While we wreck our brains on what to write about ourselves for the about page on the website here at Memory Lane Studios, the Blog, Facebook Fan Page & Twitter links will have to do all the work for us with regard to all the news, reviews and happenings at the studio.... don't forget to Like & Follow while you're busy!
It's been 2 weeks since I posted a new Food & Beverage photo and my conscience started reminding me of the "every Wednesday or Thursday" promise I made, well I can use the it was the 2 weeks before Christmas and it was very busy excuse, but I wont.... ok ok so I will as I was actually really busy!
So on Christmas day my family and I went to lunch with the in-laws at a very nice restaurant called al Fiume located on the River Place estate just outside of Johannesburg. The restaurant is situated right next to the Hennops river with a large wooden deck and tables and umbrellas placed along the banks on plush green lawns creating a very calm and relaxing atmosphere.
The food was great and the presentation of the dishes was really good, although not all the dishes came to the table as per the menu and some of the staff seemed to forget things ordered, the day turned out great with some quality time spent with family on a beautiful and very hot Christmas day.
Below the three dishes that I had with a short description of each including the drink or drinks!
Insalata Di Frutti Di Marre: Salad of Prawns, Calamari, Mussels and Scallops in a lime coriander dressing enjoyed with an ice cold Savanna Light with a fresh slice of lemon.
Filetti di Tillapia ai Pinoli:
Pan-seared filets of fresh Perch with basil and pine nuts, enjoyed with a good vintage Gold Tequila , salt and slice of fresh lemon followed by an ice cold Coca Cola also with a slice of fresh lemon.
Tortaal Cioccolato:
Chocolate cake with fresh strawberries, also enjoyed with an ice cold Savanna Light with a slice of fresh lemon.
So yesterday I started my new Good Food & Beverage Project and to make things a little more interesting I set myself a little challenge inside of a challenge, I need to prepare and make all the food myself from scratch where possible, a daunting but but exciting prospect as I love cooking.... cleaning the dishes is a whole different story though!
To 'spice' things up even more I will be shooting some Stop Motion footage of the complete process, from preparing the ingredients all the way through to shooting and ultimately eating it at the end, just for the skeptics out there that think I just drove down to the nearest supermarket and bought ready made food.... yeah shame on you!
For the first dish I made Lamb Flank Pies served with Fresh Salad and Fat Bastard Chardonnay, enjoy!
What I did learn with regard to making the next Time Lapse clip is to shorten the time between exposures to 15 seconds instead of 30 to 'smooth' out the motions and give a little more detail to the whole process, but thats how you learn!
Tune in next week for installment number 2 in the series!
This is the last in the Wine & Spirits Project series for now as it's time to move on to the next Project which will be titled The Good Food & Beverage Project! This time round I'm going to make it a little more interactive too so be sure to check in on Friday when the first part will hit the blog.
These three individual images were also taken with the same 5 light set-up as with the Klipdrift image, in other words no comping was done in photoshop besides the layout of the three images.
I indirectly got set a little challenge from Seagram Pearce, after posting the last Wine & Spirits image, that I should try to achieve this in one shot without blending in Photoshop, well I gladly accepted!
5 lights in total was used, 2 Elinchrom Style Fx400's, 2x Canon 430EX's and a Canon 580EX II speedlight to get the end result. It took a while to get the studio strobes and speedlights to sync, but that was part of the fun and a good learning experience for next time!
I know this is posted a day early, but I did shoot a few extras and will be posting a new one on both Wednesday and Thursday.
In the previous Wine & Spirits Project blog post I promised, or rather set myself a goal, to post a new project shot every Wednesday or Thursday, well, that was on Tuesday which left me just one day to set-up and shoot the new one, nooooo pressure!
I arrived at the studio this morning, looked at all the bottles of alcohol and glasses I had brought to the studio for this little project standing on the floor and two things just jumped out at me, a clear glass bottle of extra light white wine and my pink backdrop.... one 8 hour work day later and this is the end result for W&S Project Photo number 2!
Don't forget to check in next week Wednesday for another 'installment' of the Wine & Spirits Project... yet another challenge I'm setting myself, but this time I'm giving myself 5 days instead of one so I'm going to have to really out do myself this time!!
Lastly don't forget to join the Facebook fan page or just follow me right here on the blog... seeing that I'm coming up rather short in that department!
On the 10th of November I helped Photo Elements, a good friend of mines company, shoot the premiere of Liefling Die Movie, the first South African Musical in more than 30 years! The premiere took place at Emperors Palace and the entire NuMetro was booked out for the night and each theatre, thats 6 full theaters, were used to screen the movie to the select guests that evening.
Below are a few of the shots from the night, both at the premiere and the after party at Rhapsody's which only ended at 4 the next morning, for me anyway!
NuMetro, Emperors Palace, venue of the premiere.
Red Carpet drop off entrance at Emperors Palace.
Main NuMetro screening theatre for the premiere.
Kurt Darren and Fiance Dunay Nortje
Willem J Botha (right) and Gert Wolmarans (left)
Paul du Toit and Clair Anderson
Paul Kruger and family.
Elvis Blue, Idols SA season 6 winner, and wife Cherize
This is a portfolio project I started that will cover a broad range of alcoholic beverage products in all sorts of advertorial scenarios both in studio, on location & with and without extensive photoshop work... although the latter will more than likely beat the former!
In the following 3 months there will be a few of these projects each one with a different theme that will include either products, food, fashion, cars or jewelry. I will be posting a new project photo every Wednesday or Thursday so keep an eye out for new ones being posted on my Facebook Fan Page, just click like right there ---------------------------------------->
posted right here on the blog, so remember to subscribe and share, and last but not least on the Memory Lane Studios website.
This is Numero Uno in the Wine & Spirits Project.
Not new, but one from the archives that fit the theme so well I just could not, not post it!
Sometimes, somehow I end up in front of the lens while doing what I love best, photography! They however always seem to end up at the bottom of the drawer far away from anyones eyes, but I thought I'd dust them off and show you what it looks like being me on the job... although you wouldn't say so looking at these!
Working the African Innovation Centre opening for IBM I ran into a familiar shirt along the way...
At Chimp Eden in Nelspruit with Eugene Cousins the owner and star of Escape to Chimp Eden that aired on Animal Planet... was shooting for Discovery Networks at the time for the Animal Planet HD channel launch.
With a bunch of Urbex friends at Orlando Power Station in Soweto.
Receiving a straw hat award, or something like that, shooting for Castrol and BP during their hospitality team building weekend.
At soccer city for game 52 (Argentina vs Mexico) shooting ViP clients for Castrol.... freezing my butt off, but thoroughly enjoyed the match, which by the way was my first live soccer game ever!
Hot Air ballooning with another group of Castrol ViP's.... awesome experience!
Still with Castrol I also got the opportunity to meet some celebs and sport stars at their Performance Lab in Sandton like Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel!
Outside Soccer City preparing to work the Final for Castrol.
Also met Nat Geo documentarist Hayden Taylor... awesome guy!
Work on the brand new studio started a little more than a month ago with lots and lots of noise, dust and box shuffling which came to a conclusion this week with a good friend helping me spend over 3 hours, 6 drill bits and almost R200 to drill (almost) 8 holes just to mount my backdrop holders... let me tell you reinforced precast concrete is not to be taken lightly!!!
All that is left is some nice prints on the wall in the 'office' and a opening shoot and cold beers with some good friends to celebrate a decision that only took 4 years to make! I'll catch you all on the flip side!
... and so it begins!
Dry walling done and floor being prepped for the laminate flooring.
Office section done!
The studio side still looking a little worse for wear!
... things starting to take shape on the studio side!
First bits of office furniture in place.
Studio side done and I have to say I just love my red wall!
I had the absolute pleasure of shooting this incredible piece of machinery this past weekend, fully customised with more Novitec Rosso goodies & carbon fibre you can throw a stick at! It sounds like beast and I'm positive it goes like stink too... maybe I get to go for a ride when the owner receives the complete set of images, crossing fingers! Thanks to Andre for joining me on the shoot and to Mo for organising!
For the time being these 6 teasers will have to 'cut the proverbial mustard'!
A shoot I had with my beautiful wife and daughter a short while ago. They both have a very special place in my heart for their courage through the tough time they shared. Love you both very much!
A few photos from a privately booked Matric Farewell I did for a clients daughter the weekend of the 31st of July. I'm very happy with the results and so is the client, which of course is the most important thing! Must say that it did bring back memories from my matric farewell... I'd rather not say when that was though!!
They even had a Flying Squad escort to the venue... very good for avoiding any traffic problems apparently!
Well, where to begin actually, June and July saw me working two groups of ViP Castrol guests for the FIFA Soccer World Cup attending 2 games including the Final between Spain and The Netherlands. They got treated by Castrol to an incredible trip and experience in South Africa, especially seeing that for more than half of the guests it was their first time in the country!
Below a few photos of some of the activities the guests had the pleasure of enjoying.
Hot air Ballooning with Bill Harrops near Hartbeespoort Dam
The Final Event held by Castrol at Wits.
Elephant Sanctuary at Hartbeespoort Dam
Zip Line fun at Ama Zwing Zwing
Tour of Cullinan Diamond Mine
Two glorious but freezing days spent at Camp Castrol in Pilansberg Nature Reserve where the guests were treated to game drives, great food and camp fire stories told by National Geographic documentarist Hayden Turner.
Then came Game 52, the first game I was to attend with my Russian guests, played between Argentina and Mexico with Argentina the victors with a score line of 3-1!
The teams lined up for the respective national anthems.
Joy and elation as Argentina score their 3rd and final goal.
The ultimate game followed with my German guests, 12 grueling games later... Game 64, the Final between Spain and The Netherlands. Attending the Final as a South African was incredible to say the least and made me extremely proud of my country!
Arriving at Soccer City (don't care what FNB says) and walking towards the entrance of the Castrol Hospitality tents.
Shakira performing 'Waka Waka - It's time for Africa' live at the Closing Ceremony.
Those very cool looking Ellie's that came to the Soccer City waterhole!
A little Madiba Magic as Nelson Mandela graced Soccer City just after the end of the closing ceremony.
Lots of things also seemed to have gone a 'little' wrong just before the game was about to start, like the sprinkler system in the stadium going on and drenching quite a few press photographers and their gear, leaving them just a little upset!!
Most definitely the best action of the night was Jimmy Jumper trying to put a Spanish beanie on the World Cup Trophy and in the process getting his lights knocked out, with one slap, by one of those 007 suits guarding the trophy. You can still see 007 standing there like Mohammed Ali after knocking out Sonny Liston in '64!
A few action photos from the match, that in all honesty was almost like a boxing match with all the dirty play by Holland... 6 yellows and a Red don't lie!
The firework display after the matched finished and the end of my World Cup Campaign, was a brilliant 3 weeks!
Like the title says the very first blog post of Memory Lane, for now a little boring without much content, but soon more posts with more photos will follow... promise!
For now I'll add a slideshow from the website to give a little substance and color to the post!
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