Photographic equipment taken at gunpoint

On 12 December 2008, we were visiting with friends in Pierre van Ryneveld. It was a social function for friends that do missionary work in Zambia. I had a lot of my camera equipment there to take some nice pictures of the visit for their website. We were 10 adults in the lounge and 10 kids in the TV room.

As we made a circle around the table to start praying before we left, two men with pistols stormed in on us and fired a warning shot. We all dropped to the floor and started praying aloud. One of the kids later told us they were talking about crackers, and thought that we were shooting crackers, and she came to investigate.

One of the robbers followed here to the TV room, and all the kids also started praying.

We believe that the robbers could not handle the prayers, because they were in and out in less than 5 minutes, leaving a lot of stuff behind. Thanks to God's protection, no-one was seriously hurt, and although the kids were severely traumatized, we actually came of lightly if you compare this incident to others were people are tied up and threatened for hours.

The robbers took 11 cellphones, some jewelery, 1 handbag and 3 cameras - including my kit but left my wallet, my wife's handbag and a lot of other valuable stuff untouched.

The police and neighborhood watch was excellent, arriving in less than 15 minutes from the phone call and they even arranged for councilors to talk to the kids before we left.

The worst is the feeling of helplessness, not knowing what to do but pray!

Lumapix Fotofusion album layout software

After much consideration, we eventually decided to purchase Lumapix FotoFusion 4 Extreme to ease the layout of new wedding albums. This is an incredibly powerful, yet easy to use package and reduced the time spent in the layout of albums significantly (think half).

Although it is "extreme"-ly expensive at $300.00 (especially at the current exchange rates), the package pays for itself in the time saved during layout.

Now to find a way to reduce the editing time without loosing the personal touch and critical eye of our main photographer (he he)!!!