Tuesday 9 September 2014

WE ARE MOVING! This is where you will find us from now on

We are very excited! We have upgraded to our new website with our blog inside the site. 

That means that you now have access to content about our Style & Stories Portrait Portfolio, professional portraits, event and product photography located on our website. 

We will therefore not be posting any more content on this site. 

Please add our MVNP blog to your RSS feed and stay up to date with our latest projects and information that will help us help you to present your company's and your personal brand in the best possible light.

See you there!

Monday 8 September 2014

BUSINESS PORTRAIT # 7 : Angela Greyling of VisionWorx at Xtraordinary Women, Somerset West


BY ERIKA

Feel the fear ... and do it anyway!

That was the message of guest speaker Angela Greyling of VisionWorx at the Xtraordinary Women’s Somerset West chapter September breakfast event last week.

In this manic society we live in, we often confuse success with being busy.

The way to test whether that which we keep ourselves busy with, is if it is making a real impact on our own lives, the lives of others and the world around us. Life is not about being productive, it is about being of value.

She quoted author of Success Intelligence, Robert Holden to not confuse:
  • speed with progress
  • urgency with importance
  • adrenaline with purpose

It's not about working harder - It's about removing the obstacles.

And our busy-ness is based in fear, those scripts / assumptions we have been brought up with and have assimilated throughout our lives.

Angela presented participants with four practical ways of how to ‘hold’ their fears from a place of self-power:
  • Stop talking yourself into fear
  • Act as if you are not afraid
  • Reframe your picture of fear
  • Make a point of remembering the last time you were brilliant

Angela explains that she has been drawn to people, their behaviours and emotions, and a desire to develop individuals. She studied a BA degree in Industrial Psychology at Rhodes University before working in the distance learning environment as a student advisor, then as a recruitment consultant. She eventually became a business woman, first as the owner of a training consultancy and then a florist shop.

Her interest in psychology also led her to being trained as a Life Line counsellor and more recently completing a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Coaching Practitioner Certification Course. 

More images of the event can be viewed on the Xtraordinary Women Facebook-page.  

Saturday 6 September 2014

THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR STYLE STORY DURING WOMEN'S MONTH 2014! #MVNPStyleStory

We expect that we will soon be painting the town red with Desiree Naude of Somerset West, the winner of our Women's Month 2014 Share Your Style Story Competition!

Desiree's choice of option 2 (when in doubt, follow designer Bill Blass' advice and wear red!) has won her a three-hour Style and Stories Portrait Portfolio shoot including make-up by Candice Harker worth R2 500.

We look forward to telling Desiree's story soon. 

As usual, we will post the images on the blog so add us to your RSS feed.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition. We really enjoyed learning more about you through your style story! And now we are very keen to also tell your story in style.

Call us to book a Style and Stories Portrait Portfolio shoot!

For more information and prices write to office@shuftipics.co.za or call 072 3553 264.

We look forward to telling your story in style!

Friday 22 August 2014

WOMEN'S MONTH PORTRAIT # 3: Diana Rankin - Fascinated by Fragrance


BY ERIKA


If there is one thing Diana Rankin, perfumista en Somerset West business owner, seems to understand intuitively, it is arte-vita or how to imbue life with art.

Early in the previous century, an Italian art and social movement called the Futurists 1) had appropriated this phrase, art-life, for the sensory revolution they envisioned. They wanted to empower and liberate society by infusing art into everyday life and into everyday practices. The leader Marinetti, believed that we think, dream and act according to what we eat and drink. Food should engage every sense and stir the imagination.2)

THE ART OF FRAGRANCE

For the Futurists it was food and for the owner of Perfume Power South Africa, it all starts with the art of fragrance.

Diana has had a lifelong fascination with everything to do with perfume and as so often happens, the desire to share her passion and knowledge, grew into a business. 

In 2011 she launched her company to educate, entertain and make uncommon fragrances from all over the world available to men and women.

The vehicles she uses are Perfume Power SA's  e-commerce website, presentations at workshops and at private and corporate functions as well as exhibiting at network events (Diana is the chapter leader of the Somerset West chapter of Xtraordinary Women), conferences, expos and wellness days.

One of the very special services is the three-hour personalised Signature Scent Session where you are guided to blend your own masterpiece.

SCENT ROOM

But it is the recent launching of The Scentroom in a quiet cul-de-sac in Somerset West that reminded me of the Futurists’ ideas of arte-vita and their notion of sensory elaboration and combination to create a feast of sensory awareness.

As with the Futurists who made olfaction the ‘star of the gastronomic experience’ 3), every sensation in The Scentroom brings your focus back to fragrance

The sound of running water in the beautiful garden, the tactility of fabric and bead work, the colours chosen for the walls, the reflections of candle light from the exquisite perfume bottles displayed on glass shelves, the feeling of body and soul relaxing in the easy chairs, the touch of perfumed oil or wax on the skin. It all has one objective only and that is to enhance your smelling experience and by implication your emotional experience. 

The relationship between smelling and memory is a very special one.4)  

While it is impossible to recall a smell without the source of it present 5), smells, more than any other sense, triggers memories of situations, contexts and people.

And the memories evoked at The Scentroom have to be special.

“Rather than a sleek and shiny sales room, I wanted to create an airy, peaceful and comfortable environment where people can have an emotional experience but also receive accurate product information so that they will find their perfect perfume match! “ says Diana.

So if you are looking to buy something special for yourself or a friend, if you can get together up to 10 friends to join you for a Signature Scent Workshop, or even if you just being in the moment in a beautiful space, give Diana a call and make an appointment for a scentationalist encounter at The Scent Room.

NOTES
3.    Playing to the Senses: Food as a Performance Medium by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
4.    Ibid
5.    Ibid The paradoxical objectivity of smell is that it is more intruding, more immediate, than any other sensation, and at the same time essentially fleeting and elusive. Its presence is never permanent. Not even when that which emits it is present in its materiality is it possible to remain attentive to the smell…. Smell does not permit the continuous examination and enrichment of the first impression which we take for granted, when it comes to the other senses…. The nose must continue to act incessantly, without being able to store the impression. The impression does not become more dense, it is not solidified as when we concentrate on a tone or a color. It is always evaporating.' Ruin, Hans (198?) Smell--Notes for a Phenomenology of Olfaction, Kris:138-41

  1. WOMEN'S MONTH 2014 PORTRAIT # 1: Faith Solomon Helps People Have Better Stories
  2. WOMEN'S MONTH 2014 PORTRAIT # 2: Merissa Slingerland's Art From The Heart

See also: 

  1. PERFUME POWER TO THE PEOPLE - Land n Sand Digital Magazine Nov/Dec 2013 issue

Monday 18 August 2014

STYLE & STORIES PORTRAIT PORTFOLIO: Daneel


BY ERIKA

She can dance, she can sing, she can act ... and she can organise.

Not only is Daneel Van Wyk the current secretary of the Hottentots Holland Dramatic Society, she has also directed (Bevange in 2013) and worked as the production secretary for the HHDS’ most recent and hugely successful production of Annie.

And always with a smile on her face!

Daneel who grew up in Kimberley, studied drama at the University of the Free State before finding her way to the Western Cape and the Playhouse Theatre, the home of HHDS.

Watch this space! Daneel’s talent and her dreams are as big as her smile.


This is definitely not the last time you will see her in the spot light!  





Friday 15 August 2014

WOMEN'S MONTH 2014 PORTRAIT # 2: Merissa Slingerland's Art From The Heart


BY ERIKA 


Martin and I would often walk past a lovely old house in Diaz Street in Strand North.
It is a real old-fashioned strandhuis which has grown in a higgledy-piggledy manner as the need for more space arose until it now consists of a brick and mortar core with several wooden lean-to structures.
At the back, even a caravan has attached itself to the house like a barnacle as if it had once come down to the beach for a holiday and just never left.
And every time we walked past we would mention how great it would be to spend time exploring the huge, overgrown and rather old fashioned garden with its magnolia and mulberry trees and ivy climbing up and over the perimeter walls built from smooth river stones.
And so it happened that the wish was granted last year when artist and teacher, Merissa Slingerland moved her art school there.
Since then I have spent many a summer evening in this magical garden, or otherwise inside the old house, making art, drinking wine and enjoying the good company of a great art teacher and other creative people there.
Rather than a very formal set-up, art classes with Merissa is more like a social event where you also learn to get better at something we all love doing – being creative!
The classes cover all media including drawing, panting, sculpture, printing and pottery.
You don’t need any previous experience to join and although everyone starts off drawing, later you choose whatever medium you prefer and you develop at you own pace.
From time to time Merissa prepares a formal lesson e.g. on different  styles or art forms, sometimes she organises a model for live drawing but mostly she helps, guides and cajoles us in her gentle way, to try new media, techniques etc.

And once or twice a year we all exhibit our works at a gallery or tother appropriate venue. 
ART FROM THE HEART
Merissa, who has been teaching art to people from all ages in the Helderberg area for eight years and before that in Rustenburg for three years, is herself an accomplished artist having exhibited upcountry and locally at Rialto in Strand.
She studied fine art at the Vaal Triangle Technikon (now the North-West University Vaal Triangle Campus) and worked as a graphic artist in London, Edinburgh and locally.
“I enjoy working with a variety of media and I love using expressionistic colours and images to take the observer into another world,” she says.
Her artistic style is a combination of media in earthy and bright colours. Rather than directly representing the world in a naturalistic manner, her work expresses an inner experience through a variety of organic textures, lines and forms.
Merissa also enjoys the technical challenges of printing media.
Interested in viewing Merissa’s art? 

Want to commission a work for your home or office?

Feel like joining her art classes?

Call 084 548 5441 or email her at merissaland@gmail.com 

Visit her Facebook page and have a look at the activities Merissa Singerland Artist & Teacher offers adults and children including the popular art parties in the garden. 

Saturday 9 August 2014

WOMEN'S MONTH 2014 PORTRAIT # 1: Faith Solomon Helps People Have Better Stories


BY ERIKA

It is never easy going for a job interview, not the first time and not any time thereafter, even if you have done it a dozen times before.

And with the current job scarcity and large numbers of people applying for the same positions, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you prevent your nervousness from destroying your chance to make the right impression?

Faith Solomon of Intelligent Placement in Gordons Bay’s can help.

PREPARE AND GAIN KNOWLEDGE

Faith’s mission is to make it easier, particularly for first-time job seekers, to be better prepared and to know what to expect from that dreaded job interview.

While her objective is to contribute to the success of the business that is hiring new people by matching  the right person to the right position, she is sees it as her mission to also assist work seekers, both experienced and those new to the world of work,  to achieve their career goals.

The Intelligent Placement team pays a lot of attention to fine tuning job seekers’ CVs, cover letters and honing their interviewing and networking skills to start building their career path.

Instead of only assisting people answering her ads, Faith actively invests in the Helderberg community by regularly presenting interview skills workshops free of charge to underprivileged young people.

She also hosts a 15 minute programme called Your Brilliant Career on Paarl’s local radio station, Radio KC during which she shares her knowledge about building a career rather than just finding a job and offers advice on how to search for work and how to market oneself during an interview

FAITH'S STORY

Faith was born in Boksburg, Gauteng but grew up and completed her schooling at La Rochelle Girls High in Paarl. 

“My parents sacrificed many things to afford me an education, she explains, “In many respects this has shaped my personality.

“I am tenacious in achieving success in all aspects of my life. I live by a philosophy of integrity and honesty and I get excited about empowering people and particularly, the youth to achieve their dreams.

“I want to give people a chance to have better stories.“

INTELLIGENT PLACEMENT'S STORY

Faith, who is married and has two young children, completed her International Travel and Tourism course in 1999 with a fully sponsored bursary.  

She started her own career working in the hospitality industry including in niche market hotels in Franschoek, then as a tour operator until she joined  the reservations department of Relais & Chateaux, Grande Roche.

 “Throughout my career I have been involved with training and development and later I branched out into recruitment and project management, still in the hospitality industry, for about five years before I was retrenched and I was forced to become a business owner.  

“After a day of crying and feeling that the world has come to an end, I did the normal thing of updating my CV and starting the work seeking process. But I just could not get myself to apply for any of the positions,” she recalls.

“I came to the conclusion that the time has finally arrived for me to do what I had wanted to do on so many occasions before - become an entrepreneur! “

This was June 2013 and by August of that year, Intelligent Placement was up and running and Faith needed a professional portrait and images for her website. 

That is when we met this dynamic woman with the big heart for her community!

So when we decided to tell the stories of some of the remarkable women in the Helderberg area for Women’s Month 2014, Faith was first on our list.

Thank you Faith for bringing knowledge and with it hope, to young people in our community. 


Thursday 7 August 2014

BUSINESS PORTRAIT # 6: Xtraordinary Women, Somerset West, August 2014


BY ERIKA

The Xtraordinary Women chapter of Somerset West celebrated Women's Month by inviting human strategist and entrepreneur, Simon Hurry to talk about The Power of YOU: Why The World Needs You to be You!g

His presentation explored why being unique is a good thing and why the world needs individuals who understand who they are and understand what it is they wish to contribute. 

We shouldn't search for who you are, Simon says, we should live who we are.
  • Be unique in a way that is authentic, affirmative and encouraging. 
  • Be useful by crafting our meaning or purpose into something useful.
  • Be remarkable and be really good at what you do as a way to be happy and fulfilled. 
More images of the event can be viewed on the Xtraordinary Women Facebook-page.   

Thursday 31 July 2014

SHARE YOUR STYLE STORY #MVNPStyleStory & Win During Women's Month 2014


Fashion changes, but style endures, said Coco Chanel, and she would know! 

What a StyleStory she could tell.

But we want to hear all about your Style Story (#MVNPStyleStory) and then we want to help you tell your story in style with a photos shoot and a portfolio of portraits. 

From 1 to 31 August in celebration of Women's Month 2014 we offer you a chance to win a Style & Stories Portrait Portfolio photo shoot with 15 images on a CD worth R2 500.

All you need to do is:

  •  to go to our Facebook page
  • Find the StyleStory Competition app
  • Choose an image and quote combination that best describes your personal StyleStory
  • Type in the number in the allocated field and you could be the lucky winner. 

To increase your chances:

  • Share with your friends through Facebook, on Twitter with  #MVNPStyleStory or email and 
  • Get another opportunity to vote 
The winner will selected through a random process using Woobox and will be announced before 10 September 2014.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

SPOTLIGHT # 4: Sleuth at The Playhouse Theatre, Somerset West


BY ERIKA

Two leads in Somerset West's The Playhouse Theatre production of Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer, David Bullard and Christoan Smit. Director is Bettina Horvath
Sleuth is a top-class thriller set in the 70's with twists and turns in the plot is keeping audiences riveted. 
Show times:
Thursday 31 July 2014 at 8 pm
Friday 1 August 2014 at 8 pm
Saturday 2 August 2014 
Book with Computicket 


Review in the Cape Times with our image

Wednesday 23 July 2014

STYLE & STORIES PORTRAIT PORTFOLIO: Lelanie


BY ERIKA


Strand / Somerset West business women, Lelanie Roberts-Baxter is the owner of Angels Creations, an e-commerce supplier of: underwear, lingerie, adult toys, clothing, accessories and more. Most of the clothing & shoes products retail outlet cancelled orders/stock overruns - no rejects.

We first met her when Martin photographed Ronel modelling the lingerie on the Angels Creations website landing page.

But we this time it was Lelanie’s turn to tell her own story in style.  

Angels Creations website: www.angelscreations.co.za
MAKE-UP BY: Candice Harker http://www.mobilemakeupartist.co.za 




Saturday 19 July 2014

STYLE & STORIES PORTRAIT PORTFOLIO: Bettina Horvath


BY ERIKA

I met Bettina Horvath only about a year ago when I attended a social media workshop she presented in Somerset West.

But in this year she has become such an integral part of Martin and my life on both a professional and personal level, it feels as if we have known her forever.

What I know about marketing a photographic studio on social media and using email, I have learnt from Bettina.

When I joined Xtraordinary Women there was Bettina, ceaselessly supporting inspiring and teaching.

And then we collaborated with Bettina the actress, marketer and director and self-confessed ‘drama queen’ at the Playhouse Theatre in Somerset West.  

As a master facilitator, Bettina has given Martin Van Niekerk Photography the opportunity to photograph the people and productions at the Playhouse, a job he thoroughly enjoys.

But now Bettina is leaving.

After 17 years of marketing, selling, training and shaking up the inbound marketing scene in South Africa, she and her son are going home to Vienna, Austria to do the same there, of that I am sure.

We wish you all the best Bettina, and we will miss you but if there is one person who will use all technology has to offer to stay in touch and to continue inspiring, it is you.

Auf wiedersehen!

PS: Bettina's STYLE & STORY

Typically Bettina style, her leaving will not happen quietly, no, she is going out with a bang! 

Amidst packing up and organising her new life thousands of kilometres away, she is still managing to direct  Sleuththe classic thriller by Anthony Shaffer which opens on 24 July. 

Book your tickets via Computicket today!

MAKE-UP BY: Candice Harker http://www.mobilemakeupartist.co.za 





Monday 14 July 2014

BUSINESS PORTRAIT # 6: Maree Steyn of Travel With Me, Somerset West



BY ERIKA

Maree Steyn is the owner of Travel With Me, a personalised service selling holiday experiences, corporate travel, group travel as well as golf packages including arranging airfares, accommodation, tours, cruises, insurance, car hire and foreign exchange
Travel With Me is situated in Somerset West.

Maree can be contacted at maree@travelwithme.co.za or telephone 021 8515226 or 072 364 2972.

MAKE-UP BY: Candice Harker http://www.mobilemakeupartist.co.za

Friday 4 July 2014

BUSINESS PORTRAIT # 5: Xtraordinary Women, Somerset West



BY ERIKA

A group of extraordinary business women from the Helderberg and surrounds, meet every first Thursday of the month at Erinvale

F.l.t.r. Gwen Kloppers from Xtraordinary Women, July guest speaker and consciousness coach Ann Baret Solot and Somerset West Chapter leader, Diana Rankin of Perfume Power SA.

Xtraordinary Women is the brain child of Gwen's passion to create a community and platform for Xtraordinary Women doing extraordinary things.

More images can be viewed on the Xtraordinary Women Facebook-page.