I wish you water.”
― Wallace J. Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do
For years I’ve lived with the misconception that I’m fun loving, spontaneous and love surprises. Turns out that’s just not true, surprises and spontaneity make me feel unsettled and insecure. Enter stage left – my friend Didi, the most fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, spontaneous, crazy girl I know, with the ability to change her mind, profession, direction or location with such speed that bystanders may encounter serious whiplash.
When, out of the blue (Didi knows no other way), the aforementioned crazy girl sent me a whatsapp message telling me that she was looking after a guest house in Knysna for a week and asking whether I’d like to join her for a night, instead of my normal hemming and hawing at this unscheduled outing, I flung caution to the wind and replied with a hearty “yes!”
I’m so pleased I did, the guest house is beautiful with a breath taking view of the lagoon and Knysna heads; although the weather was overcast and windy I had a wonderful relaxing time with my sweet friend.
I only stayed one night and left the following afternoon but we managed to fit in some good old fashioned girl time, eating, drinking, talking late into the night and getting up early the next morning to watch the sun rise.
Didi made us a delicious seafood dinner which we ate by candlelight and overlooking the lagoon.
Of course I had my camera with me and took the opportunity to practise relaxed portrait photography using all the different kinds of indoor light the guest house had to offer.
There were only two guests who were mostly away sightseeing, this left me with heaps of time to clickity click click away on my shutter, Didi was a trooper and a very patient model.
There was lots of laughter and playing silly buggers…
Didi’s spontaneity is infectious, that morning while we were having coffee in our PJ’s on the rooftop, the wind blowing like crazy, the sun struggling to peep through the heavy clouds, it was so exhilarating that even I managed to be a bit mad and spontaneous!
What a beautiful time we had. Note to self – “Say yes more often!”
I leave you with these last images of sunset at the beautiful Knysna heads and the wonderful, unpredictable, extemporaneous Didi.
As always, remember to like, share and comment below.
My friends, I wish you water,
moi du toi photography 
Your “interiors” photos are lovely – I really struggle with them – with the bright lights coming in from windows accentuating the dark places. Also my rooms always look like they are bigger at the bottom and smaller at the top!
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Thank you! The trick with window light is to make sure the light is indirect. In other words if you look at the floor where the light is coming in the window and you see a big patch of sunlight that is direct light, too much contrast! You need indirect light. In the Northern hemisphere windows facing the north will have indirect light and in the southern hemisphere the windows facing south will have indirect light. I am guessing that you are using a wide angle lens (anything up to about 35mm focal length or a mobile phone lens) and that is why your room proportions look strange.
Hope that makes some kind of sense 🙂
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Im using a Panasonic FZ1000 with a 25 to 400mm lens. I find that the room doesnt look like it really is! I cant use the widest angle because of the problems with light, so I tend to turn the camera on its side and I zoom into an area. But that isnt that great when trying to show the overall look of a room. The one I tried recently faces south
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Your problem may be how you are metering for the light if you are photographing in manual mode. I had a look at your camera online, it looks pretty capable. it’s a bit difficult to fully understand your problem just typing back and forth.If you’d like to chat face to face about it, contact me privately on the “contact me” tab at the top of the main page with your email address and and we can share skype details and see if we can get to the bottom of your problem.
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Thanks – will do that! I can also post you some of my “interiors” pics
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Wonderful! Love that you said YES, YES, YES!
Have a beautiful and happy day friendy.
🙂 Mandy xoxoxo
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Same to you my little pumpkin 🙂
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We all need a friend like Didi. I am glad you threw caution to the wind and enjoyed time with her.
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Me too!
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I feel so humbly honoured. How is it that life has blessed me with such a special…freely given friend. Love you lots!!!
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x0x0x0x0x0
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So talented moi du toi!! Love the pics
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Thank you sausage 🙂
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Great post, the colour in these images is fantastic!
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xoxoxoxoxoxox
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