It’s my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary at the beginning of next month, and to start the celebrations, I did a photoshoot for them yesterday.  We were originally going to go to Walter Sisulu gardens for the shoot, but after seeing the forest I used in Mari’s shoot a few weeks ago, my mom asked to have their shoot done at the same place… so we went to Delta Park for the afternoon.

I wanted to take photos of them on a bench… and I spotted this one.  It just happened to be up an enormous hill… LOL! We were pooped by the time we got there.  And when we drove out, we noticed so many other benches that were much closer serves me right for not checking properly first

It was really awesome taking photos of them

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

We had so many ideas for Suren and Pooja’s engagement shoot, and then I spotted this tiny little lane of young jacarandas close to my home.  I’m so glad that Pooja also thought the location sounded good, and glad they trusted me to direct them to this random road in a suburb late on a Sunday afternoon to catch the late afternoon light in the blossoms

I can’t wait for their wedding, it’s going to be just beautiful!

Mari works with me, and over a year ago said that she wanted to book a shoot with her husband as soon as her braces were removed.  So a few days after they were removed, she did just that, and today’s photoshoot was the result.  I met them at Delta Park this afternoon, and took them to a spot in a forest that I noticed during my last family photoshoot there.  LOVE that my clients will walk up steep hills and across marshy land to get to spots that I think will work )

And while you’re here, don’t forget to vote for my blog in the SA Blog Awards

I haven’t shared one of my thank you’s from my clients in a long long time, and when I got this email from Marcia the other day, I just had to share it.  It really really makes my day when I get emails like this… it means that I’ve made a family happy… and that I’ve succeeded in my quest to tell their story…

Because I know Marcia quite well now, and I’m linked to her virtually everywhere, I checked out her Pinterest boards the day before the shoot.  I remembered seeing pins in my stream where she’d marked ideas for family photos.  That way I had an idea about what she liked and was looking for from the shoot.  This is one of the images that I just love… and one that I didn’t put up in the original blog post.

Anyhoo… this is the email I got when she got the couriered box containing the DVD.

Jeanette, I got it!

And I am ECSTATIC – the photos are everything I imagined and then some. I love the ones with the teddies (and they were a last-minute idea!)
Thank you so very much – gosh, I should have done this type of shoot ages ago!

I am OVER THE MOON!

 

And I’ve just checked her blog too, and I see she’s posted something there too It made me smile A LOT!

I met Marcia and Dion and their twins in Newtown this morning.  We were supposed to do a couple shoot in Newtown, and then hook on a few family photos in a park on the way home… but once we started we decided to stay in Newtown for the whole shoot.  The kids were in their element in the city, and loved the bright coloured doors and graffiti painted walls.

Kendra and Connor made a beeline for pieces of wood and small leaves, and by the end they had quite a collection of things that they were carrying with their teddy bears, named Thursday and Friday.  Kendra started as soon as we got there, when she picked the ONLY flower for miles around!

Connor was so cute… he waited for his daddy, and he was so pleased when he could stand in the next doorway to his daddy

See the hand that Connor is holding up… we realised just after this that he was signing “I love you”

and then Kendra joined in with the sign language

I only saw the writing on the building while edited this image… and I think it’s so apt for the photo!

And so very funny that the next lot of photos with the writing on the stairs was what I’d planned for them

It was an awesome morning… and I just love Newtown so very much!! I know that most families choose to have their family photos in a park because they think it’s prettier… and it is… but somehow the city and the buildings bring out “more” in the portraits that you take there.  Because the backgrounds are not as busy as bright leafy parks, people tend to stand out more and become more of a focus in the photo.