It was kind of sad saying goodbye to the RE.INVENT series of workshops, I really enjoyed doing them and meeting so many new photographers, but it’s time to move on. So a couple of months ago the last group of photographers attended a sold-out RE.INVENT III. Serious business talk coupled with some creative out-of-the-box thinking. We were at Moon and Sixpence, it was looking like rain, big rain, Africa big, was coming, we were pointing out the edges of the wedding photography box and showing people where we cross it and how to look at a venue like the Moon and Sixpence with fresh eyes.

We also hatched some marketing plans, dissected a few pricelists, cast an SEO eye on some websites, our favorite wedding coordinator was on hand to give some tips on how to work with the venue on a marketing level, and V, Andrea and I shared advice and tricks on how to create a brand.

More info on future workshops and mentoring.

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It seems to be getting darker earlier and earlier these days, even earlier than the official sunset. Add to that the fact that we seem to be getting a lot of rain rather late in the season and I was kind of grateful that Neil and Yvette decided to have their photoshoot before the ceremony. About half an hour into the ceremony the skies started to darken, and emit the kind of ominous sounds that have photographers anxiously looking out of the chapel windows. I wasn’t worried, I already had some killer bee images safely in the memory cards, Yvette and Neil bringing the rockstar swagger to their big skies open veld shoot.

We’d found a bit of veld with a view that seemed to stretch forever, the sky had those badass clouds that we love so much, V had made sure that I was well caffeinated and we had two of the coolest people to photograph. My fav moment of the day was when we had set up Neil with his back to the bridal suite for the first look and Yvette tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and his face was just classic, I think he mumbled something like, I can’t believe you’re mine, but he didn’t have to say anything, the look on his face was enough.

A small bit of business before I show you the pics. I’m a firm believer that you can’t plagiarize an image, but this weekend this belief was kind of stretched to it’s limits. You see I’d walked into the Moon and Sixpence office and right there was an image that was almost an exact duplicate of an image on my blog. Taken at the same spot, same bridal party positions, same post production, different couple, for a second I thought I’d slipped into a parallel dimension – it really did look like someone had stood with the photo in front of them and posed the seven people in the bridal party in exactly the same positions. I’ve been thinking about it since then, and well, my first thought was that I guess I’m flattered and my second thought was, time for something new. Anyway, more pics from Yvette and Neil’s Moon & Sixpence Wedding can be seen on our facebook page.

More pics from Yvette and Neil’s Moon & Sixpence Wedding can be seen on our facebook page.

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If you aren’t in the loop or aren’t in South Africa, it’s been one wet summer out here. The Northern Cape is in flood, the Orange River has burst its banks and wedding season in Johannesburg has pretty much been all about wedding photographers complaining about the rain. I like the rain. I love the spontaneity that it brings to the day, the atmosphere it adds to the ceremony, and just the fact that it forces us as photographers to create something different. Working with softer light, moody skies and that smell of highveld air after it has just rained. Nice.

So we weren’t phased at all when it started pouring down during Isadore and Riaan’s ceremony at Red Ivory, come to think of it neither were they. I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve – James had just finished building a killer bee office and I had some ideas for a couple of shots I wanted there, there was that bit of green veld I had spotted on the drive in which had an amazing view of the mountain and would look really cool with an umbrella, and have you ever seen backlit rain. Beautiful.

So very relaxed and happy bride and groom – I do really like accountants, they have the best sense of humor – the two cutest flowergirls, and a seriously moody day. Check.

More photography from Isadore and Riaan’s rockstar wedding at Red Ivory Lodge on our facebook page.

The most difficult part of putting together a wedding post is deciding what images to put up on the blog. You want to show your best images, something different from the last blog post, but also something that shows off your skills as a photographer – the blog is a marketing vehicle for the studio. I also don’t want to be one of those studios that shows 100+ images from a wedding where you don’t know anyone, and takes hours to load a full page.

Our compromise this year has been to put a couple on the blog and a bunch more on facebook which loads much faster, has thumbnails and has become the web for a lot of people. Where was I going with this, oh yes, we show images on the blog and on facebook which we feel make us different, we do still shoot some of the standard images that have become associated with wedding photography, like portraits of the bride looking directly at the camera, and your more standard bride and bridesmaids, bride and family kind of images. I’m just not sure that you would be interested in seeing those images on the blog, maybe I’m wrong.

Anyway, more photos from Isadore and Riaan’s rockstar wedding at Red Ivory Lodge on our facebook page.

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I think this has been the wettest summer we’ve had in years, last night was no exception to the weeks of rain. Huge torrents of water hammering against the large glass doors, a power failure that sent us to bed super early resulting in V and I waking up before the cats for the first time in history. They looked confused – especially the mad fluffy one. Revenge for all those times they woke us up is indeed sweet.

Cindy and Daniel’s wedding day was no exception, the rain did come down, the rain did not stop. They were complete rockstars though, completely unphased by the rain, very much in love, surrounded by their friends, just natural, happy, relaxed. I confess I did shoot a couple of images in the rain, we had an umbrella, the big black camera is weatherproof and I wanted to get some of that backlit drama that comes with rain.

It was too much rain for a full shoot though, the light just wasn’t right and I wanted them to have some spectacular sunset veld images, so we scheduled a portrait session for the day after they came back from honeymoon. Killer bee skies and an amazing sunset right on cue. Nice.

Dress: Patricia Nascimento.
Make-up: The incomparable Cathy Heaton

More images from Cindy and Daniel’s rockstar wedding at Makiti can be found on our facebook page.

Just wanted to add for those that are worried about rain on their wedding day that we always have a plan, and in a worst case scenario we will organize and schedule a day after shoot for your portrait session at your venue.

More images from Cindy and Daniel’s rockstar wedding at Makiti can be found on our facebook page.

Let me start by saying that The Cradle is one of my favourite places in Joburg to shoot at. Any time we’ve shot there the light has been perfect, we even done a midday photoshoot with some seriously beautiful light. Agnita and Heins’ wedding was no exception; huge storm clouds that threatened the mother of all rainstorms, lightning out of the corner of my eye, and the smell of African air just before it rains. Pretty much my favourite weather to photograph in.

Agnita and Heins were cool, calm and took the day in their stride. No-one blinked when I pointed out the area I wanted to photograph in, a bit of a walk up an incline of slippery rocks, Agnita just slipped off her high heels and walked up barefoot. Rockstars.

More images from Agnita and Heins’s beautiful wedding at The Cradle can be found on our facebook page.

More images from Agnita and Heins’s beautiful wedding at The Cradle can be found on our facebook page.

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We were up at Nylstroom this weekend, or Modimolle if you prefer, for Elizette and Shaun’s wedding. It rained. I know a lot of people talk about it raining on their wedding day, but we’re were talking serious rain, the kind of rain that comes down in buckets and buckets for hours, the kind of rain that requires large umbrellas, boots and a GPS. It had been looking ominous as we started approaching Modimolle, barreling up on the N1 from Joburg, and it was kind of gently drizzling when we arrived at the chalet Elizette was getting ready in, but it started seriously coming down on the way to the ceremony spot. We were in the groom’s jeep, headed up the mountain on a 4×4 track to the big fig tree that they were get married under. I was kind of half day dreaming, thinking that if it didn’t stop soon we may need an ark or some kind of boat to get back home.

So I loaned my umbrella to the father of the bride, wrapped up in my almost warm gray jacket and started shooting. One minute to shoot, one minute to wipe the water off the lens, thankfully the D700 is weather proof, but not the ideal weather for photography unless you happen to be really really into cumulonimbus clouds. The fig tree, the people under umbrellas and the bride and groom kissing under an umbrella made for some killer bee pics though.

I know what you’re thinking, especially if you also happen to be a wedding photographer, and I was also pretty curious about how we would go about doing some portraits, the light was fading fast because of the serious clouds, there was no indoors, and the rain didn’t look like it planned on stopping any time soon. I had a vague plan involving umbrellas, a video light and a safety pin, so we hopped into the jeep and headed down to a spot I had seen on the way up the mountain. Elizette was game, Shaun looked he had seen a few serious storms in his life and the veld didn’t look that muddy…

… twenty two minutes, that’s how long the rain stopped for, twenty two minutes to get in some killer bee pics with those amazing skies, and that perfect shade of yellowish blue that only seems to occur after a serious rainstorm, but Elizette and Shaun brought the rockstar swagger with genuine moments and happiness at being married. Then the rain was back, so we jumped in the jeep, dried the cameras again and headed towards the reception, the windscreen wipers fighting a losing battle with the rain, and a vague thought in the back of my head that we may need some help getting out of the venue if the dirt road we drove in on turned into mud.

By the time the reception started, I had mentally prepared my blueprints for an ark – it wasn’t a huge ark, but it had killer wi-fi facilities and a serious cappuccino machine. By then the fire had been lit, there was a coffee station set up, the DJ was spinning tunes, the news arrived that the Bulls had won, and I probably should have been thinking about how far the nearest petrol station was (about 6km less than the amount of petrol I had left in the tank) instead of happily looking through my pics on the back of the camera.

ok, probably more images than you wanted to see from their portrait shoot but I was pretty chuffed that we managed to nail such killer bee images under those circumstances. Ah, yes, almost forget, I was joined by the super talented Stella Sassen (RE.INVENT I) for the day.

I recently read a review of my work where the writer called my photographs, colorful and playful – I think she may have confused me with someone else.
If you’re a true stalker, you would have noticed that I haven’t posted anything from around the beginning of May, we had some unfortunate news which kept our full attention from the studio. We are rapidly catching up on the work, and I’ll be posting updates more regularly.

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I’m still dreaming about that perfect black and white wedding album. Until then a monochrome post will have to do.

processed with the teaset presets, shot at Kuthaba.