Best Wedding Pics of 2016

Best Wedding Pics of 2016

2016 sure has thrown some challenges at me but there have also been some wonderful moments and blessings to celebrate!

First off is that I have had a couple of very big affirmations from the international wedding photography community. This year I was placed on the Fearless Photographers top 100 photographers of all time. The calibre of photographers on this list is astounding so this really was an incredible piece of news. Next up was being placed on the SLR top 150 international wedding photographers of 2016 and lastly but certainly not least was winning the Admired in Africa top wedding photographer of 2016! The prize with this feather in my cap was a camera I have been lusting for! I won a Fuji XT2 mirrorless which I am absolutely delighted with. Golly I feel very lucky and this certainly makes all the hard work and long hours worth it.

One of the biggest blessings of 2016 however is the fact that I have had such a wonderful bunch of clients over the past year. Wedding photography has taken me all over the country and in fact the world, but the thing that keeps me keeping on is that I am constantly meeting dynamic and interesting people who inspire me to tell their stories. Huge thanks to all of my clients for entrusting me with your memories and for looking after us so well.

I must also thank all the other wedding suppliers who we have worked alongside this year. We have had alot of laughs over this big bad crazy 2016th of a year! Thank you for all your help and friendship!

Lastly I am extending a huge thank you to my assistant Liz. She has been there for me through thick and thin this year and there are no words to adequately describe how deeply I appreciate all her hard work, loyalty and boundless energy! Liz you rock and I am so lucky to have you in my life.

Here’s to a 2017 full of abundance, joy, experience, beauty and peace.

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How to unboring your wedding pics?

How to unboring your wedding pics?

I recently gave a lecture to a group of 30 odd photographers on behalf of Nikon on “How to unboring your wedding Photography” and one of the questions I asked the audience was “What is it about wedding photography that makes you love it?”

I believe that in order to make authentic images we need to turn inward to discover what we really love and what we are drawn to instead of blindly copying trends or trying to do what everyone else is doing. If we know what we like and why, then we can apply these to our own work and use it as a map or a guide. If we keep coming back to this map we can create our own path instead of looking at everyone else and following the status quo which aside from being boring, can be an endless cycle.

I studied Fine Art and this has become a guide for me as it is important for me that I make images that have meaning behind them. I love to tell stories with my camera and also create new stories every time I shoot. It would kill me to keep making the same images over and over and have a repertoire of shots that I reproduce in every album. I also love to people watch and so I love taking unscripted documentary images of people doing all the weird and wonderful things that they do at weddings. I draw much of my inspiration from my clients. Weddings offer me the opportunity to take creative portraits, tell stories with my camera and also capture moments like a photo journalist. This is why I love photographing weddings and I use this as a map every time I shoot. This is also why my clients come to me!

Huge thanks to everyone who came along to my chat! So good to meet you all!!!

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Winter lit lagoon Engagement Shoot – Lisa + Shawn

Winter lit lagoon Engagement Shoot – Lisa + Shawn

There is something incredibly magical about the light in Natal in June. As the sun starts heading to it’s hiding place behind the hills in the evening, everything in it’s path is bathed in a warm gentle glow. With the sun setting in the west we Durban folk don’t get the spectacular ocean sunsets that Cape Town does. I do however know of a certain lagoon which is painted yellow, orange and then pink as the sun dips.

When Lisa first contacted me about possibly shooting their wedding she asked my opinion about what I thought the best month would be to plan a Natal wedding. I could tell that light was very special to Lisa. I naturally told her that June would be the month I would choose to get married and when she asked me to do their engagement shoot on the beach I naturally chose my special lagoon!

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Ode to the wedding ring – My thoughts behind shooting specific detail shots

Ode to the wedding ring – My thoughts behind shooting specific detail shots

I have just read the article you wrote about your approach to photographing wedding shoes and I found this rather intriguing. I understand that you use the overall theme of the wedding when photographing details but please can you elaborate on this. i Would love to know your thought process behind each shot, even if you just have time to write about one or two. I know I am probably being cheeky asking you to do extra work but I noticed you now have a Q&A section on your blog.

Thanks for the email Lynne! Instead of going back to the shoe article which you can read by clicking here. Let’s chat about wedding rings as my approach would be similar for both objects. Firstly I would like to say that not every couple wants a ring shot … some would rather me take pictures of actual people as opposed to objects. I always ask my couples alot of questions before shooting a wedding and the answers they give me changes the way I approach the day.

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In the shot above the couple got married at the Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga. The red and white lighthouse is an icon of this area and very much loved by the couple. The bride was not from South Africa but the groom was and he had great memories of growing up in Umhlanga. I simply placed the rings on top of a post card I found of an aerial view of the Hotel. For me this not only places the wedding in terms of it’s location, it also evokes their mutual love for this landmark and each other.

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We took this pic in the Caribbean which is all about the white sandy beaches and cocktails with mini umbrellas. Enough said!!!

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When I arrived at this wedding I noticed the free newspaper for hotel guests at the door and grabbed it to draw reference to the couple’s wedding date.

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This particular couple live in the UK but specifically chose to get married in South Africa hence me using a map of SA to photograph their wedding rings on.

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Cagla is half Turkish/ half German and Brendon is from South Africa but lives in Zambia and they met in Australia and have traveled all over the world together. It was therefore important for me to communicate the idea of world travel and so I used their wedding invite with a world map on it as a base for their ring shot. They had their names printed onto M&M’s as sweeties for guests and I added these to the pic for some extra interest.

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It was a very rainy wet wedding … need I say more!

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There always seems to be sev and nuts available at Indian weddings and so I shot the rings with this unique Indian treat!

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This particular couple love to play chess. They also loved all the quirky details at the place they got married. This chessboard therefore became the perfect place to photograph their rings.

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I took this pic in Zambia. The groom was mad about tiger fishing and the lodge where they got married is right on the Zambezi river which is known for this type of fishing, in fact we actually photographed the guys fishing in the morning before the wedding. I therefore had some fun with a fishing lour and some hooks.

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ThIS particular couple came down from Joburg to have their dream beach wedding! I found a travel mag with a great beach shot on it and used this for their ring shot.

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This couple are both Afrikaans and very proud of their heritage. They got married on the bride’s Grandfathers farm and it was filled with all sorts of trinkets like old wagon wheels and potjie pots.

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Camilla and Don got married on Camilla’s family fruit farm up near Nelspruit – the one thing that struck me about their farm life was the fact that there were always grapefruits available for breakfast and so I photographed the ring with a breakfast tray.

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The Natal Midlands in autumn is absolutely gorgeous. I love the golden leaves that litter the crunchy driveways! This couple chose to get married on the farm where the bride grew up and they particularly chose an autumn month to get married on. It therefore seemed obvious that I had to photograph the rings using an autumn theme. This was a very rainy wedding … what more can I say!!!!

So in essence one can use detail shots to talk about the couples interests, the location of their wedding, the theme of their wedding, the weather on the day, the date of their wedding …….. etc etc
Instead of just taking pictures I like to tap into my passion for story-telling and create narratives. This makes the work more meaningful.

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Best Wedding Pics of 2013

Best Wedding Pics of 2013

2013 brought with it some wonderful things to be grateful for but also some incredibly difficult challenges. Huge thanks to everyone for the support over the past year. Thanks also to all my clients … I feel blessed to have walked along a path filled with interesting people who have hired me to explore and create. Lastly thanks to all the service providers who we have worked alongside. I hope the year of the horse will be as noble and magnificent as the real life creatures! Let’s go 2014!

Here are some of my favorite wedding images from 2013!

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