Well life is good in South Africa, the shops have been a little busier and there are definitely more tourists around, so let’s hope we have a good Christmas holiday season. I have also been doing some photography classes, the sales of my canvasses are also on the increase and last week I had a fantastic 2-day private photography tour.

The tour was fabulous. We saw the Big-5 over the 2 days and we certainly had a busy couple of days. Rueben got some great shots and was definitely taking better photos after the lessons and tips I gave him. I can’t wait to see some of his favourites. I also managed to capture a few nice shots, so I thought I would share them with you.

Day one started early at 5am for sunrise on the beach…

Sunrise at St Lucia main beach

Sunrise at St Lucia main beach

Next we went on the St Lucia estuary boat cruise and it was great to see the yellow weaver birds back and building their nests…

Yellow weaver bird on St Lucia estuary

After the boat cruise we headed in to iSimangaliso Wetland park and were lucky enough to have this fabulous leopard sighting…

Leopard at Dune Loop

After chilling at Cape Vidal for a little while and catching a quick power nap, we headed back through the park and were greeted with a stunning sunset…

Sunset in iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Sunset in iSimangaliso Wetland Park

Day 2 was another early start, leaving St Lucia about 5am in order to get to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park and Nyalazi gate by 6am. We had a amazing drive and saw lots of animals. These 2 impala had been fighting, but obviously heard something as they stopped suddenly and both looked in the same direction…

Impala at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park

This was a lucky sighting as well. The Crested barbet was ducking in and out of the hole in the tree…

Crested barbet in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park

These rhino looked like they were on a serious mission. I certainly wouldn’t get in their way!

Rhino gang on patrol, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park

Friendly zebra, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park

Flying African hoopoe

Giraffe in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park

This lioness was just lying by the side of the road…

Lioness in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park

We also saw elephant on the road to Memorial gate, which was wonderful. That was the last of the Big 5 and we were desperately hoping to see an elephant!

Next we headed to Emdoneni, the cheetah rehabilitation project, which was also great. Here are a couple of shots from there…

Caracal at Emdoneni rehabilitation centre

Cheetah at Emdoneni rehabilitation centre

Cheetah at Emdoneni rehabilitation centre

So a fabulous couple of days of photography and we finished off on Sunday watching the Rugby World Cup final and wasn’t that a cracking match!

Indaba, the big South African Travel and Tourism Convention was held in Durban at the beginning of May, so I attended that and so far it has proven to be a very positive trip! I met a lot of new people in the tourism industry and am in the middle of planning a couple of new clickety click itineraries to my offerings, so I will post details when they are finalised…

My car has unfortunately been in the garage for about 4 weeks now and so that has meant I haven’t been able to go off gadding about taking photos like I did in April, although having said that my Photography Club met up one evening for a sunset photo shoot and after it looking like it was going to be a huge disappointment, we were treated to the most spectacular display…

Pano shot of sunset over St Lucia Estuary.

Next, the sky turned a firey red…

Then the sky turned to fire...

Followed by a dramatic pink…

What an incredible display!

The other exciting news is that I have finally found a permanent location for my photographs. I have them up in “Splash / Flash!” Trevor teaches surfing and I teach photography, so we have named the shop “Splash / Flash” – for all things surfing and photography! Let’s hope it works out well!

And on that note I am heading to bed. I am going to Cape Vidal in the morning to photograph Trevor’s surfing lesson! (www.stluciasurfingacademey.co.za)

Sorry this is such a short post, but I will be back again soon with some more piccies and news…

So April has been a pretty busy month for me and to top it all, I have just moved my photos and canvasses into a friend’s shop to have a small exhibition. Have been looking for a spot to open after the success at New Year, but nothing was available until now, so the few days leading up to Easter I was busy hanging and deciding where to put everything.

Since I opened I have had a chance to actually do some photo editing, so here are a few pics from the activities of April:

I did my first photography game drive this month, which was great. I held a workshop the evening before the game drive and made sure my clients got familiar with their camera settings and the basics of photography, so that we could ensure some great photos on the drive. We then left St Lucia at 5am in order to arrive at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park as the gates opened at 6am. We had a fabulous hyena sighting, with 6 hyena wandering out of the bush and up the road. We followed them for some time wondering whether they would find a kill, but unfortunately not. They were just looking for a cool shading spot to lie down, but they were so close we were able to captue some great shots.

Hyena coming from the bush.

Following the hyena up the road.

Hyena up close to the car!

Next we saw a coughing impala…

Even when coughing they are graceful!

Next we came across some hungry zebra…

Such beautiful markings.

Next was a real surprise, a two-headed giraffe…

Very unusual!!!

It was a great game drive and I hope my clients went away with some lovely photos too.

The next trip was the Hippo and Croc boat cruise on St Lucia Estuary. Lucy and Kevin had visitors so I joined them on the cruise. I can never get enough of the hippos here.

Keeping an eye on us.

Lucy and Kevin enjoying the cruise.

We got a little wet towards the end as a rain storm rolled in, but the sky was stunning…

A storm rolling in off the ocean.

The following weekend a group of us decided to have a weekend away, so we went to stay at Jozini Tiger Lodge in the Mountains north of St Lucia. It is a beautiful setting and very relaxing and if you are a keen fisherman, a great spot for some Tiger Fishing. I had to leave early on the Monday morning to get back to St Lucia in time for a tour, but the early start was rewarded with a lovely sunrise over the Dam.

Sunrise over Jozini Dam.

The tour I had to get back for was with Brixham College, the UK high school that Theo and I are helping form an exchange programme with Kufezekile High School in Nkundusi (Theo’s old high school). Brixham College are located near Torquay and came last year for a visit. The Principal of Kufezekile High School, Mr Mthethwa, visited Brixham College last October, his first trip on a plane, so the building of the exchange programme is going well so far. Here are some photos from the day. First the children worked together on a couple of workshops…

A workshop on Friendship and Greetings.

Next, it was lunch at Theo’s homestead. Mrs Gina put on a wonderful spread.

Lunch in the shade of the trees.

Next we visited a traditional Zulu homestead to meet the medicine-man and see some Zulu dancing…

The dancing took place in the kraal, where the ground is softer!

The dancers and music.

A great show!

Well, if that wasn’t enough activity for one month, I had one more trip. It was a day visit to Cape Vidal. Orla, Fin and Luke were staying for a couple of days, so Lucy, Kevin and I joined them for the day. Unfortunately it rained just before lunch so we had to contend ourselves with a braai and a couple of drinkies in the afternoon, but again the storm produced a spectacular sky before the heavens opened.

An incredible sky!

Whilst having our braai we had a visitor…

A young bushbuck (and yes Kevin, it is definitely a bushbuck!)

So know I am sitting in the shade of the palm trees outside the shop and writing this blog. As I said it has been a busy month and it’s not quite over yet, we still have the Royal Wedding on Friday, and yes… people are getting excited about it here too. The club where I play tennis is having a Royal Wedding Day, where the event is being televised, food and drinks are available and apparently all the women are dressing up in fancy outfits and hats! I am not attending this particular event, but it might be worth a visit with the camera!

Bye for now everyone and enjoy yourselves this weekend.

Other than the continuing of the everyday sporting activities that I mentioned before such as tennis, netball and cycling I have also been continuing with the search engine optimization and online marketing work I mentioned. Not great fun, but necessary! I am now on page 2 of google if you search for “Photography tours Africa”!

The real excitement over the past 10 days though has been that I have just designed and built a new website for one of the businesses here in St Lucia. Trevor (English) and Tanja (German) are a couple that I first met last year during the World Cup celebrations. They have both lived in South Africa for many years now and he recently set up the St Lucia Surfing Academy. We were chatting about business one day the week before last and he mentioned that he had just set up a new project called “Get on top”, which is a surfing camp for kids that have lost their way. He was saying how he needed to get information to the schools he is targeting with this project  so I asked whether he had a website. One thing lead to another and now he does…www.stluciasurfingacademy.co.za Please take a look at let me know what you reckon. Also if you know anyone who is keen to learn to surf, then please forward the site to them! Or, if you also want a website designed, just give me a shout!

On Tuesday evening this week the St Lucia Photography Club, that I set up, had our monthly get-together and we headed down to the Main Beach in St Lucia for sunset. It wasn’t the best sunset and since the coast faces east, the sun wasn’t actually setting there, but we managed to capture a few nice photos anyway. Here are a couple of mine and if you would like to see the rest then take a look at the facebook page St-Lucia-KZN-Photography-Club

Sunset at Main Beach, St Lucia

Looking North up the beach

Looking South down the beach

So other than that, we have been without water for about 4-5 days over the past week, but apparently the problem has now been solved and we had a day without power too, but that is the price we pay for having the beauty of the beach and game reserve on our doorstep! No other real events to report on over the past 10 days, except that I took a set from Orla on the tennis court!

Tonight I am heading off for sundowners with the girls at a lodge part-owned by the netball coach, so that should be fun and then we will see what the weekend brings. To be honest I really fancy having a braai…

I often find myself being asked by people who have a ‘proper job’, so “what do you do all day? You must get bored!”

I can tell you right now, that I am never bored and I certainly am not at a loss for things to do. Currently I have about 5,000 images that I still need to edit, these include all my photographs that I took in South Africa in 2010, my photographs from the clickety click tour to Namibia in September, 2010, photographs from my trips to New Zealand in 2008 and 2009 plus a few other bits and pieces, so most definitely this is ongoing work that I have to get down and get on with and certainly isn’t boring.

So why do I need to edit all these photos, well some of them I hope I can sell (possible shop plans are currently a-foot), and some I want to enter into photography competitions, which is one of the best ways to try and get more exposure as a successful photographer. This past week I actually managed to edit a couple of New Zealand photographs (which I have been wanting to do since 2008) as I wanted to enter a competition specificaly for New Zealand and Australian photographs. Here are a couple of the ones I decided not to enter in the end, but they were ones I short-listed and are ones that I love.

Sunrise in Collingwood, South Island, New Zealand

West Coast, South Island New Zealand

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers reflected in Lake Matheson, South Island, New Zealand

Snow covered mountains of Arthur's Pass, South Island New Zealand

For now I want to keep the ones I did enter quiet until I hear the results. Then I’ll post those ones too.

There are different photography competitions to enter every week if you want to, so I am plugging away at this hoping for some publications and wins! Fingers crossed!

So on top of all this editing, there is marketing! I have been learning search engine optimization to try and get www.clicketyclick.eu as high as possible on Google, which to be honest is like learning a new language so time-consuming and not easy! Other internet marketing involves trawling the internet looking at places to advertise, yet another time-consuming activity, but most definitely a necessary one. And since I have a clickety click tour running in South Africa in August, I am busy arranging that and finishing off a couple of new workshops. As well as all this I have also been helping out on a number of Educational School Trips in St Lucia and iSimangaliso Wetland Park with Theo Tours. So, most definitely my life never has a dull moment!

So that’s part of the “work” thing! On top of this I have joined Mtuba Netball Club, so have practise once a week and matches once a week, am playing tennis 2-3 times a week and cycling twice a week, so bored, I am not!

Plus, of course I try and fit in a little bit of socialising and on that note, since it is Saturday, I’m just heading off to St Pizza to catch up with a friend before I hit the tennis court this afternoon, then watch England v Ireland! Let’s hope it’s an English victory…

Bye for now

Michelle xx

In January, a friend of mine in St Lucia kindly allowed me to have a photography exhibition in one of his shops on the main street in St Lucia, McKenzie Street! It was for just 2 weekends and I had a lot of success. I sold the remaining 6, 2011 calendars I had left of the 35 I produced, a few of my postcards, a couple of my mounted photos and 7 canvasses!

One of the purchasers of a couple of the canvasses was a family from Norway. They wanted to have the canvasses much larger than I had for sale in the shop so I told them I would order whatever size they wanted. They told me they have big walls in their house so they wanted them to be 1 metre wide by 2 metres high. This I was able to accommodate so I contacted my printer in England and they duely printed the canvasses and mailed them to Norway for me. Yesterday I had a lovely email from the lady in Norway saying that they had now been framed and were up on the walls in their home. She sent me some photos to show me where they are up on the walls in their home (see below):

The male leopard canvas

The male leopard on the wall

Zebra in profile canvas

Zebra in profile on the wall

Zebra in profile on the wall from a different angle

The comment that my client also made was as follows:

“We are so lucky about your great photo on our wall.
Now we can enjoy a bite of South Africa every day! ☺☺”

It is so lovely for me to see where my photos end up. It makes me proud!

Also apologies for the lack of blog entries during recent months. I am really not sure where the time has gone, but now we are nearing the end of the year I thought I would update you on a few things I have been up to and I plan to make sure I regularly keep the blog entries coming during 2011.

The most recent activity here in St Lucia was the visit I had from my two great friends Dani and Sarah. They decided to take a spontaneous trip to South Africa at the end of November to visit me and check out where I am now based and what I get up to! We had a really fantastic time and it was great fun having them to visit. I will be writing a few posts during the coming days about their visit here and I hope they will add some of their own comments too. Obviously I am not going to reveal everything that happened, I’ll leave that to them… but here are some highlights…

After a braai with Joe and Sonete the afternoon they arrived we had an early night (well after Dani also had pizza at St Pizza!) and headed off the next day to Cape Vidal to spend some time chilling on the beach and having a braai for lunch. Xolani (Theo) was our guide and a couple of the boys came along too, John, Vimbo and Sboniso. The boys did a great job sorting the braai and feeding us a splendid lunch whilst we walked the beach relaxing and chatting (well there was a lot to catch up on!)

We then left Cape Vidal and drove back to St Lucia in time for the 4pm Hippo and Croc Boat cruise on the estuary. It was perfect weather, the drinks were cold, the sun was setting and we saw loads of fabulous wildlife, here are a few of my favourite photos from the boat trip…

One of the 2000 crocs living in St Lucia estuary

Male yellow weaver bird starting to build a new nest.

Look at those teeth! I wouldn't want to get too close, would you Dani...

The majestic African fish eagle!

Dani enjoying the cruise and checking whether it is 6 o'clock in Cairo!

Sarah spotting for more birds and wildlife.

After the boat cruise we headed to St Pizza for a fabulous meal and some delicious sangria! The girls ordered one fo the seafood platters and we couldn’t believe the size of it! It ended up feeding about 5 people, not the recommended 2!

Not bad for the first full day of the gilr’s visit, but there was lots more fune to come!

Having found out this news I feel that I should be out celebrating, rather then sitting here watching Germany v Australia, but with all the Bafana Bafana partying over the last few days I had decided I needed to take the day, afternoon and night off the party scene and chill out at home! This decision gave me the opportunity to catch up on a few things, one of which was checking up on the status of the photos I entered into The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 Competition. You know the one that is held at the Natural History Museum in London each year from October to April. Well, this image…

Sunset in the wilderness.

was a semi-finalist! How happy am I?

So, this news together with selling my first canvas 2 weeks ago and the fact that on Friday I got the green light from the most successful and popular souvenir shop in St Lucia to stock and sell my mounted photos, has made me so happy, excited and over-the-moon that I think maybe I should go out and celebrate after all…

I have been working on a project recently with Nick and Freya (a Dutch couple here in St Lucia) and on Friday it all fell into place and came to a conclusion.

Illy’s is a very popular coffee shop in St Lucia that is also known as an art gallery. Mario (the owner) displays paintings on canvas on his walls that have been painted by local artists and sells them to his clients. Nick, Freya and I recently decided that we would have a number of our photographs printed on to canvas and we would approach Mario to see if he would be interested in displaying some of our work as well as the paintings he currently has on the wall.

After weeks of sourcing someone who could produce high quality canvases, deciding on the images we wanted printed and then a few weekends of building frames and stretching the canvases, we were ready to meet with Mario to see if he would display our work. The meeting was set for Monday!

Well Mario’s response was better than we could have hoped. He said he was very impressed with the quality of our work, said he would be happy to give us the whole back wall of his coffee shop to display our work for a few weeks before he renovates the coffee shop and after the renovations he suggested we organise an exhibition evening with champagne and snacks to show off our work. The cherry on the top of it all is that he has decided to limit who can exhibit their work in his shop. He wants 4 painters only, and now 3 photographers too, but that is it! If any other photographer approaches him, he is going to tell them to ask Nick, Freya or me if we will allow them to exhibit. Can you guess what the response is likely to be?! What an awesome meeting and how excited am I!

So on Friday we dedicated the day to hanging our canvases. Check out the photos below to see how it all progressed…

Preparing the wall!

First of all we had to clear the wall of all existing screws and raw plugs!

Watching the first canvases going up...

Nick, being the man amongst us got stuck in with the drill and nails, whilst Freya and I guided and observed from the bottom of the ladder!

The finishing touches!

Nick placing the final canvas!

Three proud photographers...

Part of the finished display...

The wall in its full glory! Love it!

I am so proud and we have had some fabulous comments! Let’s hope we now manage to sell some pieces too!

Having the opportunity to see leopards at Okonjima, home of the AfriCat Foundation was certainly one of the highlights of our recce trip for me, mind you there were loads of highlights from the trip!

Anyway, once again Lady Luck was shinning down on us and we managed to see three of the four adult leopards in the game reserve, plus the new young cub…

Young leopard cub

Mum keeping a watchful eye! Don't they always!

A hungry male!

Heading upstairs for lunch...

On second thoughts, decided to go and eat in peace!

This one was just relaxing in the shade!

Looking a bit menacing I would say. Time to go!

So that’s all from Namibia for now! Heading back there in August though, so hope to add to the portfolio then.

Next I’ll be adding some shots from Mum and Dad’s visit to St Lucia!