Knysna Charters - client story 1

Knysna Charters Lagoon and Oyster Boat Tours offer interactive cruises on the Knysna lagoon. Visitors can take in the natural beauty while relaxing and indulging in oysters and champagne. Drinks, snacks and oyster tasting included! More about this fantastic knysna lagoon experience on www.knysnacharters.com.

Much of Knysna Charters marketing revolves around brochures that are distributed using Brochure management's tourism marketing solution. Brochure Management has noticed that the brochures that work the best, are the ones that show people enjoying the experience that is being promoted (rather than just the beautiful scenery and wildlife). At Brocure Managements advice, Knysna Charters commissioned Avo to capture the essence of the experience they offer.

The lifestyle portraits of the Knysna Charters experience were shot by Vanessa Van Vreden with Avo Photography in the Garden Route.

Testimonial:
" Wow.... Avo! I was once told that if you want to get your business out there properly you need the right images to do it. The guys then said spend most of your budget on a really good photographer and you can then sit back and enjoy the returns. Photo's speak all different languages and say 1000 words.... and with photographers like these guys we were able to achieve all of the above and more for our company Knysna Charters... thanks guys. Awesome experience... well worth the money invested. "
- Brad Cable from Knysna Charters

The One Night Stands - client story 2

The One Night Stands were formed in Johannesburg in 2007, when Lu assembled a bunch of friends to perform for one night only at his birthday and play covers of all his favourite Eighties songs. People loved what they saw and insisted that this one night stand would continue. Requests for parties and underground gigs kept coming through and resulted in the band being offered a record deal. More about this great band on their website: www.theonenightstands.com

The One Night Stands were offered a three album record deal by local indie company, Sting Music. In order to successfully launch their debut album they would require publicity shots, photographs for album art and music videos for their two singles, that could be screened on SABC as well as DSTV (in High Definition).

The cover shot for their album was created by Vanessa Van Vreden with Avo Photography. The setting for the album cover photograph was kindly provided by Tonic Interior Design in Jozi Parktown North (Thanks Tonic!).

Album cover shot - "The One Night Stands"

The music videos for their two singles were filmed and directed by Daron Chatz with Avo Photography Productions. "Seconds" was released in September 2008 as the debut single off the album "The One Night Stands". "Talk Talk" a cover version of one of the bands favourite artists was released as the second single in March 2009. "Seconds" spent a week at the number one position on 5FM's "High Five At Five" chart in October 2008.
Watch the videos:

Publicity shots and behind the scenes photography for the music videos and tour were shot by Leigh Benson with Avo Photography. Many of these shots were taken while the band was on tour around South Africa.

SAfm presenters portraits - client story 3

SAfm radio station is part of the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation). They have upwards of 30 different presenters broadcasting from different parts of the country. More about SAfm on www.safm.co.za.

SAfm wanted to put faces to the voices their listeners know and love; and they wanted to bring across the presenters personality and make them feel approachable and familiar. Avo was commissioned to shoot portraits of all 38 presenters over a period of 3 days.

The portraits of the SAfm presenters were shot by Vanessa Van Vreden, Sarah de Pina and Leigh Benson at Avo Photography studio in Parkhurst.

Fresh Earth Food Store - client story 4

The Fresh Earth Food Store is a family owned and run natural health store and vegetarian resturant, in Johannesburg. They are passionate in their belief that food in its purest form — untainted by artificial additives, sweeteners, colourants and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is. More about this amazing store on their website www.freshearth.co.za.

The Fresh Earth Food Store needed to launch their online shopping and nutrition community website within one month with 1,000 products — with images — available for purchase (and another 2,000 to follow during the next 2 months). They also needed portraits of the owners, health practitioners and contributors for the website and email newsletter.

The traditional portraits used in many corporate publications tend to make the subject look rigid, distant or even standoffish. Fresh Earth realised that projecting a livelier, more relaxed and approachable image of themselves and their team would benefit them greatly. As Matthew from Fresh Earth put it "What really makes our store great is that it's personal, you're not walking into some big corporate warehouse. We're approachable and people like that". That's why they approached Avo to shoot their portraits — and while we were at it we did 1,000 product shots too.

The portraits of the Fresh Earth Food Store team were shot by Leigh Benson and Gemma Winstanley at Avo Photography studio in Parkhurst.

The product shots for the Fresh Earth Food Store were shot by Joseph Dlamini with Avo Photography. The products were shot on site at the store as it would not have been feasible to book out that amount of stock and take it to the studio. Avo also helped set up a permanent mini product lighting setup, so that the guys at Fresh Earth could take their own product shots and add new products to their website really quickly.

Testimonial:
"Avo has been a complete solution for us, they have captured the essence of our brand through fantastic photography for all our monthly news letters, our store catalogues and website photos. Avo is a one stop photography answer which has brought value to Fresh Earth Food Store for very competitive rates."
- Matthew from The Fresh Earth Food Store

Catalogue Photography - from concept to completion

Catalogue Photography is a rather specialised photography discipline, and depending on the type of product you are selling it may require models, a strongly themed concept or both to show your product off really well. Straightforward product shots for a catalogue can be executed more quickly (this is of course a cheaper way to go) but working with a strong concept designed around your products can be the difference you are looking for to make your catalogue photography something that really stands out and makes an impression in your customers mind... read more.

Two Fashion Catalogue Photography - client story 5

Two, is a fashion design company run by two sisters (one a graphic designer, the other a fine artist). Two creates fashion for the individual who has their own unique sense of style who is not afraid to look different from the rest. Their clothing collection is wearable, functional and beautiful. More about Two clothing on www.twotwo.co.za.

Two brings out a new collection of designs every six months and they need to showcase each collection in a catalogue. Their catalogue photographs are displayed on their website and bound into a printed catalogue that their stockists can view when placing orders. Avo has photographed the Two catalogue images for the last three years.

The Two fashion catalogue photographs were shot by Vanessa Van Vreden at Avo Photography studio in Parkhurst.

ACSA Corporate Publication Photography - client story 6

ACSA (Airports Company of South Africa) provides airlines with world-class, secure infrastructure and promotes South African tourism, economic growth and job creation www.acsa.co.za

ACSA's story spans the entire country and required architecture and interior photography, portrait photography, events and more, that could be used in their annual report and corporate publications. ACSA's story was shot by Sarah de Pina as well as Vanessa Van Vreden with Avo Photography at various locations and airports around the country.

Photography - other client stories

Kulula safety guide and inflight magazine covers shot by Sarah De Pina with Avo Photography. Originally Avo was commissioned to shoot fun images of the well known airplane safety demonstration for Kulula's safety guide. They loved the images so much they decided to also use them as the covers for their inflight magazine "Comic Life".

Roads Agency Limpopo Annual Report Photography shot by Vanessa Van Vreden with Avo Photography. The goal of this shoot was to make the Limpopo Roads Agency Anual Report look less like an "engineering manual" and show more of the human side of their story: how the people and communities in the Limpopo province interact with and benefit from their roads.

Event Photography for the Aquafresh prizegiving shot by Sarah De Pina with Avo Photography.

Dromedaris footwear catalogue photography shot by Sarah De Pina with Avo Photography.