This is an older shoot that I photographed when I was still in college that I never got to release on my blog. This is one of my most talked about shoots when I am on other shoots as I almost got arrested, yes, it is true, I really did, almost …

I was shooting a portfolio shoot with makeup artist- Rebecca Hatton, model- Josh P of Topco and assistant- Kirst Dalton. As far as I knew, after reading the permits website, a student could shoot anywhere as long as there was no money involved, obstruction to public or big film crew and lighting BUT as all photographers know, you learn as you go in this industry and I was about to learn an important lesson!

We started shooting in a lovely open landscape to get some happy, natural shots for Josh’s book. Once we had photographed all of our looks I decided to stop in the Silvermine Reserve car park (where tourists etc. take photos of the view from Ou Kaapseweg). We all hopped out of the car and I began to take simple images of Josh in the car park with the view behind him. After a few minutes we saw two conservation offices bash through the bushes and start shouting at us. I was very confused and showed them the print out I had that told me that a student could shoot in most places without a permit etc etc. What I didn’t realise was that it didn’t apply to Silvermine and, although we were still in the car park the men insisted on writing out my R1500 fine or threatening to take me to the police station. In the end they began to calm down and dropped the charges if we simply left but I was rather shocked and so were the tourists around me who all left when they found out why I was getting a fine. They were worried they would get fined too if they took photos of the view behind them. What an experience!! My clients know how particular and organised I am and from then on I was/am very careful about where I shoot and what permits I apply for etc. Young photographers do not get taught about this in college (I wasn’t at least) so you learn as you go I suppose, and boy did I learn fast!!!

Here are some of the images from our shoot: