Thomas van Zyl

my blogger funeral

2011-02-14T08:24:00.001+02:00

So I don't really use blogger that much anymore!

If you'd like to follow what i do and get up to you can do that at either of the following links:

http://thomasrichard.tumblr.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomascmyk/

i spy

2010-11-10T15:54:00.002+02:00

Nici, Arnel and myself (third draft) in franshoek.

My sister, Natali.

Monique.

Crystall pools (I think this is the third pool)

Old photo, myself and nici on the night of his matric ball.

Photoshop polaroid action. Some random images.

NEW MASK

2010-10-07T09:04:00.001+02:00

Eve (small update)

2010-10-06T09:32:00.001+02:00

2010-10-06T08:11:00.000+02:00

Idea for a tattoo that a friend asked me to draw up for her... fuck, I need to practice more :/

2010-10-05T11:11:00.000+02:00

So this is the first part of my new tattoo design. Will probably end up on my forearm...

The image in the background is not mine but its getting changed quite a bit... its just for use as referance at this point.

Going to add some more roses, do a better snake, give "eve" some tattoo's, possibly a day of the dead face, maybe turn the apple into a "skull-apple" and maybe even add an anchor in somewhere as well...

I know that sounds like a lot and a busy mess but its all just ideas for now...

Will see how it goes as I draw it.

Peter

2010-10-05T09:09:00.002+02:00

My sisters BF, this guy is seriously an amazing chef! Head chef at 26! forgot the place where they currently work. Will find out and post it here if anyone feels like going and trying out his stuff :)

2010-09-29T12:41:00.001+02:00

some random photos...

2010-09-29T12:36:00.002+02:00

character for urban ink tattoo parlour

2010-09-07T12:22:00.003+02:00

My sister

2010-09-07T12:17:00.002+02:00

love is in the air.... lol

2010-07-29T13:45:00.001+02:00

Taken at coolbay the other day.

In memory of a friend.

2010-07-29T13:40:00.001+02:00

Did this yesterday... R.I.P. Leigh.

Just for fun...

2010-07-20T16:49:00.001+02:00

Messing around with typography.

Pieter

2010-07-14T14:54:00.001+02:00

My new Ink

2010-06-18T11:39:00.001+02:00

This is my new tattoo... sorry for the bad photo, was taken with my cell right after the tattoo was done.

update

2010-05-26T16:54:00.003+02:00

Just a small update as to where the tattoo design is...

BTW... i know i wrote the wording wrong... it should be like my previous post... I fixed that... cant wait to finish this

update

2010-05-26T16:54:00.002+02:00

Just a small update as to where the tattoo design is...

self controll

2010-05-24T16:07:00.003+02:00

On the road to self-discovery,

self-control is of little use.

I came up with this line a while ago and I'm busy putting it into a new tattoo design... I had a friend of mine (Heino - copy writer) help me "fine-tune" it, so thank you Heino.

will upload a pic of the finished design when it's done...

here is the first part of it though...

Alone on the beach

2010-04-07T11:02:00.003+02:00

Went camping with friends at Coolbay two weekends ago and on Saturday night I went on a little PhotoTakingMision with my sisters BF. This is one of the little snaps that I took.

Face

2010-02-23T15:12:00.002+02:00

A little illustration I did...

Self portrait

2010-02-17T12:59:00.002+02:00

recodnizzzze

2010-02-12T11:52:00.002+02:00

I found this sign like two blocks from my parents new place in Strand!
Thats me in the photo BTW. I had my father take the photo.

My little bunny :)

2010-02-12T11:36:00.002+02:00

2010-02-12T11:24:00.001+02:00

2010-02-12T11:21:00.001+02:00

2010-02-12T11:09:00.002+02:00

2010-01-25T11:43:00.004+02:00

Maggy (the girl in these photos) and myself have been thinking and wanting to do a shoot for some time... So on saturday morning I got up, got some wine, and headed over to her place with my gear...

We had lots of fun, drinking wine, talking about random stuff and ofcourse... taking these photos.

There are more to come, quite a bit more actually. I just did not have time to edit and sort through all of them this weekend.

Hermanus day trip

2010-01-18T12:37:00.004+02:00

I love taking photos of people sleeping or just lying around in public...
These two were taken a few weeks ago when I went to Hermanus with my sister, Petr (her BF) and his mother.

Vanfokkingtasties

2010-01-18T10:22:00.004+02:00

So a while ago I went to the Vanfokkingtasties show. I only took photos of fokofpolisiekar, these are my favourites:

Robert

2010-01-12T08:42:00.002+02:00

So this is my friend Robert and in this photo (like the one before it) I tried something a bit different with the post production/editing AND once again I like it.

Maggy

2010-01-12T08:14:00.002+02:00

I tried editing this photo a little bit different... I rather like the look of it.

The girl in the photo is my friend Maggy.

Soft focus goodness

2010-01-07T13:59:00.002+02:00

This is a photo I took recently of one of my friends.

I held one of my diana’s lenses in front of my canon (with it’s lens off) and this was the result.

I know you get an adapter and a local shop said they have some on the way, so if all goes well I should have the adapter by end of this month. And if that is the case, then you can all expect a lot of soft focus goodness heading this way soon!

Theewaterskloof...

2010-01-06T15:27:00.000+02:00

So we went camping awhile ago... and these are the pictures... :)

From left to right: Maggy, Johan, Robert

The three friends I went camping with.

The pot in which I cooked the yummiest of yum leg of lamb pots.

My friends and their "boats"

My friends on the water with their little "boats"

So we went to Theewaterskloof a couple of weeks ago. It was so good to get away... we got their after dark on friday night, set up camp and lit a fire. Had some drinks around the fire and cooked some food.

Saturday afternoon my friends decided it's time to test out their "boats", during which time I got the fire and the potjie started (while enjoying a bit more wine than I probably should have).

The wine lead to the potjie being slightly burnt at the bottom but For my first try I feel that I did rather well. It was a leg of lamb pot with lots of yummyness... If I remember I'll post the recipy on monday!

When we woke up on sunday the weather was shite... the wind was destroying our tents and it started to look like heavy rain was only minutes away. We packed up and headed back to my house, where the weather was, well, perfect. After drinking a round or two we let a fire and saved the weekend. I love camping and ending it all with a braai at my place and some close friends is about as perfect of a weekend I can hope for.

Theewaterskloof = Camping!

2009-12-11T14:18:00.002+02:00

Leaving after work to go camp with some friends at Theewaterskloof!!! Can't wait!

Here is a link if you want to check it out!

Actually I'm not sure if that's the right website.... BUT yah... Seeing as I'm going, I'll be able to show it to you all next week!

BTW I also started another blog (on Tumblr) which I will have less shit on...

The main reason for that blog is the Iphone application that Tumblr has... (best part about the application, it's FREE)

Cool little helpfull Blog/Site for us Iphone users in SA

2009-12-04T08:28:00.005+02:00

Ok, so everyone that has an iphone here in SA knows that our Itunes store basically has nothing cool... OR... at least not as cool as those darn americans have. But help is at hand! I found this little site that explains how to get a american Itunes store account (only for the free applications though) as well as some other cool stuff! ENJOY!

VODACOM BASTARDS!!!

2009-12-02T09:54:00.003+02:00

Hi people... so, I feel that it is indeed time for a RANT!

Vodacom is testing my patients!

So the 3 Problems which I have run into in the past couple of months with vodacom of which two are kind of similar are:

1 & 2) They for some reason disabled MMS and tethering on the Iphone! WHY?

It works on ALL other phones and MMS DID work on the Iphone (not sure about tethering as I never had a need to use it untill now)

So if it DID work on the I phone and it DOES work on other phones, then WHY would vodacom stop it from working on the Iphone???

3) WHAT is with this SHIT that they have going for their prepaid customers... R4 and all of a sudden you have reached your call limit? You can't even send a fucking sms! hows about that!

Come on Vodacom what the hell?

If someone could please explain this to me or if I'm missing something I do apologise or if someone can point me into the right direction (a blog or web post or something where this stuff gets explained) then well... I would appreciate it greatly!

old photo

2009-11-26T11:38:00.002+02:00

This is an old photo that I took of my cousin.

So yah... As you can see I played with this photo quit a bit hey... was fun...

I quite like it even though it is WAY over edited

Straightway Head

2009-11-18T11:43:00.003+02:00

Hey everyone... I can't remember if I've posted about this before but yes I do not feel like checking so if I did, well, here it is again.

A link to my parents restaurant!

http://straightwayhead.blogspot.com/

check it out!

Me, myself and I

2009-11-18T11:19:00.004+02:00

Just a small update as to where I am at the moment with the little illustration.

Things have been a bit rough lately so I havnt had much time to work on it...

But slowly but surely it is getting where I want it. I still have LOTS of work left though.

Also busy with a new tattoo design at the moment, probably very cliché but fuckit, I like it and that's what matters.

Will upload a pic as soon as I think It's getting somewhere :)

OH OH OH... this photo also works as a link to my Flickr account... so go check it out...

howzzzit... smoked chicken, camembert and sweet & sour sauce on a roll + 2 beers

2009-11-04T13:23:00.004+02:00

ola peoples :)

How are you today?

I have something kind of funny to share with you...

Like I've mentioned before my family has a restaurant in Somerset West.

Here is a link to there blog (which I desperately need to UPDATE, and... well... There is a growing stack of design stuff which I must do for them/the restaurant, I hate not having time)

so anyhooz... like I started saying, so my family has a restaurant in Somerset West.
When I got home yesterday there really wasnt anything to eat besides cheese and bread basically (which I have been surviving on for some time now that the parentals arnt really home anymore, so needless to say I'm sick of it) so I decided to call up my sister and get her ask my parents to bring me something to eat when they come home.

They asked Peter (my sister BF and head chef) to make me something and this is what I got:

smoked chicken, camembert and sweet & sour sauce on a roll + 2 beers

Not pretty at all I do admit, but after I cut it all up into slices and put less than half back on the roll aaand added some of the sauce... well... YUM is all that I can say.

Just for fun

2009-10-28T16:26:00.002+02:00

I was bored with repro and corporate shit at work so I did something fun :)
It's definately not the greatest but it made me giggle (probably becuase I'm going to load it as my colleague's wallpaper... he's going to be in for a surprise tomorrow morning)

Maybe I should spend some time and do a poster that's similar to this, but with a fuckload more illustration and detail and zany colours and shit?

PAINTBALL!!!

2009-10-27T16:53:00.003+02:00

Ok, ok, ok... please SOMEONE tell me why fun things always has to happen at the same time... U-tac is opening their new field on the 22 (CQC area) and 29th (Bushball field) of November AND on the 29th there is a game at PBA morning star...

This is the one at morning star:

So is anyone keen to join me for this??

Or for the bushball at the new U-tac field??

That being said, this is not meant to diss the people who do the design for PBA but I think I need to send them my portfolio... Maybe I can score some free shit or even some lekker discount in exchange for some Design photography work... cause Dammm that flyer is weak :P

At least everyone at PBA are nice people, they're always willing to help out and stuff... and even give advice to new players... yah...

So [send portfolio to PBA] is added to my exstensive TO-DO LIST...

BEST shortcut ever!

2009-10-27T16:22:00.002+02:00

Ok... so mac has this short cut which I feel is pretty fucking amazing if your browsing shit sites or doing something else that your not supposed to at work or whatever and dont want someone to see.

By simply hitting the apple key and h at the same time the whole window will just go away so to say, lol.

It won't even show up in the doc!

But when you click on the application that you were using your window will reappear again... great stuff! :)

Just felt like sharing that.

Work

2009-10-26T09:44:00.001+02:00

I designed this blog header and this web load page.

What do you think?

Tippmann 98 Custom

2009-10-23T13:06:00.003+02:00

Hi again, So in a previous post I told you about my marker (and you can kinda see it in the photo of me popping out of the bush) but I thought I must show you a proper photo of it... so... here it is:

As you can see it has quite a few nice upgrades! :)

I'm very happy with it... Just thinking about painting it black soon... (I have an idea in my head for a very yummy look on my marker)
sooo...

If I do paint it or if I add anything else, I will post a picture again!

The charger after the Frankenstein fixerrrrr

2009-10-23T11:22:00.002+02:00

So this is what we ended up with...

As you can see we decided to tape the cord flat against the charger for a short deistance... this I thought was a good idea should I trip over the charger or for some reason yank on the cord (so it doesnt fuck out completely... lol)

WOHOOO... FUCK the worm!

2009-10-22T11:14:00.007+02:00

haha... ok great news people!

So I went to my friends place last night, aaaaaaannnnnnnnddddd, WE FIXED MY CHARGER!

So we went with that tutorial I found and yah... it worked like a charm!

I'll show you my photos that I took on my phone (I forgot my camera at home) so you can get an idea of what to expect should this happen to you...

First we split the casing (broke it apart with a screwdriver)

Then my friend (who, like I've said is an electrician) started testing stuff with his little play set... after a while he just cut a piece of cable off (I almost got a heart attack, he didnt tell me that he was going to cut it or why...)

So this was the little fucker piece of shit cable that my friend cut off (this is also the piece of cable that apparently had the problem in it)

After this drama we (he) put everything back together (not so much the casing, that is being held together with tape, will post a picture tomorrow) and we tested it..

Here is a nice picture of the working but frankenstein looking charger...

And the part that made me the happiest...

Seeing the little light go on again! :)

so all in all... Thank you to the person who took the time to make and publish the tutorial on the internet. The internet for allowing me to find the tutorial and last but not least, my friend johan for doing all the work while I enjoyed a drink.

Here he is... (notice that he still has his work clothes on!)

I must apologise for the shite quality of the photos... I only had my iphone with me... no camera... I know its not an excuse but bleh... thats the reason at least...

I'm so happy that my baby is alive again... even though it will be with a semi permanent plaster... :)

a big mother fucking worm in my apple

2009-10-21T08:24:00.003+02:00

Ok, so I phoned apple yesterday about my charger issue.

I know what they said on the site but when I asked my oh so helpfull apple monkey if it was indeed like that... he said no, they do not replace out of warranty products.. grrr... but understandable I guess...

I did however shortly afterwards find this interesting link on how to fix a macbook charger... So tonight I will be heading to my friends house (the previously mentioned electrician) and if all goes well I should have a fully working charger (although it will be a bit of a frankenstein situation) by tonight!

Lets hope for the best!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, BUT what if the apple has a worm in it?

2009-10-20T10:19:00.007+02:00

OK, so I've had my macbook for some time now... probably like two or three years.
This is my baby:

I've never had ANY complaints with it at all, or with apple for that matter.

I have infact, been fighting the good fight against windows and your normal PC's since that first day I touched a MAC.

And yes I do believe that a MAC is far superior to pc's running stupid windows (the new windows is to me personally like a very lame attempt at copying OSX. While everyone is raving about it they forgot that many of these "new" features have been in OSX for some time)

Sorry for the rant but yah... to get back to my point and what this post is ACTUALLY about.

So no complaints, up untill now!

My charger for my macbook gave in so I have to have it replace, fine! That's not the problem...

The problem is the price.

While I understand that mac products are more expensive and I do believe that you get what you pay for, I do not understand how they can charge R1200 for the charger!

Here is a screen shot from a respected local apple retailer.

I had a look at some online shops selling the same charger for anything from 39$ to 60$
So is that not a WHOLE lot cheaper, even with the great exchange rate?

I'm giving apple (in the V&A waterfront) a call later when I get home to hear if a replacement is even slightly possible... According to their international support site it should be.
Here is what I found:

Read the first paragraph where it says additional information.

If this does not work and they are not going to replace it for me then I am going to have a friend of mine look at it (he is a qualified electrician).

My LAST hope I guess will be to shell out the R1200, but that really just seems like to much.

Lets hope that the apple people will play nice... :)

oh... or does anyone have any other ideas that I might try?

Paintball weekend... WHAT A WEEKEND!

2009-10-05T12:52:00.007+02:00

So this weekend that just passed I did not go help out at the restaurant...
On saturday I went with the boys from work and a couple of other people (and kids)to go play paintball at paintball farm!

It was a fun filled day that ended with a shot of tequila for those old enough.

Above: Everyone who joined in on the fun... except for me... I took the photo.

Below: The start of the last game. I sat out because I wanted to take some photos.

And then on sunday I went to go play at U-tac with some of my friends... Utac is a great field to play on! With a dam, a river, Military type bunkers built out of bags of sand and even a small village built out of wood! Scenario paintball rocks people!
Sadly this field will be closing down soon! :(

In between two of the games we decided to take some photos of ourselfs with our gear on...

This is the result below.

Above: Two of my best friends, Maggie and Johan.

Below: Me! and my gear.

Secret project

2009-09-14T12:52:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone, so I'm kinda busy with a secret little project thing.
I wanted to include a picture of myself but then decided on a illustration rather.
So this is the illustration so far. It still needs a bit of tweaking here and there and then it will need to be taken a bit further so to say... Not quite sure where I'm heading with this, but I promise you something interesting!

What a weekend!

2009-09-08T08:55:00.003+02:00

oh my gaaash people!

This was indeed an interesting weekend!

Friday night I hit gandalfs and stumbled out of there later that night/saturday morning! bahaha... uhm... I had some shit to forget so don't judge!

Then on saturday I went to my parents new restaurant to take photos and work on the restaurants blog. spent the rest of the weekend there, working!

this was the result: http://straightwayhead.blogspot.com/

you should definately check it out when you have a chance! The food is AMAZING!!!

I luckily got to eat the two dishes that there are photos of! And I've had the pleasure of eating the Game burger! wow is all I can say!

paintball...

2009-09-03T11:12:00.006+02:00

Here are some of my friends that I play paintball with now and again. Unfortunately we do not get to play together as much as we'd all like because of work and shit...

From left to right: Maggy, Johan, Ruhann, Chriss, Natali (my sister), Thomas (me) and then at the bottom in the middle is my sisters boyfriend Petr.

This photo was taken on Johan's fathers farm! Great place to play! nice wooded areas... smaller and bigger spaces... Perfect for us.
We go up now and again for a weekend and just play paintball and drink and hang out and play paintball... and and and...

Ps. Since this photo was taken I have gotten a new marker (tippmann 98 custom with flatline barrel, response trigger, cyclone feed, red dot sight and a 20oz CO2 tank, more upgrades SOON! oh, and I bought a thermal lens for my mask the other day! very stoked! deep smoke colour)

Nuwe Kiekies...

2009-09-01T11:17:00.006+02:00

Yesterday when I came home I had my camera around my neck. I got an urge to take some photos and found these little gems hiding in my garden... The weather was SHITE so I only took a few.

Hope you like it.

My new scooter...

2009-08-25T12:40:00.004+02:00

I needed transport... So I decided a scooter was a good idea (no traffic problems, cheap on petrol, cheap to maintain, etc). Picked up a brand new Big Boy scooter for cheap cheap.

This is it (same colour and everything):

It's a 150cc so it's nice and fast. I removed the box from the back and the scooter looks a 1000 better but yah... mayb I should do a scooter photoshoot sometime? haha... MaYbe...

I want to get a new exhaust for it as well. The one one the scooter now I don't like much. bleh...

Have a few other ideas up my sleeve for the scooter as well so will have to save up some cash and make this scooter MiNe if you know what I mean!

Me... at work.

2009-08-25T09:48:00.005+02:00

so this is me at work:

It's a terrible photo but yah... was taken with my mac.
And yes my headphones ARE awesome! :)
That's Heino in the background.

First post...

2009-08-21T12:00:00.007+02:00

OK... sooo... I StArTeD this blog thing quite some time ago and I still have not posted anything. This was greatly because I did not really know what to write about (I now decided that I am just going to post, post, post, post, post and post about anything and everything).

This First post I am going to use to introduce myself and what I like/do.

The introduction:

Hi, my name is Thomas.

I'm a Junior at a Advertising Agency.
I like to take photos.
I have a couple of camera's.
Namely, a Canon 400D (digital SLR), a Minolta XG1 (OLD 35mm film SLR that used to be my fathers) and a Diana F+ (35mm and medium format film).
I have a couple of lenses and toys for all three (but as anyone who likes cameras and camera equipment will be able to tell you, enough is never enough. I'm not sure where I heard that line but it fits).
I am hoping to buy a TLR soon.
I like to play with the photos I take on my macbook.
I love my macbook.
I love playing paintball, more specifically, bushball/milsim paintball.
I have an opinion.
I am easy going.
I might be an alcoholic.
I like art.
I like architecture.
I wish I could study more.
I would love to study architecture and photography.
I like music.
I like shows.
I like getting wasted at shows while taking photos.(strangely enough I sometimes take better photos when I'm a bit drunk)
I like cars.
I like bikes.
I like all things apple.
Apple is my favourite brand.
Followed closely by Canon.
I like fashion (although I am not very fashionable)
I would like to do fashion photography.
I love my family.
I am honest.
I am confused most of the time.
I like to be happy.
I am also quite insecure.
I love my friends.
I've been through alot with most of them.
I love making new friends.
I like learning new things.
I LOVE google.
I used to play ice-hockey.
I used to skate (on those wooden planks with the wheels and trucks... you know?)
I wasn't very good and skateboarding BUT I was quite fast on the ice.
I miss ice-hockey and wish I could be that fit again but I am to lazy for all that effort again.
I like these thingies... and these ()

mmm... ok... enough of that for now. If I can think of anything else then I'll post it.

Now to show you some of my photos.

I'm going to start by showing you this one:

(TOP) It's a photo that I took of my younger sister Natali.

Next up:

(TOP) A photo of some roses that I took in our garden. As you can see I ended playing with it quite a bit.

mmm... what to show next...

(TOP) This one I took with my Minolta XG1 and a friends flash. I think I took this at the VanCokeKartel launch at mercury but I'm not 100% sure. I LOVE the grain in this photo.

Ok so now how about some band photos...
These I took at different shows/festivals...
so yah, they're from all over and from different times (from the last year and a half or so)

(TOP) This is one of my personal favourites. I think it captures the energy of the group (fokofpolisiekar) perfectly.

(TOP) This one was takin at kirstenbosch botanical gardens during one of their summer concerts.

And now some newer ones. These are all from this year (I think).
I started framing my photo's recently and putting my LiTtLe make shift logo tag thingy in the bottom. It's all a work in progress so if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

As you can see some of these are quite out of focus while others are just slightly out of focus AND others are perfectly (for my taste) in focus. That is because I have been playing a lot more this year and out of focus Photos for some reason interest me. mmm... Will have to see if I end up carrying on with practicing this.

Here are some other random photos that I've taken:

A nice little photo of a baby crawling on the beach that I sniped with my 90 - 300mm lens on the canon :)

This photo (TOP) and the next one (BOTTOM) is of my cousin Pieter. In the top one he is holding my Diana F+ with the fisheye lens and viewfinder attached. I played with a bit of texture in the top one. I LOVE textures for some reason.

That's it for my first post.

Hope you find something you like.

If not, well...

I dunno...

P.S. I'm afrikaans actually so please excuse any spelling and/or grammer mistakes.