I can (photo)graph

Throughout the year, the University's Archive Department and Qphoto (a local photographic store) host four workshops throughout the year. A lecturer from Vega School of Brand Leadership comes and condenses their intermediate photography course into the four Saturday mornings. One learns about the basic mechnics of a camera, about filters, lenses, flash, etc. My understanding was that if one attended all four workshops, one would receive a certificate attesting that one completed an intermediate course, which I thought could be useful if I would want to take other photographic courses in future. However, the deal was that one had to hand in all four assignments, which I did not do. I missed the fourth assignment and for the fourth I only had my little Panasonic because my mom took the DSLR on tour with her. Last night I attended the prize-giving ceremony and I thought I would receive a little condolence basket and a pat on the back. To be honest, the whole event was a bit of an irritation to me, because I had an assignment due for today that I had far from finished and I was thinking how Derrida and post-humanism and memory are more important for my future than watching people eat Sushi and drink Sherry. When they handed out the 10 "well-done"-awards, I was sure they had mistakenly invited me. This was a waste of time. But then, WHAM BAM, 2nd Prize. For taking a photo of a building with a bottle in. With my little one, my disregarded one,  with the one I throw in my handbag when we go out to take bar-brawl-party-pictures. Here it is ( not sure how the copyright is now, since I think it belongs to the UP Archives, but I took it? If anyone from Archives reads this and wants it removed, just let me know).

The Chemistry Building at the University of Pretoria ( 2nd prize QPhoto Awards 2011)

I think the best image I entered was this one though ( you might notice,I like buildings. They don't move. They like their picture taken):

New building at University of Pretoria and moon, 2011. 

And then, another WHAM BAM moment: the Pretoria Stadstapper Fotoklap was featured in the Beeld, a local Afrikaans newspaper. They spelled my surname wrongly, but I am glad they got my first name right. Such a minefield, these foreign names.

Here is an image of the article:

Beeld Pretoria Stadstapper Fotoklap feature, 26 October 2011.

Guess which one is mine? 

Admittedly, I cannot merge photos on my own, it is all technology and selecting which fotos could fuse together. Hell, I shoot in auto. 

Pretoria at sundown, viewed from Hotel 224.