I was so honoured to be contacted by Lara who asked me to take some photographs of her beautiful Victoria. Victoria is 5 weeks old already but still so fine and delicate and just gorgeous. Here are a few photographs from our session this morning.
I hope you like them Lara. I’ll post the rest in the private gallery for you to choose your prints.
I have never done a Newborn Shoot before. Today was my first ever. MeeA was kind enough to allow me to experiment and take some photographs of baby James.
Thank you so much MeeA for allowing me into your home and giving me the opportunity to practice and experiment.
Here are some photographs from our time together this morning.
On Friday morning, after much stressing, worrying and frustration at having to wait longer than anticipated, I finally got my engagement ring. Mr “Diamaond Merchant” delivered it to me around 11h30. I was so excited, and couldn’t wait to get to Badplaas so that I could officially “get” my ring and wear it. You see I am rather old fashioned that way. In my mind the ring actually belongs to Mr Wonderful until he gives it to me and puts it on my finger.
When I arrived there, my darling fiance was working on the golf course as usual. He met us at the club house to unload the restaurant supplies and club car batteries that I had brought with me. I tried to give him the box with the ring, but he was on a mission to get all the other things off loaded. Once that was done he eventually took the box from me and inspected the ring while I went and parked my car. As I got out of my car he was walking towards me, all hot and sweaty from working in the sun. Then takes my hand, stares deep into my eyes and says “My Skat ek is BAIE lief vir jou, sal jy asseblief met my trou?” Of course I said yes and he put the ring on my finger. This may not sound like much romance to you, but it meant the world to me. The fact that he actually asked me to marry him is a BIG DEAL. And to wrap up this momentous occasion, he then kissed me, tossed the empty box in my car and said “Kom ons gaan drink ‘n dop, ek is f@kken dors”.
That evening we had our own little cheese & wine snack party. I drank the entire bottle of champagne because he does not like it. It was a most wonderful evening. Here are a few photos.
For those of you who were guessing on a previous blog post as to which ring I’d chosen, this is the “Olivia” style ring. Well done to Jeanette, Angel and Catherine who got it right.
So getting engaged is exciting, right? I mean, you get to choose the ring of your dreams, go to the manufacturer and design it with them, decide how big the stone should be (while praying Mr Wonderful agrees to the expense) and then it is just a matter of waiting for them to make it and deliver it as promised. Right? Nope – wrong!!
Well I did get to go to the manufacturer and choose my ring. We had a wonderful conversation about diamonds, how to choose the best one suited to your budget and then we talked design. My head was spinning and I had a huge headache at the end of it all, but it was wonderful, so exciting. What made it even more REAL and exciting was the sms notification of payment that I got that evening when my Mr Wonderful made an internet payment for the full amount to the dealer. This was it, I was actually going to get the ring of my dreams in 2 weeks time. I struggle to find the right words to adequately express my joy and excitement.
So the two weeks was up on Monday. I was promised that they would deliver the ring on Tuesday. When I called Tuesday morning to confirm a time I was told that the ring was only arriving Tuesday afternoon and they would deliver it on Wednesday. Ok so that isn’t too bad, I can wait another night. So on Wednesday I call and they can’t give me a time because they are in meetings all day but will call me later. Eventually I get a phone call saying that the lady who was supposed to send the ring had been in hospital and no one else in the office had done it, so there was a delay in it getting to Johannesburg from Durban. I’m a kind and patient (well I like to think so) person and had sympathy for the sick lady so I didn’t make a scene.
This morning I had to drive to Kempton Park to fetch batteries for the club cars and thought that I would just fetch the ring myself since I would be in the area. I called and told them that I was on my way. That is when the owner of the company calls me citing all manner of excuses and apologising for the delay but promising me I would have the ring tomorrow. Needless to say I flicked in. No more nice, kind and patient me. No more! I had a choice, do the “girly” thing and burst into tears of frustration or explain to them in no uncertain terms, that I am tired of being messed around and being given lame excuses. I WANT MY RING! What really made me laugh in this whole process is that when I told them I am actually 5 minutes away and will see them in their offices shortly, they told me they are not there! I wonder why they are afraid of a girl?
So, now what? Well, the last story explanation I got was that the owner would fetch my ring from the diamond centre first thing tomorrow morning. Then he says will drive the 275km to Badplaas to deliver the ring to us there.
Mr Wonderful is fuming and ready to drive through to speak to them personally and explain his dissatisfaction at the way everything is panning out.
In the meantime I remain engaged without a ring 
I’ve finished with MeeA’s photos and couldn’t resist adding 2 more photos.
This morning I met up with @MeeAParkins for her maternity shoot. We didn’t really plan this, it was a last minute almost joking kind of arrangement. When I was in Cape Town I did @acidicice maternity shoot and 24 hours later #babyice was born. MeeA has been complaining for some time now that she is walking like a cowboy and it is time for #babyparkins to arrive. I jokingly said perhaps I should do the shoot because I need the practice and she’ll probably go into labour when I’m done with her 
I’m so pleased she took the offer, because we had a most wonderful time and a good few laughs. It was also wonderful to get to know her better. Here are some shots from this morning. I hope you like them Meea.
There is another blog challenge over at Female2Female. You need to post photographs that depict love. Here is my contribution.
Fun Love
Brotherly Love
So now I have my new pc, a UPS to go with it (which is very necessary when in Badplaas) and I’m actually catching up on all the editing I so desperately wanted to do but couldn’t.
While I was in Cape Town Andre took me around the coast so that he could show me how he takes his most awesome landscape photographs. I learnt so much, but I am under no illusion that I am up to his level just yet. Anyway, here are some shots that I took while down there.
Scarborough Beach
Photographer in Action
Reflection in the wet sand
You can see the rest of them on my flickr stream.
