Road trip co-pilot on twitter: @foodie_za

On a technical note: All these photos were taken with my new lens, a Canon 50mm f1.4. It’s a prime lens which means you can’t zoom in and out to frame the subject, you actually have to step forward or back. It’s a very small and lightweight piece of glass, which means it’s great for reportage type work and easy to keep on hand with no lens hood. If you open it right up to aperture f1.4, it gives the photos a beautiful soft blur, but of course is then not sharp. It’s difficult lens to learn.

She’s right. I do bump into another photographer every week, sometimes I hear of even two or three new ones a day. Even this morning. ‘Have you met my friend Marcus, he’s a photographer. He did that ad with the crossbow. He’s faaaaaamous’. While on a shoot I often overhear a model or a make up artist gushing about an amazingly fabulous international photographer they worked with recently. Needless to say I mentally jot down his name and jealously google every piece of work he’s done that same evening.

It’s a struggle not to compare yourself to other photographers and I’m often overcome by a huge fear that there is too much competition in the City. But then I remind myself that I haven’t had a day off from shooting in the last 3 weeks. It’s really important to concentrate your own work and your own projects. My girlfriend put it well. “Andrew you don’t have to be famous, you just have to be really good”. The reason I pursued my passion full time was not for the money or for fame. The reason was to do something I really love doing, producing beautiful images, and somehow still pay the rent.

Cape Town has an amazing creative culture and a community that have absorbed my work and also challenged me with unique and interesting projects. Recently I was at the Grolsch Swingtop Circle hosted at the Grandaddy Hotel. It was amazing to hear the success stories from one of the owners of the Hotel, Jody Aufrichtig, who moved back from London to start the Daddy Long Legs Group. They continually tap into the local community to create original and beautiful ideas for overnight stays. Ravi Naidoo also spoke about the huge response he’s had building Design Indaba. Cape Town might also be a ‘lifestyle’ option, as my friends in Joburg love put it, but in my experience it has also been hugely supportive of creative business ventures.

Some other creative and proudly Cape Town Business ventures that are on twitter:

Jack Black
&Union
Design Indaba
Grand Daddy Hotel

*Name has been changed.

Backsberg are also very active on twitter, you can follow Simon Back or the official Backsberg Estate Tweets.

Vespa's at Scoot DR

After living and working on ‘Brand Dubai’ in the United Arab Emirates for years, I became fascinated with destination branding. I enjoy seeing brands developed visually. World-wide agences, like Futurebrand, develop huge destination brands and massive campaigns aired on CNN. Truly Greece. Malaysia truly Asia. 100 PURE New Zealand. I wanted to develop a new destination in Cape Town that hasn’t had much attention, and perhaps gone unnoticed at times. I spend a lot of time on this street, whether it’s a few evening glasses of wine at caveau or a quick lunch in the deli, a wednesday night catch-up beer with mates at &Union, or a quick coffee meeting at Jardine Bakery. I take shots of shoes, beers, coffee, moments of people walking and enjoying the street, cool cars, architecture, business interiors, street detailing, trying to document the many added subtleties that give a street it’s character.

It’s an ongoing project, take a look at the site: www.breestreet.co.za