About Me

Taken with my Huawei P10

Good day, and welcome to my Website and Blog.

I am Coreen, a mother, caretaker, lover of everything beautiful, and a Photographer. I live in the northern suburbs of Cape Town in beautiful South Africa. 

What can I tell you about myself? I love my family and my friends and I know without them I will not be the person I am today. Without their support and encouragement, I would not be sitting here today and typing or posting to a photography blog.

In my perfect world, everything is organized and run’s according to my scheduled plan.  Well, that is in my perfect world anyway.  I will not change it for anything I LOVE MY NORMAL LIFE.

Oh dear, I don’t think I must start talking about my love for my work it can go on forever… Let’s start at the beginning I always loved taking photos but never had a decent camera but this did not stop me. When we went on holiday’s my little Pentax and Kodak camera’s worked overtime. I took photos of everything that caught my eye.

I always envied other photographers and thought it would be a great way to earn a living just taking photos all day…

Little did I know that my dream of becoming a photographer would become a reality for me in June 2009. My ex-husband bought me my first DSLR a Canon EOS 500D. This was when I started to live my dream but I must admit it’s hard work not just click click click… I did not have any formal photography education but Our Heavenly Father gave me a talent and I thank Him every day for giving me the opportunity to capture the beauty that surrounds me.

I knew that my talent alone will not help me go forward so I started reading up on photography. With each photoshoot, I’ll go and refresh my memory look for ideas in magazines, on websites and how can I forget my fellow bloggers. Come to think of it I don’t think formal training is a must. Don’t get me wrong it would be much easier than studying by yourself hopping from one website to another. I feel very strongly about making sure I get it right and three different websites saying the same thing can’t be wrong can it? I’ve learned a lot since I started blogging and following other bloggers. Most of the photography bloggers will tell you their settings for the photo’s and by using their settings as guidelines I figured out what settings works for me. Every day is a learning experience and with every shoot, I can see improvement.

After returning from our visit to Scotland in August 2019 I decided that I want to take my photography up a few notches. So I enrolled for a photography course at The Photography Institute. I graduated on 10 June 2021 and I am proud of myself for completing the course with flying colors. I must admit, I did learn a lot not only about myself as a photographer but also about my camera.

Here are some very important tips that I can give any upcoming photographer.

  • GET TO KNOW YOUR CAMERA AND GEAR.
  • WHEN TAKING A PHOTO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. FORGET ABOUT “I’LL FIX IT IN PHOTOSHOP”
  • PUSH YOUR BOUNDARIES AND TRY SOMETHING NEW EVERY NOW AND THEN.
  • THE ONLY WAY TO GET THAT WOW PHOTO IS TO GO OUT AND LOOK FOR IT.
  • ENJOY WHAT YOU DO.
  • BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE…

I Love and enjoy my work and I put my heart and soul into each photo. When I do a photoshoot I try to capture the different personalities of the members of the family. My aim is for my clients to enjoy their photoshoot. Happy clients = lovely photo’s.

With this blog, I would is to show off some of my work and to inspire and motivate others. From time to time I will post something personal. I also love to travel and will share some of the photos taken and also try to give you some information on the places I have visited.

My photos are for sale and I will tag the post with #photoforsale. All my Inspirational and Daily Affirmation Photos are also for sale. Please email me for details.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoy the photos and stories.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Walt Disney

Coreen

103 thoughts on “About Me”

  2. Hello!

    Congratulations on being my 200th Follower! Thank you very much for following and for liking lots of my posts.

    I love your photographs of a country I fell in love with many years ago and which I have visited three times. I shall enjoy following you in return 🙂

    1. Hi there,

      It’s my pleasure. Love your posts.

      I also love Beautiful things and my passion is to capture the beauty in everything.

      Thank you for following my blog. 😉

  4. Cool Coreen! I finally subscribed to your blog and I didn’t know you lived in CapeTown! It is such a gorgeous place! I visited about eight years ago and fell in love with SA. I hope to make it there again! Do you follow Rory Alexander at all? He is another South African blogger and photographer that I enjoy. I also follow Another Day in Paradise and 2Summers. Lots of great bloggers coming from South Africa! 🙂 nicole

    1. Hi Nicole,

      Thank you for subscribing. Yes Cape Town is lovely. I only really started to following the different blogs a few weeks ago. I always wondered how everybody got so many likes then I saw they follow allot of blogs. I love travel and photography so those are my first choice in blogs. I also follow Another day in Paradise will go have a look at Rory Alexander. LOL I was not really an active blogger till I got my new camera end of March 2012. Now I can’t wait to get blogging. This weekend I entered some challenges and I must be honest I can’t wait for the next ones. When you come visit South Africa again feel free to look me up. Love meeting new friends… 🙂 Coreen

      1. Thanks Correen! Yes the photo challenges are a great way to get involved, get more subscribers and meet other fellow bloggers who you will want to follow to. It is hard to follow a lot of blogs. I subscribe to a lot because I love reading them. Yet it gets hard to always read all the posts when there are so many new ones each day in my Inbox! I try to pick and choose but it is hard. 🙂

        1. 😉 I love reading about other people and their travels. I can get lost in their photo’s. When hubby works night shift I usually catch up on all my blogs.

  6. So glad you stopped by my blog today so that we could meet. You have some beautiful work here, and I totally agree to the practice, practice, practice part; that is something that is helping me along 🙂

    1. Only a pleasure Angeline. Thank you for stopping by my blog. I believe that you never will know everything that is why I constantly read up, look at other peoples work and practice it myself. 🙂

  11. Congratulations, I´ve nominated you for the “Family of Bloggers Award”, to see what is involved check out my blog. If you choose not to accept the award I will not be offended, I just wanted to show how much I enjoy reading your blog and also to say thank you for your support and encouragement! Have a great day,G 🙂

    1. Thank you very much Giana, Sorry for only replying now but It was hectic this side of the world. Getting ready for a few days away on holiday and trying to finish up some work. I am honored and I accept this reward. I will over the weekend work on this award. The Matric Farewell’s is keeping me busy right now.
      Thank you again.

  12. Coreen, thank you for taking a peek at my newly developed blog. Its so fun and at times daunting to try and stay up with the dozen of post and comments etc, etc. Please come back often as I will continue to develop and explore my poetry and soon I will start a new page with what I hope are not senseless ramblings, rather a thought provoking diatribe of varied view.

  21. Hello, thank you for calling in and liking my posts! i wonder if you can advise me? How do I put a watermark on my photos? Do I have to have special editing stuff? I use iphoto on my Mac and don’t do anything to my photos at present other than cropping. I’d be really grateful if you could point me in the right direction. 🙂

  22. Hi Coreen,
    Thank you for visiting my humble blog. I’m following you now so I can learn from you 🙂 Like you said, it really takes practice, practice, practice. I got my DSLR only in August last year. Before that I just use point-and-shoot for my photos. So I’m also learning anew.
    Have a blessed weekend!
    Warm regards,
    Mary

    1. It’s a pleasure Mary. Thank you for following. Yes practice is the best. I am still getting to know my new camera that I got a year ago. Pushing boundaries and keep trying new settings by the time I need to upgrade again I hope I mastered this one…

  26. Hi, Corren! Thank you for following my blog! I look forward to seeing what you have done and what you will do in the future! I agree about the formal training. I did take a basics class when I got my first DSLR, and that really helped a lot, but like you I have mostly learned from others’ generosity with information and practice practice practice!

  28. Pingback: Un omaggio agli ospiti esotici « allsho's blog

  33. Hello Coreen,

    Thanks for dropping by Good Stewardship 🙂 I see that you’re stewarding the gifts He’s given you! Beautiful photos! My best friend in primary is South African as well, has a special place in my heart. Take care!