There’s a special buzz here at OV&P when we have talented people in our studio – an excited sense of knowing that they will go far in their lives and achieve significant things. This is the feeling that I had recently, while photographing Daliso Masongo (pictured above and below), and also his sister Mwila Masongo a few weeks earlier.

Mwila scooped 3rd place in the Commercial Model of the Year category at the IMTA (International Modeling and Talent Association) convention in New York last month, on the basis of the modeling portfolio that I shot for her. To view some of the gorgeous images from her photo shoot, follow this link to my Facebook album: Mwila Masongo in Studio.

Daliso is currently a sports management student, in addition to being a model at Ice Models Johannesburg. He has a flair for acting too, which contributed great fun to his shoot. It was a treat to work with him (and have some help from Mwila who was in studio as well), as we planned how to combine outfits, backdrops, props and poses for his portfolio.

Exceptionally tall and athletic, Daliso had some great ideas of his own, including action shots such as his leap into the air that you can see above. He put me through my paces, not only while shooting his photographs but also with regard to editing them afterwards because he jumped so high that his head was above the top of our backdrop!

All in all, we aimed to capture Daliso’s vibrant personality, as well as his model looks, and to include versatility in terms of expressions, postures, style and mood. For this reason, we also shot some photos outside, capturing a completely different atmosphere to the studio shots. The selection of images featured above share a sample of this. What do you think? Did we succeed in achieving our objective? We think so, but would love to know your feedback, so please leave a comment below to let us know 🙂 Thank you!