Carmen, Carla & Kerry asked very similar questions, so I’ve made up a combined question and hopefully a constructive answer to all of you :)

“I want to ask you a few questions on how you got started. How do you start to get clients? What kind of advertising would you suggest? Did you use any advertising or is it all word of mouth? How do you differentiate yourself from all the other photographers out there?”

I met Nicola and Wynand at church and we just clicked! Nicola loves cooking and loves beautiful things. I’m very excited to shoot their wedding on the 28th of November.

After chatting to Nicola about their wedding, I realized they would be the perfect couple to pose for us on the workshop. They aggreed and so we started planning the shoot. The most important aspect when it comes to an engagement shoot is to ask the couple if they have any interests, things that are close to them or a theme that would bring out their personality. Nicola looked at me with a big smile and then she told me about “THE BUS!”.

The past two weeks have been manic here in the office and for a good reason. I organized my first ever photography workshop! For a long time I’ve been thinking about my career and where I started out, what I learned along the way and where I’m heading and then realized I had something to share with people.

I’m not a super technical person, but I definitely a very practical one. I realized that there is a big need from photographers to be educated, inspired and encouraged in a practical way. So I decided to organize my first workshop. I’m also a one-on-one kind of person and I’m not to keen on a huge group of people, therefore I decided to keep the class small. The idea of the workshop was like a group of friends sitting around a dinner table, chatting about the things they love!

I love receiving questions from photographers, because it actually makes me think about what I’m doing, why I’m doing it and how I’m doing it. So I thought I’d answer them om the blog so that more people can benefit from them.

Sorry brides…another post for photographers :) I had a few requests to re-load the “vintage” preset. Apparently I did something funny and it wasn’t working properly. So to make up for my stupid mistake I’ve now added 3 vintage presets. I hope you like them! For all the others I’ve uploaded as well as the instructions, please see my previous post.

You should have been in this office last Thursday it was absolutely crazy! The morning I send out a mail to about 60 photographers that showed interest in my workshops. I emailed them to let them know the workshop details will be up at around 13h00 and within 24 hours it was sold out! I couldn’t believe it. I was laughing like a little girl as the mails just pored in! you guys are the best!

Thank you to everyone who showed interest and a special thanks to the 8 photographers that will be attending the workshop! I’m so excited to meet you, answer questions and have some fun! I’ll be posing some more details as soon as everything is ready!

To those of you who was interested in a private session, those are still available. Please email me for more information.

This week is a bit chaotic on my side, so I’ve decided to post a pic of some beautiful calm flowers…

I’m very excited to announce my first workshop! Thank you to everyone that filled in the online survey. I really really appreciate it! You’re all stars!

In the online survey I saw that there was quite a big need for group sessions, as well as private lessons. The first group workshop will take place on Friday night the 28th and continue on the Saturday the 29th of August. If you would rather like to book me for a private session, you’re welcome to see the details below and send me an email.

Before I give you the When? Where? Why? of the workshop, I would firstly like to tell everyone that this will NOT be a “7 steps to success class”, nor will it be a “quick fix” for your business. I believe we all are capable of success and greatness, all you need is the right tools and lots of encouragement and support! (thanks mom and dad for all your support and help! You are the best!)

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 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?

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.