Before I even get going, let me apologies for what is set to be a mammoth post, sure to load at a snail’s pace and cause all sorts of frustration! My bad, really, but I have all but given up on trying to pick my favorites and no doubt there will be an even larger selection going on to Facebook – so if you can’t get enough of the awesomeness, you’re well and truly in luck. However, if you’re unfortunate enough to still be using a dial-up modem, I’m afraid I have some really disappointing news for you… but hey, look at the bright side – at least Rocky III is coming to your town’s drive-in next month, so chin up!

So while you’re all waiting for those pics to load, let me tell you how much Lize-Marie and Gerdus’ wedding rocked – oh boy, it rocked A LOT! I actually feared for the safety of some guests, but that’s probably just because I had a really bad experience with a funnel back in the day. Got a wee flashback and nearly lost my dinner! Luckily no-one was hurt (badly) and everyone got on with the rather serious business of partying like rock stars.

Now, this was my first trip to Matjiesfontein – conveniently located right, slap-bang in the middle of nowhere – and while it offers very little along the lines of technological innovation or even such luxuries as TV, I was very happy to find it had no shortage of photo locations! a leisurely stroll through the entire town – which takes about 2 minutes, door to door – revealed several hundred good spots and it was immediately clear that finding a decent place to take photos was not going to be our biggest challenge for the day. I then headed over to where Lize-Marie was getting ready and let’s just say it was clear that getting a pretty pic of her would be about as hard as beating Kate Moss in an arm wrestling match. At this point you should be getting an idea of why I can’t pick my favorites for this post… from the moment I first put my camera to my eye that morning till I finally packed it away that night I was in photography heaven! I nearly died from the awesomeness!

There are so many favorite moments from this wedding that I’d like to share and hopefully the images will speak for themselves… but keep an eye out for some really stunning bridal portraits, a shot or 2 from the ceremony which are sure to make you go “AAAWWWWW”, some funnies from the bridal party, a couple of breathtaking couple photos and some rocking moments from the reception! and without further messing about, here they are!

oh, remember to head on over to the facebook page if you want to see a few more – will be up soon!

toodles
Jan

Jacolien and Riel are the type of people that make you stay in this business – there cannot be a greater truth to kick off a post with. See, many moons ago Jacolien sent me an email enquiry… Just another stock standard enquiry. Run of the mill stuff, really. I’m sure I sent a curtious and timely reply (as one does), attached the relevant information and reserved judgement (as I always do). But soon the emails were flying back and forth – multi page memoirs and thousand word essays – me sending tips and suggestions and her excitedly telling me about her dream wedding. Next thing I know I’d swear I was more excited about the whole thing than her and positively giddy with anticipation! That little email chat had given me a little glimpse of what dealing with these two would be like… in short, it would not be boring!

As is often the case for me, it was several months after that innitial email salvo had been fired before I finally got to meet Jacolien and Riël in person. Don’t ask me why, but a good 80+% of my clients book me without ever having met me face to face. Ok, if you were in fact to ask me “why” I would have to wager it has something to do with this here blog. I pour a lot of myself and my personality into my website, my posts and my writing and I’m often told by people that they’d gotten a perfectly good sense of who I am and what I’m about just from reading my blog. That’s all good and well, I guess, but at some point one has to meet… and that point was Jacolien and Riël’s engagement shoot. Obviously planning this little outing had triggered a new stream of emails between me and Jacolien and it wasn’t long before excitement levels once more had me reaching for a clean pair of pants!

I cannot stress enough how easy it is to work with people with such infectious personalities. People who can laugh so easily and who are so clearly, obviously and genuinely in love. During our shoots they would giggle and laugh and share the sweetest little stolen looks – only to stop, turn to me and announce, in all honestly, “we really dont not know what to do”… At which I would almost feint, because all the while I’m standing there thinking I want to shoot a bloody video of these two and show it to all future couples as a shining example of what they should do! You just can’t pose, teach or buy that sort of REAL interaction. It’s what us photographers dream of!

So before I start babbling again, I present to you the wedding of Mr and Mrs Riël Badenhorst. Have a gander, I think the pics speak for themselves!

Make-up by Lynn Nelson from LynnV Make-up, Hair & Nail Artistry

So this is the long awaited story of my first international wedding! Shot on a stunning ranch about an hour’s drive outside of Oklahoma City in the US of A! As I type this the clock in the office is just creeping up to the 2am mark ever so slowly but I’ll be damned if I don’t get this post up before I turn in for some shut-eye! See, this is more than just another blog post… it’s a huge big THANK YOU to Johann and Christin and their parents for flying my butt all the way to the other side of the world to share in their wedding celebrations. It might have been a working holiday of sorts, but it was way more holiday than work and I enjoyed the heck outa every second. It was truly an epic adventure and no words can really do justice… So I hope these pictures will!

I left sunny Cape Town on that fine Sunday afternoon and embarked on a crazy trip – zig zagging across the South of the US and spending most of the next week either in the air or in one airport or the other – sampling some of the local brews, running for boarding calls and removing my shoes, belt and cellphone for the umpteenth time while suspicious security personnel performed unspeakable acts on my camera bags. Needless to say I was packing more photographic equipment than a Japanese tour bus and apparently “no really, this is just how I roll” does not constitute sufficient explanation as to WHY. But you’ll be glad to know I escaped any cavity searches and we got there in the end – unviolated, if somewhat worse for wear and sans one kindle…

It goes a little something like this – Cape Town, Paris, Atlanta, Lexington, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Lexington, Detroit, Paris, Cape Town! …Now you might be excused if your eye just lingered a wee bit longer over one particular name in that list… VEGAS! indeed, your eyes were not deceiving you… and as is customary at this juncture, let me just add: VEGAS BABY!!!!! *ahem* that’s what they say, isn’t it?

Quite the experience, I have to admit… and brilliant to be able to share it with family who spared absolutely no effort or expense in showing me around and treating me to the time of my life. We saw a show (not THAT sort of show, you filthy buggers! Behave!), we walked the strip, stayed up past our bed time, ate ridiculous amounts at the outrageous buffet brunch and lamented at great length the poor quality of serving staff employed by the average casino, who are either catering for the deprived needs of men with very strange fetishes or alternatively – and possibly more plausible – men with exceedingly low standards! Our 2 day stay was over in the blink of a bloodshot, jetlagged eye and it felt like we had just arrived when we were asking our large, pregnant, tattooed and heavily pierced lady waiter for our last bill before making another mad dash to catch flight – a flight we would end up missing!

We arrived at the beautiful Tatanka Ranch sometime the next morning and were greeted by deer, bison, horses and views that stretched like Vegas dancers! I was a little bummed at first that I wasn’t greeted by snow covered plains though, but the winter was being most uncooperative and dishing up only the most balmy of days! So sunshine and clear skies would have to do… at least I knew how to shoot in that! However one thing I didn’t have much experience with was your standard American Wedding! When you shoot wineland’s weddings week in and week out, you might be excused for falling into somewhat of a comfort zone, I guess. You might think you have this whole wedding thing “down” and figured, but shooting a wedding abroad provides some unique challenges. A few new customs, a couple of subtle differences in the order of events and the odd, unexpected change to the way things are generally done will really do an excellent job of keeping you on your toes whilst also shaving the odd year off your life expectancy.

But something I do have just a lick of experience with is working with awesome couples and brides who look like they just stepped off the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, so I was right at home with Johann and Christin who looked dapper and breathtaking respectively. Its a great comfort when you look at the bride and you can say to yourself, “Relax dumbass! No matter how badly you screw up, it’s impossible to take a bad picture of her!”… so despite being somewhat out of my comfort zone and not feeling quite as in control as I would generally have liked, I got stuck in and just started shooting! The wedding day quickly rolled on and I just tried my best to appear calm. I learned 2 things pretty early on in this job… 1. Panic is not a good look for a Wedding Photographer; and 2. Brides can smell fear! or was that bees and horses? I forget… anyhoo…

The lads took a leisurely horseback ride ’round the ranch whilst the girls got on with the business of looking fabulous and before I knew it we were racing the clock to get some nice couple shots before last light. By the start of the reception I was quite chuffed with myself for pulling it all off without so much as a hitch, but Murphy wasn’t going to give up that easily. To this day I don’t know what caused it, but my flashes and triggers started acting up and I had one heck of a time keeping things lit! This, ladies and gents, is why you get a PRO with backup equipment to shoot your wedding… Even though I was only traveling with 4 flashes instead of my usual 8, I still had 3 different ways of triggering them. Total redundancy for just such an emergency! With a hurried change to the configuration we were back in business and shooting like nothing ever happened. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

My favorite part of the evening, without any doubt, was the groom and his best men busting out an incredibly well choreographed dance number to the total amazement and surprise of all the guests…. and me! The crowd went certifiably nuts! But I’ll let the pictures tell the story from here… I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them. As always, please let us know what you thought by leaving a comment and stay in touch by liking our facebook page here.

Toodles
Jan

Let’s start off by wishing all of you a very happy new year – may it be nothing short of spectacular! I ended 2011 on a real bang, kicking the wedding season into gear with an chocker November before shooting my first wedding in the US over December… even made a quick stop in Vegas! But more on that in a later post. That working holiday came and went in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it the long awaited trip was something of the past and I was back in the fair Cape licking my wounds after a veritable traveling marathon, which included no less than 11 flights and a 46hour journey home – complete with 12 hour layover in Paris. YAY for awesome travel agents… The meek might well inherit the earth, but they certainly won’t spend much time traveling back and forth between SA and the States.

Sadly, I hardly had any time to feel properly sorry for myself whilst Mr. Jetlag was giving me a good old going over – what with a Kilimanjaro rivaling pile of editing staring me in the face! No rest for the wicked and all that. I had spent the weeks leading up to my trip doing much shooting and rather little editing! As any photographer will tell you, that sort of thing is bound to catch up with you… So 2012 hadn’t even had the time to put on its pants and there I was, already playing catch-up… come to think of it, 2012 might not have required pants for what it had in mind for me! Be that as it may, despite the rogering and many late nights spent in front of the small screen, I am glad to report that I’m making short work of the backlog and I’m well and truly back in the saddle. To prove it, I shall now blog a wedding! ta-ddaaaaaaa!.. and then for my next trick…

So before I left our sunny shores for the land of the brave and home of the not so well versed in international current affairs I shot the wedding of Ruth and Des, who I first met whilst covering another wedding – that of their very good friends, Adel and Marnus… and let me just say that, as I enter my third year as wedding photographer, it’s brilliant to now have the privilege of covering the weddings of friends and family of my former clients – who are all AWESOME! None more so than Adel and Marnus… if I close my eyes I can still taste the Namibian biltong they presented me with that evening of their wedding. A whole bag full! hmmmm… biltong… WAIT! what was I saying? O yes, Des and Ruth – the latest addition to a growing list of AWESOME couples I’ve had the pleasure of working with!

Now I’ve given this quite a bit of thought and I have decided to award Ruth the title of Most Relaxed Bride In The World… Ever! I’m looking into having a badge made… or maybe a floating trophy. Anyhoo, if Ruth was ever – for even a second – anything other than chilled like a mousse, I didn’t notice. I’m pretty sure you’ll pick up on that in the pics too. All smiles and laughs. In fact both Ruth and Des seemed to just breeze through the formalities of the day, almost effortlessly. No faff, no stress.. they seemed to just take it all in whilst thoroughly enjoying every moment. As you can imagine, this makes my job pretty darn easy.

As the night unfolded, there was also a fair bit of dancing taking place… much of it done with great fervor and zeal by Ruth’s two sisters! I am looking into having another badge (or possibly a trophy) made as an award for their singularly stellar performances on the dance floor. I’m not entirely sure what the award will be called just yet, but I do think it should be the subject of an extensive facebook post and dedicated album. If ever someone was to ask “who ROCKED the dance floor at Des and Ruth’s wedding?”… let it be known – they did!

So without any more yammering and messing about – here are the pretty pics! Enjoy… and if you did enjoy them, please leave a comment or like our facebook page here!

Toodles

I haven’t done a maternity shoot in a while – loooong story that, but let’s not get into it right now. Anyhoo… i do so enjoy them, because it gives me an opportunity to try things out, to experiment, to play around with ideas and techniques. Weddings don’t really afford you that sort of luxury. Weddings are fast paced, high pressure environments where you get one shot, one chance, and you have to nail it – every time! No “if”s, “but”s or do-overs! The “Second kiss” just hasn’t got that same ring to it, has it? Pretty hectic if you sit down and think about it for a bit. So I love the freedom of these low-pressure shoots and the chance to do something different… and much of that translates into what I end up doing at weddings. On the flip side, a lot of it doesn’t work out at all and you spend a fair amount of time looking like a complete knob… comes with the territory, I guess!

Photography, much like real-estate, is very much about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! Now, I rather enjoy doing maternity shoots in the comfort of my client’s home. I don’t mind popping out for a quickie with some more alternative backdrops, but I do prefer the majority of the shoot to be in someone’s home. However that comes with a few challenges… Like trying to make a picture in every room (even the loo). Or just trying to make an extraordinary image in an – well, I don’t want to say ordinary environment, but an environment that is real, natural, normal and lived in. A couple on their own bed. A mom-to-be in the newly decorated baby’s room – it just adds something, I think.

But you can’t just walk in and say “righto, pop onto the bed there, folks”, snap a pic of them sitting on the bed and be off again. It’ll just look like 2 people sitting on their bed, wont it! Just a boring picture taken in your own house… where’s the fun in that? The picture at the top there, for instance, was shot in the bathroom – yeah, you heard right.. in the loo! If I pulled out a little point and shoot or a polaroid camera and made a frame of that scene, you would have nothing more than a pregnant lady standing in front of the bog! Not exactly the stuff dreams are made of, is it? But I had this idea in my head for a while now – flooding a room with light (took about 4 flashes) and having the model/subject/pregnant person stand in the doorway, to block out the spill, and me in the room across passage with a long-ish lens. Didn’t turn out too badly I don’t think… but I already have a few improvements brewing in the ol’ noggin! Next time, next time….

So on this particular shoot I pulled out just about every trick in the book – or at least every one at my disposal! I used every light shaping tool I own… snoots, softboxes, gels, white double-bed sheet – you name it! I even had to use some toilet paper as diffuser material when the flash was still too strong, after moving as far away and dialing it down as much as it allowed. I shot at shutter speeds WAY slower than anyone should be trying to shoot hand-held and I used wider lenses than the know-it-all types say one is supposed to use for portraiture… Heck I even broke the one sacred rule of photography when we finally did shoot outside – we did it right smack bang in the middle of the day! No “golden hour”, no warm backlight, no setting sun.. no, no, no! HARD, FLAT, UGLY mid-day sun – that’s how we role! So all ‘n all, I really challenged myself with this shoot… I could have done a lot of things differently to make it easier on yours truly, but I got way more out of it this way… plus, I quite like the pics!

I hadn’t been to Vredendal since the “Rittlefees” was at the very heights of its powers (a few years ago for those not in the know), but one thing I had vivid memories of was the absolutely blistering heat! Quite literally seared into my memory, I think. You can get a tan just thinking of Vredendal in November… 40 degrees in the shade and there aint no shade! So I might be forgiven for the level of trepidation I approached this wedding with. I had visions of heatstroke, dehydration, of eggs cooking on car bonnets and having to dig out roots of plants for some moisture in order to survive – very Bear Grills! I think the very thought of Vredendal in summertime would have ol’ Bear quaffing a pint of his own urine or squeezing the last water from a dead Camel’s rumen!

But turns out I was way off and my fears were completely misplaced… unfounded even! Turns out the hottest thing in Vredendal in early November was was in fact YOUNG LOVE… burnin’ strong! And the closest I got to drinking urine was a shot of Witblits – although, sometimes I’m not 100% sure which I prefer, truth be told! Be that as it may, we were treated to a perfectly cool evening in the countryside (What a blessing), with very little uncomfortable sweating – For which I was ever so thankful. But whilst outside it might have been quiet and cool, with only a slight breeze stirring through the trees… Inside it was quite a different story alltogether! more like a STORM! At least, that’s what the guests were dishing up on the dance floor! Rockstar moves, I tell ya… Would make the Jackson Five look like first round contestants on “so you think you can dance”!

In my expert opinion, a crazy good time was had by all! And that certainly extends to yours truly here, who had a ball trying out some interesting new lighting setups and shooting some late night portraits of the lovely couple, who were up for anything! YAY for my awesome couples… YET AGAIN! Now look, you might be inclined to think that this is just the sort of thing every photographer says – you know, to be nice, and what not. But let’s be quite honest, it’s not every bride who willingly plonks down on the ground in her beautiful white dress when the loon holding the camera mentions that “lying down in the dirt” might be a good idea! Of course, that wasn’t the only “bright idea” the loon with the camera had on the night… making out under various lighting fixtures was another reoccurring theme… oh, and don’t forget the little game I like to call “everyone puff the cigar and make smoke”! hehe… but it was all done for a good cause! that cause being awesome pictures, of course!

So thanks a bunch to Hannes and Anelle for letting me enjoy their lovely wedding with them – it was an absolute pleasure and they have extended my long run of having only the best and coolest couples! As is always my wish, I hope that these memories will last them a lifetime. It was a great occasion and if ever that age old question is asked: “wie maak vir Vredendal lekker?” …well… these folks right here – they do!

Constance and Ferdi tied the knot at the spectacular Allee Bleue estate, just outside Franschoek, on the most perfect of spring days. Those not so new to the blog might recall their engagement shoot from a few weeks back — shot at the same awesome location. As part of my prep for that shoot I scouted a couple of locations before Constance and Ferdi arrived and found some loooooovely orchards (and man-eating, killer squirrels, but that’s a different story altogether). I also found the smallest of hints of what was to come… just one small little white flower. The trees were just about to bloom, or so I figured, not being a botanist of any great acclaim! Nevertheless I made a wild, completely unscientific estimate of blooming times for unspecified trees with white blossoms and decided that we would have perfect white blossoms everywhere, just in time for the big day – and then marked the spot with a big mental X in the back of my mind!

The weeks flew by and on rolled the wedding. My Secret Orchard was somewhat secluded – about 3 days on horseback from the main venue… Bear Grills would no doubt have needed to drink his own urine on the way over there… But apart from simply being “far”, the distance also meant that I wasn’t going to get there and check it out before our couple shoot, so I had no way of knowing whether my botanical stab in the dark had been even remotely close to the mark. Only thing to do was hope for the best and then take Constance and Ferdi on a roundabout trip of shooting locations, each one slightly further into the woods and edging ever so slightly closer to where I hoped to discover the awesomeness of an entire orchard dressed in white… either that, or a witch’s house made entirely of candy! As it turned out, the sun was just about to set behind the mountains and we were nearing the end of the shoot. We had walked about as far one could ask of a bride in full bridal attire – which doesn’t include hiking boots – when I caught a glimpse of the orchard around the next bend. IN! FULL! BLOOM!

I nearly pee’d my pants!

anyhoo… was my first shoot with white blossoms, OK! so I was just a little excited – gimme a break! But the excitement didn’t stop me from noticing that Constance looked an absolute vision and Ferdi was as relaxed and fun as he was when we did their engagement shoot… so it all made for a great day — Great couple (cause I always have the best couples! touch wood!), great weather, yummy food, stunning venue, guests who had a BALL on the dance floor and those awesome white blossoms. YAY!

Thanks to Natelee Koen for assisting me and Jaypee Malherbe for doing such top notch make-up work! Nice one!

Evening folks! I’ve been dragging my heels a little and this post is long overdue, but I feel absolutely inspired to get it up tonight. What with these two rapidly turning into my favorite couple of all time… I met Charlene just a couple of months before the wedding when she was interviewing potential photographers for her and Divan’s big day. I was meeting both her and the wedding coordinators for the first time – a little chat over coffee to see if we “clicked”, as one does… and click we did! Me and Charlene got there first and by the time Mary-Ann and Charlene from Dream Catchers (wedding planning) arrived, we had already had a meeting of the minds. We hit it off right from the get-go and got on like a house on fire. Charlene’s excitement about her coming wedding was nothing short of infectious and I couldn’t help but get caught up in it myself.

After that we had some really good fun shooting their e-session, on a day when the weather threatened to derail the whole thing. With the wedding fast approaching and the weather not doing us any favors, we decided to just go out and see what we could get, no matter what. Come hell or high water… or Cape Town winter, for that matter! We ended up having to shoot in the rain on a day most people would much rather have spent under the duvet or in front of the telly, but there was never a complaint or so much as a hint of negativity… and it showed in the photos, I think. Two awesome people, very in love, caught up in the excitement of their big day and just having fun. We got some really nice shots too and I think it just fuelled that flame of theirs even more.

Watching them on their big day, it was just a pleasure to see all of that excitement and planning and effort and waiting all come together and unfold into a perfect evening. In typical Cape Town fashion, it went from pouring rain and freezing cold during the week to balmy summertime on the Saturday. Sunny and hot with a 100% chance of happiness! I hope I’ve done a good enough job of capturing that happiness and that these images will give them a lifetime of memories. They definitely deserve it!

And so it is that I write this with a tummy so full that I can hardly see, let alone type. Divan, being and avid fisherman, was able to organise me some fresh tuna steaks — which I promptly seared and popped on a lush bed of mash! Those babies never even made it to the fridge. Overindulgence is a vice I have long struggled with… and I’m afraid if I get my hands on any more of that tuna, those struggles are sure to continue. So before I take a little cat-nap (or raid the kitchen for seconds), let me share the pretty pics from the wedding!

Enjoy!

ps. Big shout out to the Dream Catchers team for putting everything together! Was an absolute pleasure working with you guys… long may it continue!

So with jiffybags on everything electronic and umbrellas on everything recently engaged we braved the elements, risking life and limb and conquering a very real fear of melting. Yes, lesser men would no doubt have been sipping hot chocolate and watching reruns of Frazier or the OC, but not us… oh no, not us! Fearlessly we soldiered on! Through mildly cool air. Through intermittent drizzle. Through icky wet grass that soaked your shoes and made you slosh-slosh when you walked. Ignoring the very real threat of trench foot – the careless photographers greatest enemy, I like to think of it – we soldiered on!

In the end we did get to take some pretty photos. We certainly got to know each other a bit better (which is the real point of these sessions) and we definitely shared a good few laughs! Once again the feedback from the soon-to-be-weds was great and I think they got a great deal out of it. Not just the nice pics, but confidence. Confidence in me, the process and confidence in front of the camera. Not only does it take the pressure off before the big day, but it really helps build the excitement.

As luck would have it, the weather also started to clear up nicely just as we were finishing up… Mother nature – she is a cruel mistress.

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!