This was a first for me… I’ve never done a matric dance photoshoot before .

I met Xana and Devin and their families yesterday afternoon, at The Farmhouse guest house in Linden before their matric dance.  They were meeting up with friends for pre-dance drinks, and I did a lifestyle portrait shoot with them in the grounds of the guest house (and their families), while another photographer took photos of all the other friends and the main group photo. Thankfully the other photographer didn’t see what I saw in the grounds, and Xana and Devin’s photos look very different to the rest.

Xana and Devin’s matric dance was held in the school hall at the De La Salle Holy Cross school in Linden.  One of the traditions at the school is the red carpet event that welcomes the matrics to their dance.  Crowds start gathering an hour before the matrics arrive, and each couple gets to walk down the red carpet past the cheering crowds what fun!!  Jane (Xana’s mom) asked me to capture that part too, in a more photojournalistic style.

Hope they enjoyed the rest of their evening… I was pleased to get into my warm car after that icy cold wind that was whipping around the school!

I’m slowly phasing out DVD’s, and in fact, from now on DVD’s will not be an option with lifestyle shoots.  So… this meant that I needed to get proper branded boxes for my USB/memory sticks that I deliver the photoshoots on.

My last few batches of memory sticks were delivered with black boxes that were branded by the company that supplied the USB’s… and I didn’t think they were nice enough.  So to cut a long story short, I LOVE my new boxes and matching memory sticks so much that I had to show them off! I think they are gorgeous

I’ve had small white linen-look boxes branded with my logo, and filled them with either purple straw or white strips of paper… and then the package is tied with ribbon.  Because I couldn’t decide on one colour, I’ve got a few options for delivery, and I’ll decide based on the shoot which colour to deliver.

What do you think?

Doing the wedding photography for a friend’s wedding is not easy.  For some reason, it’s much more nervy doing a friend’s wedding, than doing the wedding of someone who you’ve only met once. You know their story.  You know a lot of people at the wedding… and the pressure is on.  In fact, I was even dreaming about the wedding!

Anyway, David and Laura’s dream wedding took place yesterday at Imperfect Perfection, east of Pretoria.  It was the first time I’d been to the venue, and LOVED all the photo opportunities it presented!  And then to top that, Laura’s detail and decor that was so painstakingly planned (and a lot was handmade) was absolutely amazing.  I had a ball!

Laura has already blogged about her wedding, and she tells the story so much better than I could so read about it there too.

Beware… there are a LOT of photos in this post I could not stop choosing!

It’s Ethan’s bar mitzvah in a few months time, so in preparation, we met up today for his portrait shoot.  Ethan is mad about sport… particularly cricket, soccer and boxing, so the photoshoot was organised around these sports.

The photoshoot was done at Wanderers Cricket Stadium, where he plays for the Northern Gauteng team.

We had a lot of fun playing cricket and soccer (or rather he played with his parents while I took photos) and then we did the more serious photoshoot Those photos will be posted after his barmi, but in the meantime… here are the action/lifestyle photos

It was Bhavesh and Preeti’s wedding today, and I met them in the middle of Jozi city for their couple shoot.  What fun!  I love the colours in Indian wedding outfits, and against the backdrop of the city buildings, the couple looked spectacular today!

We started out at 11 Diagonal Street… and it’s a huge pity the security guard stopped us, because it would have been a magnificent backdrop!! Then Preeti mentioned that she loved the pink building opposite, so we got some awesome urban photos there….

Then we drove to Wits.  Bhavesh and Preeti met at the university, so this was a perfect spot for their shoot… and the light was amazing!!

I hope they enjoyed the rest of their reception… and they have an amazing secret honeymoon