I worked downtown today, and I took the opportunity to tag the Nikon V1 along.  Unlike yesterday, where I was shooting in RAW, today I decided to try the JPEG option. Again, like yesterday, I gave up on taking photos with manual settings, and rather went with the clever auto settings that the camera seems to love.

We spent most of the day working from a coffee shop called Chalkboard Cafe.  It’s under the 12 Decades Hotel in the Maboneng District in Johannesburg.  LOVED it… apart from the long-life milk… the coffee was AWESOME and the Chalkboard bagel with ham was fabulous!! Loved that there were plenty power points for people to plug in and work… and one dude even brought his entire desktop with big screens and headphones to work with in the afternoon!! Loved the chilled vibe and we actually got quite a lot done.

And yes… each table is a massive chalkboard and they provide chalk and dusters

Just before we left, we went to the offices in the 12 Decades Hotel and then went up to the viewing deck on the roof of the hotel… and WOW!! Loved the view.

And of course, I was in my element in the city!! I’m going to be working there next week again, and I’m definitely taking my camera again and having more fun up on that rooftop and in the streets.  In fact, when I left in the afternoon, there were a whole bunch of kids on skateboards on the streets… I was wishing I’d had a longer zoom to take photos of them (with their permission of course)… so I’ll hopefully get to do that next week.

Suren and Pooja got married yesterday.  It was an epic occasion, that started with their wedding ceremony at the Hindu temple in Lenasia South and ended with a reception at the Sandton Sun.

Suren and Pooja contacted me a few months ago at work, after someone in the office had told them that I do photography. I’ve been really looking forward to the wedding since then. It was the first time I’d taken photos in a temple… and then as the plans started unfolding I got more and more excited about it.
You see, Pooja was in the dark about part of the day. She thought we were going to do their creative shoot in Newtown… after she’d got her hair and make-up redone and she was in her evening outfit. Well, that was not to be. Suren’s friend had contacted him a few weeks ago, and offered the use of a helicopter to transport them from Lenasia to Sandton. So, between Suren, Shaun, the MC Carla and myself, the plans were changed.

As a surprise for Pooja, the helicopter arrived in the veld close to the lunch venue, and Shaun and his co-pilot Wessel, flew them and me to the top of a mountain in the Magaliesburg for their creative shoot. And then it zooted us to Sandton, where we were met by a driver from the hotel who took us to Sandton Sun for a quick change before the evening reception.

My second shooter for the day was Alana Meyer, who had the important job of capturing the heli leaving Lenasia with us on board.

But first, I need to show you the photos from the 2 hour ceremony at the most incredible temple.

I love the look that I caught Suren and Pooja sharing as they waited outside the temple.

Considering Joburg is experiencing a heatwave at the moment, the fire made the temple unbearably hot, and Suren must’ve been baking in his velvet jacket.

I took this photo while Suren and Pooja were circling the fire

Suren had to put toe rings on her feet

and then they exchanged their garlands…

And they played some kind of cute fishing game with the guru’s ruby ring…

… before exchanging rings

And then after a stunningly delicious lunch, it was time for the helicopter to arrive, and Pooja was still none the wiser.  She did however start asking a few questions when Suren was waiting outside with his friends… but he still didn’t say a word.  And it was only after the helicopter really came close that she realised something was happening.  But it took quite some time before she realised what was going to happen… and in fact, how many people kept it a secret from her.

LOVED that we even got flight tickets!

As soon as we were up in the air, Pooja started taking photos and BBM’ing her friends

and after about 20 minutes, we landed on top of the mountain…

It was such an incredible experience and so special for me too… a helicopter ride to take photos of a city was on my Bucket List… so I got to tick something off in the process

We landed at Inanda on the edge of the polo field, and the driver came up in his big black Merc with tinted windows to take us to the hotel.  It was so funny to watch the other people at Inanda trying to peer in the windows to see who had arrived in such style!!

As soon as we got back to Sandton Sun, Carla whisked Pooja off to the hair salon to have her hair done for the evening

There are a few more images from the wedding and the reception on Facebook, and if you were a guest at the wedding, you can tag yourselves in the images there when you “like” the page

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.

Retailer: So Divine! Women’s Clothing
Mornings at Professional Touch Day Spa, 2 Merchant Place, Cnr Fredman and Rivonia Rd, Sandton
Or email Mandy for an appointment or for a viewing ursodivine@gmail.com
Labels on sale: Slick, Tashkaya, Status Moda and Mustik

I first realised that Mandy (an ex-colleague) was selling clothes from home when she had a pop-up shop organised one day at work. She then contacted me when she had a pop-up shop in Bryanston with another retailer selling kids clothes… and of course I went again. I just LOVE the clothes she sells. I was delighted when she asked me to organise a fashion shoot showing her summer range from Tashkaya and Slick. I quickly sent a Whatsapp message to my sister, Elaine, and viola… a fashion shoot with her and her friends who had been dying to have a shoot together like we’d done a few years ago.
We all met very early this morning in Newtown to take some fun photos wearing the clothes against the contrast of the old buildings and graffiti.

Isn’t Candice’s blue dress from Tashkaya cool? I have one in purple… and LOVE wearing it with leggings.

Well, that was huge amounts of fun and it was my very first fashion shoot!!