Dallas & Kavita were married in a very lush ceremony in Durban.  Ive been to many many weddings, but for me this one was special.  I got to know Kavita and Dallas’ parents. We had many discussions from preparing an Indian wedding in South Africa, with children in Canada, to the finite differences between Canon and Nikon.   I in my self, I feel very close and in understanding of the Hindu culture, from my years in India …my general appreciation of the Indian Culture,  really helps and inspires me with this kind shoot.  Ive heard of a western guy in India making it in Indian weddings.  I feel I could be at home in that scenario.

This is my same day edit from the wedding of Kavita and Dallas From Canada.

Gear Used for this Shoot.

Nikon D3
24 -70MM
70 – 200MM VRII
14 – 24 MM
Profoto D1 500 Watt Kit
The Profoto Backpack
1 Soft Box as Side Fill and Diffuser Umberlla as Main Light.

I got to work with Vicky Goslin again.  She is one of the most admired wedding video teams in the Cape and has been in the game for quite a while.  Its always great to work with people who have such a great perspective on things.  I like chatting with her.

The wedding was awesome, Bjorn and Nadia are very sincere and kind people, and had fun while we were shooting the portraits.  Really the kind of people you would want to work with.  Oh, and ofcourse, it is always great shooting a good looking couple, like these two.

This Saturday is my last wedding for two months…the off season.  Im looking forward to it, as Im so behind on all my editing, and now I can just sit down and focus on that before I take a much needed few weeks off with Celeste and Laurel.  Hope you love the images.

Nic and Aniqah had two wedding ceremonies, one being a traditional/western wedding and also a Muslim ceremony.  That is so cool…Taking the Wedding All the Way….I wasn’t able to shoot the Muslim wedding but I did get together with these two after to shoot portraits of them in they’re attire, and we did that at Rhodes Memorial.  Click Here to Check that Shoot Out. Someone in France saw the shoot I did and I just got booked to go and shoot a wedding in Tunisia in August!! Pretty amazing…from them seeing one post, and booking me all the way here in Africa! Sweet As!

Anyhoo, the wedding was fun, these two are fun, and I personally feel I made some new friends…maybe a cliche thing to say, but not when its for real!

I really wanted to bring out the textures of Rhodes Memorial and the Autumn upon us.

Ill Post the Wedding images in the next day or two…come back soon.

Ken and Jessica met me a few weeks ago in “Muizis” and we hung out there for a bit and then headed over to Kalk Bay.  On the way we passed this real old building across the road from the train station.  It was under a major renovation, and I just pulled over and snuck in.  There was a guard and he allowed us to walk around and get some shots.  The building was so awesome I could shoot in there all day and go back for another shoot and be able to get unique locations, shots and lighting within it…saying that we had literally done 2 or 3 shots and then the guard came running to us (I guess he had called the big boss) and we were quickly escorted out.  Oh well, we did get one really epic shot there (3 down from here).

Ken and Jessica are getting married this weekend in Klenenvalleij.  I quite like that venue, its very clean and there is a big pond…what more could I ask for…?  Im looking forward to it!  Dont these two just look awesome, Im lovin the colour.  See you on Saturday.

If you know me, you know I love Photoshop.  However, Im tired of everyone thinking that photoshop is essential in digital photography.  It is not.  Photoshop is an enhancer to images, and the enhancement options are unlimited and to use it properly requires great knowledge and an extremely high skill level.  I study new techniques and am always learning more about how to enhance the images that I shoot.  But I miss the old days, sending negatives to the lab, and working in the darkroom, using torn pieces of paper while processing to create funky borders, creating emulsion effects, the grit that you get with film, and the smell….its pretty endless.  The darkroom was stepping out of one reality and into a mystic dream world, where images magically appeared on hanging papers.  It was a touch, feel, see thing.

Lately at weddings, when we get a bit of a break, I like to have a meal and on my laptop I run the images through the simple software called Exposure 4, which converts your digital images by running through a software that replicates most of the old films.  Although it is not film, I love it as it reminds of me of the natural look and feel of film, and a real pro, doesnt need to rely on photoshop, and should only use it as an enhancer, or to create a new look and feel to the images.

Im never going to stop working on photoshop, Im never not going to sit for a few days and spend hours upon hours going through my images and tweaking them to my best ability…but I will never forget the film days or my love will never die for strait forward shooting and chemical processing.  So for fun the last two weddings, I have posted here on my site as a tribute to real wedding photography the way I was taught.  I hope you like it.

Im going to reedit (in a few weeks when my work que catches up to this job, as I normally would) Quintin and Lida’s wedding, and I will write more about them then, and publish different images…but for now, here is my tribute to the old days…>The Good ol’Days!

Check out Part 1 : Tina and Ray at Vrede en Lust

C

Usually I only release images on my site from weddings after I have finished editing them.  And on this wedding; I will still have to edit all my images, but for “fun” today at the wedding of Tina and Ray, (and kinda because they were like just do whatever you want) I had about an hour where nothing really was going on. We all enjoyed a 5 course meal and Vrede en Lust, so I thought for fun (during all the food)….I would process random favourite images as quickly as possible (in Exposure) and make a little slide show on my laptop of the images of the day.  you know; for the all the guests to check out during the dancing time. I usually spend hours going through the images; picking what I think are the best images and I spend quite a bit of time retouching and giving treatments too them in photoshop (fixing skin, and with new treatments that are forever changing).  Its not how we used to do it…We would only take 10 -15 rolls of film, and send it off to the lab.  Anyway, I thought Id run some randon raw images through Exposure 4 and see what it turned out like…”Exposure 4 kinda runs your raw images through a sort of old school dark room (on your computer ofcourse) and you can get very nice treatments, and well; Im really happy with it”. Today I thought Id just use an easy software like Exposure and edit the images as if I shot on nevgatives, straight from my raw conversion in Lightroom.

While I processed these images, I was still shooting, so Im going to post those a little later on….

So basically this is a random pick of images without any retouching.  Exposure is awesome.

Its amazing what you can do when you don’t bring all your cards to a job.  I should do that more often.  I think im liking this.

Hope you like my off the hip shoot, without retouching in Photoshop.

Im gonna make this a quick one.  Over the last 2 days, and just because we are so busy this month, I have edited two jobs quickly.  I say quickly, meaning I didnt leave the computer until it was finished.  I dont know about you, but when I set out to do something quickly…it seems that is when everyone wants my attention or I get tons of emails asking me different stuff….When it rains it pours scenario.  Im kinda secretly pumped for May, as I only have a couple of jobs and we have had such a busy season that I need to chill for a bit….its a human thing!! We all need to chill.  To me chilling, means going surfing and hanging with Celeste.  I dont really know how to chill I like to always be doing something!  Did I mention, the surfing….its gonna start cooking now and being just 20 mins away from the Reserve, im making my May mission to get totally pitted at Black Rocks…that spot is sick!

Oh yes, I met Quintin and Lida recently to do their pre shoot.  Ill just say it, I like them.  I know, I know Im supposed to say that about all my clients, and in most cases I really like my clients.  But they are just cool and Quintin play drums and Lida is a chef, so while we jam we can eat awesome food!

Ill write more when I post they’re wedding pix.  Camon I need to rest now.