almost ready for a blog post for this one … slowly recovering and getting on top of things.

So Friday we were at Thaba Ya Batswana, out towards the south end of Joburg. Serious lightning, rain, one of those highveld thunderstorms that turn the world dark. I wasn’t worried, we were with Rob from DVI, he’s a tall guy and carries a steel tripod. I figured I’d take my chances with the lightning. Nicole and Donavan didn’t seem too stressed about the rain either, and brought the rock star swagger to our big veld/dark skies shoot. Add in some super cool family members, people I recognized from our recent Toadbury Hall wedding , and it turned into a pretty relaxed afternoon.

Hours later, leaving Thaba, the police were stopping people just outside the gates. Lights flashing in the dark, mixing in with flashes of lightning. I wasn’t worried, I’d been good, and I was in double-o super sexy.

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 Almeida
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 …