Dror Eyal Photography

The Palace at The Lost City

dror — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:31:33 +0000

This is my favorite image from this weekend, actually it’s one of my favorite images from this season. We were at The Palace, the first dance had just ended and Chani and her dad took to the dance floor for their father daughter dance. I think “I Loved Her First” was playing.
I’m not sure what it was about that moment and I don’t really think that a photograph can convey that kind of emotion, or that connection between a girl and her dad. I took a couple of dancing images, just Chani hanging on to her dad, just her arms wrapped around his neck, his eyes slightly red, when I spotted her mom standing against the wall, wiping her eyes, Chani’s uncle putting a reassuring arm around her.
I got one photo all perfectly lined up, before her mom turned around overcome by emotion. It was one of those moments, you couldn’t help but think about your relationship with your own dad, and maybe craftily wipe a tear away before it formed.
Then it was over and someone came and asked me how I managed to shoot dance images without any flash – the technical stuff that us photographers think is important.

Melrose Temple Wedding – Shania + Surendra

dror — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:59:02 +0000

Almost weekend time, and I’m running out of time for blog posts. I’m going to pop-up a quick single image sneak peek – there are more images from Shania and Surendra’s ceremony on our facebook page. Go have a look.

tag:

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Intundla Game Lodge Wedding – Carolyn + Peter

dror — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:48:33 +0000

Got to love a groom who gets up and starts his speech with a quote from Blink 182 – I wish I could remember what it was, but I was too stunned from the … “as Blink 182 sing ..” comment.
So Rianka and I, headed down to Intundla this weekend to shoot Carri and Pete’s wedding and besides being all around rockstars, Carri and Pete showed up in a vintage car. You have to imagine the drive up the dirt path to Intundla … let’s just say that we had a pool going on where the car will be there or not.

More pics from their rocking Intundla wedding on our Facebook page.

btw if you’re into local hiphop, Dirty Paraffin is on heavy rotation at the studio.

Kerry + Hayden Forever

dror — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:26:50 +0000

These long weekends are confusing me completely, kind of spinning weekends into week days. We’re slowly heading into the quiet season. I can’t wait, maybe head down to the coast with the bear, watch him dip his toes into the ocean for the first time.
For now though it’s still the occasional rain and the odd bit of lightning flickering across the sky, highveld weather, the weather we get just before it starts getting cold and we dream of heading down to our secret beach house. I’m a bit late with Kerry and Hayden’s blog post, but it’s been on our Facebook page for a while now, and there’s more images from their gorgeous (dare I say it) summery wedding day posted there.

Copyright again

dror — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:59:42 +0000

I’m still finding other vendors violating our copyright. This morning the weekly DMCA scan that we run came back with two sites that were using whole paragraphs from this site and one videographer who used our images without permission on a vimeo video.
We take these things very seriously, and issue DCMA take down notices. In the past we have tried to send nice emails requesting that our images be taken down and were met with rude replies. If you plan on using one of our images please note our rates for commercial usage and contact us directly.

Johannesburg Day After shoot – Michal and Jonathan

dror — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:59:09 +0000

A couple from Michal and Jon’s day after shoot in downtown joburg.

You can find them on facebook as well.

tag:

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Avianto Wedding – Susan and Bryden

dror — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:46:29 +0000

Not many words this week again, we are smack bang in the middle of the wedding season.

more pics from Susan and Bryden’s very relaxed Avianto wedding can be found on our Facebook page.

tag:

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Wedding at The Cradle – Cornel & Jarrett

dror — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:57:40 +0000

Lisa and I went down to The Cradle this weekend for Cornel and Jarrett’s black and white wedding, I’d photographed an engagement session for them a while back so I knew they were game for anything. My kind of couple. Add a dress by Cindy Bam, some really really wild friends and let’s just say that they brought the heat.

Rob from DVI was our videographer for the day, which meant some kickass first dance images

Sorry, not much on words this week. This headache is just not going away and the screen on this imac seems to be flickering at the edges. More pics from Cornel and Jarrett’s very very hot wedding can be found on our Facebook page, feel free to leave a comment, tag yourself or just click like.

More pics from Cornel and Jarrett’s very very hot wedding can be found on our Facebook page, feel free to leave a comment, tag yourself or just click like.

if you’re following the adventures of The Bear, it may have been a mistake to tell him that they world record for not sleeping is three days. I think he may have decided to go for it.

tag:

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Houghton Country Club Chuppah – Vikki and Brent

dror — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:02:13 +0000

No words this week, I’m desperately trying to catch up with the blog, that space between my eyes feels like someone has stuffed it with kapok pods. So no words this week except to say that Rianka and I were at The Houghton Country Club for Vikki and Brent’s rockstar chuppah.

There are more images from their wedding on our facebook page, if you’d like to leave them a message, click like or tag yourself.

To quote one of my favorite SA photographers – “On behalf of light lovers everywhere I’d like to welcome winter light to Joburg. Please enjoy your stay.”

tag:

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Sandton Shul – Michal and Jonathan

dror — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:01:00 +0000

We don’t shoot a lot of Jewish weddings, it takes me a week, and a neck massage from a Chinese masseuse with hands like forklifts, to recover after 14 hours of holding up the big black camera and concentrating on some seriously emotional moments. I love them though, the ritual, history and family tradition mixing with emotion and energy, so many killer bee real moments.

So Tuesday, Rianka and I, headed out to Floyd’s Barbershop to shoot Jonathan and his groomsmen. I’d had this idea that I wanted to break away from standing around in a street and try to shoot an activity, trying to get 150 groomsmen (rough estimate, they were moving very fast for 10am) to stand still for a photo is not really my thing. So after a bit of brainstorming we came up with the idea of an old school barbershop shoot. You know, straight edge razor shaves and massages, cigars and whiskey. I never did find one of those barbershops, Floyd’s on the other hand was all rock ‘n roll, playstation and guitar hero – so much more my kind of spot.

The day itself was chaos, the good kind, the kind that leaves you with happy memories that you’ll tell people about for years. Moments that stood out for me were Michal’s dress with the lace from her Mom’s dress – I’m a sucker for these kinds of things, part couture, part family history. One of the groomsmen telling another that the Horas are no joke. The expression on the dads’ faces as they walked Jonathan in to the bedeken, the groomsmen behind them cheering. Bridesmaids rocking out at the reception. That moment when Jonathan almost hit the Sandton Shul ceiling during the horas. So many people speaking Hebrew that I had to break out my own very very rusty Hebrew and reply. I also dropped a lens and the sound of glass shattering being mirrored by a cold shiver in my stomach followed swiftly by the realization that it was only the UV filter breaking. Fourteen hours peering through a viewfinder will make you forget to zip up your bag all the way.

Some vendors:
Reception: Sandton Shul
Chuppah: Private Residence
Videographer: Arnaldo Mandel Productions – our first time with them and Arnaldo is one cool cat.
Band: Tokyo Groove
Catering: Stan and Pete
Coordination: Richard from Gideon’s Flowers and Functions

This week, there are tons more images on our facebook page from Jonathan and Michal’s wedding, too many killer bee images that I want to showcase, so have a look. If you know them, or were there, you’re welcome to leave a message, or tag yourself in.

tag:

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Hidden Valley Wine Estate ( Stellenbosch ) – Anthony and Timothy

dror — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:51:32 +0000

Rianka and I were in action this weekend at The Hidden Valley Wine Farm in Stellenbosch at Timothy and Anthony’s wedding. My first wedding in an actual working wine cellar, just chilled, relaxed with friends and family letting loose and just hanging out. Just a really really nice group of people.

Then there were the dogs. I’ve photographed a couple of weddings with dogs, and I’ve even had a dog act as a ring bearer, but these guys were the sweetest italian greyhounds and there were six of them. What a pleasure to photograph and so many Elliott Erwitt moments.

Our coordinators for the wedding were the very awesome and professional Just Jack. Thank you.

More photos on our Facebook page.

tag:

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Heading to Cape Town

dror — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:36:26 +0000

The phone’s alarm has just gone off. My ride to the airport will be here soon. I need to get up, get showered and shaved, try to get my gear out the door without waking V and Joe. Rianka and I are on our way to Tim and Anthony’s wedding at The Hidden Valley in Stellenbosch. The phone’s alarm goes off again, got to get it before it wakes Joe. I’m half lying under the blankets, the mad fluffy cat has wrapped himself in the other half, I’m listening for the birds in the garden. Nothing. Slowly the realization hits me. It’s too early for the birds.

Red Ivory Lodge Wedding – Megan and David

dror — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:17:33 +0000

Let me start by saying that there was dust on the mirror. I happen to like dust. It gives an extra layer to things, it defines another space, some texture, and in a digital world it add some imperfection that reminds one that photography was originally an organic craft.

It’s the same reason that I like to shoot through windows, reflections, use dappled light, and keep the shutter open just a little bit more than necessary. It kind of breathes life into the over-sharpened, super saturated, soft focused, flashed to death and cooked to a crisp wedding photos that have become de rigueur. Whatever, rock ‘n roll.

So Saturday Andrea and I were at Red Ivory for Megan and David’s black tie wedding. I’d been waiting for this one for a while. Megan and V had been corresponding for a while and I’d seen Megan and David at another wedding, we’d met the family at the Red Ivory open day, and we’d even had a coffee at Doppio. So it was nice to see everyone again, to hear David’s rocking speech, and to see Megan looking killer bee gorgeous in her dress.

I just want to add a thank you to Bev and everyone else who took such good care of Andrea and I. We had a grand time.

I’d like to say I got vendor details, but I didn’t. I do know that the dress and the bridesmaids dresses are by Di Runciman.

loads more pics from Megan and David’s Red Ivory wedding on our Facebook page, if you know them or were a guest, you’re welcome to leave them a message, click like or tag yourself.

tag:

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Joe Bear

dror — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:52:15 +0000

Some people have been wondering why V hasn’t been shooting weddings the last couple of weeks. Meet Joseph Eyal. He’s the reason our emails have been going out in the evenings and blogs have been posted in the middle of the night.
He’s nine weeks old in the photo, too young to have a favorite band, although he likes to be sung to. Unfortunately the only lyrics I know are to old rock songs from the 80′s and 90′s. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard me sing some Guns ‘n Roses to the tune of the teddy bears picnic.

Thanks to all our friends, clients, and everyone who sent us well wishes, congratulations, or just stopped me at weddings and asked if I had a photo of him. Has there ever been a father prouder to show their son’s photo.

Oakfield Farm Wedding – Wendy & Xander

dror — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:19:54 +0000

Just a quick one this week, I’m radically under-slept. Our new studio still looks like a bomb hit it, I’ve seriously underestimated how long it would take to put it together. I can see the sun starting to peep up over our neighbor’s rooftop which means it must be on the wrong side of 6am. Almost time to get this day started.

Rianka and I went down to Oakfield Farm this weekend to shoot Xander and Wendy’s swinging wedding. A groom who couldn’t stop smiling, a bride who looked like the Tsar’s youngest daughter and a kicking swing band, all in all such a cool amazing wedding and Xander and Wendy slayed it on the dance floor with a foxtrot that had everyone clapping for an encore, which they delivered. You have to love clients who don’t blink when I ask them to stand in front of the world’s ugliest cinder block wall because I think the light there will really suit their skin tone.

I did get vendor details this week, that’s how relaxed everything was:

Shoes – Manolo Blahnik
Dress – Pronovias
Band – The Swing Tones
Videographer – DVI
DJ – Barry at Soundworx
Venue – Oakfield Farm
Makeup Artist – The rockstar herself, Lyn Kennedy

More photos from Xander and Wendy’s Oakfield Farm wedding can be found on our facebook page. If you were a guest or you know them, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

tag:

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The Cradle Wedding – Melissa and Dylan

dror — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:36:26 +0000

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride this week. The good kind, the kind that you’re terrified to go on but you’ve been in the queue for so long that you no longer care about the fear and just get on, and the experience is worth every bit of fear when you’re back on solid ground. This weekend we were at Melissa and Dylan’s rock ‘n roll wedding at The Cradle, down at the bottom there by the thousand year old trees and ancient forest. It looked like rain for most of the day, it smelled like rain for a large section of the ceremony and we could see lightning cutting huge swathes across the sky to our left. It’s these kind of days that make living in Jo’burg such a pleasure. That jolt of electricity in the air just before a huge thunderstorm.

If you follow this blog at all you’ll know that I love The Cradle, great food (that vanilla pear salad thing is insane) and the light is always magical, I have a couple of very unscientific theories about the light there. As usual I didn’t get any vendor details, I’m terrible at networking, but the jazz band were pretty amazing, lots of Coltrane, oh and the DJ played an incredible set throughout the reception without once playing any cliche’d wedding tracks. I’m talking The Cure, Empire Of The Sun, Smashing Pumpkins, Foster The People, Depeche Mode.

As always, there are a couple of extra images of Dylan and Melissa’s rocking wedding on our Facebook page, if you were a guest or know Dylan and Melissa, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

As always, there are a couple of extra images on our Facebook page, if you were a guest or know Dylan and Melissa, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

Still a couple of minutes to go, I hope you all had a wonderful leap day

tag:

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Red Ivory Lodge Wedding – Tarynne + Graham

dror — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:31:18 +0000

I can’t remember who it was exactly, but it was one of our past brides who told us that East Rand guys were the best kept secret. Being a barely transplanted Benoni boy myself I remember nodding emphatically.

Anyway, V and I were at Red Ivory this weekend, and yes the Graham and Tarynne were just easy going, fun to be around and one of them drank copious amounts of Johnny Walker Blue Label. It was a party of note, it may take the Red Ivory crew a day or two to recover.

I’d like to say that I got some vendor details:
Venue: Red Ivory
Whiskey: Johnny Walker Blue Label
Make-up: Dawn Williams – who does amazing work.

more images from Tarynne and Graham’s red ivory wedding can be found on our facebook page, if you know them or were a guest, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

tag:

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Jozi Weekends

dror — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:10:25 +0000

Being a wedding photographer is one of those professions where you tend to end up socializing with other wedding photographers purely on the fact that most things happen on weekends – and we work most weekends. On the occasional weekend when we aren’t working you’ll find V and I in the city. Checking out the new exhibitions, looking around the organic markets, spotting new street art and having breakfast (most important meal of the day) at one of the little coffee shops – our favorite spot is the Argentinian Bakery although the canteen at Market on Main is a very very close second.
I tend to avoid Sandton and the eastern part of Joburg, too many people, too little soul. I spend a lot of time photographing the city, it’s just one of those places I never seem to get tired of.

my favorite piece of graffiti in the city, it’s called don’t carry your heart on your shoulder and I think it is one of Breeze Yoko’s pieces

tag:

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Askari Lodge Wedding – Nicole (Leane) + Ryan (Frank)

dror — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:16:30 +0000

Must have been a lot of brides praying on Saturday, when I woke up the skies were grey, the rain was bucketing down and I kind of had this sinking sensation that I was going to spend most of the day in the rain. A couple of hours later, and I suspect a lot of praying and brooms being stuck in trees, and the sky turned superblue, and by the time we arrived at Askari there were very few clouds to be seen anywhere.

So yeah, fantastic day, we got to photograph some elephants, hang with cool people and take some amazing photos. There was tequila, vintage cameras and skinny ties. Can’t beat that with a stick.

Venue: Askari Game Lodge, set in the Plumari Africa Game Reserve, just relaxed, excellent service and beautiful scenery.
Co-ordinator: Khali Collins – seriously we can’t say enough good things about Khali. On the ball, organized, fun to be around, calm, made putting together a wedding seem as easy as throwing a picnic for your close friends. A rockstar of note, and she let slip that she used to be a Springbok rugby player.
DJ: Paul, for whom we don’t have a website.

btw I’m changing my oddest/weirdest/coolest thing to have happened at a wedding to a story involving a large peeled carrot and an elephant – I’ll tell you the story one day.

Right, so more images from Ryan and Nicole’s rocking wedding can be found on our facebook page, if you know them or were a guest, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

To all our couples from the last year, I hope you’re all enjoying your first Valentines day as a married couple.

More images from Ryan and Nicole’s rocking wedding can be found on our facebook page, if you know them or were a guest, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself in.

tag:

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Johannesburg City Photoshoot

dror — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:46:00 +0000

Still one of my favorite places to photograph. So much history, and you can’t beat the sunset.

Happy Valentines Day …

Memoire Wedding – Kelly and Fred

dror — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:01:49 +0000

Most mornings on the way to the gym I pass by this tire dealership, the name escapes me, it has a red exterior. The guys that work there are usually hanging out outside having a coffee and chatting away. I sometimes think that it must be nice to just leave your work at the end of the day, to know that tomorrow will be the same thing. Of course a lot of people treat wedding photography that way, so I’m not saying that. Just kind of wondering.

By the time I get home from a shoot I’ve already mentally gone through all the images in my cards. I know which one’s I’m looking forward to and most Sundays I’m up until breakfast time, backing up and editing images. This weekend was no exception there were a couple of images there, a couple that I had mentally filed away that seemed to me to capture Fred and Kelly, just that excitement and happiness at being married, the sun setting behind them and an insane landscape of rolling hills and picturesque clouds. Both of them bringing serious swagger and humor to our photoshoot. So hours later, I’d already edited those images, posted them to our facebook page and I was ready for some sleep. Fat chance. Just try sleeping on the amount of coffee I’d had over the last couple of hours. Only one thing to do. Go to gym, work off that caffeine.

Big thank you to Kelly and Fred’s parents for being such rockstars and making the day go so smoothly.

Ok, so, as always there are more photos from Kelly and Fred’s badass wedding on our facebook page, if you were there or know them, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself.

I love that look

More photos from Kelly and Fred’s badass wedding on our facebook page, if you were there or know them, you’re welcome to leave them a message or tag yourself.

tag:

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Canvas Printing

dror — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:35:47 +0000

After looking at a variety of options and suppliers, none of which seemed to meet our standards we’re now offering high-end canvas and acrylic prints, email us for our pricelist.

tag:

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Kerri and Quintis forever

dror — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:07:40 +0000

Somedays I get up and the air still smells faintly of roses and I kind of wonder about Johannesburg and the people that grow roses in the suburbs. This morning, the imac’s screen telling me it’s 2:43AM, I can smell those roses again, it’s silent out here in whitebreadland, not a sound. In about an hour or so, we’ll be back to the usual Johannesburg chaos. For the next couple of minutes this is my favorite time of the day.

I half consider going back to bed, but these days I don’t sleep so well. Insomnia and a 1997 Tiburon are all that are left from my days in the corporate world. So I fire up lightroom, get some coffee going and start doing some editing. I’ve already edited the images from Kerri and Quintis’ actual wedding, but we also did a underwater photoshoot for their day after shoot – I saw a couple of people on our Facebook page comment on the underwater photo that I posted that Kerri and Quintis must have been an amazing couple to work with, and they were. You can’t go wrong when a couple trusts you to do what you do. That’s when we do our best work.

more pics from Kerri and Quintis’ killer bee wedding and day after shoot can be found on our facebook page. If you were a guest or know them you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

and from their day after shoot …

is that not the coolest thank you image ever? They were already wet when I realised we hadn’t shot the Thank You image yet, might as well do it underwater right?

tag:

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Underwater Sundays

dror — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:32:13 +0000

Call them trash the dress or drown the gown or whatever you want, we’re getting a lot of requests lately for underwater photoshoots in wedding dresses – I blame it on this. I love these shoots, besides the fact that it’s one of the few times that I actually get into a pool, I’m not the strongest swimmer, the photos you get tend to be out of this world. Dresses floating in slow motion, the kind of silence that you only find underwater, the contrast of white on white. This Sunday’s underwater photoshoot delivered a couple of stunning images and I couldn’t be happier.

tag:

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Downtown

dror — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:50:46 +0000

Saturday may have been off, but Sunday we were back in town for a couples session. The city is quiet on a Sunday, a few ZCC members in their blue and white suits hurrying home, a couple holding hands and running across the Nelson Mandela bridge, taxis hooting, a million pigeons snacking on crumbs left by street vendors, and that distinctive feeling that the weekend is over.

We got some killer bee light though, and Jo’burg on a Sunday afternoon is a completely different beast from Jo’burg on any other day. All majestic and silent. My favorite time to walk down Bree Street. I love the authenticity of the buildings and the history of the place. Jarrett and Cornel were up for anything, our kind of clients, so we got to go to our regular scenic spots as well as a couple that I’ve been meaning to try for a while. Nice

tag:

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