CAPE TOWN PRODUCTIONS
Date posted: Aug 24, 2019
Known Design Co
This business started slowly with a few teams each season, and then took off, especially post 1993. My husband, Gavin came into the business with me and helped to grow it further. We flew! Every quote we did became a job, it was incredible! We would sometimes have 20 teams shooting in town at the same time, each team having about 12 people, so imagine the logistics of that!
It was crazily busy, but at the same time, really exciting! We were pioneers and grew the industry in South Africa and I am proud to say that we played a huge part in making the photographic industry what it is today.
We entertained almost every team that came to do shoots with us, mostly combining a few of them together to fit them all in, and this was often very last minute. I became very used to having 30 to 60 people over for dinner (mostly a local braai… with subtle twists) at the last minute and found that I really enjoyed this part of the job. Not so much the following day, when we still had to be up early and on set at 5am for a sunrise shot, but hey, that comes with the job!
How did I get from there to here? Sometimes I ask myself the same question, as it has been an amazing journey!
Having grown the CTP so much, we now had 14 full time staff, plus about 40 freelancers, I found I was very much in an overseeing and advisory capacity, doing the marketing and business trips, and very much more admin/computer based. I hardly ever went out on shoots any more as Gavin took control of the operations, and I lost my “gees” and enthusiasm for the job. I had outgrown it and didn’t find it challenging anymore. My team were perfectly able to run it without me, so I knew it was time for me to start to find another challenge to go with and fulfil the purpose in my life.