working in a garden. I went over. Introduced myself and then he told me his story. In the 1970’s he had a pain in his legs. He then went to the doctor and they said he had some kind of virus. It was spreading through his legs and they had to put them off. Then he learned how to move around and today he is a gardener. He also proudly added that he’d never missed a days work! Wow, we can all learn from him!

Upington in my opinion was Ayoba :)