Andrew McGibbon

The age old saying, 'don't count your chickens until they hatch', holds very true not only to chicken farmers but to freelancers as well.
Living as a freelancers gets some getting used to, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down, sometimes you're ahead and other times, you're behind. There are times when you are so busy, you can't give 100 % to anything you're doing and then two weeks later you have absolutely nothing to do.

What I tend to do, which this post hopefully shows is not the best thing, is to look ahead and plan your next month based on the work you have booked. ie counting unhatched eggs.
For the most part this is oaky, as booked shoots normally become successful wrapped shoots, but on ocassion, you arrive at the studio, fire up your email and get notified that the big one you had on the hook for next month has got away. slipped through your fingers like a slimy fish. (excuse my jumping from egg analogies to fishing analaglies so willy-nilly like).

Anyone who says they wouldn't be even the lightest bit dissapointed is clearly not living in the world I live in, but dwelling on the loss is not a great idea either. The only answer is to look at it for what is is and not what it could've been. Put it aside and move on, more work will come, it always does. Be thankful for what you have and expectant for more.

It's hard not to have this face for a while though.

So, the other day while waiting for a shoot to start we decided to photograph some passes by who just happened to be wearing white shirts and have awesome faces.

/Andrew

Last year I had the privilage of photographing Chad Le Clos four times. Once before his gold at Olympics and three times after. 
Most of the work was for his varioius sponsors and are being used in very clinical conditions, like chemists, so we didn't have much freedom for andything to exiting. 
We did however get to do a dramatic portrait of him for Transact (They make those straps athletes wear when injured) 

If you live in Joburg, then please look out for the billboards, there should be three of them (One is on the road from the airport). If you do see one, I would love it if you took a snap of it and sent it to me.

The team from left - Bert Le Clos, Candice Mac Nicol, Chad, Kim Millar, Me!, Lizanne Visser and Lee-Roy Newton

~ Andrew

I am very pleased to announce that I have finally taken up landscape photography. If not forever, at least for the better part of this year.
I have a solo exhibition booked for September which is going to be a journey into the forests and mountains of South Africa (Not an authoritive study, just ones I find and like)

These are the first two to have come though the shooting and editing process and were taken in November last year on our road trip to Cape Town for THE INFLUENCE PROJECT 
The top one is the back side of the Franschoek mountains and the bottom one is in the heart of the Karoo.

I hope you enjoy!

~ Andrew

This image (My first work of 2013, part of a series) is all about the imagination. A little girl sits on her book shelf in her room and imagines an enchanted forest, filled with possibilties for adventure. Pablo Picasso said that "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." Jesus said a similar thing that in order to see the kingdom of heaven (Narnia) we are to become like children. In the world we find ourselves in, it is so easy  to get forced into a dull adulthood where every thought process is governed by the company's/client's bottom line, to use rational thought over emotion in our ideation processes and sit frustrated in a room where all you can see are the four walls... no forest, no adventure, no beauty and no art.

Let us fight this horrible affliction and pursue the things we all knew so well as children. Let's push envelopes and break boundaries with our projects and place creative brilliance over fear of faliure. Let's imagine.

~Andrew

This year has been really amazing in so many ways but esspecially in that my series, All the Wild Horses, got so much international attention. I was and still am overwhelmed that so many people responded so positively! So thank you to all!
There are a few different places where you can purchase limited edition prints and some have exclusive rights to sell them, but some you can only get through me. So from the 1st November through to the 31st of December I will be having a Christmas sale for the smaller of the three size editions of the below selection of images. 

There are 100 editions of these images at this size and they all come with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity! Boom!
The price for each image is R500 for everyone inside South Africa which includes postage, and for those around the world the price is $100 which aslo includes postage.

If you would like to purchase a print please simply drop me an email on info@andrewmcgibbon.co.za 

Rocky's Bow  297mm x 395mm 

Simply Fabulous 297mm x 509mm

Star ~ 297mm x 408mm 

Bella's Grace ~ 297mm x 385mm

Mr Mulholland ~ 297mm x 509mm

Bolshevik ~ 297mm x 437mm

Carronade's Bow ~ 297mm x 373mm

Carronade's Mane ~ 297mm x 373mm

Special ~ 297mm x 451mm

~

Recently I have been doing a few environmental portraits for a new magazine for woman called Play. The next issue will come out on the morning of September 28, and you'll find it in The Mercury, The Star, The Pretoria News & The Cape Times.

Their back cover features a naked man, obviously, who is usually doing it for a good cause like to raise awareness for an NGO etc.

This month I got to head out to the Valley of 1000 hills to meet up with Dallas who founded and runs the Indigo Skate camp which really is an awesome thing. 

On the day of the shoot, it was pouring with rain and for obvious reasons, neither of us were to keen on what was about to go down.

Dallas, being a skater, was pretty up front about not having a cheesy posed photo but rather wanted to do a tail grind (or whatever) on the half pipe. I was not really keen on getting my lights wet and wasn't keen on shooting without them so suggested we try a portrait first and if it sucked we could do the tail grind.

Anyway, to cut the story short, We did the portrait, shooting about 6 frames, thaught it was totally epic, had a beer and I left. We didn't even think about the tail grind.

I have been moving slowly into the world of environmental portraits and this shot is probably one of my favourite photographs I have ever made... So far.

Don't forget to pick up a copy of the mag to see the shot in print... I hope you enjoy it!

Featuring Billy the Kid

I have recently held 50 percent of South Africa's 2012 Olympic medals. Both Chad Le CLos' and Bridgitte Hartley's. Below are two of the shots from our time with bridgitte. It's so awesome working with someone who has accomplished so much!

Last week a friend of mine who runs the kids ministry at our church asked if I could do some super heroe-esque photos of some of the kids for an awareness campaign. The kids minisrty is called Destiny Kids so my concept was pretty simply. Create images that would be the posters if Destiny kids was a movie or TV Series. 
The kids would be styled as if they had been fighting bad guys (dirty faces and scuffed t-shirts) and some would be wearing a cape. They would all be standing on a grassy hill with clouds behind them.

I shot these in studio and add the backgroud later - to make the comp easier though, I had a peice of instant lawn in the studio for the kids to stand on.

Plate One (Kid)

Plate Two (Grassy hill)

Plate Three (Sky)

And lastly, This is how it started... as a sketch. I don't usually do sketchs of ideas but I did for this one and I think I stuck to my brief pretty wel!!