Apologies for the quietness...

Hello dear Followers :) We are back!
Apologies for the quietness over the last few months, however, just because we were quiet, doesnt mean that there wasnt anything on the go.

Part - or rather mostly - of the reason for the quietness was due to my hockey being played, July and August are always very busy months when we are preparing for inter-provincials, and doesnt really leave time for much else. I was partaking in the tournament held at the Randburg Astro, but never fear, we still had our cameras out there in the sport department and Rob was doing his thing. :)

    

This is a prestigious event that is held on an annual basis, moving from one province to the next. We were very fortunate to have the tournament in Johannesburg this year, for a lot of support and for us to do some much needed shooting. We were crowned victorious at the end of the 7 days, beating Western Province 3-0. Thanks to Rob for being there on the side of the field for every game, and shooting these wonderful images. For more pictures from the tournament, please click here

Huge thanks from a personal point of view must go to the ladies of DIMENSION SPORT for keeping me in one piece to make it through. Click here to find out more about Dimension Sport.

After this, life goes back to normal and we are able to dust off the new cameras acquired at the beginning of the year and start shooting again. 

Up next is a family shoot that we had the privilege of shooting. The Van Zyl family are a very fun loving, out going and spunky family. All the ingredients that make up an exceptionally enjoyable shoot. 

Heidi contacted us to do this family shoot for them as a gift for her husband Johan - he has been sitting with very old and dated photos of his family on his desk, and Heidi thought it would be the perfect birthday present. 

So off we went one August afternoon and this but just the tip of what we captured... :)

From one beautiful shoot to another. With a long standing relationship between Gen Frank Photography and Caballero Riding School, we were invited to celebrate their 10 year anniversary with them, and what a special occasion it was. Although we were guests at this function and had a lovely time spending the morning with these exceptional owners, landlords, teachers, students and parents, we could not help but capture such a wonderful milestone and achievement. 

Thank you for inviting us to share this beautiful day with you all. :) Congratulations and here's to many more years!

   

   

For more pictures from the Caballero Riding Schools 10 year anniversary - click here

After this, we made our way to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens for a birthday party - Pirates and Fairies only. This was the 2nd birthday of little Caylee-Shae. We had the pleasure of doing a shoot with her when she was just a few weeks old, and look how much she has grown! 

What a gorgeous little fairy she is!

For more pictures of the Pirates and Fairies that attended this party click here.

Glad to have caught up with you all on what we have been up to over the last few months, and we are just about to get busier as we head into the summer months!

Dont forget to book us should you want a photoshoot, or email us at genfrank@gmail.com for more information.

As always, Live...Love...Remember

Picture from the weekend 7

So I think we are about a month behind on everything... which we tried our level best not to become. The rigours of everyday life; work, sport, eating... and oh yes, lets not forget sleeping too, seem to take up a large part of the day. My new camera has unfortunately had to take a slight backseat... but she still makes her appearance every now and again :)

This weeks picture from the weekend stems from Mudders weekend birthday celebrations.
My mom had purchased these beautiful coloured button bead necklaces in order to promote a Proudly South African  craftsman. I just could not get enough of these beautiful works of art. From their simplicity to their colours, I just loved everything about them!

This kind of picture and everything behind this mans art, leads me back to : LESS IS MORE

Live...Love...Remember

Week 13 : Fools

This theme was by far the one I was most looking forward to... :)

As soon as we saw 'FOOLS', checked the calendar and saw that this theme fell on the same weekend as THE most debaucherous weekend in Hong Kong, we knew it was going to be a goodie.

Week 13's theme is fools, and oh my, what an array and assortment to choose from at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. This is considered the premier tournament on the IRB Sevens World Series in rugby sevens. This is traditionally one of, if not, the biggest event on the Hong Kong sporting calendar.
For spectators though, particular emphasis is placed on the South Stand, this is the event where hoards of rugby fans dress up and dance for most of the day/night/weekend. Activities that particularly ensue on such a weekend include the throwing of (mostly) empty beer jugs, Mexican waves and streakers running across the pitch - alas, we weren't privy the the last activity...Forget about watching rugby, if you are in this stand, you're there for the party!

And this is where we found our fools... the South Stand, the stand that has officially been made accessible to over 18's only , due to its hyper and somewhat provocative atmosphere... but more on that in a later post.

In order to try and keep this theme as viewer friendly as possible, we have selected these images below for this post. ;)

Week 13 : Fools

Due to the nature of this event, we didn't want to risk taking the big 'professional' camera, so these were shot on the baby one, the quality is a little bit less, but that definitely does not detract from the subjects in the image.

Thanks to all involved on this day for some wonderful and perhaps not so wonderful memories! ;)

Thoughts and comments welcome :)

Live...Love...Remember

Week 12 : HDR Themes

Week 12's theme was the popular and ever growing HDR theme.

In simple terms, high dynamic range imaging, or HDR is a range of techniques geared toward representing more contrast in pictures. Non-HDR cameras take pictures at a single exposure level with a limited contrast range. This results in the loss of details in the bright or dark areas of a picture, depending on whether the camera had a high or low exposure setting. HDR compensates for this loss of detail by taking multiple pictures at different exposure levels and intelligently stitched them together so the we eventually arrive at a picture that is representative in both dark and bright areas.

Our image for the HDR theme is a picture taken in Hong Kong. The more I look at this image, the more peacefulness and serenity I feel inside.
This picture is taken at Chi Lin Nunnery and what an experience that little space of earth is, among all those high rise buildings and hustle and bustle of the 21st century. It definitely feels like you have stepped into another world.

They are very strict with photographers and taking pictures in these religious spots, however, monasteries and nunneries have become a little more lenient with regard to this, as it allows for more exposure and more tourists, resulting in more money for the monastery/nunnery. The only objects that you are't allowed to photograph are the actual prayer buddahs and gods.

At first, when looking at this image, we weren't too happy with having the people in the shot, as sometimes we as photographers think that an image without people in a very touristy spot is 1st prize, however, I feel that these two people actually add more to the image. They add perspective and then image becomes a more conceptual one... in my opinion anyway... ;)

Week 12 : HDR Themes

Thoughts and comments always welcome and we would love to hear them on this theme in particular :)

Live...Love...Remember

Week 10 : Underneath

Week 10, and the much anticipated theme this week was UNDERNEATH.
For this theme, I put the idea to some of my family members for extra input... I had one or two ideas in mind, but its never a bad thing to see how other people interpret the themes and what ideas they come up with.

What I will say, is that if I was able to find a cow in the near vicinity of my weekend travels, this post would most certainly have looked a little different.... watch this space Gav!

The idea for 'underneath' had, for some or other reason, always involved a bright multi-coloured umbrella, I just like the thought of all the colours, and the detail of the underside. My problem though, when this idea popped into mind was, "where will I find a multi-coloured umbrella?" Well then, unbeknown to mom,she came to the rescue when she arrived at our function on the weekend, with, surprise surprise, A MULTI-COLOURED UMBRELLA!

So with us having been a day behind in the project, we had to get shooting ASAP, and here is the result of yesterdays Underneath shooting.

Week 10: Underneath

Its definitely always a challenge to try and shoot these fantastic ideas that come to mind on my own, but good old persistence and a little luck every now and again goes a long way. :)

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Live...Love...Remember