when a professional photographer gets on Instagram, you know you’re in for a good time. today’s Double Tap features Juanel de la Forêt, a photographer from Cape Town currently working in Paris / London with her partner Jesse-Leigh Elford – you can see their portfolio here. she takes wonderful snaps in her day to day life between travelling and shoots. she also has killer manicures. check out their tumblr for easy online viewing or follow WorldofJuju on Instagram.
i first discovered stylist & designer Justina Blakeney last year when she did this creative living room makeover (those colourful shelves have since become a signature of hers). i have been enjoying following her ever since, especially on Instagram which i find to be a good litmus test for how creative a person – is not only in their work life, but in their daily life too. Justina started experimenting with foliage portraits and her #facethefoliage series has since kinda exploded. they started off simply enough, but have progressed into elaborate portraits of real and imaginary characters and now regularly appear in her feed.
follow Justina Blakeney on Instagram. see more Double Tap.
in light of yesterday’s post you can probably imagine that things are quite busy around here, so in lieu of a regular blog post – here’s another lately. these are all taken in my iPhone 4S and they are usually always posted on Instagram.
first, i have a poll of sorts running on this photo i posted on Instagram, asking if people would potentially be interested in buying bags like this on the blog. please weigh in!
my most popular photo on IG lately, this insanely picturesque winter scene at Dornier Wine Estate. go there for the wine and the scenery, but not the food – it’s crap.
speaking of food, we had the BEST MEAL EVER at Hallelujah, a tiny asian tapas / champagne bar in Tamboerskloof. uuuuugh my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
some evening scenes from walks around my neighbourhood, Sea Point.
just another winter’s day in Cape Town.
i am enjoying all the old buildings that surround my office in the CBD.
and the scenes i come across walking around some days.
we went to see Daniel’s exhibition at the Stevenson (now finished) amazing in person.
i got a new desk made by Stokperd – it is white and glossy and beautiful, and i am constantly worried i’m going to chip it.
some more vignettes from the studio, which i share with this gal & this gal.
really enjoying winter….
still buying too many plants.
my husband got into bread baking this month. i’m trying not to blame Masterchef Australia.
not only does he bake us bread, he bought me this beautiful limited edition Momo!
been thinking of getting my scarf from Klaus Haapaniemi framed and hang it on the wall. it’s too amazing to wear around my neck - so big and beautiful and detailed.
got some nice things in the mail lately. a lovely thank you package from Wsake:
and the new edition of Spaces by Frankie Magazine:
and, my incredibly pertinent to-do list:
(i really do have more to do than that, though)
i thought i’d start featuring some of my favourite people on Instagram in a new feature called Double Tap – in case you are, like me, always looking for someone new to follow.
if there’s one person’s photos i am always double tapping, it’s Lauren of vintage shop Dear Golden. this woman is a magician of style. i love seeing her vintage discoveries – the wedding dresses she finds are out of this world. i’m always keeping an eagle eye on her feed in case something pops up in my size (i’ve bought a number of items from her this way!)
she was also one of my very first sponsors, so i have a very soft spot for Dear Golden. a worthy person to kick off Double Tap, don’t you think?
one of the cool things about Instagram is seeing what other South Africans are up to on their summer holidays – a lot of people go up the coast, or spend their days on the beach, or go on road trips. others travel further afield, visiting family and friends they don’t get to see during the year. a nice way to virtually travel through the country from the comfort of your iPhone.
someone whose holiday pics i really enjoyed following is Adrian De Sa Garces, a commercials director who i met through my husband (i blogged about his fiancé Neira’s bag line MOMO last week). Adrian’s amazing photos of Walvis Bay in Namibia, where he grew up, captured a different perspective of a country that i only really know a bit about from childhood holidays and classic tourist imagery of sand dunes and ghost towns. i asked Adrian if i could share them with you, and he told me a bit about the background to these photographs.
I was born in Walvis Bay, Namibia – My father still lives up there so I visit him as often as i can. Between spending time with him and my younger siblings, I enjoy exploring the town I grew up in and revisiting locations I have memories of. I find the place very interesting in that many of the locations I revisit haven’t really changed much over the last 20 years, so it’s like pointing my camera into the past. A particular aspect of shooting in Walvis Bay that appeals to me, is the wide barren salt roads and their light-toned pavements. Exploring a neighbourhood, I feel able to isolate a point of interest without the clutter of foliage and cars. This visual simplicity seems to mimic the surrounding desert which very much speaks to my sensibility. Henry Wessel’s says “part of the process of photographing is being receptive. To move through the physical world and photograph everything that catches your eye” In a place like Walvisbay and Namibia, it’s difficult not to be receptive – I never stop taking pictures while I’m there, because everything seems to catch my eye.
for those of you wandering about technical stuff: Adrian mostly shoots on a Fuji X-Pro1, but the majority of these photos were taken on iPhone. sometimes he uses Snapseed to balance a photograph, but he mostly uses VSCO for editing. follow Adrian at his VSCO page (where you can see all of his Namibia photos), Instagram and Tumblr.
i first noticed Megan & Mike Gilger of The Fresh Exchange when they tagged me in an Instagram photo of their travels in Cape Town – they had been making use of my Cape Town City Guide to discover some cool places to see. i always get the warm and fuzzies when people tell me that the guide helped them in some way, and when anyone visits my city for that matter, so I clicked over to their site and what a nice discovery.
Megan is a talented designer and together she and Mike have a design studio called Wild Measure. on their trip to Cape Town they collaborated with Over to create an app in 24 hours (!!) that with allow people to celebrate their love for Cape Town, featuring Megan’s beautiful hand-lettering, appropriately called Cape Town Love.
The app was inspired by the city we have been working in for the past 6 days, and we wanted to develop something that did not just offer another pack of graphics, but meant far more. We wanted to find a way to celebrate the Mother City, and to help encourage people to discover the beauty that we have found in this place.
read about how they created the app in 24 hours here and watch a short video by Megan and Over designer Aaron Marshall. the app itself is great to look at and a dream to use. i think it’s pretty damn awesome that a handful of talented Americans created such a lovely app that’s so appreciate of our city. download it here.
image credits go to Megan & Mike
in lieu of a These Things today i thought i’d do a bit of a Stuff Lately catch up. you can follow me on Instagram if you like. don’t fret, These Things will be back on monday. have a great weekend, everybody.
my desk was featured on Dwell this week – i’ll be making a small appearance in their September issue, have a look out for it!
been filling the house with flowers and plants…
taking road trips with Anton’s GTO (her name is Charlene)
enjoying capturing bits and pieces of Cape Town:
and taking walks on the promenade, which is just a block away from our flat:
some new acquisitions, type mugs & my wedding shoes (8 weeks tomorrow!)
making new friends :)
and spending time in some wonderful places.
if you’re a regular iPhone snapper / Instagrammer (or, indeed, a professional photographer) you’ll be familiar with VSCO. their original VSCO Cam iPhone app is a favourite of many, with a handful of beautiful film presets and easy editing tools that turn your every day photos into something pretty magical. they just released their updated app (so you can’t get the old one anymore) – and it’s now free, but features in-app purchases for several film bundles. faded & moody; bright + clean; analog classic… take your pick. i haven’t played with it too much, but it is a sweet little app and i know it will help make my pretty average photos on instagram look just that little bit better.
the most exciting thing about the update for me is their release of VSCO Grid - a free minimalist publishing platform for people to showcase their mobile photography. they emphasise that it’s not a social media platform – i.e. not a competitor for Instagram – but rather, “focused on craft, curation and content, and less on followers and likes.” at the moment it’s in the beta / testing / let’s hope we don’t break the servers / only for awesome people phase, but hopefully it will roll out to the rest of us soon.
edit: just got mine! check it out here: missmoss.vsco.co
here are some cool people whose grids you can check out so far.
Kevin Russ (also know as a bit of an Instagram demi-god):
and some more to follow: Ana Barros; Mark Weaver; Jerad Knudson; Joanne (aka The Mrs); Carter Moore; Greg Lutze. discover and read more about VSCO Grid here.
