Pre School Pictures

Last year I took Pre School Pictures at Crafty kids, it was an awesome experience. This year I get to cover 3 Pre Schools, even though I dont get to meet the kids parents I try to make sure that the pictures that they receive are picture that they cherish and are proud of. But most importantly I try to capture a moment in time where the kids will look back at the pictures and have their school or part of it in the background. I dont believe in having a plain canvas as a background. I mean what purpose does that serve. The kids should be able to look at their pictures in 10, 15, 30 years time and be able to say "hey I remember that jungle gym" or "hey, come see here kids. This was the pre school I went to and my fondest memories are..."

When taking pictures at pre schools, patience is of the utter most importance because you will find that some kids are camera shy where and some are not willing to smile whereas others are ever ready to say "cheese" and when I say "now give me a big smile" or "smile" then they say "smile" lol. Its cute. Theres honestly never a dull moment when dealing with pre school kids.

I have been asked to take pictures of schools at large but I have decided to put that on hold until next year. Its not that I dont feel that I can handle the challenge, its just that I want to be completely prepared for it, equipment, assistance etc.

So here's the tip for the week: take pictures of your kids, capture as many moments of their lives as you can so that when it comes to school pictures they completely comfortable and you will receive amazing pictures :)

Divya & Tarun's Wedding | 27 December 2010

Below are a few pictures I took at Divya and Tarun's wedding

Divya's Mendi Night

I originally approached Mr Pullukattu to take school pictures of the students at his school "School Pictures". He then told me about Divya's wedding in December and asked if I do wedding portraits and if I'd be prepared to meet with his family about this special occasion. We then met a few Saturdays later and took some family pictures. I've been to a Mendi night before but not one like this, everything is symbolic. I noticed that Divya's younger sister Liz played a huge role in the whole occasion, infact in the wedding as a whole.

Below are some photo's of the event

And the winner is....

CAZLIA SHILOH RICHARDS!

Shannah Richards has won her daughter a full Christmas shoot in my studio to the value of R1800.00!!!

Infant to Toddler Competition

It all started off as a simple competition to get parents to enter their cuties into a competition where the winner will receive a photo shoot in my studio. The results and reaction to this has been overwhelming! I mean the cute little girl who is taking the lead has over 100 votes and I've had mothers, cousins and friends enter cute little ones from all over reaching from Kokstad to Cape Town! My cousin even entered my niece (Jordan) hehe

With just over 24 hours to go, anything is possible as Shannah (Cazlia's mom) told me, so she's still campaigning for her daughter.

The winner will be announced first thing Thursday morning on my photography fan page "Ayesha van Staaden Photography" as well as Twitter (aavanstaaden) and right here on my blog...

This is the 2nd of many more competitions to be held by Ayesha van Staaden Photography so keep your eyes right here and be the first to know :)