About
Having a good fit between you and your wedding photographer is important. Your photographer needs to know what they are doing. And you and your photographer need to 'get' each other. So, my about section is aimed at answering part of that equation: telling you what my background is (in terms of photography), and also telling you about me, as a person. When we meet, I'll get a chance to find out about you guys as people.
I have a Fine Arts degree from UCT in painting and photography. My final year exhibition was a mixed media installation with photographs, painting and found objects that explored the idea of family, history and connection (family is very important to me). I won a couple of scholarships to study further and so did a combined honours degree in English and History of Art and while I had intended to do a Masters in English - with an eye to lecturing in English - I realised that academia was a little too cold and removed for me.
Instead, I went into teaching, and my life was forever changed. I taught Art (and photography) and English at a private school in Cape Town, doing all the school's photography and the layout, design and copy on their school magazine. The kids I taught were amazing and their creativity spurred my own and I realised how much I wanted to devote my energy to my photography.
In 2006, I left teaching to shoot full time, which I did for the next six years. It was a whirlwind time. I shot in locations across South Africa, met many, many amazing people along the way, and ended up having a number of well known Cape Town wedding photographers shooting under my banner. I loved every second of it.
Because of my background in teaching and in photography, I was approached during this time to write and convene an online digital photography course for UCT and Get Smarter. The course has been running for a number of years now and always gets rave reviews from students. If you're interested in learning photography, I definitely recommend you check it out.
When my son was born, though, I knew that it was time to put family first again. So, with the help of my extended family, I took a year off and devoted that time to my son and my husband. I was incredibly blessed to have this time, and it allowed me to see that shooting full time (which means working ten hours a day, six to seven days a week) wasn't how I wanted to raise my boy.
I went back into teaching and was also approached by Oxford University Press to be one of the authors on the English First Additional Language grade 7 - 9 textbooks. I teach at an incredibly dynamic school in the Northern Suburbs where I head up their social media. I also recently completed an Honours in Educational Management with UNISA which I was really proud to receive cum laude.
As for shooting? I'm in the incredibly privileged position where I shoot solely because it's something I love doing. I shoot a small handful of very special weddings or portraits or interiors each year, where the focus is on personalising my approach and capturing true celebration, personality and form.
Now that you have some insight into my photography background, I should add a bit more about myself:
I am a secret nerd - I love websites like New Scientist and Scientific American.
Eddie Izzard and Dara O'Briain number among my favourite comedians of all time.
Bull mastiffs are the most amazing breed of dog ever to have graced the planet. Followed a very close second by American pit-bulls.
I tend to dislike social media (so if you come across my Facebook, LinkedIn, Pixlr etc accounts....they are old and untended). I like real people.
That being said, I do have a teaching channel on YouTube where I discuss matric poetry; I recently set up a photography channel aimed at helping the students I teach via Get Smarter with the issues that beginner photographers tend to experience, and I recently took my first foray into Instagram for my personal work - which tends to be a lot darker than my professional work. But…I keep running out of time to tend these channels.
Oh, and I wrote a book! It’s definitely not for everyone, as it challenges god and religion, but it certainly speaks to the search for meaning that we struggle through in this chaotic and crazy world.
So, if you'd like me to shoot your wedding, portrait, interior or food, send me an email, or drop me a WhatsApp (my phone is almost always on silent), and we can set up a meet.
PS: the self portrait below was shot some years ago - I look a lot older than that now!
