I am a writer, photographer, designer and artist — but you already knew that.
I was born in Stellenbosch, raised in Cape Town, studied veterinary science at Onderstepoort, and worked as a veterinarian for twenty years. The second decade of those were spent running a company that provides animal health services to the aquaculture industry. After it dawned on me that management was no fun, I made my escape and took up freelance writing.
My past career led to degrees in veterinary science, epidemiology, microbiology and zoology, plus courses in everything from statistics to genomics. I still love science. I consider myself fortunate to live in an age when 2.5 million academic papers are published every year. Science impacts us every day — but science can also fascinate, intrigue, and challenge us. It increases our connection to the world, and enriches our lives. This is why I enjoy sharing the wonder of science with readers. I want everyone to experience the excitement and surprise of scientific discovery.
That’s not to say I don’t write about other topics — I am comfortable with everything from gardens to gourmets.
Show don’t tell
I was on a writing assignment when I decided to take up photography. The photographer who was working with me convinced me that images are the future. “Would people rather read a story or watch a video?” he asked. Based on my own avid consumption of YouTube, I knew he was onto something. I ordered a camera the following week: a model that also shoots video.
Photography soon became an obsession, and you can see some of the results elsewhere on this site. Photography also led to Photoshop and once you get into Photoshop, who can resist creating cool designs? I spend every free moment learning new design techniques from the pros.
Pro content is for everyone
How often is the message lost because a poster or brochure is badly designed? How often does a potential customer scroll past your post in their feed? Or leave your website when they can’t make sense of the content? If the answer is never, please drop me an email with your details. I’d love to learn from you!
Sadly, for many businesses, the answer is: too often. Business owners believe that pro content is for the megacorporations — the rest of us have to make do with clip art and Word documents. Or a business starts a Facebook page, or a newsletter, but gives up after three months because no one has the time to generate fresh content. How many websites have you visited where the most recent blog post is from 2016?
Here’s the good news: you don’t need a massive marketing budget to put great content out there. And your content marketing doesn’t have to be a drain on your time. Contact me for well-designed, on-target material that will engage your audience. I might even tell you about the sheep…