“Hi daar,

Ons wil net baie baie dankie se vir ‘n wonderlike ervaring Saterdag.  Jy het ons so op ons gemak laat voel en was so rustig oor al die kinders se streke dat dit nie eers soos ‘n fotosessie gevoel het.  Ons het nog nie eers een foto gesien nie maar die herinnering aan die dag sal my en Paul nog lank bybly.

Dankie vir al jou moeite en wees verseker dat ons saam met julle opgewonde is oor jou besigheid en al die wonderlike dinge wat die Here vir jou in gedagte het.

Baie seen en weereens dankie!”

For my English readers, I’ll do my best to translate it:

“Hi there,

We would like to thank you for a wonderful experience on Saturday. You made us feel completely at ease and you were so relaxed with the kids and their antics that it didn’t even feel like a photo session. We haven’t even seen a single photo but the memory of the day will stay with Paul and myself for a long time to come.

Thank you for all your effort and rest assured that we’re excited about your business and all the wonderful things our Lord has in store for you.

Blessings and once again, thank you!”

Talk about a great start to my week!!

A full blog post with photos from our session will follow in the next couple of weeks…but first, I’m off to spend some holiday time with my own family – see you back in two weeks time!

The brief was relatively simple: I didn’t want anything relating to a camera in my logo, yet the logo needed to be clean, simply but effective, in other words: if people were to see it somewhere, I wanted them to not only remember it, but also recognise it again in future. I decided to not introduce colour into the branding as I didn’t want the logo etc to distract from the photographs, when used in combination.

So after a first- and second draft, I decided on my logo and unlike the previous attempts, this time I am happy with it! I know that not everyone out there will like it or even agree that it is effective, nice, good looking or whatever else, but I’m hoping the majority of my followers, fans, friends, family and foes will think it ROCKS! As an “ex”-designer and fellow stock photographer once told me: “YOU need to love it, it’s YOUR logo after all!” Thanks Luba Nel, wise words indeed.

Thanks again Kelly for the wonderful job you’ve done and for being such an easy-to-work-with and fun, yet professional person – I highly recommend Rude Design for all your branding needs and more!!

So without further ado…go forth and feast your eyes!

(comments are, as always, very welcome!)

Business Card:

Compliment Slip:

Letterhead (printed):

and last but not least:

Logo:

Ons het by hul lieflike huis bymekaar gekom, waar ons ‘n paar fotos geneem het asook in die buitelug op die landgoed waar hulle woon. Klein Tian was in die begin ‘n bietjie skaam vir die kamera, maar het vinnig ontdooi en was opvreetbaar cute gewees…om hom so te sien speel het my erg laat verlang na my seuntjie by die huis!

Ek hoop julle hou so baie van die fotos soos die Jouberts doen!

André

PS: in case you’re wondering why I posted in Afrikaans…well I decided that since it’s my 1st language, I’m going to do more posts in my home language in 2012, especially where the couples / family I photographed are Afrikaans as well

This year was their second year in Gauteng, after a hugely successful first time in 2010 – the previous venue however proved to be a bit small for all the greatness and the crowds that pitched last year, so the event was moved to The Open Window in Irene this year.

The moment the dates were released for the 2011 Irene leg of the event, I promised my wife that I would take her…and I do not regret it for one moment! We cannot wait for 2012′s and if finances allow for it, I’d love to fly us down to also visit Kamersvol at Lourensford in Somerset-Wes, where it all started.

Here are my 20 favourite images out of the close-to 180 images I took that day! Ten of these were also entered into the Kamers | Open Window | The Pretty Blog Irene Photo Competition (images 51-60). UPDATE: my images got me 2nd place in the competition, YEAH!

André

In the end, I think we still managed to get some really gorgeous photos and her proud parents, Anton and Magda, seems to agree (OK so they’re maybe just a tad biased! )

Much love,

André

The family’s inquisitive Doberman was too cute not to photograph!

Her skin was still peeling, as it happens with most newborns.

…and we managed to capture the most gorgeous smile!!

Meet our baby girl Minay, born on 29 September 2011 at 13:29, weighing in at 2.96kg. Isn’t she just perfect and beautiful?! Wian loves his sister very much and just wants to hold her, every chance he gets, which makes us as parents very happy and proud that he accepted her into his life so quickly and easily.

These photos were taken when she was just 5 days old – she has grown so much since then and we think we got our first little smile a couple of days ago!

Minay: jy kan nog nie lees of rerig verstaan wat pappa vir jou sê nie, maar ek hoop dat jy eendag hierdie sal lees en weet dat pappa jou lief gehad het vanaf die oomblik wat jy gebore is…nee, al vanaf mamma vir my vertel het sy verwag jou – toe ons by oom Wynand en tannie Ilze in Swellendam gekuier het op pappa se verjaardag in 2011 – wat ‘n geskenk!!

Pappa is ongelooflik baie lief vir jou en Wian en ek’s die Here en mamma ewig dankbaar dat julle in my lewe is!

Jou pappa

xxx

My wife Linel took the following photos of Minay and I.

Her room – the word art was a custom order done by Pink and Posh Vinyl Wall Art

Riekert and Tanya: I’ve seen you guys work with other kids over the past couple of years and you’ve both always amazed me with your levels of patience – I know you’ll be fantastic parents and Dylan is a blessed boy to have you two in his life and as parents! Thanks for the opportunity to capture the love you have for each other and for your unborn son, I had loads of fun and I hope it shows in the images I’ve captured.

Also a word of thanks to the Bouwmeesters who’ve once again allowed me to use their beautiful pecan nut orchard as backdrop for my photo session – I owe you guys big time!

André

As soon as I was healthy again, I met up with them at their house for a family photo session.

Jan & Wilna: thanks for allowing me to capture a very special part and time of your lives and I trust you’ll cherish these photos forever, as you do your son!

André