Friday, Red Ivory Lodge. Somehow this is how I’d imagined two people who had been dating for 17 years would be getting married. Relaxed, at ease with everything, a lot of emotion amongst the family, and a killer bee view across the Magaliesburg. A first dance to Depeche Mode’s ‘Somebody’ gets top marks from everyone including the very strict Russian judge.

Some vendor details:

DJ: Sean Torres
Video: Nick and Santi from DVI
Decor/flowers: Don’t quote me on this, but I think I saw Cindy from The Bloom Room leaving as we arrived.
Venue: Red Ivory Lodge, one of our favorite venues – James is always there to make sure things are running smoothly, the food rocks (The onion soup with Camembert!) and the view/location is out of this world.

You can see more from Mark and Melissa’s Red Ivory Wedding here.

So the season has started and we’ve been seeing a lot of new clients, chatting to them, the general consensus seems to be that they’d like to see more blog images from each wedding. We’re going to try something new this season and post an extended version of the wedding on our facebook page – yes we’ve finally joined the rest of the world and have a facebook page! – so a short, tight edit for the blog and an extended version for facebook. Click here to see more images from this wedding.

3

• Action photography (1)
• Leopard Lodge Album (2)
• The Cradle of Humankind weddings (0)
• Theo Crous – Rock Monster (0)
• Alesa and Dimitri at Saheti (0)

It was early monday, the stars were just starting to dissolve in the sunlight. We were on our way north. Hours later in another world we walked in the bushveld with lions, heard ten of them at a time make that deep rumbling in their chest that signifies that they are happy to see you. I scratched Rafiji behind the ears and gave her some strokes, I was missing our boys who were in the cattery back home. V was given a naughty look by Ruma (a euphemism for ears back, eyes wide, shoulders hunched look that roughly translated means hello little snack). I got the kind of sunburn that V calls a pommie tan.

Zambia was amazing, we met cool people, strange people and the downright bizarre that can only be found in Africa. Crossed the Zambezi in a pontoon twice, saw huge baobabs and took more malaria pills than I care to think about. The best part though was reconnecting with an old friend and seeing how well she is doing.

Anyway, we’re back and excited for the new season – we’re at Red Ivory this weekend.

There’s a sweet interview with me by Kanoa at http://kanoautler.com/2010/08/11/featured-dror-eyal-photography
If you’ve registered for RE.INVENT II – only a week to go! There are some cool surprises planned, I can’t wait.
The title of the blog post refers to an Ethiopian saying that I was sent before I went on the trip – if a lion shows you his teeth, he is not smiling. Walking in the bush with an African lion by my side was possibly the most surreal experience of my life. It still feels completely unreal. More info on African Lion Environmental Research Trust can be found here.

3

• pre/post marital communication training (0)
• Mpumalanga 2008 (0)
• Killing Me Softly (0)
• Marli and Ben at Ingwenya (0)
• Ursula and John at The Johannesburg Country Club (4)

On a shoot, back next monday.

3

• The Mist and I’m Not There (0)
• Charlene & Ryan (Sneak Peek) (0)
• How To Starve Your Photographer : A Field Guide (0)
• Wedding Inspirations (0)
• Taryn and Quentin (0)

Photography season has finally started, and what a start to the season. Two photographers getting married – always a rush when you’re photographing another photographer, and very cool when they turn out to be such nice people – an amazing sunset, a close gathering of family and friends, rockstar swagger and a venue we haven’t been to before. Forgive the way too many photos, I may have gone a bit overboard.

3

• Charlene & Ryan (Sneak Peek) (0)
• Travelling to Destination Weddings (0)
• Five years (0)
• New Sample Album (0)
• Christmas @ Letamo Game Estate (1)

The workshop sold out in the very first week! How awesome is that? Just one couple canceled, so two places (obviously) are available should you wish to join us, which you can do by merely browsing the workshop website.
We now need a model for the workshop. Any takers out there? Anyone?
It will be a fun afternoon with a trash-the-dress theme of shooting – although, I promise your wedding frock will not be ruined. We tend to attract very adventurous personalities, so should you sway towards the self-assured, then you’re also more than welcome.
If you are predisposed to being photographed by 20 different people, and prepared to stand in the most ridiculous spots, then please email us at bookings@theworkshops.co.za to lay your hands on more details.
Cathy Heaton, a very talented make-up artist, has kindly agreed to do make up and we will provide you with the images submitted together with a couple of prints.

copied from Andrea’s blog, except I didn’t have a cool witty image of a bride in front of a workshop sign. It is a great chance to put that dress on again and get some killer bee edgy images at a stunning location.
if you can’t make it but you think your friends might, hit the Like button and let them know –

3

• Back from CT (0)
• The Date Game (0)
• Dullstroom wedding album (4)
• By Invite Only (0)
• An occasional series #6 (0)

ok, so it might seem odd to say one is inspired visually by a cooking show – but I do a lot of cooking, and hence watch a lot of cooking shows – this one is magnificently shot. Really epic, even though I had to look up chiffonade and the soundtrack is pretty dodgy.

3

• Top 5 Wedding Blog Entries (0)
• Comments (0)
• Eva and Matt at The Cradle of Humankind (4)
• White horse afternoon (0)
• Nicole and Brett (0)

Andrea and I will be kicking it up a notch at our new workshop, now with extra marketing and branding knowledge. More info over at The Workshops website.

3

• Thandi and Tom’s album (2)
• Nicky and Andrew at Longmeadow Piano Lounge (III) (7)
• Smile! (0)
• Christine and JP at The Grace (1)
• Thandi and Tom at Mokolodi in Gaborone (4)

I’m more than just a little bit shy about seeing myself in photos, and even more shy on video. So I haven’t posted this – its a promo that the inimitable Dave at DVI (our videographers of choice) shot for us to use for a workshop that we are supposed to be doing in the Ukraine. After watching it I think I should always walk in slow motion.

3

• Marli and Ben at Ingwenya (0)
• Roger and Greg at The Westcliff (0)
• Rockstars required (0)
• Frank and Ingrid (0)
• New lightroom presets (4)

There have been quite a few albums in the last two weeks where I have thought, ok, these guys are my clients. I don’t want to bore you with album after album, but just a couple of pages from Elrese and Reghardt’s wedding. Cause they were just cool, and their album really reflects the fun that they had on the day.

Remember we don’t choose photos for our clients, these are their picks for the album, we just lay them out.
You’re looking at double page spreads from an Asuka album – they’re just over half a meter wide.

3

• Action photography (1)
• Whiteout Sunday (0)
• Silver Trees (0)
• Moon and Sixpence (0)
• Muk-en-Druk (0)

Ok, another album that came through this week that I love. From Dominique and Charl’s wedding, very very different from Gretha and Carl-Gustav’s album, but again classic, elegant and timeless and in a couple of years won’t leave them feeling like they got the album equivalent of bell bottoms. Again, this is one of those times when my aesthetic and the client’s aesthetic matched.

You’re looking at double page spreads from an Asuka album – they’re just over half a meter wide.

3

• Albums (0)
• How To Starve Your Photographer : A Field Guide (0)
• Where in the world is Dror? (0)
• Lee and Cameron at Casalinga (0)
• Studio Closed (0)

We often have discussions at the studio about creating albums without any input from the clients. It seems the logical way to create albums that we are happy with, the counter argument of course is that we want clients to have the images that they want in their albums – after all they are their albums. My opinion tends to swing back and forth depending on what that week’s clients chose for their album, on a week where a client has completely misunderstood my aesthetic, missed what I thought was special about their wedding and has chosen 80 posed group photos for the album, well on those weeks I tend to wonder why they chose us as their photographer and start dreaming about what their album could have looked like. In the last couple of weeks though, we have seen some killer bee albums come and go through the studio. With your indulgence I’d like to showcase a couple of those.

This one from Gretha and Carl-Gustav’s wedding out in the Free State. It is pretty much what I’d like an album to look like, classical and elegant with a sense of timelessness.

You’re looking at double page spreads from an Asuka album – they’re just over half a meter wide.

3

• Kalika and Gerhard at Forum Homini (4)
• Melissa and Steve at The Cradle (13)
• Nina and Ryan at Moon and Sixpence – and we’re back (1)
• Six-20 ‘Brownie’ (0)
• Almost 35 (1)

Taryn’s bouquet is featured in the June issue of Wedding Inspirations magazine – really nicely designed magazine with good reproduction (which makes me very happy, and its subtitled The Bridesmaid in Your Handbag which makes me smile every time I think about it). Highly recommended. I don’t post too many details from weddings on this blog, but I do take quite a few, so it is nice to see one of our detail shots featured in a magazine.

The shocking scans are courtesy of my old fax/scanner – I really need a new one.

This month I was also invited to join an organization of the best wedding photographers in the world, after a portfolio review by the likes of Ben Chrisman, David Beckstead, Del Sol Photography, Anna Kuperberg and Crash Taylor. I got some nice comments including “some of the most intriguing and beautiful images I’ve seen in the process of browsing thousands of photographers websites over the last year”. Nice.

3

• St Martins and The Westcliff (0)
• Updates and cinnamon (0)
• 724 unread emails (0)
• Comments (0)
• RE.INVENT II (0)

Phew end of the season, start of the world cup, I think the neighbour’s kid has been blowing his vuvuzela non-stop for the last two days (how does he breath?). Last weekend I was privileged to shoot Barry and Deidre’s wedding at the Johannesburg Country Club. Irreverent, classic and lets just say that the guests were a little on the fun side, not something that the JCC is famous for.

3

• An occasional series #5 (0)
• Charlene & Ryan (Sneak Peek) (0)
• Overexposed (0)
• Busy Weekend Part II (0)
• Johannesburg (0)

This one is a bit different, I didn’t shoot any of these pics. A couple of weeks ago I had an emergency and couldn’t make it to a wedding, several people jumped in to help and I was grateful to Andrea, Ben and Eileen who covered for me. So a couple of pics from Peter and Karien’s wedding, a sneak peek from a day that looks like it was a chilled and funky affair.

3

• Taryn and Quentin (0)
• Its a beach! (2)
• Nicole and Marc at Tintswalo (0)
• YABB (0)
• Angie and Brandon at the Westcliff (2)

Also not too sure what I was doing above the South Pole.

3

• U2 Covers (0)
• Complete Wedding (0)
• Comments (0)
• more westcliff weddings (0)
• This one goes all the way up to 11 (0)

We were up at Nylstroom this weekend, or Modimolle if you prefer, for Elizette and Shaun’s wedding. It rained. I know a lot of people talk about it raining on their wedding day, but we’re were talking serious rain, the kind of rain that comes down in buckets and buckets for hours, the kind of rain that requires large umbrellas, boots and a GPS. It had been looking ominous as we started approaching Modimolle, barreling up on the N1 from Joburg, and it was kind of gently drizzling when we arrived at the chalet Elizette was getting ready in, but it started seriously coming down on the way to the ceremony spot. We were in the groom’s jeep, headed up the mountain on a 4×4 track to the big fig tree that they were get married under. I was kind of half day dreaming, thinking that if it didn’t stop soon we may need an ark or some kind of boat to get back home.

So I loaned my umbrella to the father of the bride, wrapped up in my almost warm gray jacket and started shooting. One minute to shoot, one minute to wipe the water off the lens, thankfully the D700 is weather proof, but not the ideal weather for photography unless you happen to be really really into cumulonimbus clouds. The fig tree, the people under umbrellas and the bride and groom kissing under an umbrella made for some killer bee pics though.

I know what you’re thinking, especially if you also happen to be a wedding photographer, and I was also pretty curious about how we would go about doing some portraits, the light was fading fast because of the serious clouds, there was no indoors, and the rain didn’t look like it planned on stopping any time soon. I had a vague plan involving umbrellas, a video light and a safety pin, so we hopped into the jeep and headed down to a spot I had seen on the way up the mountain. Elizette was game, Shaun looked he had seen a few serious storms in his life and the veld didn’t look that muddy…

… twenty two minutes, that’s how long the rain stopped for, twenty two minutes to get in some killer bee pics with those amazing skies, and that perfect shade of yellowish blue that only seems to occur after a serious rainstorm, but Elizette and Shaun brought the rockstar swagger with genuine moments and happiness at being married. Then the rain was back, so we jumped in the jeep, dried the cameras again and headed towards the reception, the windscreen wipers fighting a losing battle with the rain, and a vague thought in the back of my head that we may need some help getting out of the venue if the dirt road we drove in on turned into mud.

By the time the reception started, I had mentally prepared my blueprints for an ark – it wasn’t a huge ark, but it had killer wi-fi facilities and a serious cappuccino machine. By then the fire had been lit, there was a coffee station set up, the DJ was spinning tunes, the news arrived that the Bulls had won, and I probably should have been thinking about how far the nearest petrol station was (about 6km less than the amount of petrol I had left in the tank) instead of happily looking through my pics on the back of the camera.

ok, probably more images than you wanted to see from their portrait shoot but I was pretty chuffed that we managed to nail such killer bee images under those circumstances. Ah, yes, almost forget, I was joined by the super talented Stella Sassen (RE.INVENT I) for the day.

I recently read a review of my work where the writer called my photographs, colorful and playful – I think she may have confused me with someone else.
If you’re a true stalker, you would have noticed that I haven’t posted anything from around the beginning of May, we had some unfortunate news which kept our full attention from the studio. We are rapidly catching up on the work, and I’ll be posting updates more regularly.

3

• Rock the bed (0)
• some velvet evening (3)
• Hey Hotshot (0)
• Black and white (0)
• Day of the Living Midgets (1)

3

• Easter (0)
• very artistic and somewhat adventurous (3)
• Wedding of the Year (3)
• Elrese and Reghardt at Moon and Sixpence (0)
• slightly crispy please (0)

I’m still dreaming about that perfect black and white wedding album. Until then a monochrome post will have to do.

processed with the teaset presets, shot at Kuthaba.

3

• Honest Answers (0)
• A Tale of Two Suppliers (0)
• Julie and Glenn at Critchley Hackle in Dullstroom (5)
• Diane and Rick at Casalinga (0)
• Charine and Jannie at Swan’s Rest (0)

I’m going to post a lot from this wedding, not only because I spent five days in transit getting there and back, and had the wildest time, but also because Heather and Mike just are rock ‘n roll. Not the kind of rock ‘n roll that they play on the radio but the kind of swagger that the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion brings to a sweaty night on the town. Kick-ass-take-no-prisoners-don’t-settle-for-anything-that-isn’t-out-there-on-the-edge, could be Mike and Heather’s motto – of course its way too long to be a motto, and it would never fit on the family crest, but you get the idea. Who else would fly along with their four closest friends, past the international dateline, get into some helicopters on the cusp of a storm, stand on the edge of cliff in winds that would make superman rethink red as part of his costume, and promise to be together for ever. We won’t even get into the top 10 things that you’d never hear at a wedding – my fav being … that wasn’t a carrot. It was surreal, and on the edge, and rock ‘n roll and I still can’t believe that it happened. We need photographic evidence dammit.

Every year I take on two or three international weddings, and I’m grateful to have been able to go to this one.

3

• Smile! (0)
• Liesel and Darren (0)
• Half Nelson (2)
• Brigitte + Rod @ Avianto (0)
• South Pole (0)

from my journal:

Not really sure how many hours have passed, or even what day it is. The flight board says Monday, so I’ve been traveling for three days, but three days where and in what time zone? The large number of tranqs I’ve been downing as we keep hitting turbulence are making the memories a little soft at the edges. I’m about 10 time zones away from where I started, about an hour away, by fast boat, from the international dateline where you actually go a day into the past.

I’m beyond tired, a greasy Spanish looking guy that sat next to me on the plane from Joburg, had taken off his shoes and let the smell of his soaks permeate into the economy seating, the woman behind me kept kicking my chair (apparently its ok to do that in economy), and not even the tranqs I had taken had done anything for my sleep patterns.

I’ve been on steady diet of airline food, tranqs, so that I get on the plane and stay on it, and caffeine, so that I don’t get grumpy and annoy the immigration officials who are still beelining for me despite the fact that I’ve shaved off the goatee and covered up the tattoos. Today, biosecurity has made me unpack my bag and I’ve been selected for the random bag swab for explosives.

Its about 4am, local time, at the Christchurch airport and I’m gulping a large cappuccino that in my chronic jet lag I tried to pay for with a 10 pula note. There are people sleeping huddled on the airport floor. Some are in sleeping bags, some are wrapped in blankets and towels. Its freezing in here. They all seem to be huddled around the electrical outlets, laptops and ipods recharging. I contemplate finding a hotel for the night, but my flight leaves in four hours, I decide to join them. Only six more hours until I land in Queenstown. I’ll sleep then. The caffeine is slowly drip drip dripping into my veins. In a couple of hours I will be in a plane with propellers hitting serious turbulence, the guy next to me pulling out a book of Psalms and mumbling the words … this does nothing to alleviate my fear of flying.

3

• 33 (0)
• Celia and Hugh at the Coachhouse in Tzaneen (1)
• Oded Balilty (0)
• Elrese and Reghardt at Moon and Sixpence (0)
• Tim and Helen at the Johannesburg Country Club (0)

The Oysterbox Hotel down in Umhlanga is not the kind of place that you would expect an Icelandic boy to be marrying his Greek princess, but these two brought the rock star swagger on a whole new level to their photography. Stefan had torn his achilles tendon and was being wheeled around in a wheelchair, he’d also just had a throat op and was still sounding a little Billy Holiday’ish. I would have been filled with painkillers, whiskey and ennui, not necessarily in that order. Not these two, sometimes the adrenaline and endorphins of being in love and being bound together for eternity kick in and … well, rock start swagger, killer bee photographs and serious weather. My best part of the evening was the Icelandic four liner poem, no translation necessary.

Its been a long three weeks. V and I are very private people we’ve pretty much kept to ourselves after getting the news. I just wanted to thank all our clients who were was supportive and understanding, and those that weren’t, well, it takes all kinds.
Again thank you, your well wishes touched us.
In other news, we got a nice mention on the My Eco Wedding in Africa blog. We also won a Profoto award in the Fine Art category (its a long story) and the pics will be featured in a photography book.
Don’t you hate it when magazines contact you and want to interview you, but only if you take out a full page ad?
If you’re looking to tempt, cajole, thank or bribe me – I’m currently very fond of this.

3

• if a lion (0)
• South Pole (0)
• Forum Homini (0)
• How You Wear Your Hat (0)
• Sepia (0)

On my way back from a very crazy cool wedding in New Zealand – Frodo must have frozen his ass off out here. Give me a day or two to recover from jet lag and I’ll start replying to the emails.

3

• Phil and Nadine – The Wedding Album (2)
• Tova and Brad at Shepstone Gardens (2)
• Red Ivory Lodge – Melissa and Mark (0)
• The Moment (0)
• Gretha and Carl-Gustav at home (0)

3

• Kahn’s Exeter Short Film (0)
• Diane & Jason (Sneak Peek) (0)
• Taryn and Grant at The Radisson (0)
• Downtown Couples Session (0)
• Album : Gretha and Carl-Gustav (0)

Its been an odd two weeks, I’ve finally made the big switch to a Mac based studio and it hasn’t stopped raining (not related I hope, or I may be starting on a family sized ark really soon). So this is my first all mac wedding, I love the speed but miss all the shortcuts, actions, scripts and other bits and bobs that had to be left behind on the PC.

I’m going to let the pics from Dave and Emma’s Shepstone Gardens wedding speak for themselves this week, with maybe a bit of a blurb under each one.

I’ve seen a couple of searches on this site for ifiles – there are more details here. Please note however that there no plans at the moment to print more.

3

• The Bouquet Shot (0)
• Image of the Month (0)
• Nadia and Pritesh (0)
• An occasional series #13 (0)
• Shoot with Dror (0)