As a precursor to Wedding Season, which is just ’round the corner, we have now entered Engagement Shoot season. With some clients engagement shoots also mean a long awaited first meeting with yours truly here. Me and Constance, for instance, have been liaising over the phone or by way of emails for the past couple of months and their E-session was a chance for us to finally catch up – face to face. I always meet with clients in the lead-up to the big day, just to go over the last little details and discuss the program, but if you can do that at a beautiful venue on a balmy spring day and throw in a bit of a photo shoot – well, why not? And oh boy did we have a nice venue… Allee Bleue is practically legendary in the Cape Winelands wedding industry and not without good reason either. I spent a leisurely half-hour just walking all over the place. Down to the river. Through the orchards and into some bushes where a squirrel gave me the fright of my life and I nearly died! All part of the job… you have to be fearless as a photographer – even when dealing with dangerous wild animals like squirrels! They can take your arm clean of, you know!

So after a quick change of pants and a shot of sugar water, we were off to take some pics… and I was reminded again how good these sessions are, both for me as a photographer and for the soon-to-be-wed couple. The feedback I get after e-shoots is always so positive and each couple will generally echo the same sentiments: “we had so much fun and it’s just made us so much more excited about the wedding day and the photos!”. Time and again! An engagement shoot is really the 2 hours it takes you to go from “we really don’t enjoying being in front of the camera” to “we can’t wait for the photos on our wedding day”. Dare I say, this was no exception… Ferdi and Constance are so quick to have a laugh together, I basically just had to leave them alone for a second and then stand back and start shooting. Easy. as. that!

Can’t wait for their wedding next weekend! Happy people, awesome venue and – as a kicker – I have it on good authority that we’ll see some white blossoms in the orchards! Holding thumbs!