Good to be back home, back with William and Hamlet who pretended they didn’t miss us, back to driving a decent car (I must listen to Sybrand more often x100 … next time). Cape Town was rainy, gray and misty – as V would say, “wedding weather”. The workshop went well, some familiar avatars around the table, between which there were a couple of Prophoto and Fuji Awards and a Wedding Photographer of the Year. Thanks to everyone who attended.

I could use a couple of more hours of sleep.

I’ve been reliably informed that I haven’t posted on the blog in over a week, thanks for that email we know who you are. Oh, the same person also informed me that I didn’t post a portrait of myself this year for my birthday. Gotcha there, I posted it on my facebook profile.

Anyway, this is a quick update on what’s been going on in the month of June at the studio. We are literally swamped with work at the moment and have been busy as beans putting together albums, photos, working on new joint ventures and trying to reply to the literally hundreds of emails that have come through. Due to this overload, and lets just say that I didn’t expect this many inquiries this year, we are in the process of trying to find an admin person to handle this for us. The good news is that you can expect to see a lot more pics and albums and … other things I’ll mention a bit later … on the blog in the next couple of days as I take a short breather and surface to do some blogging.

We’ve put together a joint venture between ourselves, a canvas printer and a framing company and will be offering really good quality mounted canvas prints. I’m putting together our pricing at the moment, but you’re looking at about R1600 for a 1.5m by 1m canvas, printed, stretched, mounted, delivered – that’s an A0 and A1 next to each other.

Before we get to the fun stuff, I’m really trying to cut down on the amount of email I’m getting. It seems that every week we get an email from someone putting together an online wedding portal, magazine, community or some other form of electronic business which is set to revolutionize the industry offering a one-stop portal for all a bride’s wedding needs and would like us to contribute, advertise or to use our photos. If your site can beat the following stats, or comes up higher in the SERPS for any of the keywords that we compete on, feel free to send me an email (include stats), please don’t call. Otherwise, I drink your milkshake!

We’re changing hosting providers this month, our current hosting doesn’t seem to be able to cope with the amount of traffic we generate, and we’ve decided to switch, so there may be a slight hiccup during the middle of the month while we make the necessary changes. We are also going to change our URL, but more on that later.

If you’re a photographer and have read this far. Hi!, we are in the process of putting together two seminars on marketing for wedding photographers, they’ll be held in Joburg and are full day events full of practical ideas and advice. There will be an advanced version for those who are already full time and a entry level version for those wanting to go full time. Keep an eye out here for more info.

Lastly, we learned a lot this month. Firstly, we need an admin assistant badly. Secondly, don’t try to fit a 1.5m canvas into the green mamba, you need the big black car to transport that kind of monster. Thirdly, wedding photography doesn’t scale, you can have too many inquiries, and lastly, did you know that L. Ron Hubbard lived in Linksfield? I didn’t, oh, and it gets pretty damn cold out in Cape Town, pretty damn cold.

Dylsky, it’s on its way.

Back from Cape Town – thanks to everyone who sent through birthday wishes, good luck for exams wishes and just a hey howyoudoin? we were inundated with SMS’s, facebook messages, skype messages, emails and phone calls from ex-clients now friends, facebook friends, people we’ve only ever exchanged emails with. It’s a good thing I didn’t have internet access. Special thanks to Sjaan and Dylsky for putting me up.

Lets see; Cape Town was cold, rainy and gray as expected. I had a brush with crime, luckily it was only a rental car, however I’m still waiting to see how much the rental agency is going to nail me for. Luckily I did pick the insurance option. Exams went ok, time will tell. The flight was a blur of too little sleep, but I’m back in Joburg and ready to work my way through the emails and change requests. Although I am thinking it may be time to get an admin person to help.

On the studio side, Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine has chosen two images of ours to appear in their new book. Now I know I’ve said my piece about having our pics appear in wedding mags and I haven’t changed my mind. I do however really like their books. Anyway, congrats to our two couples – I’ll show you guys the pics as soon as I’ve let the couples know, but these are two very edgy photojourn images that I have had a lot of feedback on and I was quite surprised that they were picked.

In between all of the heavy … cough cough … studying, I also managed to watch two flicks. Sweeny Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, brilliantly dark, super gory, so gothic and Tim Burtonesque that it hurt. Stuart Fyvie was the colorist – and he is just incredible, I love his work. The movie itself was beautiful, just be warned that it is a musical and hence there is a lot of singing. I also watched Room 1408 which was ok. Very good compositions throughout the film, and the use of colors was pretty subtle as well.

Or more importantly, are we the kind of photographers you want? I always talk about ‘the smile on your face when you said I do’ and we shoot the kind of images that not only capture the real moments, but we also shoot the kind of fun and cool images that could go up on gallery walls and often go up on our clients walls. Most of our clients are independent brides who are generally paying for their own weddings, and are interested in all kinds of art: photography, architecture, cinema. They have bought art and it is displayed in their house or apartment. Our last couple of clients have been photographers, film directors, animators, graphic designers, fashion designers, art gallery owners, CEOs and directors.

They tend to be a bit more eclectic in their tastes and be risk takers. You need to be the kind of person who is willing to take a bit of risk to follow your photographer into a junkyard and shoot the kind of session that has magazine desperate to feature your wedding. Our clients love to travel, have been to exotic places and often show us their photographs. They tend to have great jobs and be well educated. They have opinions about the kind of photography that they want and they know that it is an investment that they are willing to make. Their weddings are often gatherings of close friends and family from around the world, sometimes as few as forty people. They want their wedding to be different and to reflect their unique personality and lifestyle. Most importantly, they see photography as an art form.

This year we are shooting weddings all over the world and have destination weddings in England, Botswana, Australia, The Midlands, Cape Town and Morocco.

Hi all, we’re back from Cape Town, now there is a story that I will have to actually write down in the blog. I have a hate/love/hate relationship with Cape Town. Anyway, I’m back to 413 emails, 17 voicemails and one thank you note. I am replying to everyone this evening. So you should all have replies by morning, thanks for your patience.