Month: May 2025

Apartment photo & week ahead.

It is cold outside tonight.

57F according to Accuweather. A low of 39F tomorrow morning. It has been a busy week. Not much time for morning photography or writing. I did however manage to write the next edition for my newsletter which will be out next Sunday.

An apartment block with lights on in the windows. In the front a long exposure light trail.
Lights and trails.

I took a few more photos this evening for my Apartment series. I’m starting to think about this project more often. I ask more questions around the subject. What. Who. Why. I feel this is as important as the images I take.

Tomorrow is Sunday (yay). Another opportunity to unwind from a work week. Another opportunity for writing and photography. My writing has taken a bit of a back seat lately. Mostly due to long hours at work. Getting home I usually find myself drained and I tend to eat, burn an hour on YouTube and then head to bed.

For the coming week I’m going to substitute my YouTube fix with writing. A pen, some paper and just scribble down ideas and thoughts. On the upside this is post no. 38 on my website which I’m impressed with. These small daily (kind-off) posts helps to keep building momentum and often spins into ideas for newsletter and more posts.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a splendid weekend : )

If you enjoy reading my work please consider supporting me via my Paystack page. I also offer some of my photos for sale.

Herbs, houses and photos.

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

Another glorious autumn Sunday. May the 4th – Happy birthday brother : )

I went to town this morning on a few errands. Again reminded by the massive benefits of walking. Stoics often talk about walking and it’s power. I’m not talking about walking away just about taking a walk. Instead of driving or cycling, just go on the shoelace express.

A street lined with trees. On the right side of the image a palisade fence.
Make like a tree.

A 45 minute walk does wonders for the mind and I often miss walking to & from work. It was the time when I ‘solved’ problems in my mind. Time away from people trying to get your attention. Time away from troubles. Where you just walk and focus on the environment around you. Deep breaths. Smell the pine trees. Smell the freshly mowed lawns. Hear leaves crunching under your feet. Feel the cold wind against your face.

Herbs.

Today I picked more herbs from the small garden I keep. I have some flat leave parsley, rosemary and two thyme bushes.

I enjoy the value I get from plants. The peace and (mostly) quiet a garden gives. The same as walking it gives you a bit of time away from things troubling you. And the added benefit of being able to use what you grow. South Africa has a good climate for growing with plenty of sunshine during the summer months.

A building behind a palisade fence. A door is visible behind the fence in the center of the image.
Brickwork.

In the past we’ve grown chili, tomatoes, spinach, potatoes and pumpkins. I tend to focus on the simple stuff. And this season I’m putting more focus on herbs.

The rosemary plant was grown from a cutting. It took about a month of TLC but eventually started sprouting roots and in spring time I’m planning to make a few more cuttings so I can have at least three rosemary bushes. All the herbs in the garden we use in our food. It makes a big difference in whatever we cook plus the idea of “I grew this” is pretty cool.

Houses.

I wanted to study architecture when I was growing up.

A view of a building through a palisade fence.
Fenced in.

The love and interest in buildings never waned and a few years ago I stumbled up a great channel on YouTube. I won’t like to the channel because it’s simple enough to find but I will share the website here were you can find beautiful architecture. The photographs are really good and show you the level of detail in many of these buildings.

https://openspaceseries.com/blog/open-space-the-steve-mcqueen-residence-hugh-m-kaptur-1964

In closing.

For the rest of the Sunday I tend to take it easy. With a new work week ahead I want to go in as focused & relaxed as possible. The public holiday are finished for the time being so long weekends and short work days are something of the past. If you’re interested in purchasing some of my photos you can find my storefront here.

A telephone poles with lines diverging into different directions. A few birds in the background.
Segments.

Thanks for reading : )

A personal touch.

I was at work this morning and a regular customer entered.

He comes in every few months and orders portions of biltong to be vacuum sealed. Afterwards we started talking about him calling ahead to cut down on his waiting time. He mentioned he already had one of our businesses cards.

A window with letters written on it. The business sells platters, pies, cupcakes and birthday cakes.
Window dressing.

The words personal touch came to mind. It is what sets apart a small business from a big corporation.

A big business launches a new feature: membership rewards. It personalizes the hell out of things. “Shop your regulars”. “Specialized deals for you”. I had a problem with one of my orders a while ago – they sent me an item I didn’t order.

“Hello, [mystery brand], how can we help?”

The person on the other side of the line doesn’t know my name despite it being on my app. The same business didn’t care to respond to previous complaints I had. This same retailer makes an estimated R20.38 million profit per day. It tries to solve problems with refunds. Instead of addressing issues causing the problems.

A small business who doesn’t make an estimated R20.38 million profit per day needs to approach clients differently. You stick with it and become an institution. My previous job was like this – I saw children grow up. I saw people date, get engaged and then get married. I spoke to people about good things, bad things, politics, sports, etc.

In a small business – you need to get to know your customer. You need to become one of the family. Apart from a great product this is how you survive against the R 20 million a day corporations. You’re customer service, the one to one interactions needs to be above exceptional.

Coming from a background of working for small businesses I look at customer service a lot different than the average person. Is the cashier friendly? Are they talking to other people while serving me? Is the waiter attentive to what I ordered the previous ten times I drank my regular cappuccino at the establishment?

In a tight economy and customer service these small differences often helps to sell. It helps you to retain customers when you know how they like their food prepared or you ask about how their vacation was.

Food for thought.

This is a bit different from my usual writing but I often sit and wonder about these business related ideas. How do you incorporate something like this into your small business? How do you use these types of things to sell? I don’t think pushing something down someone’s throat will do the trick. Believe me I’ve tried.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. And tell me what you think about these business type posts? Yay or nay?

Thanks for reading : )

Support the small businesses.

It’s Thursday 1 May.

I’m sitting outside a small takeaway business in the town where I live. Because of the public holiday I only worked half-day which meant I had some time to spare.

Earlier in the week we decided to have smash burgers & chips for lunch. Double smash burgers. I have worked in the hospitality industry before and I can tell you stories about what happens in a kitchen.

I was pleasantly surprised by the food. Delicious burgers and a nice portion of chips (fries).

A sign outside a small restaurant with all the products writing on it.
A local takeaway shop.

I try to support the smaller businesses in the area. The ones which were started years ago and are now being run by sons or daughters. The ones which compete with the big corporation who earn billions a year. Who doesn’t care if they send you a bad product because they can just refund you. Or who doesn’t care if you have a bad experience with their staff because you’re just a number. You won’t be missed if you leave.

The small business tends to have an overload of customer service.

Because the small business doesn’t move the same volume they need to rely on other methods to retain customers. Yeah, good product is definitely a must but good product minus people with manners aren’t going to do you any good.

I’ve always done this when possible. Big business doesn’t need more money. They have enough and they way they treat customers shows it.

End rant.

In part inspired by Mr Werkheiser. And the other part by big business being a bunch of tools.

Thanks for reading : )