Monday afternoon in Jo’burg and it’s sweltering, even the mad fluffy one looks like he may need a swim. The summer is going to be hot. The kind of hot where the edges of the viewfinder feel a bit wobbly and the glue that holds the rubber grips on the camera starts to go soft. These are the days where we kind of pray for a bit of cloud cover, maybe even a bit of rain to cool things down out here on the highveld.

I’m just wrapping up the Facebook edit on Esmari and Eugene’s wedding, I’m just smiling to myself, Jay-Z on the speakers, you can’t help smiling when you’re looking at images where everyone is having such a blast.

I only really have two things to say:
One, thank you guys, it was a real joy to photograph the two of you. I’m not sure what the ring bearer was on about, but from looking at the pics, I suspect he wanted his rings back.
Two, why is it that the life of the party is always a pilot? Don’t I suffer enough with my fear of flying :^)

You can view more from Esmari and Eugene’s Country Club wedding on our Facebook page, if you were a guest feel free to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

You can view more from Esmari and Eugene’s Country Club wedding on our Facebook page, if you were a guest feel free to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

If you’ve come to my workshops, or heard me speak, you’d have heard me say that there isn’t such a thing as wedding photography. It’s something that the magazines and blogs define for brides and they in turn request that from their photographer who shoots it, and then it becomes the standard. So this weekend as I watched Esmari being laced into her dress, I wondered who thought that the best way to showcase a wedding dress which is designed for someone’s body, was to put in on a hanger and hang it somewhere interesting.

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Phew end of the season, start of the world cup, I think the neighbour’s kid has been blowing his vuvuzela non-stop for the last two days (how does he breath?). Last weekend I was privileged to shoot Barry and Deidre’s wedding at the Johannesburg Country Club. Irreverent, classic and lets just say that the guests were a little on the fun side, not something that the JCC is famous for.

Its hard to strike a balance with blog posts. On the one hand I want to showcase a lot of our photojourn documentary style photography, because that’s what we specialise in – capturing real moments as they happen. On the other hand I feel that we shoot killer bee portraits and I want to show a lot of those. Then there is the issue that I don’t want to post 50 images from a wedding. I want to show our best four or five from the day so that the client gets a nice representation and can send the link to friends who weren’t able to make it, but I also want to give prospective clients a glimpse of the kind of images we shoot week after week. Its hard looking at over 4000 images and trying to pick four that I feel represent the wedding for me.

Last Wednesday Deborah and Michele got married at the Johannesburg Country Club. Besides being total rockstars, totally themselves, laughing, having a good time and just making it super easy for us to get killer bee documentary images they were also very very photogenic. Too easy. Deborah also realised that we weren’t going to have enough time for her portrait shoot so she booked a day after shoot, which meant that we got to do another portrait shoot at a different location. I’d originally thought maybe something grungy downtown to offset the JCC image, but after seeing that dress and Michele’s suit, I knew that it had to be something classic and elegant.

The highveld thunderstorm season has started in full force, one of the few reasons to still be living in Jozi.

deborah and michele, 

Quite often we’ll rent a lens to give things a bit of variety, but the 50mm 1.8 will always be my favorite lens. Its the most basic of lenses, I bought mine in 1991 and 18 years and over a million images later, I feel like I know most of her secrets.

I had another comment this morning from a fellow photographer that we deliver too many images. We deliver all the images that I am happy with, full stop. I also feel that I judge images based on artistic and documentary merit but our clients pick their images based on other criteria including things that they like or don’t like about the way that they look. I’d rather they had a couple of similar images with different expressions so that they are able to pick one that they are happiest with. Yes, it does make for longer selection times, but I can live with that.

V and I shot Tim and Helen’s wedding at the Country Club of Johannesburg this weekend. Whimsical, slightly off center and blessed with sunshine – think balloons, a dress that incorporated bells and feathers and a choir from Meadowlands. The ‘videography’ was captured on a 16mm bolex, that sound of the film being exposed resulting in flashbacks to my childhood and my father running around filming every family event on 8mm. No pics this week, as they asked that we don’t post anything on the blog.

On another front, I’ve been asked where I get my handmade large format pinhole cameras that I use for landscape work. They’re designed by a Hong Kong based designer called Zernike Au, for Zero Image. Gorgeous high-quality teak wood, hand-turned solid brass mechanism, serious attention to detail. I’m a huge fan.

It rained again this weekend, Saturday around 4pm – Chunky, and I think I have to agree, suspects that it may have had to do with the hundreds of people who were watching the cricket and praying for rain. It came belting down, turning the classical quartet into a duet as two of them were pressed into service holding umbrellas, sending the guests indoors early and even the coordinator turned around to me and asked whether they can start the reception early because we obviously couldn’t do any photos.

Huh? I’m the king of the rain photos, you can’t help but be prepared for rain in Joburg – brooms in trees or no brooms in trees. I think its been raining in Joburg since October last year, besides Tamsin was rocking a pair of pink Jimmy Choos and Gideon had his own pair of pink socks on underneath his tux. They looked like they’d just walked out of one of those recolored films from the 50s, we just needed a jazzy soundtrack, romantic as beans. So umbrellas were sourced, lights were dragged out of the boot of the car, and we scrapped our planned photoshoot in the woods and headed straight for the pool (ok, we made a quick stop at the lodge where it was dry and there was pretty killer staircase to work with). More pics as soon as I get rid of this cold.

tamsin and gideon, 

When I first met Claire she told me that she didn’t want a Rupert and Clarissa album, having no idea who Rupert and Clarissa were, I asked Google. Anyway, having had a quick scan I’m pretty sure their pics don’t look anything like Rupert and Clarissa. The reception itself was held at the Johannesburg Country Club, which is one of those venues that has rolling green lawns, beautiful blue skies, and some very grand architecture … naturally we ignored those and looked for a spot with some more gritty character. It also helped that its that time of the year when at around 16h00 or so, the heavens start to darken and we get some of the most majestic thunderheads rolling in, turning the skies into a dramatic tableau. Seriously majestic stuff.

I thought that this week I’d use at least one ceremony image from the incredible St Georges in Parktown, which has the most incredible light. I was also tempted to shoot one Rupert and Clarissa image in front of the big white pillars, but the clouds had turned the sky into a serious shade of gray and we had run out of light.

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I’ve been listening to Kimya Dawson a lot lately, have you paid attention to her lyrics? I hope they don’t market this stuff to kids. Some people (like my cool music nerd friends) hate Kimya, and some people (like my supercool wife) love it.
The rand also seems to be in free fall, suspiciously the last time I saw Claire and Dale it also took a serious dive. Coincidence?

dror st georges,