This one is for all the photographers, wannabee photographers and other interesting people who read this blog.

In a recent edition of a photography mag that shall not be named I saw a double page spread for the Canon 40D, the image was of a fantastic sunset, the payoff line … I gaze at the sunset with the woman I love, and think … f/8 at 1/250 …

If that’s you, maybe its time to try another f-stop. f/8 has no real personality.

If you’re not a photographer, we’ll be returning to our regular diet of beautiful brides in amazing venues next week. This weekend will be another Summerplace affair.

f8 at 1/250, f8 1 250, sunset f8 1/250, 

I was recently chatting with Matthew from Oakfield Farm about the kind of weddings that they’re aiming for next year. He was telling me that they have been encouraging brides to get the best photographer that they can and not worry about what the actual package contains, as long as you have the best photographs and a copy of the digital files everything else can be sorted out later, printed at a local professional lab or put together into a special album. The most important thing is the actual photos. No point in getting a R10000 package with 2 albums, 100 prints, all your negatives and a bag of chips if the photos are not great. Rather get a great photographer who will shoot the wedding for R10000 and give you your negatives. The most important thing is the actual images. I tend to agree, hence our new package structure.

We have quite a few destination weddings booked for next year Mauritius, Botswana, London and a couple of others in the Cape and the Natal Midlands. They all have one thing in common, the only way to economically get there is by flying. I recently worked out that this year we have been in the air for almost 284 hours, that’s about 12 days of flying. There’s really only one way to get through that much turbulence and adrenaline, yep, pull out the camera and shoot a modeling session with the air stewardesses. Failing that try to inject some creativity into a genre of photography that has been done to death by just about everyone – shooting out of a plane’s window.

dubrovnik wedding photographer, 

Despite numerous awards, magazine write-ups, keys to the city and an international photographer of the year (iPOTY) award nothing can take the place of a comment on the blog from a happy bride/groom/couple/client. Here are some of our favorites from the last while.

I go this one from Angela, a Portuguese fashion designer living in Germany, after her wedding to Michael at Oakfield Farm. Angela was described to me by many people along the way as the most difficult person they have had to deal with. My experience was that she knew what she wanted. I love that in a client, it makes my job so much easier, to know what someone is after means that I know what I need to capture. I will always capture it in my style or add my spin to things but to know, for example, that the decor is very important or that they want as their centerpiece an image of them walking down the carpet of red petals really sets the scene. She was also witty, fun to be around, considerate and had a great time on the day.

I know I have already written so much thanking you and Vicky for making our wedding photos into memories that are indeed more PERFECT than the real day was ( and you know that the day was pretty PERFECT already). I just wanted to make public my thank you and to without exaggeration to say that you and Vicky were the BEST possible choice for our wedding within all SA ( you know what I am talking about, as I have seen people from all over SA).

This BEST was a total of a extraordinary TALENT, SKILLS CAPABILITY and last but not least HUMAN CHARACTER, I mean in the end of the day I want to say to all the brides out there, it doesn’t matter just to get the best skilled/ famous photographer out there but equally important you WILL WANT to have around someone who is kind, funny and can understand during every minute of the day how much this day and these photos will mean to you. Dror and Vicky have these unpayable qualities, and because of that you can be assured they will take a active part in making your wedding day a VERY happy one.

To all non-cheesy MODERN BRIDES out there who are struggling to get a photographer who will cover their wedding in the way they want (even to an ELLE stylish high standard level), with self experience I can recommend you without any shade of doubt Dror, as a professional who can DELIVER, SURPRISE and most importantly LISTEN to what you want.

Finally Dror, i want to say what a great job you are doing with your website. During almost a year of regular anxious visits to see always something new you add (a new comment, a new wedding), after concluding my own wedding, I am sure I will give in often to the temptation of coming in to see and read how you will make other couples weddings days unique and beautiful. I personally find most wedding photographs boring as they tend always to be the same, making weddings generally to look like a cliche, boring and already expected event. Dror, you have really the qualities to make each of your weddings unique, and this is why you keep all your pre and post brides like myself popping in your website even after their wedding has passed.

Can’t thank you enough,
Angela

I really appreciate the fact that she took the time to write a thoughtful reply on the blog. I don’t know about all that other stuff about being kind and funny. In real life I am grouchy and short tempered.

I got these next two from Eva, a Scandinavian living in London, who got married to Matt at The Cradle of Humankind. A really amazing place to get married at btw. Eva and I had a bit of a comedy of errors, trying to pull this off. I originally agreed to shoot the wedding, Matt was going to fly to SA and meet me. We somehow missed each other at the coffee shop we were supposed to meet at, I had lost my phone. I really don’t have much luck with phones. We were going to meet the day he was supposed to fly back, we missed each other again. We then rescheduled for a couple of months later, but I was made an offer to move to Texas and Andrea was going to take over the wedding. Hey, I told you it was a long and complicated story. Anyway, eventually, the day arrived and both Andrea and I were there.

Well, Dror, I managed to bag you in the end for my big day and what a result!!!!! Thank you so much for being part of our day, it was an honor, we both had such a blast and my cheeks still hurt 3 weeks on from smiling so much )
Needless to say I started stalking your and Andrea’s sites for sneaks as soon as and I was simply blown away by the sky and the light in these non-edited pics. I now know why you two both kept going on about it at the time. I think you described it as almost disgustingly perfect at one point. A bride can’t ask for more than that on her big day. We are simply thrilled with what we have seen so far, you really are the master!
Eva&Sparky Watson

Oh, and as for Minki, eat your heart out girl ;o)

I didn’t really get to know Eva very well, as I spent most of the time with Matt and the guys, but that’s a very sweet comment and throughout the entire process leading up to the wedding she was kind and good humored. As for those skies, yes, they did look like someone had photoshopped them in.

Then there is Anne Nigel. Anne is the self styled stalkerazzi of my blog. Her wedding is on August 16th 2008 in Kenya. She probably knows more about wedding photography, the wedding photography scene around the world and photography in general than most of the photographers currently marketing themselves as wedding photographers. If you need advice on wedding photographers, Anne is the one.

Anne on Angela and Michael’s wedding photographs:

Dror this is the best wedding I have ever seen. I literally I’m speechless (which is a very difficult thing for me) about how you shot this wedding. Just amazing!!!!!!!! You are the best !

Anne on Eva and Matt’s wedding photographs:

WOW!!!!! Amazing! Again WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You never ever cease to completely entertain and wow me!!! I totally heart your work!

Anne on Mari and Elmer’s wedding photographs – Mari and Elmer are from the Netherlands and were probably two of the most laid back good hearted people we’ve had the pleasure of photographing:

It’s just me the usual stalkerazzi coming to see what’s new and again I am speechless. You are the only photographer whose work is so versatile and creative that is able to shoot every wedding differently! I love these pics too, they have the classic romantic almost vintage feel to them. By the way welcome back!

There is more, but I just wanted to say its always a pleasure to get a comment from Anne, I dread the day she comments, these are nice. Just checking out what other blogs she stalks, and which photographers she knows, she really knows her photography and I know her wedding album will be killer bee.

Ok – one more, because Maryanne was one of the nicest people we met last year. She got married to Scott at Koyama, and really wanted a photojourn approach to her wedding.

Wow, what can I say. I am so in love with our photos! What makes them so lovely is that none are posed and when you look at them it takes you straight back to how you were feeling at that very moment. I just want to thank you and Vicky for making my memories of my wedding so alive and real. You are both wonderful people and so talented
x x x Maryanne

One of the reasons I love this comment because it articulates for me what wedding photos should do. They should take you back to how you were feeling at that very moment.

We get a lot of comments on the blog and we’ve been blessed to meet and photograph really cool people, some of whom have become friends and some whom I expect to call in the next year or two to have their kids photographed. I just wanted to say thank you to all our couples in 2007, oh and Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuube.

btw just in case it needs to be clarified. We have never received the keys to any city, an iPOTY (is there such a thing?) and we don’t enter photography competitions.

My harddrive crashed last week and I am without a laptop. All my passwords were on that machine, I am no longer getting emails, my ftp client, photoshop installer, camera calibration software all gone. If you have sent me mail in the last week, I’m sorry, I’m doing my best to get it back. So this week, the blog is coming straight out of the internet cafe at the local mall, all images are straight out of the camera. No photoshop, hence no black and white, no retouching, this is the way they were shot. A new laptop is on order, goddank vir backups and next time I will be using a password manager.

This Saturday I shot with Andrea at The Cradle of Humankind. Amazing venue, beautiful skies and it didn’t hurt that Eva and Matt look like they should be advertising perfume in a magazine ad. I had a blast. The cradle is one of those places blessed with a perfectly lit chapel and an incredible vista of the Magaliesburg, the weather held and I even got great images of the guys doing their best Reservoir Dogs impersonation. Anyway, you’re here for the images and I’m rambling, I’ll post some more when my photoshop is back up and running and I can do some post-production on these.

cradle wedding, wedding at the cradle, cradle of humankind wedding venue, stone cradle wedding photos, the cradle wedding venue in the cradle of humankind, wedding cradle of humankind, weddings held at the cradle, 

The Fuji Photographic Awards came out this week, and several of my circle of photographers won deserved awards and recognition. On Friday, I was speaking to one of the students that I mentor and he asked me why I don’t enter these competitions.

The answer is fairly simple. A while back when I left varsity I decided that I was going to shoot for clients not for other photographers or judges. I’m fortunate to have a style that is very personal, and is based on real moments, those moments are what’s important to my clients. These are the people that I am trying to impress, not on technical excellence, but on the actual image itself and what it represents to them about their wedding day.

Many of the images that win awards, are technically perfect, beautifully set-up and executed. I often find them quite bankrupt when it comes to the emotional content. Its just an opinion, there’s nothing wrong with having a fashion spread as your wedding album. It just isn’t what I’m after or my clients are after, I do think its what most judges are after.