The downtown area of Kimberley is quite small, no tall sky scrapers or anything like that.  It does have something in common with most large downtown areas such as that of Johannesburg and Cape Town, Street Kids.  They walk the streets at night looking for a fix, whatever drugs they can find to help them through their lives.  No parents and no home to go to, they sleep pretty much where ever they can.  We came acoss this kid that asked the security guard at the Post Office is he could sleep right there on the stairs.  She said she felt sorry for him so she gave him a piece of bread which you can see in the photos.  I have no idea how old this kid is but he had Tattoos on his leg and another guard told us that this kid had been into some of the heaviest drugs the night before…  Apparently he ran away from home and then ran away from the ‘safe haven’ as well, left to lurk the streets of Kimberley, steeling stuff to sell for drugs.  Quite a sad story.

I was driving out in the middle of nowhere, close to a town called Nigel here in South Africa…  I was actually trying to meet up with some people but got lost along the way and stumbled across this little scene.  Pulled my car up and spoke to the man and tried to understand his broken english…  He agreed to let me shoot some photos and even called his dog over to get involved!  I shot these photos, gave the man a candy treat and was on my way.  I love how Africa has these strange things goin on in the most un-suspecting places, all you gotta do is get off the main roads and get yourself lost.

I got to meet Tommy at the first Maloof Money Cup that was held in South Africa  in 2011 and where he took second place.  The crowd loved him cause he is originally from South Africa and now living in Australia.  Tommy has one of the raddest styles and he’s a seriously nice guy.  I got to shoot this portrait of him at the most recent Maloof Money Cup in Kimberley, South Africa.  This was the last night of the event before everyone headed home.  Keep it up Tommy!

I shot some photos of these 2 having fun on the Mini Mega Ramp while at the Maloof Money Cup in Kimberley South Africa this year.  Fun watching the guys step away from the seriousness of the contest to have some fun and laughs and mess around on the stuff they actually wouldn’t be skating on during the contest.

Being a photographer at the Maloof Money Cup is definitely a great experience, watching the pros skate and getting to shoot photos with them is such a pleasure!  I spent more time this year hanging out with the guys and gettin to know them a little better.  It seriously helps for the photography side of things and you are no longer just some random guy shooting photos.  I took Braydon and Garrett to see the Lions at a sanctuary just outside of Kimberley…  All the animals on this farm were pretty much rescued from being hunted.  There are many ‘canned’ Lion Hunting farms around Kimberley, it’s absolutely disgusting on every level.  I was really stoked to take these guys to this farm and see that there are still people trying to do some kind of good out there.  Braydon was definitely not too sure about being in the cage with the Lions, as you can see…  Garrett didn’t mind it too much!  Braydon did teach a small Bat Eared Fox about Ozzy Osbourne though…

It was definitely a privelage to meet and hang out with Braydon at the recent Maloof Money Cup here in South Africa.  Nice to see a pro-skater that get’s involved with everything that’s goin on with the locals.  I think my favorite memory was walking across from our hotel to the campsite late one night to see what was goin on.  There were kids everywhere, just goin crazy!  We walked to the back of the campsite where some locals had formed a huge cirlce around some burning tyres!  The scene was insaen and I’m sorry now that I never took my camera with me.  Kids were standing around the tyres as the smoke bellowed into the skies above and some other brave dudes started jumping over the tyres, through the flames!  Once the locals realised that Braydon was there, they went comepletely nuts!  Once again, so cool to see a famous guy just hangin out and getting the locals stoked!  Braydon even joined the craziness and jumped through the towering flames and thick black smoke which got the locals goin even more!  Here are a couple portraits I shot with Braydon during some “free time” away from the skating and all the craziness.

This is just a photo I took of my Brother in Law, Alan Shenton…  On the day he received his beautiful Royal Enfield Classic 500 motorcycle.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite as happy!  Wishing you many years of enjoyment riding that bike Alan, you deserve it!

I’m always trying to get good shots of my cat’s eyes, needless to say that it’s one of the most difficult things ever!  Cat’s get weird when a lens get’s close to their face!  I recently got myself a Canon Macro lens which means I’m gonna be getting in even close to the cats!  Lucky for them.  I shot these 2 shots yesterday by pure luck!  They were both feeling pretty lazy so they were still enough for me to snap these 2 shots of their eyes.  I love my cats!

Meet Bradley Goodsir, son to Richard and Carolynn Goodsir and subject of my first ever baby photographic shoot.  I was slightly nervous going into the shoot as I had never done something like this before and I actually had no idea what to expect!  Needless to say that Bradley was one of the easiest subjects I have ever shot photos of!  He smiled and laughed and seem to enjoybeing the subject of a photo shoot as much as I enjoyed shooting photos of him.  These are just a few of my favourite shots that I picked out this morning.  Enjoy.

I’ve always struggled with shooting panning shots of moving subjects!  I decided that a great place to practice this technique is at Nollie Faith in downtown Johannesburg.  The kids are constatnly skating up and down the street, all you need to do is find a good spot and wait for them to come zooming by!  These are 2 of my favourite shots taken at Nollie Faith while practising my technique.  There will definitely be more to come!