2017 – A year in review

I don’t think I ever really done one of these “a year in review” posts.  While flying to Johannesburg for Christmas, I started looking through images from this year and I realized just how much of an exciting year 2017 has been.

For me certain things from the year stood out.

My interior photography clients grew, and by April I was shooting properties for Seeff in the Southern Suburbs, what started off as just shooting for one agent, soon grew to shooting for a few other agents at the branch.  Properties ranged from small 2 bedroom apartments to massive 5 bedroom houses, which definitely kept things interesting.

2017 also saw more and more enquiries coming in from Google searches…so clearly that online SEO course I took was working.  One new client which became a return client was the marketing department for the new Chapman’s Bay Estate on Ou Kaapse Weg.  I’ve been back a few times in 2017, photographing the different aspects of the estate.  These included photographing the different styles of houses, to aspects like estate living.. Hoping 2018 will see me doing some more work up there.

One of the more interesting jobs that stood out for me was doing some work for a shipping company called Eagle Bulk, they had one of their new vessels heading to Port Elizabeth harbor to load Manganese Ore and they needed some new material for their website.  They required some aerial photography as well as a two minute video.  The time frame to get the necessary permits, get up to Port Elizabeth, and get the necessary shots was incredibly short.  I had a week at most to find someone who could do what I needed.  Luckily one of my clients put me in contact with Skyhook, who took care of everything for me.  As a result Eagle Bulk were incredibly happy with the outcome of everything.

This year was also my 10^th year working with David Rogers.  I started with him fresh out of college and I’ve been lucky enough to on a few shoots with him, and have been lucky enough to work on one or two of his books.  One of his earliest pieces of advice to me, while on a shoot at Birkenhead House, was to get a proper tripod!  Since then Dave, Jenni (his wife who works with us), Simba (the office cat, who I share an office chair with) have built big websites, run our local camera club, had a few beers, plenty of laughs, but more importantly I’ve learnt a lot, so here’s to another ten years of laughs, and the odd argument!

As we go into 2018 my parents and brother are headed to Singapore to live for a while, I stay behind in Cape Town to look after the house and the cats, but that doesn’t mean the adventures and learning won’t stop.  If I can time it correctly maybe I can even make some time to go visit them, and maybe even pop over to Hong Kong to visit my aunt and uncle.  I’m sure the photo opportunities in both places will be amazing.

Here’s to more adventures, and many more fantastic photo opportunities…

Sláinte!

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