Very very very relaxed, yeah, I think that would just about cover Saturday with Claudio and Ivana. You know those weddings you attend where no one stressed about things, everyone is having a good time, just enjoying getting married to each other. Its a rare kind of wedding, its also my favorite kind of wedding, and we tend to get killer bee images. So yeah, it looked like it was about to start raining as the outdoor wedding ceremony started, if you’re a photographer that just means beautiful soft light and skies that don’t blow out. No-one stressed, the rain started coming down five minutes after the guests had gone inside for cocktails. Then of course there’s the family photos which we did in the rain, under a balcony, beautiful light, framed in a doorway. Damn that was some beautiful light.

Lets see, some of the suppliers:
DJ: The man, the myth, the legend, DJ Louis Almeda
Video: Anthony Friedman productions.
Dress: Somewhere in Spain where they obviously make killer bee dresses.
Catering: Taste Explosion
Venue: Summerplace

… see I remembered to ask.

Now for some pics.

Eagle eyed readers of the blog may spot how late I am with this one. This month’s theme seems to be a sorry-we’re-behind, I did post an entry of their day after shoot earlier in the month.

Its not something that I put on my CV, but I’m very good at getting lost. Not always, in fact hardly ever, but when I get lost, I get so lost that garage attendents look at me like I just stepped out of my spaceship when I ask for directions.

It was that kind of friday night. Just finished photographing a wedding, lost in what I can only describe as the industrial section of somewhere, I’d been following Ursula but lost her at a red light. I was now following a truck, hoping to hit a main road, or actually any road that had a visible street sign. The batteries on my cellphone were dead (mental note to self to get a car charger) and the orange empty fueltank sign had been flashing for the last ten minutes. I also had some killer bee images on a flash card in the big black camera. All was ok.

A couple of hours earlier, at the wedding, well Charine and Jannie – if you’re reading this, too much fun was being had by everyone. Genuine fun, genuine laughs, genuine people. I love how tense grooms (in general, not just you Jannie) are when they are being photographed, by the end of the session they’ve always had so much fun that they tend to forget that they are being ‘photographed’ and must ‘pose’ and we end up with some killer images. I’m pretty sure you guys are enjoying Mauritius.

The next post will be from Cape Town – looking forward to meeting everyone who signed up for the workshop, and pretty excited about the live photoshop session on images I haven’t seen before.

I was assisted on this one by the uber talented Ursula Tocik who is witty and charming and highly recommended.

These guys went all out on the details. Liesel’s dress was made from her grandmother’s wedding dress, part family history, part couture, part childhood autobiography. The wedding cake was cut with a sword that Liesel’s parents used to cut their wedding cake. I loved all the little touches that made everything so personal, from growing their own wheatgrass and lillies to the personal messages on the placecards – mine read “Dror if you’re reading this you’re not taking killer bee images, go go go.”

To go a bit off topic, I was sitting at a wedding recently and someone turned to me and said, are you the guy with the killer bee catch phrase? I hadn’t realise I used killer bee so often that it has become a catch phrase, its actually a Kinkyism. If you get a chance to read any of his books, he is funny as beans and actually exists in real life, as do the Texas Jewboys.

Anyway, Liesel and Darren, definite rockstars, and yes the twirl during your entrance worked, and if you’re reading this in Zanzibar, you aren’t enjoying your honeymoon, go go go. I hope you’re having a killer bee one.

We’d been having a quite a few Uncle Bobs recently (guests with cameras who insist on posing the b&g, jump in front of us during the first kiss, ring exchange etc), so I was quite grateful when Rev. Chunky, noticing how many cameras were flashing during the bride’s entrance asked that only the official photographers photograph during the service.

As soon as we pull up outside Anderland the clouds start to gather, we’re here in the big black car – lesson learned, its a perfect day for photography. Add a killer bee dress, a super photogenic couple and one of our favorite venues, and the adrenaline starts to kick in. Today is going to rock. Just over twelve hours later we’re on our way back to Joburg, lightning kicking across the skies, tired, happy and with some seriously cool images locked into our memory cards and a very memorable wedding still fresh in my mind. It was an amazing day of friends, love and commitment – I saw those tears you know.

Hanri and Neil (082 490 3679 and 082 469 0070) were, as always, amazing hosts. Anderland is one of those super rare venues where nothing is too much trouble and they always go out of their way to make sure that everything is perfect. Check out their site here.

Emille, good to see you again

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.

Monday, and its bucketing down in Joburg. The kind of rain that last week drowned the mamba, she’s still in the shop and I’m heading towards Shepstone Gardens for Tova and Brad’s chuppah. I had been kind of mournfully looking at the rain out of the bedroom window this morning, swearing softly under my breath and muttering something about sunny South Africa, when V pointed out that at this point I probably wouldn’t know what to do if it didn’t rain on a day I had to shoot a wedding.

Shepstone Gardens is rapidly becoming the IT venue if you’re going to have a wedding on that end of the world, and they seem to be building more and more cool nooks and crannies every time we shoot there. Beautiful venue and a stunning, stunning wedding – I would have actually liked to have posted some images of the actual chuppah and bedekken, cause from a photojourn perspective there is so much emotion, but I feel that they are private moments and best left for those who were there. We did the photoshoot in twilight, I’m not even sure that the sun made it out of those clouds except for one glorious moment during the chuppah. Did I mention that Tova, Brad and guests raised the roof at Shepstone? You haven’t lived until you get stuck inside a hora at a Jewish wedding wondering whether to breath in or breath out or take photos.

Just thought I’d add that we got a lot of help from DVI who were the videographers at the wedding and are highly recommended.

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.

I was bad. I snuck in a couple of weddings at the end of the year, after I had told V that we were going to shut down. I had good reasons though. I mean how are you supposed to say no to someone you’ve known for ages, had braais with at my brother’s house, someone who phones every couple of weeks and says .. Hi, I’m in (insert exotic place like Uganda, New Orleans etc) so I haven’t had time to send through the contract … it was a bit odd photographing someone we’ve known from before we were shooting weddings. Kind of brought home the whole point of doing photojourn and not acting like the ringmaster.

Ingrid and Frank booked one of our new no reception packages, more about those at some point and Ingrid look stunning in her dress, and the whole thing felt natural and relaxed. Of course it bucketed down as soon as I tried to set up the formal group photos, which turned the bit of veld I had planned to use for the couples photos into a muddy patch of land – welcome to sunny SA – I love rain though, the quality of the light is amazing, you get incredibly colored skies and it usually either stops or just drizzles which leaves you with with a chance to create some unique images.

If you were out and about in Joburg this Saturday, you may have noticed that it bucketed down. Andrea and I were at The Hertford out by Lanseria, it stormed through most of the ceremony, there was lightning and thunder and buckets of water turned the dirt road into a mud adventure during the reception. In between the rain and the storm, there was an hour of beautiful golden light. I’m still backing up and sorting things … there will be more images from both weekend weddings as soon as I’m done – this machine seems to be getting slower every day.

It has been a rainy spring this year. The roads are wet and the washing won’t dry. Next stop Cape Town.