I haven’t been sleeping much lately, I think it’s the weather. It’s keeping the cats indoors at night and they tend to chase each other around the house loudly. That and the fact that I don’t sleep much most of the time anyway. So it’s almost dawn and I’m staring at the mac’s screen again, trying to figure out what to say about last Saturday’s wedding. I’m drawing a blank, I’m not sure any words, or photos can convey the sense of community and family that characterized this wedding. Just a huge outpouring of love for Irma and Jan. We’re talking an entire hall decorated and set up with blue china, and memorabilia, we’re talking a bicycle made especially for the day, 37 flowergirls in identical outfits, over a 1000 people arriving for the service. A sermon by Irma’s dad that even with my very slow Afrikaans to English translating brain … let’s just say that at this point I was thinking V and I should probably move to Randfontein …

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone, who made an effort to make us feel welcome, those that made an effort to speak to us in English, those that listened to our terrible Afrikaans, to both the Van Rensburgs and the Nels. We really appreciated everything and had a blast hanging out with you. Next time at our place?

There are more pics on our Facebook page, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave Jan and Irma a message.

There are more pics on our Facebook page, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave Jan and Irma a message.

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Late Friday night, Saturday morning. It’s still hot, too hot to sleep, too hot to have another cup of coffee. All the cards have been downloaded to the Drobo, there’s nothing on the telly that you wouldn’t regret committing an hour to watching. I don’t want to turn on the air cooler in case it wakes V up.

I’m still cruising on adrenaline from today’s wedding at Red Ivory. Christelle and Jonathan, two of the nicest people you’re likely to meet. A gathering of friends and family who came together to see them get married after a nine year engagement. Just being themselves, having a blast, always smiling, Christelle doing little dances she was so excited. That kind of excitement is infectious. Then there was Jonathan who reduced pretty much everyone to tears with his groom’s speech.

Hours later, traveling home on that very dark highway, I’m mentally going through the images, ticking off the one’s I liked for the blog. One keeps jumping out, it’s of Christelle’s sisters helping her get ready, the look on their faces says everything.

We were joined at Red Ivory by DJ and lighting maestro – DJ Paul and saxophonist Rike Coetzer.

You can see more images from their rocking Red Ivory wedding on our facebook page. If you know the couple you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

You can see more images from their rocking Red Ivory wedding on our facebook page. If you know the couple you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

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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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It’s monday, our daily dose of Joburg rain is coming down outside, driving the cats indoors. They aren’t looking impressed. I’ve been in front of this screen for the last ten hours or so, my eyes are starting to go a bit funny, and the white noise of the rain coming down is lulling me to sleep, so I’m going to make this one quick.

We were at The Westcliff this weekend, for Samantha and Sean’s wedding. The Westcliff, especially Jacaranda Hill, always makes think of the kind of weddings that they would have had in the roaring twenties, all dressed in slick white, hats and fascinators. Rolls Royces in the driveway and string quartets playing on the lawns. Add the whole Johannesburg in Spring aspect to it – I’m talking serious Jacaranda’s in bloom all over the place, the smell of approaching rain, and it’s one of those weddings that just seems in it’s own space in time.

Dress: Pronovias
Suits: Fabiani
Ceremony: Rosebank Catholic Church
Reception: The Westcliff
Rolls: Spirit of Ecstacy (Ferdi is a really nice guy)

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

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Saturday at the new bridal suite, really cool to see Chantel so excited to be getting married, like literally bouncing up and down with excitement. It’s completely infectious. You just can’t help walking around smiling when someone is so excited about their dress, excited about the pictures of the donkeys she got as a gift, excited to be getting married.

We were at the always killer bee Red Ivory Lodge for Chantel and Rossouw’s wedding. Romanz was (were?) singing under the huge tree, the crystal tree ornaments were catching the late afternoon sun, James and the always-on-the-ball staff at Red Ivory were serving some of their out of this world cold berry drinks. In the background the sun was setting over the Magaliesberg Mountain range. It was a gorgeous day.

If you weren’t there, I could tell you that Chantel wore a seriously killer bee Gert Van Der Merwe dress, that her father officiated over the ceremony (there was suspiciously no youmaykissthebride – Rossouw went for it anyway), I could also tell you that it was a super relaxed day in the country, the view of the sunset was amazing.

I just want to thank Chantel and Rossouw’s families for just being rockstars and making us feel welcome, and making an effort to speak to us in English. Much much appreciated. Thank you.

Ok, to the vendors.
Reception: Red Ivory Lodge obviously
Band: Romanz
Dress: Gert Van Der Merwe
Coordinator: Lorraine at Papilio Designs – On the ball, organized and such a pleasure to work with. Always replied to our emails within 24 hours and was happy to work with us to make sure that the bride and groom got the best photos.

… almost put my foot in it. My second shooter for the day was the very talented Corinna Tannian who just kicks ass.

more pics from Chantel and Rossouw’s wedding on our facebook page, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

more pics from Chantel and Rossouw’s wedding on our facebook page, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

I get a lot of questions about the 50mm lens that I use and why I don’t switch to a newer lens, faster lens, an f/1.4 or f/1.2. I was telling someone at the Photo & Film Expo last week, I believe that lenses have personalities, two identical 50mm lenses will each have their own quirks and after almost 20 years of using mine, I feel that we know each other. I know what it can do and I know how to use it to get what I want out of it. As for the f/1.4 or f/1.2, aperture is only one of a couple of factors that determine DOF, and it’s not even the most important one. Fact.

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Spring in the highveld seems to bring with it so much pollen, and this year kind of feels worse than last year. Beautiful blue skies, great swathes of light brown veld, green trees and pollen. I’m considering having my sinuses surgically removed.
By now you know I love Red Ivory as a wedding venue, it always looks really amazing and you can’t go wrong with the view. They seem to have added some chandeliers since I was last there which make shooting the reception so much nicer and add that opulent feeling to the images. So Rianka and I headed this Friday for Cara and Clive’s wedding. Serious swagger, fun, guitar poses, fun, schmodelling, fun, and a very rock n roll dress. We got some killer bee images, so I couldn’t really wait to post them.

Before I do though, I got to shoot this weekend with the super talented Rianka, who is going to be a big name in our industry in the next year. Keep an eye out for her. We were accompanied by the rockstar videographers of DVI, Rob and Santi – who make me smile and shoot some serious video.

As always more images on our Facebook page, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave Cara and Clive a message.

As always more images on our Facebook page, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave Cara and Clive a message.

After my presentation yesterday at The Photo & Film Expo, a couple of people came by and asked why I didn’t talk about marketing, getting clients, word of mouth, social marketing, SEO, branding, logos, all that kind of stuff that people think is essential to being a successful photographer. I talked about mastering our craft because I think at the end of the day successful photographers are those that take great photos (I could be wrong, but I suspect that I’m not). If you take the three tactics that I gave and practiced them, you will be successful regardless of what your logo or advert looks like.

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So it’s Sunday evening, this week has been kind of brutal. I’m way behind on the blog posts, at least the Facebook page is up to date. If you came through to the Photo&Film expo to listen to me talk about becoming a master photographer, thank you. I was kind of worried at one point that I’d be talking to a handful of people, it turned out to be standing room only. There was even some clapping.

Ok, I’m very late on posting this wedding, but it’s been up on our Facebook page for a while and it has gotten some very cool comments. We don’t often go out to photograph the evening before rehearsal dinner/get together braai, because not much really happens, but you guys rocked it. Really too easy to photograph you guys and the retinue, such a pleasure meeting you both. I think I’m just going to add that Catherine and Michael, and their crew, partied like it was the eighties. Nice.

Our videographers on the day were the guys from Freeman Productions who are always a pleasure to have around.

More from their wedding on our Facebook page.

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