Micky Wiswedel Photography

Away

2012-02-17T03:50:00.000-08:00

Today I leave for a shoot in Liberia and Haiti. Probably not the safest countries in the world but an experience very few people get the chance to have. What can I say, not much i'll just have to see when I get there but I'm really looking forward to living something real, away from the disconnect that is the luxury life in Cape Town. I have fixed my light-meter on my Yashica and bought a few

iKapalypse day 2

2012-02-07T22:46:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of iKapalypse was a scorcher and all of it shot outside in harsh South African sun. I decided to keep things as simple as possible in order to make what I could of the tricky lighting conditions. Here is one of my favorites of the day. Thanks to all my scrim holders! Surfer couple on Muizenberg beach

iKapalypse day 1

2012-02-07T02:04:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I attended the iStock Minilypse in Cape Town dubbed iKapalypse. Each day was spent with a horde of iStock photographers trying to come up with an idea, light it and shoot it in three different 15 minute time slots each. The pressure of coming up with a concept and executing in 15 minutes was something very new to me but I learnt a huge amount from the other photographers and

Medium Format

2012-02-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Another film scan of a shot taken from my Yashica the other day.

Anathi

2012-02-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

Today I met Anathi in Phillipi township. Definitely not camera shy and she has a cracker smile. It always makes my day being able to take some shots of someone who really enjoys it, even if that person is only 7 years old :) Young Anathi Mriba, the girl with the perfect smile

cooking

2012-02-01T01:28:00.000-08:00

A shot I grabbed yesterday in Sir Lowries Pass village of a woman cooking in her township home.

Deep Freeze

2012-01-31T22:36:00.000-08:00

I scanned the news last night to see if I could find out what excatly was going at the protest I shot yesterday, so here is the story. The area is called Deep Freeze situated on the outskirts of Maccassar industrial. Cape Town Municipality is planning on cutting water to fix some pipes and are planning on erecting some shared toilet facilities for the residents. Obviously residents are not

Water

2012-01-31T02:37:00.000-08:00

On my way to shoot and meetup with some of the iStock contributers this morning I noticed plumes of smoke rising out of the suburb of Macassar. Initially I drove past not thinking much about the smoke but something got the better of me and I turned around and went back to see if there was anything worth shooting. The thick smoke rising out of Macassar was the result of residents blocking the

Yashica test

2012-01-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

My old man gave me his old Yashica Mat 124G medium format box camera. Finally I took some time to get some test shots to see if it works. Unfortunately the light meter no longer functions but it seems that everything else works fine! I'm looking forward to playing around a bit more with this camera and seeing what it can do. Below is one of the test shots, no post except cleaning up some white

The Bradshaw Project

2012-01-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

Steve on the crux where he had fallen numerous times before I have been racking up a decent carbon footprint driving out once or twice a week to film Steve Bradshaw on his awesome project in Oorlogskloof, just outside of Montagu. He's been extremely close for the past few weeks, and even though yesterday, driving out to Montagu was the last thing I was keen for I knew that if I didnt go

iShoot iStock

2012-01-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

Today I shot stock. Glossy, bright, smiley images to sell as student orientated stock images. What made the day work really well was working with Siya, who can drop a perfect smile on queue every time and Georgia, who helped me get the best out of the natural light we were working with this morning.

Liyema

2012-01-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

After dropping Sydney off from work today I quickly popped in to say hi to the family. Liyema already knows my name is was super excited to see me, he loves the camera as you can see.

More from the townships

2012-01-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

This year i'm planning on shooting a lot in the townships. I havent exactly come up with a very clear reason yet, but ideas are starting to take shape. This shot was taken of an unemployed lady Thobeka and her child in their single room shack in a very poor part of Phillipi. Once again i'm humbled by seeing the way people live just 25 minutes down the road from me. I'm hoping I managed to

Five Stars

2012-01-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day where I hired Sydney as my fixer into the townships. We both still have a lot to learn and to work out but driving around and meeting people only opened my eyes to the endless photo opportunities in the area. Things can only get better from here. This first shot is of Somwabile in front of his hair salon in Phillipi.

thruster

2012-01-11T06:57:00.000-08:00

I took my camera out climbing with me for a change and managed to get a shot of my friend Live working the route next my project. Thruster 26/7b at Supertubes, Montagu

Anna

2011-12-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

Whilst taking a rest day from climbing in Oudtshoorn I took a drive down the road and took a shots Anna, a poor farm laborer on a nearby farm. Another reality check on how many people in SA live :(

Welder

2011-12-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

A day off from climbing I took shots of Jean Du Preez welding in his workshop in Barrydale.

Cool Like That

2011-12-14T01:03:00.000-08:00

Got a shot of Alex Bester on Cool Like That 29/7c+ at the Scoop in Montagu on my recent trip there. I find this crag really difficult to shoot for some reason and still haven't found a way to get the look i want from it. Anyway here's Alex looking focused on his send... Alex Bester sending Cool Like That 29/7c+

A Perfect Boulder

2011-12-14T00:59:00.000-08:00

Some more shots I took of The Hatchling 8A whilst shooting for Adidas. This must be one of the most photogenic boulders in Rocklands. Melissa Le Neve on The Hatchling Katarina Saurwein on The Hatcling

2011-12-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

I shot a tester video clip bouldering with Marijus Smilgelskis this week for a possible future project. Here is the quick and dirty edit with no tricks, color correction or audio mix. Its just footage straight from the camera slapped together in a few hours. If you can select HD on, its better.

Secret Garden

2011-12-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Today I took a rekkie hike with Marijus Smigelskis to look at a secret bouldering area which i'm keen to possibly film. Here are 2 of the test stills shots

experiments in the kloof

2011-12-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't been focusing on climbing shots very much lately. I did however take my camera out the other day whilst Benji de Charmoy was working Wipeout 32/8b at SuperTubes in Montagu. Its not the prettiest piece of rock to shoot so I struggled capturing anything i liked that day. This shot i thought was ok ... there are definitely better places to shoot in Montagu however. Benji holding the

Eight Stories

2011-11-12T23:37:00.000-08:00

On a day off from work i spent some time with the Riverkids project in Cambodia, back in 2009. They have used some of my photos for fund raising and awareness and made a book featuring eight stories about child trafficking. Here is shot of mine which they used for the cover of their book. Please take some time to check out their website and support an amazing cause. www.riverkidsproject.org I'll

Addidas Rocklands

2011-10-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

I spent a day in my favourite place in the world Rocklands shooting two of Addidas' recently sponsored rock climbers Melissa Le Neve and Katharina Saurwein. They were super inspiring climbers to spend time with for a day, sending 8a's with ease for the camera. They were also just really great people to hang out with. Here are a few of the shots from the day. More can be seen on my website at

Gory

2011-10-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

An article about me and my work as a photographer was recently published in the Polish climbing mag Gory. The shot of me is by another great SA climbing photographer Dirk Smith. Thanks to Wojtek Kozakiewicz taking the time to track me down and put the article together. here's the link to the magazines online site, check them out http://www.goryonline.com/ The English Translation 1). You