Meant To Be

Rudi and Roxanne
Grahamstown

“Just make yourselves comfortable,” I tell them, as they sit down on the bench and I turn my back to grab my camera. By the time I turn around, they are already hand in hand, leaning against one another, him laughing raucously, teasing her relentlessly, and her taking it all in her stride, her smile unwavering. There is nothing on earth that could ruin this day – the day that Rudi and Roxanne got married.

Rudi and Roxy are one of those couples who are absolutely, without a doubt, meant for each other, and I can hear it in the way that they talk, their conversations filled with loving teasing and inside jokes. As Rudi’s family joins us, I can see how much a part of the family Roxy has already become, laughing with her second mother and her new sister, giggling as the family tries to share a bottle of champagne that has been warmed in the sun, but which they swill regardless, because this kind of celebration requires champagne, even if it is warmer than you’d want it. The bubbles flow with laughter and hugs and happiness abound.

Before long, the celebrations move from the peaceful quiet of the Monument to the Mouse and Budgie, where friends gather to celebrate with the couple and chilled champagne awaits. It's a small party, but the kind that stays in your memory, filled with good people, good food and good fun. And so a beautiful marriage starts and a wonderful relationship continues with friends and family, well-wishes and joy.

Rudi and Roxy, wishing you all the best for the many many many years to come.

Fire Binds (Culture of Colour - Part Two)

Asha and Dharmesh
Grahamstown

"I thought I'd be more nervous," Asha says, smiling as she stands before me, draped from head to toe in jewels that make up the most beautiful dress I think I have ever seen in my lifetime, "but I just feel normal." The day has arrived, a day that has taken weeks and months of planning, and her excitement is infectious.

The day itself passes in the blink of an eye, a blur of colour and laughter that will be remembered for years to come, not only by the couple but by all the guests in attendance. It's one of those weddings that becomes the talk of the town and the one that future weddings will strive towards. And what made it truly incredible was the couple themselves - their calmness under the overwhelming stress of the day which came from the knowledge that, once it was over, they would be able to go home to one another.

I usually have a way with words, but today words fail me as I look back on this beautiful Indian wedding. I think that the photographs, in this instance, speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Childhood

Alexia Geldenhuys van Zyl
3
Grahamstown

I do not have any children, and at this stage of my life that is a very good thing. I am not even 24 years old and the closest thing that I have to a child is my cat, Puddims. But I do have a goddaughter, and there is little that I love more in the world than spoiling her rotten.

Yesterday was Alexia's third birthday, so Grant and I headed over to the Geldenhuys/Van Zyl house with our hands filled with the presents that we had found (and made) for her. The look on her face when we walked in was priceless as she saw the giant frog that could not be wrapped surrounded by Hello Kitty covered gifts. Not being old enough to open them herself, I had to help her by making the first tear and then watching her pull it and exclaim "BABY!" as she unwrapped each individually wrapped fluffy toy, followed by her other gifts which she was less excited about naming, but more excited about playing with. Grant and I always get Alexia fluffy toys, possibly because I want to get them but cannot possibly justify keeping them for myself, so end up giving them to someone who I know will appreciate them as much as I do. But this birthday, we decided that she was getting old enough to start learning as well. So we got building blocks with the alphabet and numbers and pictures on them so that she can start getting some learning in while she plays. We also got her bath gel that we know will cause her hours of joy and her parents hours of cleaning up - a toy that no parent would get their own child, but that others feel no guilt in buying.

Watching Alexia play with her toys always makes me feel young. She plays with such abandon, with such vigour as though this is the best thing in the whole wide world. I miss being that age, when every new toy is the best thing in the world and disappointments are short lived. It's certainly a good mindset to have, but one that we, as adults, have some trouble getting to grips with. But for now, I am more than happy to watch from the sidelines as Alexia grows and hope that I will be there for her when the frivolities of life start to fade and seriousness starts taking over.

My First Wedding Shoot (What To Do and What Not To Do)

"In the art of marriage... it is not only marrying the right partner. It is being the right partner."

So, as many of you may know by now, I spent last week Friday doing the photography for the wedding of two friends. It was the first wedding shoot that I'd done, and there were bound to be mistakes. In fact, there was one very big one, but I will get back to that later. Let me tell you first how I prepared for the day.

Preparing is one of the most important parts of the big day. Go there unprepared and your photos will show it.

First things first, I wrote down a list of shots that I wanted to take. I knew the bride and groom already and knew some things that they might want to do and some things that they might not want to. They were not available at the time to ask, so I wrote up my own list and prepared myself to ask them for specifics when they came back from their honeymoon (which they took before the wedding).

One of the shots that I had on my list. Mike throwing Vicky into the river.

Once I had the preliminary list, I started searching through the photography blogs that I follow for more ideas and advice. I added more photographs to the list that was steadily getting  longer and longer, and decided to visit the venue for the wedding a week early to get a feel for the place.

The main stage for the ceremony. It was a good idea for me to go there first otherwise I wouldn't have known that the area was badly lit with nothing to bounce light off of. I knew that I would need to bring a lens which could get wide open and that I would be dealing with higher ISO images.

Seeing the venue was a great plan, since I found out that I would need equipment that I didn't have and wasn't familiar with using, namely a flash. Luckily, I managed to find one, and that part of the day was saved. I quickly learned to use it and learned to love it, and you can expect a post on that at some point within the next few weeks.

One of the shots that I took with the super-awesome amazing flash that I borrowed for the evening, showing how well the light bounced in the reception venue.

On the day itself, before leaving the house, I made a checklist of all the photography gear that I was going to need - lenses, tripod, flash, batteries, charger, bag, etc. and made sure that they were the first things packed into the car since I didn't want to forget anything. We then made the half hour trip to Port Alfred and relaxed for an hour or two in our accommodation before meeting the bride and groom and getting the day started.

Leaving your gear behind would be like an artist leaving his/her brushes at home. Thankfully, this was one thing that I made sure to include.

So that was the prep that I did. And at the time, it felt like the right kind of prep to be doing. I arrived in Port Alfred feeling nervous, but pretty much ready for anything. I had met with the bride and groom and had removed some of the photographs from my list simply due to lack of numbers, since there was only one bridesmaid and one groomsman, which took away a lot of the photographs that I had planned for the bridal party. I had printed out the list of photographs that I had in mind and kept it in the camera bag that I was going to be using. So where did I go wrong then?

First of all, I would recommend insisting that the bride and groom make their own list of photographs in addition to your own. They will want to have specific photos taken, as will their families, and if you do not know what those are, you will be thrown off guard when they ask for them. In this case particularly, the bride and groom told me that they had no specific requests and that they just wanted "everything". That is great and all, but your everything may not be their idea of everything and can lead to slight chaos.

Even though the bride and groom told me that they wanted "everything" they did have some great ideas for "romantic" shots that ended up working out really well and being some of my favourites for the shoot. This is another reason why you should ask your bride and groom what kind of shots they want. I guarantee that not all brides would be impressed with their hubby trying to hit them over the head with an oar. This particular couple were completely into it, which meant that we could have a lot of fun playing around instead of only having serious shots.

Next, I had everything planned down to a tee, and that is never a good idea. What happens then is that when someone comes along suggesting something different, you get thrown off. I had tons of ideas for great shots, but I suddenly found myself forgetting all of them when the bridesmaid refused to pose with the bride's brother (family drama) and when the groom's family (aside from his parents) got stranded in Cape Town and were not able to make it. It is great to be prepared, but try to leave some room for error. Do not freak out when things don't go exactly as planned.

I had planned the family shots very carefully, wanting to bring in first parents, then siblings, then extended family, etc. When Mike's family missed their flight in Cape Town it messed with the order of things and I was left utterly stumped while Mike and Vicky took over and told who to come forward when. This is not ideal. As the photographer, you should be in charge. But since this was a first for me, I think I was forgiven.

Make sure that you have your tripod everywhere, and that you know it inside out. I had hardly used my tripod before the wedding, and while I used it for the family shots, which was great, I found that the dial used for turning the camera on its side was stuck, and not wanting to fiddle around with it, I elected to leave it instead and only took landscape oriented pictures of the family, which I later regretted. I also regretted not having the camera with me at the ceremony, as the area was dark and there was nothing to bounce the flash off of, which meant that I needed to use low shutter speeds with wide apertures and try to hold the camera as still as possible. I managed to get some good shots by leaning on a tree, and I am still not sure that I would have found a place for my tripod due to the angle that the venue was placed at (I'm not sure I would have found somewhere steady enough), but I know that I would have appreciated it.

Knowing your gear well is a definite must! I was kind of lucky with this photo as the little girl was the only one who didn't jump and was therefore the only one in focus, since I forgot to set the shutter speed correctly prior to the jump.

Don't loiter. I very nearly missed the bride and groom leaving on their quick boat trip to the reception simply because I stood around chatting when I should have been off and away as soon as they had left. I missed them climbing into the boat, but thankfully managed to catch them before they rowed off and managed to get a good number of shots in.

Loitering around during the wedding means missing the important shots of the bride and groom when they are alone after the deed has been done. You can get photos of the guests before and at the reception, but the time after the ceremony is time best spent following the bride and groom and catching their glances, their excitement and their special moment.

And now for the big one. The biggest mistake that I made that night was not being sure how many photographs my camera's battery could handle. It turns out, that number is around 715. I didn't know this and wasted a lot of shots on the bride getting ready (another mistake, unless you have a spare battery lying around and a lot of time to do processing of the photos later) which I could have saved for things like the cake being cut and the couple's first dance. I had also left my charger in my bag in the accommodation (yet another mistake) which meant that I really was just completely out of luck. I missed a  large part of the ceremony, but thankfully got the necessary photographs of the family and the friends, the speeches and some of the food, the romantic pics, the ceremony and the preparation, which meant that the bride and groom were not too upset, but that didn't stop me from being furious with myself and vowing that the next item I buy will be a second battery.

Because I left my camera at home, this was the last photo I was able to take, which was thankfully the last of the speeches. However, it also meant limiting my photographs to try and get this much life out of the camera and there were special moment missed in between, such a Mike's father tearing up during his speech.

So, what did I do right? Preparing, making lists of photographs, making checklists of items to bring (and bringing them), getting to know any new equipment that I may have needed to use, checking out the venue before hand, checking with the bride and groom what the bridal party was going to be like and being there nice and early to get all of the necessary shots.

Showing a little courtesy is always the right thing to do. Being married doesn't mean that courting should go out of the window after all ;)

What did I do wrong? I over-prepared, didn't know my own equipment well enough, let last minute changes stress me, loitered (a little), didn't insist on the bride and groom's input on my photography list and didn't bring a second Canon battery or my charger along.

Abandoning your bride on a narrow pier in high heels is the wrong thing to do on your wedding day, much like the things that I did wrong!

At least now I know for the next time, and will learn from my mistakes. The next wedding that I do will hopefully go more according to plan, and less according to plan at the same time, since next time I hopefully won't plan as much and will be calmer now that I have some experience in my belt. No more stressing and more relaxing and having fun! Is there any advice that you would add?

Coming of Age

Shaun Gordon
21
Benoni, Johannesburg

Twenty One. The doorway into the world of adulthood, where you can no longer use your age as an excuse for your ignorance. Also, it's a helluva good excuse for a party.



"Here's to Shaun! He's so blue! He's a drunkard through and through! He's a bastard, so they say! Tried to go to heaven but he went the other way!"
The chorus rings through Olde 65, practically shaking the walls as Shaun tries to down the toxically green drink.
"Come on," he begs, but the crowd refuses to relent, only giving up once he's halfway through and its obvious that he is going no further.
"Do you think he's going to make it till midnight," someone asks me, and I only need to take one look at him before I answer with a resounding NO.



As the festivities continue, I make my way through the crowd, clutching my camera to me as though my life depends on it, hiding behind it whenever I see an opportune moment. A balloon that once acted as a punching "bag" drifts through the air amidst the rest of the sporting decorations. A Man United flag hangs proudly and prominently in the back room. Shaun rushes from person to person making sure that everyone is having the time of their lives. He doesn't want his special day to be a disappointment to anyone else, and that's just like him - as long as everyone else is happy, so is he.



Jagerbombs, Springbokkies and Susans keep making the rounds along with the beer and alki-pops (or cheerleader beer as I like to refer to them), and yells of "BUFFALO" can be heard every few minutes, mostly emanating from Jeroen, a family friend visiting from the Netherlands who takes the "game" all too seriously. Droplets of spilled alcohol are sprinkled over the plastic tablecloths and wooden benches. A balloon lingers ever closer to a lit hubbly bubbly at the back as the music blares and the projector plays clips from memorable soccer games.



With midnight fast approaching, the older contingent of the party starts to fade without fading and I find myself a seat to collapse into in a spot where I can still take photos when they are needed. The young-uns are still having the time of their lives, and despite a short respite in his enthusiasm, Shaun is still raring to go. Calls for Friar Tuck's are heard as Olde 65 announces its closing, much to the relief of some (myself included). I may not be old, but I am definitely too old for Friars and the havoc that is contained there - overcrowded dance floors where you can't move and can't tell who it was that just pinched your ass.



Leftover food is gathered into tin foil, decorations are carefully torn from the walls, tablecloths and paper plates are crumpled and thrown into waiting black bags as the venue starts to empty of its occupants. The faders are crammed into cars and sent on their way with the remnants of a party that will be left in people's memories for days, weeks, months and years to come.