Little Stream Bridal Shower in Constantia

A few days back I ventured down to Little Stream in Constantia again to help a friend shoot her friend’s bridal shower. Every now and then I realise how much help the world needs and that we should ‘give a little back’ now and then. What was perhaps more true of the situation was that I received something in return (over and above the scones and muffins I wolfed down).

When you give you actually receive; the more you give, the more you receive. It is quite a paradox to get your mind around, but if your mind won’t bend around it, then just try it and see. You don’t have to understand it to experience it but you would more than likely have to experience it to understand it. Life is funny like that. Ha ha ha. I’m laughing because perhaps you have no idea what I mean, also, life is funny.

More to the point, life is expensive and costly and taking photos for free for my friend (or cheaply, for this NGO I support) is not something I would naturally wake up and want to do, along with many other things beyond having tea in bed while it rains outside…

But… I thoroughly enjoyed it and that is something that doesn’t always come with doing something for money. It’s interesting because if you want a small lesson in etymology (which you should) perhaps my favourite word to trace the root (and route) of is that ol’ cliche: love. I have always loved tennis – it being the fairest of sports – and I’d been told as a child that they the word love (as in 30-0) in the scoring system comes from the fact that in French an egg is l’oeuf and because a zero looks like an egg kaboom! there you have it, we say love for zero. Crazy French, crazy story, crazy lies! Actually the reason we say love is because the word love in French used to mean…. wait for it … nothing!

In fact, you used to say that you did something for love, or you did something for money. I’m sure you will notice the similarity between the words amateur (note: do it for free and the love of it) and amore (giant feeling of love, kinda). It does of course make you wonder then about prostitution and how they clearly aren’t doing it for love then, but this is a property photography blog, so I’ll keep it clean.

So after that circular etymological tour, back to free shoots and things done out of love: I firmly believe that I benefitted from this free shoot and it reminded me again why I take photos… namely, because I love to.

So if you’re reading this and you’re wondering when was the last time you did something you loved, or if you even love doing something, then perhaps consider doing it for free.