Frantic. That is the best way I can describe today. From this mornings drive from Claren’s through the bit of mountains where we did a lot of filming & shooting. Right through to when we rolled into Phakisa Freeway racetrack. With the first opportunity for the Blacktop Rally entrants to really stretch their legs in a circuit track environment, there was no hesitation in getting the guys on the track! It was neck & neck as the cars headed out at 30 second intervals. The competition heated up even more when the oval track was opened & we took things a bit faster.

The TopCar team sporting the never ending attraction pulling KTM X-Bow was definitely the day’s favourite when it came to calling shotgun on rides. The lower profile & raw racing aspect to the X-Bow gave it significant advantage on cornering & handling with the S-curve bends & hairpin. Another favourite was the Mahindra Pik Up truck which took to the track in superb character, leaving notions of top end speeds behind but rather just pure fun. Fun being the main point to the entire rally!

It has been a super long day, so I’m going to sign off with just a basic recap from today. Tomorrow we’re going to be putting some major miles on the tyres, so the next update will be Day 4 when we take to the next awesome track that SA has to offer!

You can spread the anticipation with a butter knife. Over 20 cars, making up the team that is The Blacktop Rally 2012, have gathered upon Pretoria to embark on the even greater 3000+ km trip around South Africa in the hottest metal (and character-ful) there is to offer. The basic idea is to drive the greatest roads in the country, race at the coolest tracks, burn as much rubber doing it & set some steep competitive times. Sounds like fun you say? Damn straight!

I find myself a part of the rally this year, which leaves me in that pool of anticipation as to what is awaiting us all. This year I’m serving in the capacity of official gun-slinging photographer. Even though I am a part of the crew, I’m heavily involved in the fun of the teams as I’m riding shotgun in these beasts we’re gallivanting around the country in.

So a quick recap of todays events. Everyone has their mighty stallions branded to the nines, like one would a prize horse. There is no doubts as to what this event is about when these cars rumble through town. Registration & driver’s briefings are under the belt & we drop-kicked right into the action by heading up North to ODI Racetrack for some high speed 1/4 & full mile runs. The locals were in for a treat as some really rare items were up for display, such as a KTM X-Bow with team TopCar.

The day’s runs got everyone warmed up for an entire week’s worth of jam-packed, adrenaline-pumping racing events. The top power boys were hamster hairs apart in top end speeds on the 1 mile run, with the Nissan GTR taking the podium with a 249km/h, with Speed n Sound’s Joel burning his heels with a 248km/h in a BMW M3. With the competition being so tight, I can only begin to imagine the kinds of friendly banter we’re going to be seeing in the days to come. Putting a few miles on the clock, we all headed to the beautifully picturesque town of Clarens for the evening to wine, dine & rest up for the next day of epic adventure!

Catch you tomorrow for the next highlight installment coming to you live from The Blacktop Rally 2012 as I start to spend more one-on-one time with the different teams.

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you want to stay tuned to what we’re up to by the hour, follow me on twitter (@seagrampearce) and you’ll see me tweeting under the #Blacktoprally hash. Tweet me your feedback!

I find myself at the end of another year. Another 365 fantastic, crazy, manic days later. Just this morning my agent said in passing, “this year has gone by like a flash!”. And I can’t agree more! What felt like just the other day was in fact last January. The best part of a photographers career is that you really actually never know where you’ll end up. Last Jan I had no idea I would be able to cross so many things off my bucket list of ‘achievements’. I can only hold on tight as 2012 ushers in another exhilarating roller coaster of experiences!

For those that have worked with me in 2011, whether you were the client, makeup artist, clothing stylist, assistant, production manager, prop builder, set builder, coffee fetcher, I want to take a moment to thank you for making 2011 an incredible year! So with that in mind, I’ve decided to put together a chronological storyboard of images that takes you from January through to December! Some months there were just so many shoots that I’ve had to keep them to the highlights! There is also some work that I’ve done which is going to print/ad campaigns for 2012 which I can only share in the new year. Either way, enjoy!

Feel free to leave your comments!

JANUARY

Client: Grindrod


Client: L’Omarins Queens Plate

FEBRUARY

Client: SALON Local Art Exhibition Cape Town

Client: GQ Magazine South Africa

Client: TopCar Magazine

MARCH

Client: Suzuki South Africa (Brochure)

Client: Suzuki South Africa (Brochure)

Client: Bridal Boutique

Client: Bridal Boutique

APRIL

Client: Jacki Wedding

Client: Bridal Dress

Client: FOORD Corporate

Client: Moodley Traditional Indian Wedding

MAY

Client: Pinhole Camera

Client: Klipspringer Hiker

Client: Imagination

Client: Samurai

Client: Optimal Energy / JOULE

JUNE

Client: GQ Magazine South Africa

Client: GQ Magazine South Africa

Client: London (work + personal trip)

Client: Scotland (personal trip)

Client: Chester City (personal trip)

Client: UK (personal trip)

JULY

Client: TopCar Magazine

Client: Classic Portraits

Client: AAA School of Advertising

AUGUST

Client: Lexus South Africa

Client: Mens Fashion

Client: GQ Magazine South Africa

Client: TopCar Magazine

SEPTEMBER

Client: TopGear Magazine South Africa

Client: TopGear Magazine South Africa

Client: Lexus South Africa

Client: Lexus South Africa

Client: Lexus South Africa

Client: Lexus South Africa

Client: Lamborghini South Africa

OCTOBER

Client: TopCar Magazine

Client: TopCar Magazine

Client: Classic Menswear

Client: Corporate Banners

NOVEMBER

Client: Vespa + Robben Island Tourism + Get It Magazine

Client: Vespa + Robben Island Tourism + Get It Magazine

Client: Dark & Light Beauty

Client: Shape Beauty

Client: Lexus South Africa

DECEMBER

Client: Beach Light

Client: Actress Headshot

So since getting back from UK, I must admit I have had to shelf a lot of things I was planning on doing. Being so visually & creatively inspired in Europe (more Scotland) I had grand ideas of things to do when returning to my home shores. Well, I have done a few of them. But for the most part, all I’ve been doing is play catchup on life & work. It was like I had fallen off the planet for a full month & now had to live & work that entire month to make up for it. This must be how folk who return from the Bermuda Triangle feel… or Captain America when he wakes up after all those years of being frozen.

But I digress. Point is, its been a super busy period after getting back to SA. And with all things taking back seat, the blog is definitely on one of those things. So as a recap, since getting back there’s been a few very cool jobs come through. One of them was going with the guys on the Lexus CT200h launch here in Cape Town. It was my first time with the folks from Lexus & they were really such an awesome bunch to work with. To be honest, I had a ton of questions about the Lexus LFA’s that were coming to SA shores. I’m told only 3. One of them is on display somewhere in JHB (can’t remember where exactly) and the others are coming shortly. Makes me wish I had a spare few million for one myself. I’ve always had a thing for the LFA since I saw the press release a couple years back.

Then there has been the editorials that’s been shot between Cape Town & Jozi. So far, 2 in JHB and several others here in good ‘ol Cape Town. Those will be out in the next couple months. One of them in particular was quite an epic adventure. That one is next month. As always we have a ton of fun on the editorial shoots as their isn’t as much pressure as a commercial job & everyone seems to be a little more chillaxed.

So just jumping back to the UK trip, I’m still going through the absolute ton of photos I shot while there & will do my best to keep updating the blog with a few shots from that. Several things I shot there make up a story, so they will stay such until I’ve had a chance to finish writing about them too. A lot of them make up new series I’ve started -architecture being one of the major ones there.

So… enough rambling for one day me thinks. I leave you with the new Lexus CT200h.

On this UK trip of mine, I stayed over in Glasgow with some friends I met at the Scottish wedding. The guys there had a Bearded Dragon Lizard called Sir Miguel. Ok, admittedly they just called him Miguel, but seeing as I was in the ‘royal lands’ I thought the added noble title suited well. This guy had been hand raised from when he was tiny, so was totally comfortable (sometimes a bit too comfortable) being around people. Letting him out his habitat he would come find you sitting in the lounge & prop himself on your knee, or sit on your chest. Cute guy. I wouldn’t mind getting one for the studio back home. I think he would be the star of my studio. Some info on keeping these guys too.

Stonehaven is approximately 15 minutes train ride south from Aberdeen. A predominantly coastal town, the fishing & boating aspect of the city is everywhere. Boxed in on both sides however is massive cattle & cow farming lands. This creates an ‘interesting’ first smell when one steps off the train. One of my favorite towns from the ones I’ve been to in Scotland, there is a magical charm about Stonehaven. The scenery was very diverse too. To top it all off, they have their own cliff-edge castle ruins!

So Edinburgh definitely deserved its own full day! It is easily one of the most incredibly beautiful cities in the world. Definitely in my list of top 10 cities I’ve visited in the world.

While this trip to Europe had many agendas, one of the primary ones was a wedding in fact. An old friend of mine from many years ago always said that if she got married, she wanted me there. It actually changed from “I want you there” to “I want you to shoot my wedding”. Who am I to complain? Getting to go over to Scotland for an old friend & getting to shoot her wedding for her was hardly a case of ‘work’. I’m based in Aberdeen, which is on the east coast of Scotland. Its my first time here in this city, even though not my first time in Scotland. She had an apartment about 2 blocks from where I was staying.

The day went pretty normally as far as weddings go. She had her makeup done at her apartment, her bridesmaids fussed & rushed around like they all do. Her father who had flown in from Copenhagen was probably the calmest from the immediate family side. Maybe its just a fatherly thing. For her photos, the original plan was to go to The Winter Gardens in Aberdeen, which I’m told are these massive indoor gardens that act as a greenhouse too. I got excited as I can already picture the kind of photos one could get. However there was a small complication & we had to go to one of the ‘normal’ parks. Now the difference in public parks & private parks here in Europe are: virtually nothing. I’m still finding it so surprising at how clean, neat & just impeccable everything is here. Nobody litters. Nobody whips out a boom box to annoy as many other people as possible. Everyone behaves like they actually grew up with some semblance of civilization. The photo opportunities in the public gardens were amazing. All the trees different shades of green, purple, burnt orange & red.

One of the highlights at the reception was the fun & games. Literally. We all grouped as table teams & played games. There were prizes for the best & worst tables. My table won in fact. I would like to think it was thanks to the great South African minds… I’m kidding, we had a great mixed table & everyone seemed to know a bit about something. Like this one I learnt: what was the first human invention to break the sound barrier? Answer: The Whip. Pretty cool huh? Even by reading this post about a Scottish wedding you learn useless party facts. You’re welcome.

In retrospect, I really did wish I had hired a kilt for the occasion. Almost all of the men wore one & they said that if they had known I wanted one, it could have been organized. I’m always game to try something new. I mean, what better time to don a skirt than with a bunch of full bearded men who think nothing of it? Its a little better than trying the same thing in Thailand or Sea Point main road. Now if the ladies are wondering that one question: do they wear any kind of… banana support? I’ll tell you. They don’t. According to the Scottish men, why would you want to hamper air flow, movement & um, well, you know… readiness. I think they’re onto something.

So I’ve clocked in over 24 hours of solid travel. Starting in Cape Town, I flew through to Dubai. Spent a few hours in a terminal building to make sure I didn’t lose my seat (I was told they do these kinds of things in Dubai if they think you’re gong to be late). On the topic of Dubai, it really is a small world, because I bumped into (ok, it was more like me being blind & getting called at) the legendary Gerda Gennis with her husband Robert. Now I don’t know Gerda all that well, but every time we do cross paths we end up chatting quite a bit. I just love how Gerda is the most unassuming person when you meet her & despite her incredible lifetime of successful photographic career, she never makes one feel inferior when she speaks to you. So anyway, Gerda was off to Greece. Normally I would be uber jealous of anyone traveling to some incredible location, but this time I felt no jealousy at all -I had my own adventure ahead. From the spectacular architecture of Dubai, we followed through to another flight over Eastern Europe before finally coming into Heathrow.

Upon one rather unexpected ‘interrogation’ by the Border Control Officer on what exactly I freelanced & if I was involved in some way with the paparazzi industry or not (I strategically didn’t make small chat about how cute I thought the new royal Kate is), it was the madness of Heathrow to someone who hadn’t been there for many years. Navigating the underground tube came with surprising ease. A new development since my last UK visit was something called the Oyster Card. Mine came with a nice ‘limited edition’ picture of Kate & the other prince guy. At least it had half something to look at. Armed with my cute royal ‘Kate card’ I didn’t have to worry about finding ticket booths, trying to communicate with someone who clearly has never heard another dialect of English before in his life & pocketing loose change. I merely hovered my card over any entrance & exit. Magic stuff.

Onwards I had to get myself to Regent Street, in Piccadilly Circus. I had made special arrangement that due to the last minute booking of my BritRail pass, I had to collect it instead of it being mailed to me like is normal procedure. Popping out at Piccadilly Circus underground was a major visual shock. Having spent the last 9 hours in a flying tin can (which I must just say, Emirates really does provide a fantastic flying experience -even in ‘plebe’ class) then not seeing anything in the airport, before heading into a 50 minute underground tube ride watching only the goth girl opposite me bop about in the carts motion. I emerged into the heart of preppy London, a swarm of suave looking men dressed in Armani & Gucci suits flying past me. Extremely well dressed woman following closely behind carrying little leather briefcases. It was incredible. I stood gawking for a few minutes looking up & around me just taking it all in. Then realizing I had limited time to collect my BritRail pass & still get to Kings Cross Station, I think I might have literally slightly hopped & skipped down Lower Regent Road…

Now, let me mention that I have always loved having an unusual name. People either always remember it, or they vaguely remember it was different & I get called a few variations of my actual name. Walking into the British Tourist Department, located nicely at 1 Regent Road, I merely had to tell the first info lady I saw, “Hi, I’m Seagram Pearce…” to which she interrupted me with, “Oh yes! Hello, I have your BritRail pass ready for you! I just found your name *sooo* (add slight swoon) interesting.”. So yes, I do like what having an unusual name does for me sometimes. One of the major reasons I left my initial studio name for my business to using my actual name -which improved rememberability (if thats a word?) by 1000%.

From there it was a short inter-zone 1 underground ride to Kings Cross Station. There was some slight confusion for me there as they are busy with some major renovations (they call it improvements, but I think its sacrilege to change such a beautiful existing architecture into a modern looking monstrosity -but thats another story) which makes one run a narrow sleuth of maze corridors until you assume you’ll arrive at where you need to be. Waving my BritRail pass around I finally got myself onto platform 3 which was my no-stop train to Aberdeen.

Fast forward another 6 hours (and 16 gigs of photos) which brings us to 22h15. Right now. Let me just say, it being as light as a 4pm afternoon in Cape Town is throwing me a serious curve ball. I’ve gotten 4 hours sleep in the last 56 hours and my body is still fighting sleep. Wait, actually, I’m still going on adrenaline. Coming back to UK and Scotland in particular has been a personal goal for me for a while. After my previous backpack trip through Europe, I don’t remember much except for Scotland. It really made an impression.

So there is no Wi-Fi on the train, as I’m not sitting in the heralded 1st class cabin, so I’ll post this blog piece as soon as I arrive in Aberdeen (2 hours left). I’ll see how many photos I can include, but I must just say, over the next while, you might get a little irked at how much I’m going to refer to the amount of beauty in the world

Lets jump forward to Feb 2010. Keeping it to the stuff that I really liked (because all freelance photographers shoot a lot of stuff that we don’t necessarily like), we get to the work I do for TopCar Magazine. In amongst all the awesome cars we shoot, there are always several ‘normal’ cars. The kind of cars that someone like myself would be able to afford.

My first thought on seeing the Citroen C3 Picasso was, “it’s a bread box”. While yes, it might not be the most aesthetically pleasing car on the road, it certainly was far from the worst I’ve seen (or had to shoot). Calvin (TopCar Senior Journo) & I found ourselves in Newlands that day, so we made use of what we had. The Newlands Stadium & all the tiny little roads in & around the stadium. Fortunately, Newlands has a suburban vibe to it, which actually suits the C3 very well. It’s no sports model. Its certainly not the car you’re going to pick up your hot date in either. It’s for the moms.

In any case, I spent a bit of time on the lighting, which always makes a huge difference to the ‘feel’ of the end product. I think thats possibly why I ended up liking this set as much as I do.