Cape Town Weddings

It’s that time of the year where many couples celebrate their love and add meaning to their words by getting married!

One of the Best Cape Town Wedding Venues is of course Monkey Valley Resort in the romantic Noordhoek Valley on the slopes of Chapman’s Peak – however, my favourite hotel in Cape Town itself – where we spent a couple of weeks when researching our future home – is the elegant and citywise optimally situated Vineyard Hotel in Claremont, Cape Town. Below is a view from the terrace towards the majestic Table Mountain range…

It’s here, in the lush and beautiful gardens… washed by light rains that very day until just a few minutes before the wedding… where stage one of the beautiful and very private Wedding Ceremony took place that I had the privilege to document.

All Wedding Photography & Videography will be integrated in the brand-new Wedding Website currently under construction.

Cape Town Weddings

What is relevant for Cape Town Weddings is probably desired by all newly wed couples, especially if their families and friends are spread all over the world as is the case here: they want some photos as fast as possible to show!

So this was my first focus… developing something to show fast! Accordingly, within a few days, the couple had an elegant online Wedding Photo Suite to send out and even print… followed by a short and joyful Wedding Video with special Irish harp music!

At this stage, the work is understandably private; I will be able to show more later as the development of the website itself proceeds. This will take a while, partly due to a strong emphasis of the ‘time before’ the wedding and the relating preparations, as well as the fact that I have to switch to a new computer with lots more memory and punch especially for media development (videos). On top of this, I will be using a brand-new Semiomantics Script to be released only in January 2012.

Wedding Photos

Meanwhile, there must be about 2,000 wedding photos and wedding video clips to view and select from… a real joy as here is real happiness to ‘work’ with!

Fingers crossed my PC system holds as I have hardly any space left and due to the devastating floods in Thailand, a main hardware supplier was washed away completely and we have to wait for new parts…

Donovan Copley Photo

I love Black & White Portrait Photography and especially this photo I captured of Donovan Copley at the Book Launch of “Brave Green Kids” at the “Crowned Eagle” of Monkey Valley Resort, Noordhoek, South Africa. Click on it to see a larger version.

Donovan Copley Photo

Here’s another Photo of Donovan Copley and Leon Visser in black & white at the same occasion. I published the colour picture shortly after the book launch to let some time pass and see this in a different light… and shadow.

Singer-songwriter, guitarrist and multi-instrumentalist Donovan Copley leads HOT WATER, a young and energetic South African band with a distinctive African sound – check it out and attend one of their concerts! Being there and experiencing the Energy makes all the difference!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends from “Free Fun Cards Online”!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year’s ‘Happy Thanksgiving Greeting’ features a turkey photo I shot a year ago in “World of Birds” – which is just around the corner from where I live, namely in Hout Bay near Cape Town, South Africa.

I believe in giving thanks each and every day with joy and gratitude – and I (mostly) do so! It’s that exact feeling that makes me go into each day with an open heart, never mind what’s waiting.

Wishing everybody in the US to enjoy this special day with family and friends!

Experimenting with Photoshop Filters

While there’s nothing better than a good picture or photo to start out with, we should regularly be experimenting with Photoshop Filters and Tools to know what they do and to see the effects we can achieve. It’s just like playing the piano every day… so here’s my original lavender and acacia photo with just a little reflecting frame added as I like to do :)

Experimenting with Photoshop Filters

When experimenting with Photoshop Filters and observing sometimes astonishing results, we do this for the following objectives:

1. To understand what these filters can do.

2. To know which effects can be achieved how, meaning to learn Experimenting with Photoshop Filters.

3. To be able to apply the desired effects if and when we need them.

4. To possibly find a style we like and build our visual reputation and recognition value on.

We can either change a picture very clearly and openly into something different, abstract and possibly more interesting than what we started off with – or we apply a certain effect in a very reduced and subtle way to enhance our photo, giving it a touch that just makes it different and stand out from the rest.

A number of these effects remind me of some big Masters in Art History… it’s sometimes what they built their whole oeuvre on: a specific effect. What was unique and hard labour at the time, can now be achieved with our brilliant tools in Photoshop and/or other programs, some of them developed for imitating certain masters, think of Pissaro with all those little ‘dots’ or Andy Warhol – to name a more modern one.

Lavender and Acacia Photo

For today’s exercise, I selected a lavender and acacia photo I shot a few weeks ago when both were in full flower in my garden in Noordhoek, South Africa. As I was born in Namibia, I love acacias… and I love to combine them with palms, which always reminds me of ‘home’. The fragrance of lavender and acacia combined is incredible… no wonder all the bees of the area hang out in my garden and have a feast!

And here a very reduced and delicate one… one of my favorites…

About the Social Community

When looking at the amount of Social Networks sprouting everywhere – Empire Avenue, Facebook, Twitter to start with – it all seems to be about the Social Community and its interaction, so-called ‘conversation’ and communication. We are talking strictly online here.

The question is: how social is a ‘Like’, how social is a ‘blurb’…. how social is all this on the surface forced and in most cases minimal and totally superficial exchange for some virtual benefit in one way or another really?

And then we have to ask ourselves what we actually understand by ‘social’? Sure, we all seem to know what it means, but what’s the definition?

About the Social Community

Before going into the more scientific approach, I found a quote by Rudolf Steiner that encompasses within just one sentence what I think says it all – and I am monitoring in my own activities on especially Empire Avenue whether or not we actually – virtually speaking – live it… whether it’s at all possible… :

“A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living.”

The photo of a flamingo looking at his own reflection in the water I shot a few months back in Hout Bay, South Africa illustrates the thought and leaves room for meditation. Imagine the whole flamingo community around… which it was, just not captured on this photo, but on many others. He was part of it, totally… sort of floating on their distinctive ‘blabla’ while certainly more interested in anything eatable he could grab in the muddy waters under his stamping feet…

Social Meaning

So now let’s look into the social meaning via Wikipedia – I quote their definition:

“The term Social refers to a characteristic of living organisms (humans in particular, though biologists also apply the term to populations of other animals). It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.”
What I find interesting is the statement: “… irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary”.

I continue:

“In the absence of agreement about its meaning, the term ‘social’ is used in many different senses and regarded as a fuzzy concept, referring among other things to:

Attitudes, orientations, or behaviors which take the interests, intentions, or needs of other people into account (in contrast to anti-social behaviour) has played some role in defining the idea or the principle. For instance terms like social realism, social justice, social constructivism, social psychology and social capital imply that there is some social process involved or considered, a process that is not there in regular, “non-social” realism, justice, constructivism, psychology, or capital.

The adjective ‘social’ is also used often in political discourse, although its meaning in a context depends heavily on who is using it. In left-wing circles it is often used to imply a positive characteristic, while in right-wing circles it is generally used to imply a negative characteristic. It should also be noted that, overall, this adjective is used much more often by those on the political left than by those on the political right. For these reasons, those seeking to avoid association with the left-right political debates often seek to label their work with phrases that do not include the word ‘social’. An example is quasi-empiricism in mathematics which is sometimes labelled social constructivism by those who see it as an unwarranted intrusion of social considerations in mathematical practice.

In contemporary society, ‘social’ often refers to the redistributive policies of the government which aim to apply resources in the public interest, for example, social security. Policy concerns then include the problems of social exclusion and social cohesion. Here, ‘social’ contrasts with ‘private’ and to the distinction between the public and the private (or privatised) spheres, where ownership relations define access to resources and attention. [...]”

We often take expressions and terms for granted without questioning them or going into more depth; I think here’s lots of room for thought as concerns ‘Social Networks’ on the Internet… the online soclial community so to speak… and its influence on Social Network Publishing.

Your thoughts are welcome…

Just like me

Free Fun Cards Online presents its new edition for the weekend: Just like me!

Just like me

“Just like me” presents a little bat-eared fox photo that I shot in the area… it’s a beautiful insect-eating mammal that I grew up with on the farm in Namibia. Just love their huge ears  and thought this one feels right in paradise – never mind what’s going on out there!

Wishing you a giggle or a smile and maybe you think it’s ” just like me! ” So … just like me :)

In general, people like nice photos and – from what I see on Social Networks – they like good quotes. It may be thoughts they agree to and that they can easily endorse – LIKE -, something funny or witty that might make them laugh, something uplifting for the soul … ergo: something that appeals and they just want to share it with their friends.

To ‘share’ in the virtual world means to “Like” – and as “likes” bring advantages in one way or another, especially on Facebook – it’s all about collecting “likes”. So I hope you like my Noordhoek Sunset Photo with an unknown quote I came across this morning and that I personally like as I believe it’s something we should live by.

Noordhoek Sunset Photo

In today’s fast moving digital media world, people don’t like to read as they are already swamped with information from all sides – it’s simply impossible. Mass triumphs over quality… and often simply squashes it! How can we find what’s original and precious amongst the many heaps of re-tweets, re-publishes, re-I-dunno-what and all of this… re-gurgitated stuff?

Most definitely we have to learn to reduce and compress what we wish to express into something that’s easily understood, has the key elements and the message and most importantly: it’s absorbed in a snap!

Like a simple element – like my Noordhoek Sunset Photo -  with a thought added to it. It’s simple, human and it may just resonnate more with those who look at it – creating a reaction, a like, so-called conversation.
But that’s just a first step within the process of understanding basic human behavior in the digital era.

Time for Infographics

It’s time for Infographics.

While it’s really not new and we used to call it ‘illustrations’ … and I’m sure that’s what they are still called in the traditional advertising and publishing environment (you will book an illustrator for a job… as simple as that) – what’s new however, is the quality we can produce today on the Internet in terms of digital media design!

It’s smashing!

Amazing too as to how fast this is being accomplished by those with the knowledge and the skill… and with comparatively simple means.

This was impossible a few years ago and it is indeed wildly exciting in terms of future developments we can expect… and the oeuvre produced by some of the major illustrators out there…

Basically, it’s about a picture that’s meant to tell a 1000 stories. It is in most cases composed of an array of pictures, stats, graphs, text, headlines, images both simple and/or complex – all this arranged on a minimum of space to bring a message over fast and furiously.

First of all and most importantly however : it all starts with an idea we want to express… followed by the creative process of converting the abstract into something visual and making it understandable in a reduced and often – but not always – simplified way – always in excellent quality – that catches our attention in a snap!

When I see this work I just can’t help thinking: “WOO! Quality does count… again!” – only talking of the Internet now of course. And this I really … LIKE!

An interesting topic for the future that will definitely have an effect on Social Network Publishing – I will be back with more…

Parenting today… and how to bring up children to face the challenges of a rapidly changing world – this is the topic of  “Brave Green Kids”, the first book written by Judy Sole and presented at yesterday’s Book Launch at the “Crowned Eagle” of Monkey Valley Resort. A golden sunset marked the event and the leader of the Green Party of South Africa asked for moments of silence to mentally embrace the world with one’s wish for peace and compassion while the sun dipped into the Atlantic Ocean and… disappeared.

Brave Green Kids Book Launch

While the “Brave Green Kids” Book Launch was directed at environmentally conscious people and especially parents… the only kid around was the young girl you see on my photo here.

She sat all by herself looking at the distant horizon, her gaze swimming above the adult buzz around her. The pure and yet knowing expression on her face that I have seen in so many children today, and her sweet smile when our eyes briefly met, seemed to represent each child today that’s facing an undefined future. And yet – besides this being the challenge of the young generation… couldn’t it just be the promise as well…? A future to which only the younger generations hold the key – and this with the help of the Universe?

Time to trust that any change can happen if we are ready to embrace it.

Website Development

The website development for Monkey Valley Resort is constantly advancing. I added a category “Photos” where we can add photos following specific events, where guests and visitors can see what’s up at Monkey Valley Resort; I invite you to go there and have a look at some photo impressions I took at the event yesterday. Unfortunately there was almost no light during the talk itself, so no ways to capture it with my digital camera.

I designed all photos to fit into a 800×600 px format, but have a little coding problem to solve – therefore the pictures are currently visible in a smaller size (6o%). Yet – here they are, straight after the event and inviting you to visit Monkey Valley Resort. By the way: kids are most welcome and you can watch over them while they have ample room to play, swim and run!

Visit Thorfynn’s Restaurant

Why not visit Thorfynn’s Restaurant for a delicious Sunday roast with Life music?

I wasn’t surprised to see South Africa’s exciting young band “Hot Water” playing at the “Crowned Eagle” at Monkey Valley Resort for the launch of “Brave Green Kids” by Judy Sole… giving the golden sundowner atmosphere a specific touch with their distinctive South African sound – and this even when playing such comparatively ‘exotic’ instruments as the hang. The hang was developed in 2000 in Bern, Switzerland, and I remember playing it together with bandleader Donovan Copley’s parents in Monkey Valley’s famous TreeTops Conferencing Center – we were eleven hang players – certainly a record at the time!

Leon and Donovan playing the hang.

Hot Water playing at Monkey Valley

While Hot Water is playing at Monkey Valley, Kirstenbosch Gardens and many Cape Town venues on a regular basis, the band has risen to fame well beyond South Africa’s boundaries and “…must easily be one of the most exciting musical projects to come out of South Africa…” as The Citizen writes.

Splashy Fen Festival likens them to Paul Simon and according to Sunday Independent they may just be “…the next big South African band.”

Donovan Copley Photo

They certainly were a big asset of yesterday’s book launch… wait for more on the topic!

This is the behind the scenes clips from the Global Clothing Photoshoot, The boys from Global will take you through there day and you can get an insight to all the work that goes into the adverts produced.

Posted By Junayd Mohammed (@junayd_1010)

African Mirror – A Reflection of the Times – will soon be out with its latest and absolutely smashing offline edition! The pink cactus photo taken outside their offices in Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday… signals something spectacular to look forward to and definitely: there is a sense of excitement and promise in the air down here in the forgotten corner of the Southern Hemisphere! Perhaps the reason why the royals are all visiting …?

African Mirror

As it states in its introduction, African Mirror “…reflects on important issues relevant to the growth of our people and our economic well-being. Its uniqueness is in its portrayal of South Africa within an African context within a global context, employing cutting edge design, layout and exclusive and erudite editorial.”

African Mirror is an exquisite offline business-to-business publication with an indefinite shelf-life and a huge pass-on readership. This attractive publication is the premier marketing tool for major endorser organisations, and the only South African – if not African – magazine of its kind that is distributed to 125 embassies and trade missions around the world.

Look forward to be astonished… and there’s much more in store that we will be revealing at a later stage :)

As I am busy with the finishing touches of the new Monkey Valley Resort website, here’s the Event category that shows you where you can have the Best Cape Town Christmas Day Lunch! Just scroll down and have a look at the information Darren Byrne has put out for you. And note that kids pay much less and under 3 they pay nothing! Click on the image here; it will take you there directly.

Best Cape Town Christmas Day Lunch

I think I took this stunning sunset photo about a year ago during the festive holiday season… and these are the real colors, no filters, no changes… the Atlantic Ocean is pure liquid gold!

This is what you see from the famous Treetops Deck when sipping your drinks and those decadent cocktails… listening to the surf and dreaming!

Now that you know where to get the best Cape Town Christmas Day Lunch for the whole family, make sure you book in time as this is a rather private and secluded place, no mass tourism anywhere near it! Your kids can play while you keep an eye on them and why not go for a walk on the pristine beach? You never know who you meet :)

Good Morning from Noordhoek is an inspiring greeting showing Life in a Day, each day, in Noordhoek, South Africa!

Good Morning from Noordhoek

Good Morning from Noordhoek started with heavy rain showers… and I had to go out for most of the day. While being in the area, I noticed the most incredible cloud formations above Chapman’s Peak and Silvermine Nature Reserve as well as above the Atlantic Ocean… I stopped many times to do some quick shots… it was absolutely astonishing! While I missed a beautiful rainbow as I was told, the sun came out in a blast and everything was shining like in a new light.

King Protea Photo

That’s when I took the above photo of a stunning King Protea right here along the path up to my home on the mountain… with bees and beetles having a late breakfast and a warm bath in the  sun.

End of Mayan Calendar

Here’s wishing you a blessed Friday – just the right swing to start into the weekend!

I’m sure there will be a stunning sunset today – which is a special day as it marks the end of the Mayan Calendar and the beginning of the era of Co-Creation and Unity. I hope that’s why we’ve come here in the first place…

Good Morning from Noordhoek is an inspiring greeting showing Life in a Day, each day, in Noordhoek, South Africa!

Good Morning from Noordhoek

My “Good Morning from Noordhoek” greeting to you features one of the new plants – a variegated Sunset Safari (leucadendron family) – that I just planted in my garden… a new hybrid form, but just splendid! What fire! The “Safari Sunset” family really sets the bushveld on fire in the evenings, when the red tops seem to be burning – just to beautiful! Fingers crossed this baby grows nicely… it will sure be nurtured well!

Wishing you all a splendid day – nurturing and being nurtured.

Good Morning from Noordhoek is an inspiring greeting showing Life in a Day, each day, in Noordhoek, South Africa

Good Morning from Noordhoek

“Good Morning from Noordhoek” is a form of meditation for me – but also an experiment and a strict discipline bearing in mind that each morning a new photo has to be captured, never mind how you feel or how the weather god greets you! Today we had some of the long expected rains… very necessary for the gardens, the ponds and water catchment areas.

The above image shows Chapman’s Peak wrapped in dark clouds after the first heavy showers had gone down and the sun forced its way through for just a few absolutely smashing moments, setting off my garden against the dark mountains with a beautifully  dramatic light. It didn’t last long… and as you see on the picture I shot yesterday afternoon from my kitchen window, even the shy heron can’t believe how empty the dam is… usually filled at this time of the year far above the head of this huge bird… and a real nice lunch-pond to fish in!

Using Filters in Digital Photography

While I believe in taking a good picture right from the beginning, we have to compensate the general flatness and lack of quality we get with simple low-end cameras in the post-editing process, ideally using Professional Phototools.

Part of the exercise here is to continue experimenting… and while the art is to be so precise and minimalistic that noone actually sees what has been added to the original photo to enhance it, it is also interesting to work with effects that give more expression to an image in an obvious way, like on the Blue Heron Photo above. Using Filters in Digital Photography is an endless story . . . but one that teaches us something each step of the way.

Wishing you all a brilliant Friday!

Windows Live Movie Maker for Facebook

When starting to use the new Windows Live Pack and namely the Movie Maker you will immediately notice that Microsoft aims to make things simple, focusing on essentials and features most users want and concentrate on. This Apple like Mikey Mouse approach to things will be welcomed by the average user.

Windows Live Movie Maker includes an integrated up-loader for publishing on YouTube. To post your Pictures to Facebook, a plug-in is available.

Facebook Plug-in

The Facebook plug-in allows you to easily upload your pictures and videos to Facebook including the peoples tags you may have created.

Windows Live Movie Maker Facebook Plug-in

The plug-in works with Windows Live Movie Maker and with Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Get the plug-in from HERE and install it on your computer.

The Windows Live Pack works with Vista and Windows 7, not with XP.

PS: Join tonight’s Ycademy Live Call for implementation.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

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Good Morning from Noordhoek is an inspiring greeting showing Life in a Day, each day, in Noordhoek, South Africa.

Good morning from Noordhoek

When today’s newspapers announced that there had been over 100 dolphins right here on Noordhoek Beach, I grabbed my NIKON Coolpix P90 and zoomed down with the vague hope that they might still be around. Well, the skies didn’t really look inviting; dark clouds gloomed from above the mountain range and there was absolutely nobody on the 8 km long beach. A serene silence… occasionally disrupted by the cry of a lonesome seagull and the monotonous surf washing rhythmically over the white, isolated beach.

I didn’t find the dolphins… what I found was … Dali! Well… not quite his giraffe on fire, however, a sculpture grotesque enough to remind us of those great masterpieces and about 3 m high. It always stuns me how much light there actually is even on a gloomy day… and how a simple digital camera captures it. Amazing!

Salvador Dali Quote

Let me leave you with a brilliant Salvador Dali Quote that just always makes me smile:

“I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait. ”

And to top this… just replace your name here at the end and have a fantastic day:

“Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure – that of being Salvador Dali.”

Good Morning from Noordhoek is an inspiring greeting showing Life in a Day, each day, in Noordhoek, South Africa!

Good Morning from Noordhoek

Today seems to be a little on the edge, without a clear decision… sunny or overcast? In any case, it’s warm and beautiful here in Noordhoek, South Africa – although there are already first signs of the heat and occasional strong Southeasterly winds ripping the clouds of yellow blossoms of my huge acacias apart and painting shades of golden brown…

The fragrance is intoxicating… bringing up memories of one of my favourite books by Emile Zola… when I was a student in Paris…

Although I went for the huge and stunning “Cup of Gold” – I was suddenly surprised by a tortoise, pushing its way fast and furiously through the groundcover! Down on my knees and here’s what I could capture as my “Good Morning from Noordhoek” picture for you today! Inquisitive, not at all intimidated – and clearly focused on something much more important!

The little bugger wouldn’t stop… so let this be a sign for getting things done and enjoying a terrific journey today!

Make it a great day!

On today’s journey through my garden to capture the daily “Good Morning from Noordhoek” picture, I was amazed how bright the colors were despite the dark clouds covering the sky. While the daisies and vygies didn’t even bother to open, I could take a relatively good photo of a Grevillea lanigera:

Grevillea lanigera Photo

I love grevilleas, which to my knowlege originally came from Australia. I have about each and every species I could buy in Cape Town’s many nurseries in my garden. Interestingly, the above species was sold to me as “Grevillea rosmarini”, however, when researching on Wikipedia, my photo shows a Grevillea lanigera – a so-called coastal gem.

They grow abundantly in my garden, almost like a ground-cover. The colors are absolutely spectacular and they attract many insects and bees.

They proliferate easily through seeds… but if you want to transplant them don’t wait too long, it’s not that easy once the plant is too established. At least that has been my experience. As you can tell by their spiky leaves, they are extremely waterwise and look well after themselves while rewarding us – as well as bees and insects – with their glorious display of light pinks to flaming reds all year long.

I’m no expert here… just a passionate gardener by genes :)

Good Morning from Noordhoek – bringing you Joy and a Smile every day!

Good Morning from Noordhoek

Shooting my “Good morning from Noordhoek” photo today was an instant reflex as I saw the little female peeping down at me from her nest just 50 cm from our terrace wall – she actually looks right at us and we at her :) After accompanying the exciting journey of the little sunbird born on the opposite side… hidden in the shadows… now we have new joy in this huge strelitzia that has always attracted so many birds and in particular the emerald sunbirds.

I have been blessed to capture so many endearing moments that I want to share with you one day! Being grounded and breathing in Nature’s glory and energy just keeps us all going through murky times… which must also be seen as times for growth, change and trust in the unknown.

Photo Gift

I’ve been asked by some friends in Noordhoek (and elsewhere)  if they may share the photos… and my answer is YES! With plasure! To whoever you want to pass on this Photo Gift: you are most welcome! Just do it! It comes from the heart and carries no other energy.

Have a splendid day and to our Canadians: Happy Thanksgiving!