Author: Cornél van Heerden

For rates, bookings or enquiries, contact me at: +27 82 588 5538 cornelvanheerden@gmail.com
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Pictures taken on Sigma glass

When people ask me for advice on buying camera equipment, I always try and let them understand how important your glass (lens) is. The sad thing with companies almost brainwashing consumers into being part of the “Megapixel-race” is that consumers more than often spend most money on a camera body and only leave a little or no money for lenses. In my opinion its the wrong way of going about buying camera gear. 
Some people use the excuse of not being able to take great photos because of their equipment, but this is not true. All of these pictures were taken on Sigma lenses which have always been the ‘cheaper’ alternative and you can see in these pictures its a very good option. I believe the results speak for themselves. Sigma have been producing more and more good quality glass.
  • I really enjoyed the Sigma 50mm lens, because of its very good depth of field and it suited my shooting style.  
  • The Sigma 12-24mm is crazy wide. Also a very good alternative when you don’t need f2.8.
  • I just love the 8mm Fisheye. Your creativity can run free and make beautiful pictures. Not a lens you can use every day and you have to use it very wisely as it distorts a lot at the edges.
Some of the settings might look weird, but I was trying to test the lenses fully.
Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 1.8
Shutter: 1/8000


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 3.5
Shutter: 1/4000


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 2.2
Shutter: 1/6400


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 1250
Aperture: 2
Shutter: 1/125


Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 11
Shutter: 1/250

 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 1.4
Shutter: 1/8000


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 1.4
Shutter: 1/4000


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 1.4
Shutter: 1/8000


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 5
Shutter: 1/3200


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 5
Shutter: 1/200


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 2
Shutter: 1/5000

 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 100
Aperture: 1.8
Shutter: 1/1000


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 200
Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/160


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 200
Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/160


 Lens (mm): Sigma 8 Fisheye
ISO: 2000
Aperture: 3.5
Shutter: 1/80


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 1600
Aperture: 2
Shutter: 1/1250


 Lens (mm): Sigma 50
ISO: 1600
Aperture: 2
Shutter: 1/320


Lens (mm): Sigma 12 – 24
ISO: 320
Aperture: 7
Shutter: 1/250



The day when the lenses arrived 🙂

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Suzaan Steyn is now a Kwela presenter

Yesterday I photographed Suzaan Steyn who was appointed as a new Kwêla presenter on the DSTV channel, KykNET.

It was a make-shift shoot at her guest house in Randburg. Took me about 15min. It was overcast and I used a 60×60 softbox on my Nikon SB-900 speedlight.

Unfortunately my picture was the published in a 1cm x 1cm format, I kid you not. That is the dimensions of the published picture! Eish.


Story: (Afrikaans)
http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Suzaan-Steyn-sluit-aan-by-Kwela-span-20120229

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Velvet Sky Chaos

 Rudi Vorster and his son. They luckily had chairs with them because they were going to watch cricket.

 Ben and Daniel Korn from England.

  Rudi Vorster and his son. They luckily had chairs with them because they were going to watch cricket.

 Paul Fikipo from the DRC.

 Margeax Swartz painting her nails.

Vanes-Mari Du Toit, Springbok Netball player. She had to take a bus down to Cape Town for a wedding she attended.

Vanes-Mari Du Toit, Springbok Netball player. She had to take a bus down to Cape Town for a wedding she attended.

 Music group Tidalwaves who missed their gig in Wellington.

  Music group Tidalwaves who missed their gig in Wellington.

  Music group Tidalwaves who missed their gig in Wellington.

All Velvet Sky flights cancelled

2012-02-23 16:14

Johannesburg – A business dispute caused all Velvet Sky flights on Thursday to be cancelled, the low-cost airline said.

“We had to cancel all our flights today,” Velvet Sky spokesperson Gary Webb said.
“We are in a dispute with a service provider. We are in the process of changing service providers so we started that process today [Thursday], but it was not concluded in time to operate.”
The broad-based black economic empowerment company is based in Durban and flies between that city, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Earlier on Thursday, the airline apologised and said flights were only delayed not cancelled.
Velvet Sky said the delays, which started on Wednesday, were caused by circumstances beyond its control.
“Velvet Sky management however continues to work very hard in ensuring that there is minimal disruption in our operation.”
Airports Company SA (Acsa) confirmed the delays.
Acsa spokesperson Solomon Makgale said Wednesday’s delays were primarily out of Cape Town. The delays on Thursday were from Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
Webb said passengers would be reimbursed on merit. Some people would receive refunds and others flights to their destination on other airlines.
“We are going to have a bit of a backlog because of today, but we should be okay.”
He advised customers to check their flights on the Velvet Sky website or phone the call centre. The airline would also contact passengers via SMS.
“We are doing our best to keep all our passengers accommodated,” Webb said.
– SAPA
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Blue Bulls Pink with Bobby van Jaarsveld

The Blue Bulls, a South African rugby team from Pretoria, announced yesterday that their away-jersey is pink. This was welcomed with a lot of different reactions as their usual color is blue.

Last night I drove through to photograph Bobby van Jaarsveld, Afrikaans singer, in the jersey.

It was Valentine’s Day and he was busy with dinner at a restaurant. I took these pictures outside the mall as it was the only option.





Here is the story (Afrikaans),
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Bulls-Dis-nie-pienk-nie-20120214

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KONGOS escape the flood waters in South Africa.

KONGOS is a rock band of four brothers – Johnny, Jesse, Dylan and Danny Kongos and are currently in South Africa as part of a tour. They were on vacation at a lodge near Kruger National Park when the floods started hitting that area.



Eventually after a long ordeal with Land Rovers being rolled in an effort to get out, the band was rescued with a South African Military helicopter.


Here is the full story by Pauli van Wyk:
(Afrikaans)


http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Internasionale-rockgroep-vertel-van-wildtuin-drama-20120119





















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REVIEW: Sandisk Extreme Pro CF card

Shooting on Sandisk Extreme Pro cards for the past 4 months has been great! Here is why…
I have been shooting on Sandisk Extreme Pro CF cards since the end of September and must say it is one of those things that you don’t know you are missing and need, till you try it. I know its quite a long test period, but wanted to use the card in every possible situation before I wrote my review.
Ask anyone in our industry and they will tell you Sandisk has always been synonymous with reliability, now with these cards they combine it with speed  and size.

I shoot on RAW and this puts extra pressure on your equipment as you can shoot less frames before you reach your camera’s buffer, because your camera needs to deal with huge amounts of data.

The speed rating on the CF cards are up to 90MB/s (600x) for serious performance gains. And the card I have is 16GB but they go up to 128GB! While I’m busy with specs, here is the rest from Sandisk’s website:

·         READ & WRITE PERFORMANCE: Up to 90MB/s (600x)* for serious performance gains.
·         CAPACITIES: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB** give you more room to capture RAW+JPEG, sequential bursts and high-definition video
·         UDMA: UDMA 6 enabled (works in all UDMA modes) POWER CORE CONTROLLERTM & ENHANCED SUPER-PARALLEL PROCESSINGTM “ESP”: Was invented by SanDisk to increase the card’s performance level.
·         TEMPERATURE: Tested to perform from -25°C to 85°C (-13°F to 185°F)
·         SPECIFICATION: Meets CFA Specification Type I Card
·         DURABILITY: Shock protection and RTV silicone coating added inside for protection against moisture and humidity
·         WARRANTY: Backed by rigorous stress-testing procedures and our limited lifetime warranty.
* Up to 90MB/s read/write. Based on SanDisk internal testing: performance may be vary depending upon host device.
**1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes. X = 150 KB/sec. and 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes
† 30 years warranty in Germany and regions not recognizing Limited Lifetime warranty
Not all cameras can support 64GB capacity CompactFlash cards. Please check with your camera manufacturer for 64GB compatibility.

During these 4 months I have shot features, portraits, medical operations, Prince Charles’ visit to South Africa, hard news – riots, live performances, court and Zoo to name a few. And I have had no problems whatsoever. During Prince Charles’ visit I shot quite a lot in close succession, because it is a very important story and there is just no way that you can miss a shot and say something like: “Oh, but my camera buffered”. When photographers from international photo agencies were changing CF cards, I just smiled and continued shooting. There, not only the speed helped but also the large capacity of my cards.
I can honestly say that with Sandisk Extreme Pro I have never shot my buffer full and with speed being so important in my job, both to get the shot as well as filing deadlines, it has been a breeze and I would recommend them to anybody. Try them.
Here is only a few pics that I have shot on Sandisk cards:
 Leon van Nierop in his bath
 Feature on Andre Manders, a blind person who works in Jozi CBD.
 Sunrise over Johannesburg.
 David Goldblatt at his home.
 Chris Rossouw, he received reanimation surgery. 
 Prince Charles and Camilla in Soweto.
SACP Press Conference.
 Coldplay at FNB Soccer City in Soweto.
 National Union for Mine Workers’ Protest march in Johannesburg CBD.
 Johan van Rensburg in his “Musiek Fabriek” studio.
 A protester cools of during a protest action.
 Alan Jack Cohen admits to stabbing his wife 16 times. Sentenced to 12 years in prison.
 South African President, Jacob Zuma.
 Johan Fourie rescued Aldieno Captieux (7 months) from a swarm of bees.
 Johannesburg Zoo welcomes a hippo baby.
 Julius Malema marches in Johannesburg.
 Lasershow in Brakpan for New Years.
 Johannesburg Zoo’s new Chimp enclosure.
 Sexpo in Midrand.
Service Delivery protests in Tembisa.
 Artists make ready for the Jozi Carnival.
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Into the New Year in Hillbrow

 
Hillbrow is viewed as one of Johannesburg’s  most dangerous suburbs. Combine that with alcohol and the parties that go hand in hand with New Years Eve and you have a very volatile situation. Therefore it is no surprise that the South African Police opt for the Nyala as transport during this time. The Nyala is an armoured personnel carrier.

Nelius and I picked up Nickolaus from the SABC after he finished doing his radio show on SAFM. We went for McDonalds – dinner of champions – and then through to the  Hillbrow Police Station. We arrived at about 8pm, unfortunately we just missed the first ride in, but midnight was still far, far away.

Standing around and talking to some of the cops, some expressed concern that we weren’t wearing bulletproof vests and helmets (I was wearing a helmet, because I borrowed a GoPro camera from a friend, so I was fine). We even went over to some Metro Police officers who were busy braaiing on the back of their truck and I jokingly asked how much for a boerie. They replied that they brought their own meat, because the food you buy in Hillbrow was unreliable and that the night is still long…
We were also talking about the weather and how beautiful night it had become… Barely half an hour later rain was pouring down, which caused my friends barring me of discussing the weather again that night.

It was during this quick downpour that Nickolaus, Nelius and I was fortunate to share a bus stop terminal with a Hillbrow resident who was busy sniffing some glue out of a carton container, right opposite the police station. This was just a harsh reminder of how different things were here.

Our Nyala arrived 21h30-ish and got us very excited. By this time we’d heard a lot of fireworks go off. – I wondered if it would be easy to distinguish it from the sound of bullets.

It was nearly 22h30 when we first set foot in Hillbrow. We drove past a random naked guy standing outside a block of flats. Unfortunately we couldn’t and didn’t stop there, so I couldn’t ask him what his story was, but it was just such a wonderfully weird welcome to Hillbrow.

We cruised around for an hour or so. When we got back the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) people, their Mfezi – also an armoured personnel carrier that is adapted for ambulance work – had a puncture and they were trying to fix it. This proved to be a rigorous task, because when we left at around 2 o’clock, they still were still trying to get the deflated wheel off.

With half an hour to go to 2012, everything was relatively quiet with no violence reported and certainly no hostility against the cops or us.

At exactly 24h00 we did a mini-countdown in the Nyala, wished each other a happy new year and then got back to work. Immediately we got some flying bottles directed at us. A bottle of beer hit the inside of the Nyala’s door and splashed me full of beer. It was then that the cops asked us to close the doors on both sides. It was a good thing, because we were peppered with glass bottles.

This lasted for about a half an hour. Then it went relatively quiet and either the parties moved inside, people passed out or they went to sleep.

All in all it was a quiet and uneventful evening. Still an awesome experience which I enjoyed.

Obviously we finished the night off by going to Catz Pajamas for a beer at just after two… Because our last beer, was drank last year.

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Mister David Goldblatt

To me there was only one thing better than photographing David Goldblatt and that was meeting him.
Mister Goldblatt, regarded by me and many others as the “Father of South African photography”, comes from Randfontein and went to school in Krugersdorp – where I also grew up and went to school. In Randfontein he worked in his father’s shop and started with photography in 1948. That gives him 63 years’ experience. Wow!
To photographers, it’s a very daunting task to photograph ‘one of your own’ – mainly because every photographer is different and our work is very visual. So you are very self-conscious and constantly get the feeling that you are being judged.
Because I respect and admire Mister Goldblatt so much, I said to myself that if I don’t come away with a ‘iconic image’ I would regard it as a failure and if I must be honest, I don’t think I achieved it and failed in creating an ‘iconic image’.
After the shoot we were busy packing up when Mister Goldblatt asked us if we wanted to sit. We started talking and just kept on talking. In the end we probably talked for as long as we were shooting. Politics. Religion. Afrikaners. Africans. Photography projects. Apartheid. Digital. South Africa. ANC. Protection of Information Bill. Censorship. Order of the Ikhamanga. And ultimately the future of South Africa.
David Goldblatt’s letter to the President when he declined the Order of the Ikhamanga:
“Dear Mr. President,

On March 29 2011 I was informed by the Chancellor of Orders that I had been awarded the Order of Ikhamanga Silver, which I accepted with gratitude and in humble awareness of the honour that had been bestowed on me. I was not able to attend the ceremony of presentation on April 27. However, I was informed that the award would be presented to me on April 27 2012.

I profoundly regret to inform you that I now decline the award. I do this for two reasons.

Firstly in protest against the Protection of State Information Bill that was passed in Parliament on Tuesday 23 November. The damage done to our democracy by the very passing of this Bill, and the damage that is likely to ensue should you sign it into law, has been emphatically and eloquently stated by others and I will not attempt to describe it here. Suffice to say that this action severely undermines our brave but fragile democracy and the rule of law.

Secondly, I decline the award in protest against what has been done to the spirit in which the award was created. I quote from the official history of our National Orders:

South Africahas taken many strides away from its past of exclusion and discrimination on the basis of sex, colour and creed. The country has been steadily moving forward in a direction that reasserts our humanity. In this march towards humanity, a new culture of human rights and a respect for the dignity of the human spirit have become characteristics of South Africa.

One of the symbolic moments of the exodus from the past was the raising of the new flag in 1994. This moment aptly affirmed the pride and dignity of an unfolding country and a celebration of humanity. Another was the unveiling of a new Coat of Arms on 27 April 2000 that embraced the collective historical essence of the people of the country. In so doing, a new aesthetic that takes consideration of Africa and her symbols became part of the new culture that informs a South African rebirth.


The new National Orders have been conceived in the spirit of that rebirth.

I submit Mr President that you, your Government and the party that passed this Bill are in contempt of that spirit. The Bill itself, the manner in which it was pushed through Parliament in the face of clear rejection by substantial numbers of people and respected organs of civil society and, if it is signed by you, the existence of such legislation in our law, are the very antithesis of the spirit in which our National Awards were conceived.

To accept the Order of Ikhamanga from you on April 27 would be to endorse your contempt. I refuse to do that and, very sadly, I decline the honour.

David Goldblatt”

Behind the scenes photos by Nelius Rademan. He also assisted me with the shoot.

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New baby hippo at Johannesburg Zoo

I love going to the zoo for zoo-stories. I must say I’m very proud of my newspaper using it on the frontpage as it’s one of those feelgood stories! So much for people saying Beeld only reports bad news.
Fellow photographer from the Times, Halden Krog and I stayed a couple hours extra, after everyone left, as we wanted to grap a nice pic of the young one yawning, but it was to no avail. He liked lounging around and sleeping, but not yawning. I got a couple of him yawning from the side, but not the shot. But here is the rest…

The story, by Pauli van Wyk, is here:
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Baba-seekoei-net-ma-sn-20111125