If you’ve read the “About page”, you will know that ZaraZoo Photography was named after my feisty young daughter Zara.  She’s one of a kind!   Even though she’s only turining 4 in 2 months, she has already taken our whole household by storm.  There can only be one boss… and that is Zara!  She’s a free spirit with little interest in conforming to normality.   If you visit us, you will probably find her dancing around in a fairy dress and singing a song that is totally made up!  We love you Zoo!

Here are some images of Zara and her cousins Emily & Annabel on our recent holiday in Paris.

Photography by Stefan Steenkamp.

Subscribe to our RSS feed

This year our photography has taken us all over the globe.  Apart from South Africa, we’ve done shoots in Thailand, the UK and France.  Here are some of my favourite travel photos taken in Thailand and Hong Kong.

Photography by Stefan Steenkamp

Robyn & Roirdyn loves our work, but we were already booked for their wedding date!  What a loss!   …because these two were great sports when we did a pre-wedding shoot with them in Cape Town.

Keep your eye on the blog over the next few days, we have a lot to follow;  a few e-sessions in London and Paris as well as weddings in Blackpool, London, Liverpool and Cotswold!   Enjoy!

Photography by Andre van Niekerk.

Cape Town City centre has so much to work with!  We started the shoot at the Artscape Building (great architectural lines) and ended off in Gardens, where we got the jumping shots – these are my favourites!

What also aided to the success, was that Robyn and Roirden put quite a bit of thought into what they wore for the shoot.  They also brought along a brolly and hat that increased our possibilities.

Andre’s quote after the shoot:  “Thanks guys for being such a fun couple to shoot!  It made me realise again why I love photography!”

Subscribe to our RSS feed to get more posts like this one.

Follow ZaraZoo on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/zarazoo

Forget the rules – forget composition, rule of thirds and all the other bogwash….  The only rules for me are:

• To tell a story and;
• To provoke thought in my imagery!

I captured this image while doing a wedding shoot in London.  This boy was not at all fussed by the big shiny red Ferrari he just passed.   In contrast, almost all the grown men in the photo turn around to investigate.

No, its not my Ferrari….  But this picture is worth much more to me!

Photography by Stefan Steenkamp

No, it’s not a miniature model of Gotham City… it’s a photo I took of London Docklands and Canary Wharf from a helicopter…   It’s quite easy to create this miniature effect – Read the full post for a quick guide on how to let aerial photos look like miniature models (Tutorial at end of post).

Photography by Stefan Steenkamp

These images were shot last September while on a trip to London to cover a few weddings.  The job at hand was to photograph the properties of City & Docklands, a major property development company in the UK.  We took off from an airfield in North London with a very small one prop Robinson helicopter.  To make things even more scary, they took off the back doors, so that we could get better shots!!!  Strange how danger situations look surreal when you see it through the lens…

Commercial helicopters can only fly in a narrow strip of airspace over London.  And when the heavy built-up areas are reached, they are limited to fly over the Thames.  We turned around directly above Tower Bridge – I love this shot above!

Okay, so how do you achieve this miniature effect?

First of all, it must be said that the effect works best on aerial images which is taken from 25 to 30 degrees angle downwards.  Once you find the suitable image like the one above of the West Ham Stadium, you only need to follow a few easy steps in Photoshop CS3 to get your photo looking like a miniature model.

1.  Open the image in Photoshop and set your colour to the default (Black & White)  Press D to achieve this.

2.  Choose the Gradient Tool (G) – Choose the 4th setting from the left (in the gradient selection bar at the top of your screen)

3.  Select Edit (Q) in Quick Mask Mode.  (the icon can be found at the bottom of your tools palette.)

4.  Drag a line (vertical) from the point you want to be in focus, to the tope of the page (out of focus point).  A red mask will appear over the image.

5.  Now switch back to Edit in Standard mode (Q).  A selection will appear; outlined by dashed lines.

6.  Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.  Adjust the settings (Iris & Specular Highlights) according to your liking.

7.  Press CMD + D to get rid of the dashed lines.

8.  Next, Enhance the image by toggling the Hue / Saturation.  Create an Adjustment layer.  Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.  Push the master saturation up to about 40%

9.  Last step – Toggle your levels.   (CMD + L)  Clip the blacks and the whites by dragging the outer sliders (left and right) towards the middle.

It’s as easy as that!  You have created a fake miniature model!!  The outcome might not be quite perfect the first time around, but by running through steps 4-6 a few times, you’ll soon reach the desired result!  Remember, a good starting photo is crucial.  This effect does not work on every photo.

If you liked this post, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to be notified of the other posts in this series.

Follow ZaraZoo on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/zarazoo (Stefan) & http://www.twitter.com/zarazoo2 (Andre)

Karen & Wayne went for our complete package – E-session, Boudoir and Wedding photos.  The wedding ceremony was conducted at the Springfield Catholic Church in Constantia and the reception at Little Stream.

See Karen & Wayne’s E-session.

Karen’s Boudoir session will be posted soon.  Click here to be notified by RSS.

Read Full post

Karen had a white dress with a black waist band.  To compliment the hint of black, it was repeated with a pair of stunning black shoes – a refreshing break from tradition!

The preparations was done at Villa Coloniale, a luxurious 4-star guest house in Constantia.  Fralene van Niekerk of Live Life Styling did a fabulous job with the make-up – just look at those eyes!

Karen is one of those people that  have a permanent smile on their face.  Never a dull moment with these two – in fact, their energy and zest for life is highly contagious!

The reception had a Moroccan theme, a Bedouin tent with scattered cushions on the grass and some formal seating.  There was not seating arrangement, which allowed for a more relaxed feel – exactly what they wanted.

Another break in tradition happened with the bouquet and garter toss.  All the married couples were asked to gather on the dance floor.  Couples were gradually eliminated, counting down from those being married the shortest, to those being married the longest time. Eventually there was just one couple left.  They had been married for 40 years!  So when it came to the toss, guess who caught it….

Photographer:  Andre van Niekerk

Assistant:  Estie Malan

Subscribe to our RSS feed to be notified of future posts.

Constantia, close to Cape Town has some of the oldest vineyards in South Africa.  Little Stream is located in the heart of Constantia.

]]> http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/constantia-little-stream/feed/ 4 http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/bredasdorp-square/ http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/bredasdorp-square/#comments Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:32:24 +0000 Stefan http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/?p=495 Ever since an advertiser in our publication, Little Pink Book, invited us to his guest house in Bredasdorp,  we have grown quite fond of this small town close to Cape Agulas (the most southerly tip of Africa).

In the space of 2 months, we have now spent 3 weekends in and around Bredasdorp and I am off to shoot a wedding there this coming weekend. The ceremony will be done in the magnificent NG Church in town and the reception will be held at Firlane House, the guest house I referred to in the top of this post.

I would like to say that Zoon Jacobs, the owner of Firlane House, is now a good friend of mine. He is also a very creative individual and a very inspiring entrepreneur.  Apart from having an architectural practice, he also owns a gift shop, coffee shop and 2 guest houses in Bredasdorp.

So this coming weekend, apart from shooting the wedding, I will also do some shots of the restaurant, gift shop and guest houses.  Here are a few photos I took this past weekend when Zoon invited us to celebrate a friends’ birthday party at Bredasdorp Square.

Below:  Zoon and his wife Sunel.

The guys prepared the most amazing fillet steak – Zoon busy with the final touches.

The dinner table was very stylishly decorated with flowers and gift items from the Bredasdorp Square gift shop.  These guys are so creative.  This table was set and decorated in little under 30 minutes!

The Coffee shop is decorated in an old french style – classic and sophisticated.  It has an amazing fireplace and ample seating indoors, in the courtyard and on the front stoep.

This December, when you are passing through Bredasdorp, on your way to Arniston or Struisbaai, do yourself a favour and stop at Bredasdorp Square for a rooibos cuppa chino and do the last of your Christmas shopping at the gift shop.

Next week, I will post more about Bredasdorp Square and show some of the fabulous items for sale in this gift shop. 

Be notified by RSS of this post.

Photographer:  Stefan Steenkamp of ZaraZoo

South Africa Online

This father went shopping in the rain with his 6 year old son in a pushchair in China Town.  Older kids being pushed around in buggies is quite common in London.

The image below of the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square is actually upside down – the reflection is unbelievable!

This last image is my favourite of the set – I just love the psycidelic effect created here.  I used a 15mm lens on the Canon 1D MKIII.  It was taken in an underground walkway at Tottenham Court Road Station.

The sad thing is that I went back there 2 months later and all of these amazing pieces of art below was destroyed by vandals!  Our photos might be some of the only archives!

There is a river that runs through that part of town.  I costs 1 DHS ( 2 Rands) to cross the river with these interesting boats that you just step onto.

On the one side of the Creek is a makeshift harbour.  This is used by businesses for trading with other countries in the UAE.  These boats look ancient, patched up and not seaworthy at all, but they still carry things like textiles, TV’s, Fridges etc around the Gulf.

I could not resist the temptation to see what it is like on these boats and asked a friendly sailor to show me around.   These guys live on the boats.  It is hot and humid and everything is old and cranky – but it was a very interesting experience.

These photos were taken at 8am – already 45 degrees Celsius.  These guys are just chilling after a shift of hard word from 5am to 7am.  The steering room doubles up as a bedroom.

The Spice markets (Souks) are just 100m away from where these boats are anchored.  Very fragrant, colorful and vibrant!

I noticed a lot of people sleeping and just lying around lazily between midday and 4pm.  It is just too hot and numid to be active.

It was an awesome experience and insight into the way people live and operate in this part of the world – a stark contrast to the picture most of us have of the corporate, skyscraper super Dubai!