Did I ever tell you the story of the photographer whose car broke down in the rain in Potch? We were on our way to Anderland, my first wedding of the year, I’d just dropped Ben off with the groom and I was on my way to photograph Madel, when the clouds which had been gathering since we left Johannesburg burst. I think burst is the right word here, one second it was just ominous dark clouds, the next I couldn’t see the front of the car. Ok, so I probably shouldn’t have been driving the green mamba, it has never really done very well in the rain, I think the engine is just too close to the ground. Anyway, I made it to Anderland, ran through the rain to the cottage where Madel was getting ready, photographed her and De Clercq’s beautiful vintage styled wedding, and then tried to make the long drive back to Johannesburg.

No such luck, the mamba kept cutting out, overheating, we eventually managed to freewheel into the Sasol garage, you know the one just outside Potch on the N12. It was an interesting three hours waiting for our tow back to Joburg. You see some very strange people frequenting that Sasol shop between 11 and 2am. Some very strange people, the kind of people that I wouldn’t imagine spend too much time in sunlight, so we did what any two photographers in a dead mamba would do if stuck at a Sasol garage on the outskirts of Potch on a Friday night, we bought some smokes (cigars for Ben and Lucky Strikes for me) and looked through our pics of the evening on the backs of the cameras. I thought we did ok for two non-smokers, by the time we left, the spot where the mamba had been parked smelled like a big cigar had died there. At around 5am, I finally made it home, dropping off passengers, tow ropes, equipment and everyone who came to our rescue. By the time I had finished backing up everything it seemed pointless to sleep. My throat is sore from the cigarettes, I haven’t slept in the last 24 hours, I’ve driven over 400kms and I’m back on caffeine. I also have a whole bunch of killer images.

Hanri and Neil (082 490 3679 and 082 469 0070), amazing hosts as always and Anderland is just getting better and better as a venue.

من الاقلاع, anderland wedding venue, 

Big weekend for us at Hazeldene Hall, one of our coolest couples of the year and a venue that I’ve been wanting to shoot for a while – it features a view of the Hillbrow tower and is run by Word of Mouth, killer combo for me. Naturally, Saturday, Summer and Johannesburg all equal big rain and we the wedding got taken inside for a very intimate, cosy, non fussy wedding ceremony. By the time the ceremony was over the rain had stopped, Joburg was smelling fresh again, the air was cool and we had big dramatic skies. You can imagine how happy I was.

One of the coolest things about the wedding, for me anyway, were the wedding pics and portraits that Ronwyn and Bevan had framed and displayed. They looked like they spanned quite a few generations, genuine brown with age sepia, those odd frayed edges (I think that’s the right word) that they used to have somewhere in the 50s and classical poses. Couples looking solemnly at the camera (probably cause they had to stay very still back in the early 1900s). I loved them. So this weekend’s pic is a homage to those pics … kind of classical, slightly posed, black and white, timeless bohemian. Dror style, of course.

I know that I’ve only been putting up one photo per wedding for the last while and its frustrating some of our readers, but we’re trying to wrap up things before we close on the 15th. I’m going to try put a couple more wedding pics this week from some of our other weddings.

hazeldene hall wedding pictures, kimberley hall, wedding photo portfolio,