Our neighbor wakes up at 3am every morning, plays some music with a trumpet in it while he shaves and gets ready for work. That jazzy trumpet wakes me up during the week. I don’t mind, it could be me getting ready for work in a cubicle somewhere, and that music is perfect for an early morning. Anyways, I like waking up early and getting some editing done before V wakes up. Drinking that first cup of coffee while watching the shadows blend back into reality, jazz and the hopeful sounds of another day starting.

I seem to have become fascinated lately by the photo of the father of the bride walking her down the aisle, they always look so proud and chuffed with themselves. I suspect it’s a pivotal moment in every dad’s life. V seems to always nail the images of the bride outside the just before the doors open, but for me the moment is when they walk down the aisle, just before the groom sees her for the first time.

We get a lot of comments about how lucky we are to always have gorgeous clients, good light, amazing venues and really beautiful edgy spots to shoot at – around the world previous and future clients are nodding their heads, yep, gorgeous clients – I think those are the easy photos for wedding photographers. Trying to capture the emotion of the moment when you’re walking down the aisle and your stomach feels like it’s dropped somewhere around your knees … that’s a little bit harder.

So now it’s days later, I’m editing those moments with a stupid grin on my face, a good indicator that the emotions of the day are reflected in the images (or that the cappuccino machine is working again). You can see that Liesl looked killer bee and that Quinton brought rockstar swagger to their photoshoot, hopefully you can also see some of the joy and pride and happiness that marked their day. We have even more pics from their rocking Avianto wedding on our facebook page.

We have even more pics from their rocking Avianto wedding on our facebook page.

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If you’ve seen me in the last two weeks, you’ll have probably noticed my bandaged right hand. Not fantastic when you’re trying to balance a camera at 1/15th of a second, also not great when you’re editing. Anyway, it’s slowing me down a bit. It may take me a couple of days longer than usual to get this weekend’s blog posts finished. They’re pretty killer bee though, and well worth the extra couple of days.

Being inside a hora at a Jewish wedding is a bit like being a coin inside a washing machine, at least it feels that way when you’re trying to hang on to your camera, get some insane close-ups and stay on your feet. Add an Israeli cousin, imported directly from the motherland and you’re talking some serious dancing, acrobatics and just general organized chaos. This one is from Shannon and Gary’s wedding at Avianto.

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I’ve had a look at these images quite a few times now, managed to drink two cups of coffee trying to think what to write. I have writer’s block again. It’s late again, and I’m trying to string together something coherent about the whirlwind of emotions that today/yesterday has been. So I put the kettle on again, the mad fluffy black cat sliding past, completely ignoring me. The fridge is humming, the night time drama of insects and rain is playing in the background. This blog post is not writing itself, for some reason every week I kind of hope that it would, but it never does. So it’s getting later. I must start typing.

I love jewish weddings, I love the cultural aspects of it, the ancient rituals of the bedeken and the signing of the ketubah. I’m biased. I know. But somehow photographically the images seem to resonate for me. Most moments in a wedding do resonate for me. There is a deep sense of emotion when a father walks down the aisle with his daughter – I mean which father doesn’t dream of walking his daughter down the aisle one day? The look on the groom’s face when he sees his bride for the first time, the nervous tick that most grooms seem to pick up after the ceremony , you know the one where they spend the rest of the afternoon fiddling with their wedding ring. I love those moments, just those raw emotions, and of course all the other in-between moments, the subtle glances and hands clutching at each other. The guests congratulating the couple, the kids overdosed on sugar and excitement, flowergirls taking their roles very seriously. We try capture those moments. People always say that you have nothing after the wedding but the photos, I think you have a lot of memories, memories that photos sometimes help you remember, but I suspect that most grooms will never forget the moment they saw their brides for the first time.

For me, this wedding was full of those genuine moments. Sure, yes, we did try to get Gary to stop smiling, no, we didn’t succeed, yes, we took some killer bee pics at Avianto in the lavender fields, in a bit of veld at the bottom, inside the village (but far away from the bicycle), but really these were far outweighed by just how much genuine emotion the day held. So now it’s hours later, I’m pretty exhausted, the kettle has switched itself off a while back, I’m not sure I have another cup of coffee in me.

More moments from Shannon and Gary’s Avianto Wedding can be seen on our facebook page, maybe even pics from their rocking horas.

More moments from Shannon and Gary’s Avianto Wedding can be seen on our facebook page, go ahead and tag yourself.

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So yes, it was Saturday and we were at Avianto. It seems to be a rite of passage of wedding photographers to shoot a wedding at Avianto. Pretty much all of the big names have shot here, people just starting out have shot here, photographers from as far away as Cape Town regularly come up and shoot here. It seems that every corner of this place has been explored and photographed by wedding photographers week after week. There’s the photograph with the bicycle, the curved arches of the courtyard, the staircases, night time shots against the impressive entrance way, the car in front of the Avianto sign, the lavender fields. It is a chance to test your photographic skills against other photographers, see how you measure up. Naturally, both Kerryn, Mike and ourselves decided we wanted something that was uniquely them, something that nobody else had, and we were allowed to leave the venue.

So the day rocked, we got to take some killer bee pics at Avianto, but we also got to do our big skies photoshoot in the veld – we did dodge a small(ish) veld fire, but we didn’t start it, scouts honor. Kerryn and Mike, were complete rockstars, bringing serious swagger to the photoshoot, and were just the coolest couple to hang out with. It was amazing to see two people so in love and enjoying themselves and no-one even blinked when I pointed out the rock I wanted them to stand on.

Dress: Kristin Masters at Garnish Bridle Couture
Make-up: Sam at Lashline
Decor: Splendid Affairs
Venue: Avianto

You can see more from Kerryn and Mike’s Avianto Wedding here.

ok, so I know I say this all the time, but Brigitte and Rod seemed like the real deal. Chilled, laid back, genuine couple who looked like they belonged together. Either SA is filled with cool couples about to get married or this blogging lark is doing its job and connecting us with the kind of people whom we enjoy being around. If I had a Christmas card list I’d put them on. Just a really natural couple who look good in pics and are easy to get along with.

My head is starting to throb and I’m not sure going cold turkey on the caffeine was a good idea, so I’m going to wrap this up for today. I just wanted to mention a quick thing about parents. When I first started I very tongue in cheek used the pay-off line – Not Your Mother’s Wedding Photographer. It summed up a bunch of things for me, but mainly the fact that I didn’t want to shoot weddings in the same way that everyone else shoots weddings. We’ve met some pretty cool mothers since then and changed the pay-off line, but I also had a comment the other day from someone who said something along the lines of, your photos are breath taking, but I’m looking for wedding photos. Anyway, I understand where he’s coming from and I make a point of shooting at least one portrait for the parents. Nicely composed, classical images. The kind of portraits that your parents can put up on the mantelpiece.

It’s been a long couple of weeks, I’ve been (figuratively) chained to the desk in the basement working on albums and doing the post on what seems like millions of photos. Two of my cameras broke while shooting a wedding – the two batteries on the big black camera’s battery grip literally shot out, snapping the hooks and the housing – fortunately I had backup cameras, but that would account for my dry wit at Avianto. After many phone call and trips to Kayalami, the local Nikon repair center and I are finally seeing eye to eye as to who should be paying for the repairs. Anyway, it’s been a while so I figured a bit of an update on what is going on in the studio is in order.

Nicola and John’s album, they’re the baobab guys, was nominated for an album award. After speaking to Nicola we decided not to submit it, I’m not really big on photography competitions, but it was nice to get recognition for a really cool album. I don’t think I posted anything from that album so a quick couple.

I also finished Swathi and Andrei’s killer bee album from their Indian wedding in Mauritius.

I even finished Shelley and Marc’s Shepstone Gardens album (some from that one later this week, after they get a chance to see it). I did find this cool birdcage pic amongst the images – I’ve been having a Eugenio Recuenco week, so it may just be me that loves this pic.

We also opened a couple of dates in Jan, March and May due to cancellations for those that are still looking. I did send out mails to everyone who asked to let them know if anything changed. I’m also in the process of investigating switching back to the traditional albums from the storybook, coffee table books, and am in talks with a local bookbinder to make me a custom sample album.

Also really getting into Hendrik Kerstens’ portraits.

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