Wedding Season

Happy New Year to everyone, here's to an exciting 2008 !

So we're in the middle of Cape Town's wedding season and we have some great new wedding albums to view on the website.

Check them out under Weddings.

Keep an eye out for many exciting projects and fresh photographs in 2008 on :

www.avgphoto.co.za

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van Gysen Photography

Greetings everyone....

Just an update on the state of AvGPhoto and the website, www.avgphoto.co.za.

We've added a whole new album to the website, van Gysen Photography.

This is basically a collaboration between Heather van Gysen and myself, another fantastic photographer with a perfected eye for capturing the decisive moment, catching all those magic moments on your special wedding day.

Check out the website, www.avgphoto.co.za and our album, van Gysen Photography for all the magic wedding photographs.

For any info on capturing your wedding day, drop us en email at alan@avgphoto.co.za

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Greg&Julie 10.11.07

The Western Front

South Africa's West Coast provides every opportunity and possibility for the adventurous and travelling surfer.

Long car drives, longer dirt roads, and an even longer stretch of never ending coast with raw Atlantic waves. Points, reefs and even beach breaks available to surfers who are ready for a little adventure, some cold water and a different kind of roughing it.

Here are a few gems from one such adventure recently. With summer here in South Africa the West Coast becomes alive with swell, offshore winds and these offshore beauties just rolling in, mostly unsurfed.

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Late Winter&Dungeons Season

With all the weather changes around the globe and delayed seasons due to Global warming, we experianced a number of late winter swells and cold fronts here in Cape Town. This has in turn produced some awesome waves for the usual winter time big wave riders.

Last Friday South Africas best tow surfing teams could be seen pulling each other into huge surf below the ominous Sentinel mountain in Hout Bay.

Attached are a few of the pics, and as always, please check out the website for the full package of images.

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Yamaha lets you fly

Last week the new men's magazine, Best Life, For what matters to men, called me in to shoot an advertorial for Yamaha.

The brief was reasonably simple, get a high action wakeboarding image of top wakeboarder, Andrew Bourne and include Yamaha's new high performance boat, the Wake Rider in the same frame.

The only and best way to do this, was to find a way to photograph from behind the wakeboarder in order to get both athlete and boat in front of the lens. Easier thought then done.

On first attempt I tried sitting in a speed tube on a length of rope just
over a meter longer than Andrew's. This worked well, but I felt a
little low and there was a lot of spray from the wakeboard every time
Andrew would launch off the wake, but even more importantly, I couldn't
control where the tube went and where I needed to be.

The answer, join the fun and get onto a wakeboard myself.

So we exchanged tube for wakeboard and off we went, me a little behind Andrew again, but this time able to put myself on the other side of the wake where Andrew would be at the peek of his crazy manoeuvre's.

Here is one such amazing move, captured from an exciting new angle, almost flying.

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Land of Typhoons

The Philippines is the new Indonesia.

With waves and setups as good, if not better, than Maccaronis and Lances Right, it has everything for the adventurous surf traveller, and the most important thing, it's uncrowded.

Just keep an eye out in the east pacific for a typhoon forming just south east of Philippines and moving in a north west direction and get on a plane over there.

From the more well known area of Siargo, Cloud Nine, along the Samar province and up to the northern regions, there is a coastline littered with islands, bays, points and perfect reef setups.

Myself and John Callahan spent two weeks there recently with a crew of South African and UK surfers scouting out the Samar area, ended off the trip with an amazing left point find and a whole collection of awesome images.

Check em out,

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Jeffery's Bay swell of the decade

A week after the Jeffery's Bay Billabong Pro world tour event , some of the best waves in a decade were enjoyed at JBay by a core group of locals, older legends and one 8x world surfing campion, Kelly Slater.

As usual, after the event came to an end, all 43 surfers from the top 44 left to go home, except for the legend himself, who always stays on in South Africa as you really loves the place.

Not only was it one of the best swells in many years, but there was an unusual amount of sand deposited down the famous right hand point just in front of the Impossible section, making for what Kelly Slater would call, "some of the best waves and barrels of my life"

Here are three gems from the week of perfection.

For all the action and visual splendor, check out the latest issues of Surfing and Zigzag magazines, not to mention ww.avgphoto.co.za

Enjoy and maybe see you next year.

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Villa Christina by Garland Interiors

Another stunning interior project, this time by Garland Interiors.

Set above the heart of Cape Town lies this beautiful peaceful guest house, Villa Christina.

Apart from the beautiful accomodation, there is also a fantastic spa facility.

For more check out their website on www.villachristina.co.za

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Jeffery's Bay Billabong Bro

In July the worlds best 44 surfers filtered into Jeffery's Bay for the annual Billabong Pro event.

The waves weren't the best the contest had ever seen. but the final rounds were surfed in consistent contestable waves. Top Australian Taj Burrow won the event after some explosive surfing agains top seeds, Kelly Slater and fellow country man, Mick Fanning.

Here are a few highlight images.

As always for the full visual lowdown check out www.avgphoto.co.za

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Dungeons

Dungeons delivers for 2007

South Africas N2 Surf trail

Just before this years Billabong Pro event in Jeffery's Bay I took a long slow drive from Cape Town to Durban and back again.

My objective was to photograph the smaller, lesser known surf locations on the N2 from Cape Town to Durban.

I lucked into a good medium grounds swelll that moved up the coast slowly so that each day as I moved further north I was blessed with good swell and as it turned out, perfect weather conditions to shoot in.

I captured the following areas with amazing results :

1. Mossel Bay
2. Garden Route
3. Eastern Cape area
4. Trasnkei
5. Durban South Coast

Here are a few gems.

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Mak1One Graffiti Artist

Earlier this year I spent two days with one of South Africas most respected and accomplished graffiti artists, Mak1One.

He works out of Cape Town but travels throughout SA and overseas doing projects for private clients and large companies alike.

From 3 dimensional art works to huge mural designs, he creates and leaves behind powerful images which inspire and give hope to thousands.

Here are three images from my time with him. Take a look on the website for all the images.

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O'Neill Madagascar Project

A few months back I joined the O'Neill SA surfing team on a project to Madagascar.

We spent 10 days on the South Eastern corner of Madagascar on the Fort Dauphine coast capturing beautiful lifestyle images for the new O'Neill range as well as scoring amazing waves every day. A truly beautiful part of the world, laid back and as good as any place to find great surf.

For all the best photographs log on to www.avgphoto.co.za under Madagascar.

Enjoy,

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Cliffe Dekker

A few samples from the Inhouse Brand Architects' Cliffe Dekker interior project.

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