[Featured Work] Billabong Girls Winter 2013

This year I've been fortunate enough to do quite a bit of work with the beautiful Billabong Girls, Tarryn Chudleigh and Tanika Hoffman. I absolutely love doing work for the Billabong brand and working with these talented girls, in and out of the surf. Here are just some of the published shots from the Winter 2013 clothing range. Will share some more soon on my Facebook page. 

P.S. Join the Billabong Girls South Africa Facebook Page to keep up-to-date with the latest pics and news from all their gorgeous team riders.

[PUBLISHED WORK] Sixty40 Bodyboarding Magazine Issue 18

Very stoked to have three photographs showcased in the most recent issue of Sixty40 Bodyboarding Magazine. For those of you who haven't heard of Sixty40, it's a South African bodyboarding magazine, available online for free. Check it out here. 

Thanks to William Souter and Wesley Potts for the awesome riding that I was able to capture in these shots. 

[PUBLISHED WORK] Do It Now Magazine - Ultimate X: An Action-packed Adventure (Words & Photographs)

Two weekends ago I photographed the Ultimate X festival, South Africa's premier extreme sports event. I had the awesome opportunity to cover the event for South African adventure, sport and lifestyle magazine, Do It Now. Below are some screenshots of the article I wrote accompanied by some of the photographs I got on the day (click on the first image to enlarge). More about Ultimate X and a full gallery of photographs coming to my photoblog and facebook page soon! 

Read my full article online or download a PDF copy of the article here.

[PUBLISHED WORK] Reef Advert in Zigzag Issue 37.2

Boland surfer, Rigard Smit and I landed the latest Reef advertisement in Zigzag Surfing Magazine Issue 37.2. And on top of that, the below shot is also currently being used for a Reef store banner at the Natural Energy Surf Shop in Strand. Rigard is an amazing surfer to work with; really stoked on the results we got from this particular shoot.

[PUBLISHED WORK] Zigzag Surfing Magazine Issue 37.1

So totally and utterly stoked to have another shot printed in South African surfing magazine, Zigzag. And even more stoked that it's in the issue with SA's female surfing sensation, Bianca Buitendag, gracing the cover. Bianca just made the 2013 World Tour - really looking forward to watching her progress in the new year. Get your copy of Zag to check it out! Thanks again to the Zag crew for choosing to run my line-up shot (featured on the right, terrible scan quality, sorry!). 

P.S. This shot also won Surfline's October Photo Challenge - thank you so much to everyone who spontaneously voted for my image. Whoever you are, you rock! Read my interview here. 

[PUBLISHED WORK] Zigzag Photo Journal 2012

If there's one thing my photography career to date has taught me, it's that dreams do come true. And that's exactly how I felt when I found out my photograph was being used for the intro to this year's Zigzag Surfing Magazine Photo Journal. I remember buying my first Zag photo journal and paging through it, in awe of the photographs, and only dreaming that I would one day have a photograph worthy of being included in this publication. I feel totally honoured to be included among some of the most talented surf photographers South Africa has to offer. A massive thank you to an incredible photographer and mentor, Alan van Gysen, and the rest of the Zag team for choosing to include my photograph this year. Buy a copy now, available from most CNA's, Exclusive Books and surf stores I think. If anything, you don't want to miss the feature on AvG's Namibia photographs - totally inspiring and just down right incredible.

P.S. While you're at it, go and cast your vote for Zigzag's Surf Photo of the Year. Some incredible shots that deserve a vote - do it!

[PUBLISHED WORK] Sixty40 Online Bodyboarding Magazine Issue 16

Stoked to have a photograph in the latest issue of online South African Bodyboarding magazine, Sixty40. This was an unbelievable day of shooting, and more photos from this session will be coming out in print soon. Click through on the image to take a read through the latest issue of the magazine.

[Online Feature] Clean & Clear Dungeons

It has always been a dream of mine to shoot at Dungeons (South Africa's premiere big wave spot). Last Friday I got to tick that dream off the bucket list, and what an amazing experience it was. The waves weren't as big as everyone was expecting; regardless, I still got to see some insane surfing. I'll upload a few additional photos soon, but for now here is my gallery of photographs featured on the Zigzag website (click on the picture below to view the full gallery on the Zigzag site). Thanks to Zag & Animal Ocean for making it happen!

[FEATURE] PR for the Ice Breaker Wakeboarding Event

I recently photographed a cable wakeboarding event at Blue Rock. My photographs were featured in a number of online press releases via ExtremeSportsMagazine.com, Liquid Adrenalin Magazine, Dirty Habits Boardriders & LW Mag. I got a really surprising & lovely mention too - thanks to author, Samuel Reichmuth from Blue Rock, for the kind words about my photographs!

"One that stands out, out of the many great photographers is Claire Butler. She has a great eye! She captures not only the stunning angles and action in the right moment but also frames a shot with a good composition. When it comes to wakeboarding, and similarly in all extreme sports, capturing the moment is gold. The riders do something to show one specific moment and if the photographer is not familiar to the sport, it is easy to miss exactly that. Claire captured the press, the poke, the spins and the grabs, etc. with a composition of atmosphere very well. Definitely an extreme-sports photographer to keep an eye out for."

For the gallery of photographs from the event, visit my Facebook page here.

[FEATURE] Dirty-Habits Boardriders Website - Interview

Apologies for the lack of posts recently; I have been shooting lots but all the pics are under-wraps and hopefully making it to print soon. In the meantime, local website Dirty-Habits Boardriders did a little interview with me. Click through on the picture below to read it.

[PUBLISHED WORK] Zigzag Issue 36.4

One of my lifestyle shots made it to print in the latest issue of Zigzag Surfing Magazine (I apologise for the bad scan quality). It's a great & rewarding feeling to see one of my shots in a mag that I've been reading since I was a kid; a big thanks to the guys at Zigzag for selecting it for the issue. Get yourself a copy ASAP - it's a goody (that's the June issue, 36.4 - you can't miss Grant 'Twiggy' Baker's insane wave on the cover).

[FEATURE] Liebenpix

What a lovely surprise it was to wake up this morning and see my work being featured on the Liebenpix website! I'm an avid follower of this website, founded by Jason Liebenberg, which seeks to promote South African photographers. Their mission - and I quote from their website - is "to promote South African photographers, and supply them with a new, exciting and fresh platform off of which they can now display their work.” I'm truly honored to be featured alongside some of my biggest inspirations who are also featured on the site. Check out my profile by clicking through on the image below, and while you're there, take a browse around and have a look at some of the incredible work coming out of SA photographers.


Follow Liebenpix on twitter on @Liebenpix and join their facebook page here.

[FEATURE] magicseaweed Photo of the Day

I'm always surprised and incredibly grateful when any of my photographs receive some form of recognition, no matter how big or small. I love sharing my passion and when others enjoy my photographs, I feel fulfilled. Logging on to magicseaweed earlier today I thought I recognised the Photo of the Day. Thanks to the guys at magicseaweed for selecting my shot and thanks to the surfer, Philip Myburgh (follow him on twitter @IJ_SurfingChef). Click-through on the picture to see the full site.

[FEATURE] Saltwater Girl Magazine - interview

I've been so blessed with so many wonderful opportunities with my surf photography. One of them was being asked to do an interview with local magazine, Saltwater Girl. Check it out below. For more cool articles, buy the issue (April / May Issue 14.3). Follow SWG on twitter too for good measure.

[FEATURE] Zigzag Surfing Magazine - Elands Bay Grom Trip

A few weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to accompany Llewellyn Whittaker & 6 of the Western Cape's top groms to Elands Bay to shoot their training camp. It was so much fun shooting the groms (Jordan Maree, Max Elkington, Jake Elkington, Adin Masencamp, Ethan Fletcher and Steff Burrows), they all completely rip. The feature is up on Zigzag Surfing Magazine's website. Click on the picture below to be taken to their website and view my shots from the day.