Ok. So, WOW!

This week has been crazy busy and I have learnt CRAZY amounts about photograohy and if possible love it even more!!

So a breakdown of my week...

Sunday was arrival-met my roommate Esther who is from Amsterdam and is pretty awesome; we get on really well. Then there's two other dutch girls who are both on the community project. There's three other photographers (apart from me and Esther-who takes AMAZING photos by the way..depressing!) who are all slightly older women, but we all have a great time! Oh and the house is actually like the Flinstones house-it's all rocky and hilarious! Pretty cool!

Monday was orientation day-we learnt our way around the house and the town-only 10 minutes walk from town but have to be careful at night-due to hippos wandering through town! Awesome! :D

Tuesday was the first day of our crash course in photography-we learnt a LOT and had an assignment at the end of the day where we went to this field-threw a hula-hoop and had to take photos in it or from standing in it. It was pretty challenging but we had a little competition slide show at the end and it was cool!

On Wednesday we got up at like 3.30 to game drive through the iSimangaliso park which was really cool and we went to the coast and also just did some game driving and landscape photography. It waspretty awesome. Amidst all this photography was A LOT and I mean a lot of lectuers-theory etc. After our presentation in the evening we then went out and did this thing called 'painting with light';it was so much fun! It basically uses a really long exposure and it's in the pitch black but you can replicate yourself by lighting up with a torch and drawing things in-it was pretty cool really! When we got back I stayed up agess trying to edit/delete all my photos because we are taking SO many and you HAVE to delete the majority//we are here for a month!

And Thursday was our last photography course day, this time we only got up at 4.30 in the mornign to go photograph he sunrise at the beach which was cool. We did a lot of work on the computer this day-working on a programme called 'Lightroom' which is like photoshop but SO much easier! I really enjoyed the editing as well as the photography itself. We had a final assignment where we had the whole afternoon to take,edit and present our 5 photos (yuo take like 200 and have to cut it down!) to create a story. It was really hard to start with actually but I ended up photographing this palm tree up real close; its leaves and bark and the life within it. There were these big beetles and wasps and ants, bees and everything-it was pretty amazing! Sounds really boring I'm sure! BUT guess who won the presentation out of 5 people that eveing... ME!! AH I was so excited!!! I presented it in like a slideshow and will try my best to get the photos up here.. I really enjoyed the whole preocess actually and learnt so much.

Our tutor; a prominent Durban based photographer called Emil von Maltitz-was AMAZING, like AMAZNG! SUCH an incredible photographer, but not only that-he KNEW how to TEACH and put it across just what we needed to do and explain everything in lets say 'idiot form' - our level! lol But ye-check out his site; www.limephoto.co.za He is mainly a landscape/nature photographer and you can see some of his work on his website. Amazing guy with extensive knowledge.

SO. Our course was done now and on Friday we had a bushwalk with our guide (Theo) who is going to be with us the whole month. It was pretty cool as it was like a game drive but you got so much closer to the wildlife as you were walking the paths! AND we saw this really rare bird which was pretty cool! But wow it was hot! In the afternoon we went to a 'pan' of water at the one local vilage where we are working on conservation there. I REALLY enjoyed that as we were helping to clear up the area as well as fencing off trees which they'd planted so they didn't get stolen! And we even pulled up an alien tree! It was really cool as we had this little entourage of the village kids all helping us and they were really keen which was really sweet. We even travelled in a bakkie which has been a while (like a open backed truck thingy) and ye-just had an awesome time. We had an HIV Q+As session in the evening before our 'Flower Power' themed braai (barbeque) which was so much fun!

The project is only in the week so we had today off. But that doesn't mean I did nothing! Me and the three dutch girls all went surfing (up at 6!) at a place called Cape Vidal. We body-boarded to start and then attempted to surf! Then we snorkelled and set up a fire on the beach (as it was raining and pretty chilly!) And then I went in and tried more surfing! I was DETERMINED to stand up! I aonly manage it for like a second and then I wiped out... But it was so much fun! And it's in the park so we had a bit of a game-drive on the way there and back and these guys that took us really knew their stuff!! And we saw some pretty cool stuff too so that was an added bonus!

Tonight we are going to eat out for supper (as we have to on the weekends) and so I have to go and get ready!

Oh and we might even be going surfing again tomorrow if the weather's good! :)

OH and a final thing-I REALLY apologise about the LACK of photos that I am posting here... it's almost impossible with this expensive internet and the MASSIVE files that are my photos! But I will maybe try next week. I will do my best! And I will speak to you all soon, 'see' you in a week! :D