Unleash the Beast - Emalyth Arts Expo VI

Image courtesy of Emalyth

Matte, semi-gloss, gloss or metallic ? 

A4, A3 or 12x16? 

Border or no border? 

These are the questions I’ve had to find answers to these past weeks. And as I drove from branch to branch without getting the exact product I wanted, and feeling ho-hum about the prints I walked home with, it became apparent that I had more work to do.

Why am I doing all this research about prints? It's not only because I've been watching a lot of Fro Knows Photo videos, especially the one on large photographic prints but also because of the 6th Emalyth Arts Expo which takes place from the 31st of January to the 2nd of February 2014 at Wolmer Bush Lounge in Pretoria. The theme is "Unleash the Beast". I'm very excited about the Expo and super stoked to be one of the exhibitors.

Image courtesy of Emalyth

The expo will feature 25 metal and progressive bands from South Africa and Botswana. There will be an exhibition of Fine and Print art as well as stalls selling a wide variety of band merchandise and the best in alternative clothing and accessories. This weekend will also feature a wide variety of entertainment such as a sword fighting tournament.

Official Emalyth Art Expo VI T-shirt, design by Bunny Corpse
Image courtesy of Emalyth

Get a weekend pass or a Sunday pass, whatever you do, don't miss it.

Fête de la Musique 2013-Melville

Fete De La Musique (Melville) is a free and fun annual event that allows the public to enjoy a wide range of live performances and food markets in a safe and musical environment. In Johannesburg, this event takes place on 7th Street in Melville and is organised by the Alliance Francaise of Johannesburg together with the French Institute of South Africa and the Melville Residents Association.

I attended this event again this year with a group of friends and these are some of the moments I captured.

Yummy food

Beautiful Jozi people

Dancing in the street

 Food stalls and candy floss, yum.

Mandela T-shirts in the style of Shepard Fairey's Obama "Hope" poster.

Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom "Bullseye" on the Renault Stage. She's quite a beauty.

 SwampHound Tritet performing on the Renault Stage. I was walking up and down 7th Street when I heard this interesting bluesy classical guitar mesh-up sound (that's how I can describe them) that captivated me until the end of their set. You can listen to some of their tracks on reverbnation. These guys are great at improv as well. They reminded me of how much I love the sound of the nylon string guitar.

4PBO Shoot | Stop Hunger Now SA - Mandela Day 2013

On Mandela Day the 18th of July, Stop Hunger Now Southern Africa hosted a food packaging event where 67 companies sponsored 67 volunteers to package meals in 67 minute long shifts. 

As part of their 4PBO (Public Benefit Organisations) program, Ubuntu Help Portrait got together a number of volunteer photographers to assist in documenting the events of the day. The energy was intoxicating and the other photographers were kind enough to assist this first time speedlight (not mine) user get a handle of using an external flash.

These are some of the images and moment I captured:

More photo's from this event can be found on flickr through this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubuntuhelpportrait/sets/72157634646969535/ 

My first encounter with Ubuntu Help Portrait was last year through the Johannesburg Photowalkers group but I only got to understand what they are really about when I attended their launch this year. Basically the idea is to take a portrait of someone who needs it (school kids who don't have their photos taken, elderly etc), print it and give it back to them. Here's a video that best describes what they do. 

The best part of this is that the focus is purely on the person on the other side of the lens and not the photographer meaning that the images are not watermarked nor shared anywhere but go straight to the person whom they belong to.