Making Picture-Perfect Memories for life
Myriad memories frozen in time
Dirk van der Westhuizen is a very talented singer/songwriter from Pretoria. He had everybody on their feet dancing during his performance. To be honest I was exhausted just looking at him jumping up and down on stage… Sooo much energy….
He wrote his first song at age 12. In 2012 Dirk shot to fame when he recorded his South African version of the Gangnam Style. He received millions of hits on You Tube.
Here some of the photo’s taken of her at the Sonskynfees.
I met and photographed Wynand and Cheree for the first time in 2007 at the Varingfees with my little Pentax camera. Since then I have had the honor of capturing them on more than one occasion. These two artists has got hearts of gold.
This duo couple have a very full live. They are blessed with two beautiful daughters and both have their separate singing/songwriting careers also. Little Taylor-Hope joined her mommy on stage at the Sonskynfees. She stole many hearts with her performance.
For more information on Wynand and Cheree please visit their websites. Cheree , Wynand and lastly the duo’s Facebook Page Wynand and Cheree
Here are some of the photo’s taken of her at the Sonskynfees.
Steve Hofmeyr (born 29 August 1964) is a South African singer, songwriter and actor. He is an activist for Afrikaner rights in South Africa, and has been involved in several controversies throughout his professional career.
Hofmeyr married actress Natasha Sutherland, whom he had met on the set of Egoli: Place of Gold in 1998, they had two sons, Sebastian, born 13 December 2001 and Benjamin, born later. Hofmeyr also has three other children by other women. The couple was divorced after reports of numerous affairs dominated Hofmeyr’s time in the spotlight in 2008. Hofmeyr married Janine van der Vyver on 26 January 2014. In 2008, Janine van der Vyver, a fitness instructor, revealed they had been seeing each other for 10 years.
Hofmeyr’s grandfather was Steve Hofmeyr Sr., a leader in the Ossewabrandwag.
In January 2007, there were reports that one branch of the News Cafe restaurant chain would not play Hofmeyr’s song Pampoen (“Pumpkin”). The managing director of the company that owns the franchise denies that this is company policy and points out that many Afrikaans acts, such as Karen Zoid and Arno Carstens have performed at News Cafe.
In 2011, he made public that he supports the organisation “Expedition for Afrikaner Self-Determination” (Onafhanklike Afrikaner Selfbeskikkingsekspedisie, OASE). OASE describes itself as an advocacy group for Afrikaner self-determination in compliance with the international law and the guidelines of the international community. He is an avid pro-Afrikaner but mentioned that he maintains a moderate political stance in an OASE public relations video.
Hofmeyr was heavily criticised after performing the former South African national anthem, Die Stem, at a cultural festival known as Innibos in Nelspruit in July 2014.He went on to perform the anthem on international tours, and encouraged South Africans to continue singing it, stating that it did not contain any form of hate speech.
In October 2014, Hofmeyr wrote and published a tweet stating that he believed that black South Africans were the “architects of apartheid” on his public Twitter account. This prompted a significant public backlash. One of Hofmeyr’s critics was puppeteer Conrad Koch and his puppet Chester Missing, who launched a campaign calling on companies to stop sponsoring Hofmeyr. On 27 November 2014, Hofmeyr failed to acquire a final protection order against Koch and his puppet in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court.
Hofmeyr has given statements indicative of an apartheid denialist which has led various journalists and public figures to label him a “disgrace to South Africa”
Information of Steve Hofmeyr as quoted from Wikipedia
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
Suzanne is another one of our local Female Vocalists. She is very down to earth and has a heart of gold.
She started singing at a young age and in 1997 at the age of 11 she launched her first album On top of the world. In 1998 she made her debut appearance on Noot vir Noot one of South Africa’s most loved television shows. Since then she was a very busy girl. She launched 6 albums and also recorded a song with Snotkop.
For more information on this talented lady please visit her Facebook Page
Here are some of the photo’s taken of her at the Sonskynfees.
Nicholis Louw (born 30 December 1979) is a well-known South African pop and opera singer and signed to Select Music, the major South African record label. His repertoire mainly in Afrikaans includes rock, pop, country and music ballads, often incorporating strong classical elements. Louw has had a number of successful albums through releases through Select Music starting with his debut album in 2003, selling over 650,000 albums. His major hits include “Ek wil my baby hê vanaand”, “Rock daai lyfie” and “Generaal”. He tours extensively averaging above 100 gigs a year. On 12 July 2014, he married Denise Shrewsbury.
Information of Nicholis Louw as quoted from Wikipedia
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
Francois Henning better known by his stage name Snotkop previously known as Lekgoa is a well-known Afrikaans and Sotho language singer and rapper.
He started his music career at age 15 preparing demo CDs and in the late 1990s adopted the stage name Lekgoa singing in the South African kwaito genre of music. In this period, he was signed to Gallo record label, releasing two Basetsana in 1999 and Ngamla Yoba in 2002.
In 2005 he adopted the name Snotkop initially a 4-piece boy band, and shortly later a solo act signing with Next Music record label with the launching of his debut self-titled 2005 album Snotkop followed by So Damn Sexyin 2008 and Francois Henning Was Hier in 2009. With the release of Ek Laaik Van Jol in 2012, he became one of the top selling South African artists in Africa in Afrikaans language. Well known single and music video releases include “Song Vir My Dad”, “Dis ‘n Land”, “Hou My Stywer Vas”, “Oppas”, “Katrien”, “Parapapa” a remake of Cidinho & Doca hit “Rap das Armas” and “Ek Laaik Van Jola”. He is also featured in Kurt Darren’s hit “Stoomtrein” and in MoniQue’s hit “Ek Val Vir Jou”. Snotkop is also known of popularizing international hits in his Afrikaans language adaptations.
Snotkop is also a television personality. He presented the programme Petrolkop on MK, the mostly Afrikaans music channel in South Africa where Snotkop featured various celebrities driving racing cars in time trials against each other.
Information of Snotkop as quoted from Wikipedia
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
Pierre Rossouw is one of our own local singer/songwriter. In 2012 he won one of our reality shows “Ons soek die sanger”. Pierre was given a wonderful talent and he can compose a song for you in a few minutes. He is also a presenter at one of our local Radio Stations Bok Radio. They have a slot where you send in some key words and he’ll compose a song unplugged on air.
For more than 10 years now Pierre has written songs for well known artists. He writes around 150 songs in a year.
Pierre is a very down to earth guy with a heart of gold. I have had the pleasure of capturing him in the past at festivals and functions. He is also closely involved with The Alta Du Toit Aftercare Centre in Bellville.
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
Kosie Beukes is only 7 years old and he masters 13 instruments already. I had the pleasure to capture this little guy at the Sonskynfees this year. Hope to meet him again someday. Will keep a close eye on his music career. When Shaleen talked to him on stage he said that he is better than his grandad on the concertina… Just love this little boys attitude…
Here are some information I got from an article about Kosie in the Boksburg Advertiser.
“Kosie picked up his first guitar when he was just two years old and even though it was a toy, he would seemingly play along when he heard a song he liked.
“He began playing his first instrument before he was five when his grandfather gave him a box guitar,” says mom.
“I think that was probably the first time my husband and I actually began to realise that our child was gifted.”
After realising that his mother is talking about his musical gift, Kosie quickly stands up and fetches his most recently purchased instrument, the mandolin, looking very eager to play a song.
Appearing delighted to have another chance to show off some of his musicality, he pulls on a few strings as his mother goes on about how he started playing the concertina.
“It was just a matter of months after Kosie first picked up the concertina before he could play at least 15 songs.
“His grandfather showed him how to play only once, and nine days later he was playing an entire song with no assistance,” says Julia.
She says Kosie is usually a very introverted child, but his personality changes once he starts playing an instrument or gets up on stage to perform.
Julia believes that Kosie may be the youngest concertina player in South Africa because, according to her, the youngest concertina player recorded by the Guinness Book of Records is the same age as her son.
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
At the end of 2006 Viljoen Retief made a huge decision on his way to work. He was listening to a Bob Dylan song on the radio when it came to him. He wanted to be a full time singer and songwriter. He phoned his dad Ds Johan Retief and told him about his decision. His Father said he was waiting for this phone call for a while. According to him Viljoen Retief has a talent and his passion is his music and songwriting.
On 16 March 2007 he had his first CD launch and has been going strong ever since he decided to live his dream. He writes his own songs and also writes for fellow artists. He writes about people, places and day to day stuff. I love his music and had the pleasure to capture him on more than one festival.
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
Amore is another one of our local Female Vocalists. She is very down to earth and has a heart of gold.
She started singing at a young age and in 2005 she was a finalist in the Burger Plusster singing competition. This was when she decided to pursue her dream and started focussing on her singing career. She travels all over the country bringing her music to all her fans.
I met Amore for the first time in 2008 when she performed at the Varingfees. Since then I have had the pleasure to capture her in action on several occasions.
For more information on Amore feel free to go visit her website.
Here are some of the photo’s taken of her at the Sonskynfees.
Our MC for the Sonkynfees was well known actress Shaleen Surtie-Richards.
Shaleen was born in Upington on 7 May 1955 and schooled both there and in Cape Town. Qualifying as a kindergarden teacher, she taught in both cities between 1974 and 1984. Shaleen Surtie-Richards is a South African actress best known for her title role in the 1988 feature film Fiela se Kind (Fiela’s Child), and as Ester (Nenna) Willemse in the M-Net soap opera Egoli: Place Of Gold. She was also a judge on the reality competition television series Supersterre from 2006-2010.
Shaleen took many roles in several amateur stage productions between 1974 and 1981 and was also active in productions of the Department of Education’s Theatre-in-Education from 1982 – 1984. She became a professional actress in 1984 and has become very well-known through her appearances on stage, television and films. She also works on radio as narrator or actress.
Her stage work over the last 30 years includes productions by some of the country’s leading directors. She has been seen on stage in all the main centers of the country, as well as London, and has participated in both the Grahamstown and Edinburgh Festivals.
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
Well what can I say about Pieter Mohr? Pieter was born in Kimberley and grew up in Bellville. He recorded his first album in 2012 3 of his songs got nr 1 status. His original song “Can’t find the words to say” won 2 x IFM Melodie Awards voted by radio listeners & enjoys radio airplay internationally as well. He also shared the stage with Ray Dylan, Fredi Nest, Manie Jackson, Billy Forrest, Bobby Angel, Lance James and Dozi.
I photographed him for the first time on stage in 2014 at the Sonskynfees. With his cowboy hat and guitar he really brings his audience to their feet with his collection of country songs. One just can’t help to sing along. His favourite country singer is Alan Jackson and he also performs a few of his songs.
Here are some of my photo’s taken at this year’s Sonskynfees.
Andriëtte Norman is one of our local Afrikaans Female artists. She lived and grew up in Brackenfell. In 2007 she got second place in our Idols competition I still say she had to be the winner. I just love her voice.
I first met her in 2008 when she performed at the Varingfees in Brackenfell her hometown. Back then I only had my Kodak camera nothing fancy but my husband arranged that I may take photo’s backstage. After all these years she is just as humble as the first time I met her.
Here are some of the photo’s I’ve taken at the 2015 Sonskynfees.
This year will be the third birthday of the Sunshine Festival held in aid of Alta du Toit Aftercare Centre. This will also be my third year involved with this festival and I am proud to say that I’ll be their photographer for the day.
On 18 February 2015 they had their media launch at Eaglevlei Wine Estate and also the home off the festival for this year. The festival will take place on 28 March 2015. I am so looking forward to this. It’s one of my photography highlights every year.
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