Markus and Silke got a voucher for a family photoshoot as a wedding present two years ago and we finally got dates organised, and they drove all the way from Pretoria for their shoot which happened yesterday afternoon in Johannesburg.

The park was magnificent yesterday (the cosmos flowers were even in bloom which surprised me a little), and the weather perfect, so I took far too many photos and had a really hard time choosing a few for my blog post

Little 2 year old  Moritz took a while to get warmed up to the idea of the shoot, so I started with his sister Nasrin… and he soon started smiling and posing.  In fact while we were in the veld, he got quite upset that I was taking photos of his sister and mom and not him

I had a ball I love families that have teens as well as little kids because I get to do such varied shots in short spaces of time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon’s photoshoot with the Gee family.  Natasha, Mark and Emily live in the UK, and are in South Africa for the Christmas holidays.  Their photoshoot was organised a few months ago via email after a few of her friends had photoshoots with me (I love referrals)

We were not sure about the venue this morning either, because it was grey and wet, but the sun shone just in time this afternoon, and even more perfectly, the park was surprisingly empty!

It was awesome to start the shoot at the play area for a change, and that really helped get 18 month old Emily in the mood for me and my big camera although the songs that mom and dad sang throughout the shoot and the books she read also helped immensely.

In fact, we became quite good friends in the end, and she even came to sit on my lap to take a photo of her mom and dad … she toddled towards me saying “let’s see”… how could I resist that

She loved the lion that’s painted on the ground at the play area, and was roaring at it, and pointing to his eyes

And yes, that’s her hand you can see on the left grabbing my lens hood

I was thrilled to get asked to take photos of Mandy and Andrew’s family again.  We chose Delta Park for the location again, because I wanted to use a completely different part of the park compared to their photoshoot last year.

They brought their dogs, Boris and Amber, along for the shoot, and they had a ball… much to their delight, they were let off lead today, so went racing around and were eventually shattered enough to be calm for photos with the kids

OK, on with the photos…

I love this tree!! I can’t get enough of using it for family shoots, especially at this time of year.

And I’m thrilled that Lance and Kiara were happy enough to trek to this part of the park, because it was well worth it… the light was beautiful!

And at the very end of the shoot… the graffiti walls… a nice shady cool spot

Greg and Starese got married this afternoon in the company of close family and a few friends at a home in Fairlands, Johannesburg. Despite the fact that the temperature was ranging between 7 deg and 12 deg celcius (depending whether the wind was blowing or the sun was shining), everyone had smiles on their faces as they sat under blankets in the garden to watch this stunning couple get married.  And despite the icy weather, Starese wore a gorgeous strapless wedding dress!!

Part of Greg’s family watched from London via Skype

After the ceremony I went home to have milo and warm up, while they had lunch with their family… and then I met up with them later for their couple shoot before they went on honeymoon.  And yes… she was still in her strapless number… and although I was thrilled she was, I’m not sure I would have been that brave.  Greg and Starese were awesome and schlepped right across the park with me to get to a row of trees that I’d spotted and wanted to use (much to the amusement of the dogwalkers that were around… in fact, the one lady offered her a coat!)

I met the Cerutti family this morning at Delta Park for their family photoshoot.  Nichole had been given the photoshoot as a birthday gift by her friend Lee-Anne whose baby photoshoot I did at the end of last year.

Today’s photoshoot started off a little dramatically when Isabella fell while I was taking photos of her baby sister Sophia, and the only thing that got her smiling again was the playground … normally the part that I leave til last because the kids don’t usually want to leave there once they start having fun.

Isabella was a little preoccupied with her sore knee

Hasn’t she got the most gorgeous green eyes?!

I just loved dad’s tattoo of Isabella’s name

There are also a few more images on my Facebook page