I’m totally in love with Adobe Lightroom!! You probably wouldn’t believe me, but I hardly ever go to Photoshop to alter my images. Lightroom is my all in one toolbox for digital manipulation. If I had to explain Lightroom vs Photoshop I’d put it like this:

Lightroom is the all in one toolbox: clean, simple, to the point and very effective. Basically all you really need. Photoshop on the other hand is not just a toolbox, it’s a whole workshop. Sure you can do more with Photoshop, but are you really going to use all those tools?

I absolutely love presents! They totally make me smile. To unwrap something and not know what it is…nothing comes to that rush!

Today I received a parcel in the mail and I was so excited! Inside the package was DVD’s from FJS productions and they really impressed me! Their DVD’s are so beautiful! Well designed and makes an impression even before you put it in the DVD player. I’ve seen so many wedding DVD’s with pixilated covers, or even worse a badly designed pixelated cover! As a service provider I believe in staying up to date with trends. Living in the era of ipods, macs and all those other beautiful things, we can’t just forget about packaging, presentation and first impressions.

My gorgeous friends Mel and Chris got married on the 27th of June. You might remember them form a previous post about their engagement shoot or the video I made with my 5DII earlier this year. Mel looked absolutely gorgeous and she was smiling the whole day! I one the other hand, have never cried so much at a wedding in my whole entire life! When I saw her in her dress with her perfect hair and smile I wanted to cry, but I was strong and proceeded to the church where Chris and the boys were waiting.

I’m so excited to FINALLY show of some of my coffee table books. I absolutely adore these two. Some of the photos are from Jayson and Janine’s book and the other ones are from Ryan & Kelly’s wedding. The large books are 25cm x 25cm and the parent books are 12.5cm x 12.5 cm. The books are printed with a digital press process and then hand bound. The clean stylish layout makes these photos pop out and gives them space to breath. I really believe is breathing space in my layouts! These amazing layouts are done by my amazing assistant Adri! Don’t you think they’re gorgeous!!

I recently met Jen on twitter. She’s a photographer form the States. A few weeks ago she tweeted: “I wonder if I’ll ever shoot in South Africa, would love to shoot there!” So I thought I’d help her out to make this dream come true! Because South Africa is such a great destination I believe every photographer should get an opportunity to shoot here! Don’t you think?

Yesterday was my first day back in the office. It’s great to be back and thank you for all the people who have been following me on my travels this winter. I can’t wait to get all my new photos and ideas on the blog. This week is going be be “crazy edit week!”. Please bear with me I have about 10 000 photos to go through!

Just a quick update on the workshops…Many people have been asking whether they are still happening. YES THEY ARE! :) At this stage it looks like there is going to be one on the 22d of August and one on the 29th. I don’t have all the details yet, but will be working on it this weekend and post something as soon as possible. Bookings will be first come first serve, so keep your eye on the blog!

The past two weeks I’ve soking up some sun in the very hot and humid Dubai. The temperature ranged between 42 and 46 degrees Celsius! As most of you probably know by now, my parents live out here in the desert.

I met Katinka at the Stellenbosch University’s first year’s camp in 2003. After a few years in res, Katinka and I decided to move in together and share a flat. The highlight of every day was our “kitchen chat sessions” while we cooked some dinner. Those were fun times!

Since then Katinka and Cobus have been living in Johannesburg. A few months ago Katinka came down to Cape Town for a friend’s wedding. Cobus was the best man at the wedding and has some duties to attend to, so Iaan and envited Katinka for a drink. We picked her up and she was smiling from ear to ear.

On wednesday evening I had the amazing privilege of joining the Aleit group as well as some of their friends and family for a delicious dinner tasting. The food was prepared by the new catering company Stir of Webersburg Wine Estate. Thanks Piet (the chef) for an absolute feast!

The past few months I’ve been receiving quite allot of emails form photographers around the world. I always try and answer everyone, but I’ve realized many of them have the same questions. So instead of answering their mails one by one, I’ve decided to answer them on the blog. In this way more people can benefit form the answers. Please remember that I receive many emails per week and I might not be able to answer everyones questions, but I promise to answer as many as possible.