Swan Lake

The dress rehearsal of Swan Lake at the Civic Theatre in Braamfontein. This classic ballet runs from the 24 Aug to 16 September 07.Shooting Ballet is a bit of a tricky at first, especially with the low light, so I bumped my D200 up to iso 800, set it to 160 at f2.8, and hoped for the best :) .

No , seriously, it was actually awesome, the subject really lends itself to being photographed and I'm sure looking forward to shooting some more ballet in the future.

Informal Traders

An informal trader that sells pirate DVDs runs from police on William Nicol ave in Johannesburg.

Today, I accompanied the Metro police enforcing by-laws, which consisted mostly of arresting traders at major intersections. The police were simply doing their job by rounding up the traders (mostly foreigners) , as they believe they contribute to crime in the areas, but this does'nt seem like the way to tackle this, I spoke to one of the traders and they believe they help curb crime by being in the area constantly. They insist they are just trying to earn a living, which is fair enough, I think.

It seems like a double edged sword, on the one side the law must be upheld, on the other, people need to make a living. Surely there must be another option, as the trader assured me that he would be back as soon as he pays his fine.

Plane

A Piper Seneca rests on the roof of a house in Birdhaven, Johannesburg after crashing in to it. Two occupants are in critical condition, but nobody on the ground was hurt.

To get this angle, I had to put on some of the good ole charm, as the owners of the house didnt want to allow anyone in or even speak to any reporters, who can blame them for being a bit crabby, dont think they had a good nights sleep, what with the draft sweeping through the large hole in their roof.

Heist

A COIN security van after being attacked in an attempted cash-in-transit heist near Germiston, Johannesburg, no money taken, but one guard shot in the neck and in critical condition.



Yesterday I went to the scene of a cash in transit heist, as usual a policeman comes to speak to me full of attitude, tells me that I must ask permission, I duly tell him that as long as Im behind the crime-scene tape, I need ask nobody permission, after a brief war of words the man finally realises his war is lost and leaves, "smart man", I think and continue to take my pics, when another cop aproaches me, same story...same response from me, he leaves..."smart man". Three... four.... and then number five approaches me, asks me what media Im from, so I duly tell him, and that am getting a bit over this, so I lay into him, telling him what I think of police that dont have any idea about the law regarding media, then he tells me that he was going to ask if I wanted on the chopper for a better view of the scene, oops, so I apologise to him, but definately not to the other four idiots.

F1 Roadshow

The streets of Sandton, Johannesburg were roaring with the sound of screaming engines as the ING Renault Roadshow came to town.

Nelson Piquet Jr was one of the drivers during the event that was very well attended, so well indeed, that a friend of mine had to pay to join another large group of people on top of a building to see the cars over the crowds, I was a bit luckier as I had accreditation, I was pretty much trackside, (didnt help much, cause as I got back to the office one of my compact flash cards bombed out...)
Anyway luckily I had shot two cards, so still had pics.

The Gautrain

300 meters into the
Gautrain tunnel at Marlboro, Sandton.

The Gautrain is a high speed train system that will run between Pretoria, Joburg and O.R Tambo International Airport.

This pic was taken recently on a tour by media to see progress on the project, as most of it is being done underground, the public sees only the sites and dont see the work being done.

The light was horrible and to get decent pics I had to use flash, as can be seen by the reflective stripes on the workers.

The Lion King

A scene from The Lion King at The Teatro in Montecasino, Johannesburg, South Africa.

One perk of the job is being able to get to go to a lot of concerts, theatre events and all other events for free, not to mention usually with VIP tickets. I was sent to watch the Lion King production, set up with a large meal and various other goodies compliments of Nedbank recently.

Life is good...

Zuma cops

Another pic from my portfolio, this was taken during Jacob Zumas rape trial in Johannesburg. Jacob Zuma was the Deputy President of South Africa but after ties to convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik and a allegation of rape, he was sacked as the countrys Deputy, He still has a large following and is a candidate to be South Africas new president. This pic is of two cops standing on a building watching the crowd of thousand of his supporters outside the High Court during his rape trial, charges on which he was found not guilty.