I love Joburg and its 1000 cars per hour pace, I love the downtown buildings and the scrappy bits of veld that we get just on the other side. Its nice to occasionally take a break though, head out somewhere else, where there are fewer cars and the only other creatures you see on the road have four legs. This was that kind of break, endless mielie fields, straight roads that stretched forever, greasy roadside food and really friendly people.

My favorite part of the weekend was when we arrived at Deo Volente and after showing us around, Marianne, Gretha’s mom, turned around and said, and the veld is over there. I smiled, it was going to be a great day. The weather was perfect, seriously dark and ominous clouds that were just starting to fade as the sun set, beautiful light, a cool vintage merc with a red leather interior, a super calm couple who brought the rockstar swagger, and just looked relaxed and happy. A perfect day for some killer bee pics.

Thanks to everyone who made such a big effort to be nice to us, and to speak to us in English. We both really appreciated it. The drive to the farm was like a four hour brain message with beautiful scenery.

The wedding took place on a working farm, and I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of work that it took to turn it into the fairytale setting that it was when we arrived. I’ve never actually seen anything quite like it, and how cool is it to get married in the house where you were born and grew up in. I may have to post a couple of more images when this March madness abates a bit and I’ve caught up with the backlog.

Due to March madness, I’ve update Diane and Jason’s Red Ivory sneak peek with more images, rather than post a new blog post.

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.

If we had a prize for the couple that laughed the most at their wedding, and were just general badasses, these two would probably win it. Yep, we were back at Casalinga, for another cool relaxed laid back wedding and if these two look familiar its cause we shot their couples session last year(?) where they laughed just as much and seemed to have just as much fun. Ooh, just before I head on back to Lightroom and another epic editing session, thank you Lee for taking care of us and making sure everything was sorted out – I’m getting you a Koi for your one year anniversary.

I was speaking to a client the other day about the length of time it takes to edit a wedding, and they mentioned that their mom didn’t understand that it wasn’t like it was in her day. You no longer get to drop off your rolls of film at the lab on the Sunday and pick up the proofs on the Monday. We now have to spend a lot of time doing our own post production on the images in photoshop. Yeah … I’m not so sure we’re better off with digital.

We watched Alice in Wonderland the other morning, and Tim Burton has not let us down. Well worth the R130 …

Its March and it feels like its been weeks since I’ve last had a decent night’s sleep. Feb/March is our crazy season, hours of slaving in front of a hot screen, a million pixel tan, and I feel like I’m missing on posting some of the coolest work we’ve done in a while because there’s a lot of pressure to deliver the weddings in time and putting together a full blog post means a day that I could have spent editing. So you get bitty posts of single, or if we’re lucky, a couple of images from a recent’ish wedding. Maybe I’ll do a best of Feb/March in April, if you’re a Feb/March client that means you’ll probably have your selection gallery before you have a blog post.

Ok, so that’s out the way, I wanted to post this one of Diane who got married at Red Ivory a couple of weeks back. V spotted this beautiful bit of light just streaming over the trees as we were headed back and Diane was game enough to go for a bit of a bundu bash. I think it was worth it.

As always we were ably joined by the peerless DVI on video.

We’d been waiting for this one for a while, so despite the fact that I had wrecked the big black car two weekends ago and we were driving the super sexy Dent Doctor courtesy car which smells like something had died in the boot (for which we are deeply grateful – the car not the smell), I was excited. It felt like we had known Diane and Jason forever, the weather was playing along nicely, we knew a lot of the people coming to the wedding and it was at Red Ivory. Nice. I’m going to post a full blog post later this week, but for now a quick sneak peek of their killer bee sunset over the Magaliesburg.

UPDATE: So time caught up with us and there was no full blog post, but I really wanted to post some extra pics from this killer bee wedding.

If you’re headed to Red Ivory Lodge for a tasting, check out their Fresh Garden Fruit Preserve(?), one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in a long time – not too sure how to describe the taste, kindda sweet and spicy, I think it may have had peppadew in it.

What I love about Shepstone Gardens is that its kind of like having a wedding in your garden, very intimate, very Great Gatsby, very relaxed, you always kind of expect a jazz quartet to be playing in the corner or maybe a busker walking in off the street. Except that we’re in Joburg and you don’t really want anyone walking in off the street, but close enough for rock ‘n roll.

I didn’t get suppliers details, cause I’m terrible about that, and I was having too much fun watching Ryan do ‘the Elvis’, kids messing about with the balloons and the guests eating candy floss in between cocktails. Wait, the bar was by liquid chefs. One supplier is better than nothing. Loads of pics today.

Apologies for posting so many pics …

This one kind of reminded me of True Romance (the Quintin Tarantino movie not the overused sentiment) … smooth suits, killer moves, great story line, loads of fun. A perfect day. It would have been a perfect movie as well if they hadn’t cast Val Kilmer as Elvis (Val Kilmer as Elvis!?). Anyway, many many killer bee images, super cool relaxed couple, the weather played nice and I probably spent as much time chatting and cracking jokes as photographing – always a sign that the photographer is getting seriously cool images and isn’t stressed. Thank you both for making it so easy.

Ok, ok, some suppliers, cause I remembered to ask.
Carriage and horses by Chris Beyers from Terrouges Equestre – the horses looked well looked after and groomed and they were called Jazz and Blues! The carriage was an actual antique from the 1800s.
Killer Bee dress by Biji Couture
Suit by – I have no idea but as soon as I find out I’m getting one.
Venue – Moon and Sixpence

before you email to let me know that I’ve already posted the Son of Preacher Man photo, I think it makes a cool bookend to the one of the flower girl hence the repost.

more later … and yes I know, it was that kind of wedding.

All it took was one person saying sachten to someone else and I was back in my childhood. Amazing how little it actually takes to kickstart that part of your brain that houses your childhood. People dancing the dabke, a rocking tent set up in an old estate house, all Gatsby in white, vintage cars and black tie … one of my favorite elements of a wedding are the way that traditions and family histories get incorporated into the day. Anyway, I’m not going to say too much, expect maybe to mention that for one night the center of the universe was relocated to Houghton.

Ceremony: Rosebank Catholic
Reception: Noordhoek
Couple shoot: Glenshiel
Decor & Coordination: Otto De Jager
DJ: DJ Ricky

It was looking like rain, not heavy rain, but that soft soaking rain that seems to have taken up residence in Johannesburg for the last couple of weeks, the kind of rain that wouldn’t put a cramp in your style but might seriously get under your skin after a while. That kind of rain tends to produce soft light, very green greens that if you mute them just right you can get that old world kind of look.

I was back at Shepstone Gardens, the rain had kind of stopped, the rogue hen was scampering about and Nicole had told me earlier that she wanted something a bit edgier, something less pretty. Once the ceremony in the dutch garden was over we took the retinue and headed into Newtown, dodging a photographer shooting what looked like a cover for a youth magazine or maybe an edgy model portfolio, and locating a spot where the light fell just right.

Nicole was cool, relaxed, knew what she wanted, in love with her Brett and the architecture of the inner city. A great start to the year, some killer bee pics in the inner city and probably my all time favorite bridal retinue pic. I don’t often like to take the retinue with us on the couple shoot because they tend to distract the bride and groom, but this lot were perfect, we used them as background, as foreground and we even did some formal group photos under the bridge.

I’m busy working on Joanne and Adrian’s wedding at Oakfield Farm, and spotted this one, which reminded once again that not all things are what they seem but the moments between the kisses sure make for some pretty cool wedding photos.

Simultaneously while editing, I am also really enjoying Damon Winter’s double exposures series.

I’m pretty sure that Sunday was the hottest day of the year, maybe even the decade. The BBC weather report had promised thunder showers and had a very nice icon of dark clouds on their site, the kind of clouds that have photographers drooling about textures and moody skies. All a lie. It was hot, Africa hot, the kind of hot that would have made Tarzan want to go back home, sunny with the kind of contrasty light that makes wedding photographers want to call their mom. I was trying to manage over 200 people into a large group photo, not my forte, they wanted out of the sun. I tended to agree with them.

Since I was last here, Oakfield Farm had installed those misting systems that spray a fog and cool down the air, I wanted to stand under one of those for an hour or two. Of course the artificial fog plus the sun setting through the trees made for some killer bee images, got to love irony – and artificial fog. Lets see, Joanne and Adrian, fun, a blast to be around, and just a cool couple, add a seriously elegant dress (I was introduced to the designer, but promptly forgot the name, sorry), twin flower girls, skinny ties on the guys, a couple (and a coordinator) who are used to my often bizarre sense of aesthetic and trust you to pull off very very different images. It was a pretty rockstar end to the year. Thank you both.

Ok, one thing before I show you some pics from the day. I was recently at Letamo, and I was chatting to a woman who turned out to be a hair dresser and when she found out I shot weddings, she said that the number one regret of her clients after their wedding day was that they didn’t have photos of the people partying at their wedding. Well, something along those lines, she said it more eloquently. So I know I show a lot of photos of people partying on this blog, but since its on my mind at the moment, a couple more.

If you think Joanne and Adrian look familiar, I shot their couple session a while back, some of which they had used in their guest book – I felt cool.

Our merry band of suppliers on the day were:
The incomparable Cathy Heaton on make-up,
Michelle from Hair Innovations on hair, and,
Jazzanova(?) on upright bass, drums and keyboards.

The weatherman had promised us rain, thunderstorms and even more rain. Naturally it was blisteringly hot, not a cloud in the sky, and we were dressed in black. Sharon and Barley wanted a urban feel to their shoot, so we headed into Melrose Arch, permits in hand, and stopped traffic. Literally. So an urban feel, a serious 50’s style dress, Harajuku Lovers shoes, skinny ties, Scarface references, traditional African mixed in with high end style. Killer bee images left right and center. There was even a Mbira … it was that kind of day. The sound of the main table getting down and singing along to Bumper to Bumper is on heavy rotation in my head.

A couple of people have asked about my tweet about sharpness being overrated. If you didn’t follow the link, it was a comment on the fact that every week we see wedding photographers over-sharpening their images to a crisp. Think about it.

“Just call me Roz, Rozanne is when I’m in trouble”. I smiled. I’d kind of been expecting the same old venue to shoot at, trying to find something different to shoot without going too overboard. Making beautiful photos at a venue that’s been photographed to death hundreds of times. Roz and I must have been on the same wavelength because one of the first things she told me when we arrived was that we were going out of the venue for the photos.

She had found this most incredible spot. Something out of a JG Ballard book, an abandoned hothouse at a rose farm, roses growing wild, a roof with large gaps where you could see the sky – no one does dystopia like JG. The experience of being there was amazing, I wish the camera could have caught just how hot and humid it gets inside that place, the intense rich smell of the roses. Kind of keeping with the whole wedding, which was unique and different and authentic and just cool.

Thank you guys for being so thoughtful and welcoming and just rockstars. Thinking back though I’m still not 100% sure why Dawie was carrying a pomegranate.

Did I mention that Roz is also a wedding photographer?

Shepstone is fast becoming our regular wedding venue it seems, either that or we just get a lot of cool, funky clients. Last weekend, no rain, no scorcher of a day, wedding running late – bonus, extra time, which means we get to do some killer bee bridal portraits. Add to that a very smooth, and calm bridal couple and you have the making of a serious party – hang on, it did rain, in fact it came bucketing down, seconds after I had finished the last group photo, I remember now, I spent a good 20 minutes in the rain looking for a lens cap I’d dropped.

Anyway, this week I wanted to post a couple more posed, classical kind of portraits. For me, they were that kind of couple – although the speeches did leave me in stitches.

Rob and Santi from Digital Video Images, always helpful, always getting their lighting just right. Always keeping us entertained

Just a quick one today – I’m still backing up. From this weekend’s wedding, an unexpected speech from the bride and a look of adoration on the groom’s face.

We’re back to having issues with our internet connection, and have spent a glorious couple of days not being able to press the send/receive buttons on our mail every couple of minutes. Telkom is having a look and we should be back up to speed soon.

Late on Sunday evening, just wrapping up the weekend, almost Christmas, almost another year has passed.

yes, that copyright notice is annoying me too.

Its been a hot couple of days, nights hot enough for us to have to leave the windows open, and that’s saying something in Joburg. Karen and Nic’s day was a scorcher, not the best day for the photographer to be wearing black, by the time we arrived at the venue I was ready to stand in front of a fan for the next couple of hours and cool off. So we started off gently with a couple of rock the bridal bed shots, which aren’t as bad as they sound , got some killer bee bridal portraits and rubbed in some sunscreen for the ceremony which was held outside. A couple of hours later, the sun set softly over the Magalies mountains, perfect backdrop for some nicely lit couple portraits. Nice. Thank you.

A lot of the weddings we’ve been to recently seem to be starting later and its been giving us a great opportunity to shoot some cool portraits of the bride, but this week I also wanted to post some cool portraits of the groom, who doesn’t often get to feature on this blog. Lastly, almost done, I can hear My Name is Earl starting on the telly so I’m just going to wrap and say that we were sitting chatting with another supplier, the usual industry gossip about venues etc and they said “you guys get to go to really different weddings”, not really, we shoot at the same venues that every one else shoots at. We do try to make every shoot very different though, which I think makes all the difference and keeps us inspired week after week. Ok, some portraits.

You may have noticed that we have added a copyright notice to each image. I hate having to do that, but the weekly arguments with people who feel that it is within their rights to use the images without attribution are no longer worth it. Sorry.

Almost forgot, the videographer for the day was the inimitable Emily from Lighthouse Films.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m kind of obsessed with natural moments, interactions between people, the moments in between. Its not a very well kept secret that the portrait session, or creative session, of the bride and groom is the easy part of the day. Its the capturing of the reception, that interplay between people, showing the couple something that they didn’t see on the day that is the hard part.

Sunday, and we are inching our way through traffic, the 94.7 cycle race is on, and the organizers seem to have decided to isolate north western johannesburg from the rest of the world. A maze of side streets, hooting cars and very very irate drivers. We turn back and try make it to the N1, its the only way to get to the Longmeadow Piano Lounge, the N1 has only one functioning lane and a 10 minute journey turns into a two hour bumper to bumper stress fest.

Hours later, everyone has relaxed and is having a good time, all the guests have finally arrived, the reception has started and V and I are capturing people having fun. In our consultation Claire asked us to concentrate on documenting the day. This is the fun part for us, no-one is posing, the moments are real, people are laughing, drinking, children have passed out exhausted, friends are having a good time. Its a group of happy people hanging out together in the sunshine, a coming together of two families, friends and families who came from all over the world. We try to capture those moments.