Some images from this weekend’s wedding in Parkview, Johannesburg.
The boys anxiously waiting for the gorgeous bride to come out of her chamber and reveal her breathtaking splendour and beauty Sharks vs.WP kick-off
Those who have photographed at St.Columbus, Parkview before could agree with me that I was rather lucky with the light.
Cindy completely smoked the couples session
As promised, a couple more of my favourite images from this weekends wedding shoot at Bryanston Country Club in Johannesburg.
I’ve decided to take a Monday off for a change, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to post at least one image from this weekend’s wedding shoot at Bryanston Country Club, Johannesburg.
Ok, so it was more like a “day after shoot”, or rather a “week-after-shoot” as Mark and Jill had already tied the knot in New York a few days earlier. They wanted to have a reception party in South Africa however, for all those who couldn’t make it to the USA, and while at it they decided to have a couple session thrown in as well.
Suits me perfectly as Cindy and I got to hang out with a seriously sweet couple and bagged some equally sweet images. I must be honest here, when I first scouted the venue a few days earlier I was a little sceptic to say the least about the possibilities, but on the day we ignored a few local rules and in the end I couldn’t have been happier about how the shoot turned out. A very big thumbs up (and a big thank you) to Mark and Jill who basically went anywhere and did anything at my command, even if it mean they had to carry each other around on the golf course, they were that awesome.
I kept pondering about the fact that such cool people at opposite ends of the Atlantic would somehow meet each other and eventually decide to stay together for better or for worse…is it really just fate?
More images coming soon to a blog near you…
Mark insisted on a African sunset image, and I blame him not.
I just noticed that the contact sheet doesn’t do the photographs any justice at all, here is a image that does a better job, though nothing I could do on the web could quite match a print…
I have been asked before if that shaft of light was really there or if I added it. The former is correct
This morning I parked my car outside the Silvertone studio just off the M1 in St. Andrews Road, Parktown for a little personal treat.
I’ve been threatening for quite a while now to have this portfolio of photographs that I took in India a few years ago printed, but I never did as 1) I just didn’t get to it 2) I didn’t want to spend the cash and 3) I wanted it to be really special and thus I didn’t want them printed at any walk in lab you would find in the local mall.
Today was the day I decided to just bite the bullet and get it over and done with. I chose 6 monochrome images (more to come later) that were really special to me and had them printed on museum quality fine art paper, and now I’m one very happy man. I suspect my wife isn’t too impressed with me for spending a grand on 6 photographs, but I have been waiting 3 years for this (any other possible excuses are welcomed, e-mail me).
Now to get them framed…ouch!!
Here’s a contact sheet:
I have a few colour photographs from my India portfolio that I would also like printed, but I am quite eager to have some images out of the Africa archive printed as well…this stuff is addictive, it’s a bit like tattoos.
This is part of a series where I elaborate a bit on the questions you are supposed to ask your wedding photographer before hiring him/her, according to bridal magazines.
The questions are all taken from weddingfocus.co.za
Q2: Do you develop and print your own film?
This one is a little outdated. I, along with 100% of all the wedding photographers out there that I know have switched over to digital quite a while back, so even though some of us would still burn the odd roll of film, it will purely be for our own personal work and pleasure, cos’ film is still cool.
The question is still somewhat relevant for wedding photography though, if understood correctly. The modern day darkroom is a computer loaded with software applications which could include, but is not limited to, Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and a host of other possibilities, like for instance “The Gimp” for all the opensource guys. They are all designed for the purpose of editing and enhancing digital photographs.
Digital photography is made for editing, in fact to get the optimal results, images must be edited. If your photographer offers you 600+ photos, but only edits 100 of them, the reality is that only those 100 will really be of good use to you, unless you really do not care about your photos. It’s just the way digital works. The more “professional” the camera, the more relevant this becomes. For instance, a lot of guys who switch from a point-and-shoot to a DSLR camera (Digital Single Lens Reflex camera), complain that they got better looking images with their p&s than with their new R20k DSLR. The reason is that with the DSLR the camera manufaturer strives to give the pro-photographer a digital file that is as “un-edited” as possible, so that the pro can tweak that image to look the way HE likes it, and not the way Canon or Nikon likes it. With the p&s however, the goal is a digital photograph that is as ready to print as possible, straight out of camera, because the average consumer does not want to go and sit for an hour and edit the photograph she just took of her new puppy. (BTW, this is good advice if you are in the market for a new camera. If you don’t intent on sitting with photographs for hours editing them, don’t buy that DSLR, rather get a good p&s. That DSLR is too bulky and usually you will get better images out of camera with the p&s than with the DSLR).
Because the responsibility of editing images now belongs to the photographer, the actual printing of photographs becomes less of an issue. You see, in the days of film, you photographed the wedding, dropped the film off at your favourite lab and picked it up the next day ready for your clients. The reason being that film is not designed to be edited, and also that the lab technician tweaked everything for the photographer if minor exposure correction etc. was needed. Now all the editing is done by the photographer, and he in turn finds a printing lab who gives him the best rendition of what he sees on his computer screen.
So, to answer the question whether I do my own editing and printing…
Yes, I do edit my own images, and I edit every single one of the images I hand over to my clients…
and
No, I have my photographs printed at my lab of choice.
*We do of course also offer coffee table books as one of our products which follows the same process. I edit the images, design the book and have it printed and bound by the guys at Asuka.
Below you will see an exaple of what a image straight out of camera looks like, and one that has been edited.
