Sharing a few random landscape shots taken on a walk the afternoon after my Wolwedans wedding last week.

Let me share a secret.  When I was much younger, the most times I thought about photography was when I was out running in the mountains.  My wish was that there would be someone passionate / mad enough to carry all their gear up mountains and capture me as I ran freely in Montagu’s spectacular mountains.  To be honest, half of it was probably to see if my calf muscles showed up when I ran … they were definitely not around when I stood in front of shoe shop mirrors pretending to look at new shoes.  :)   But I had to let the dream go as I got older.  The calf muscle man search would be abandoned and lost forever …

So I had to become something else.  I became the passionate / mad guy with the gear.

You can guess how excited I was when Regardt & Antonette asked me to do their wedding.  Regardt is now a Kwela celebrity (he was on the show on Tuesday!) with their Zanzibar Circumnavigation on Stand Up Paddle Boards (SUPs).  I have run into him a few times at the Crazy Store Mountain Challenge and knew this guy has serious potential for an adventure shoot.  Antonette did extremely well and both of them enjoyed the workout.  Here is a few shots from before, during and after the Lion’s Head Trail run.  Click on the slideshow if it hasn’t already started (and enjoy the upgraded blog on your tablet or mobile phone alike – go test it!).

And by the way, they both have calf muscles…

Just a few strolling around, random, what I ate, where I stayed, here’s a moment, wish I brought my wife, non wedding related photos from my recent trip to Zanzibar.

I entered my teenage girl phase. I needed to do something to feel better. I didn’t think.  I randomly walked into one of the thousand Regent Street Technology shops and managed to spent all the money I had on a Nikon F60 with 2 kit lenses.

The bitter sweet of a dream come true. I hardly had enough money to get back on the red line to my shack in Leytonstone.  Not even to mention not being able to buy no name brand fish fingers for supper.  I lost a few pounds.  I walked a bit more than the average Londoner.

Looking back, this here was one of the sweetest moments of my life …

It was my camera that accompanied me on a number of adventures during my teenage girl stage.  We travelled through Africa & Europe.  We saw oceans together, ancient ruins, high mountains and beautiful people.  And it was my camera that helped me to escape to a place where I could find myself again.  To move from a teenage girl to a man.  From playing to earning a living.  From mundane to supernatural.  And still, more than 11 years later, the story continues …

I will try to post as much as I can during the next two weeks.  My Blog, Facebook, Twitter – all will be utilised to share this amazing time before me.  Feel free to join me on this journey.

A Rough Guide to My Next 2 Weeks

• S28  Fly to Bloemfontein for Wedding
• S29  Fly to Johannesburg to connect with my international flight to Italy
• M30 Arrive Rome.  Pre-wedding shoot with my client
• T31   Travel to Lake Albamo
• W01   Wedding Ceremony Tivoli, Couple Shoot Lake Albamo, Reception in Castel
• T02  Night Shoot (Surprise)
• F03   Orthodox Ceremony, Central Rome
• S04   Fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• S05   Fly to Lalibela
• M06   Lalibela
• T07 Lalibela
• W08  Fly to Addis.  Commercial shoot Hotel & German Beer Brewery
• T09 Back to SA
• F10  Wedding Cape Town
• S11  Wedding Wellington
• S12  Family Day & Rest!

There is a reason that there is no pictures in this post.  Allow me to fill the gaps as the days go by.  Also feel free to follow me at the above mentioned places.  Your comments during this time will be welcome!

What better way to end this great year by sharing a chronological slideshow mix of our Wedding, Commercial and Personal shoots.

Wow – what a year it was!  Thank you to all my lovely clients, word of mouthers, loyal blog followers, colleagues, family and friends.  I have said it before, but I only seem to get AMAZING PEOPLE to photograph in AMAZING ENVIRONMENTS!  Thank you all – you make me look good!

May 2011 be a extended time of grace and favour for us all!

Blessings & Love,

wil punt

USB-ED asked us to do stock style photography for their marketing in 2011.  I asked if I could publish a few examples from the outdoor shoot (hence the intense watermarking!).

This has been an idea I’ve been working on for about for two years.  And I must say I am extremely happy with the results.  It totally speaks the language of our specialized market of  Natural Environmental Portraiture.  Thanks to Tiaan & Auriel for being great models on the day.  And to Marieke from USB-ED who has made this all possible.

And my favourite from the day …

A few previews of exciting posts to come, things that currently keep us busy & learning curves galore …

Unfortunately, because of work commitments,  I couldn’t take time off to scale the mountains today.  There is much more snow!  But I managed to play around with a pano shot from yesterday and loved the feeling as I edited.   Imagine this shot on canvas 3m wide on the office wall!  The detail on my screen is incredible!  Any one interested?  A 1/1 artwork.  (Also available in HDR colour).

This low res screenshot just doesn’t do it justice.  The limitations of the internet …

The early explorers didn’t think it was possible to find snow on the African continent.  When a report made its way back to Europe in the 1800′s about the discovery of a mountain on the Serengeti plains topped with a thick layer of snow, it was received with much disbelieve and chuckles.  Little did they know …

Yes, I know it is not a lot, but hey, when it snows in Africa, we get excited!  Here is some snow shots of the Jonkershoek Valley from earlier this afternoon. (I wish you could see this pano shot 10x bigger!  I love it!)