Johannesburg Wedding Photographer - Ben Viljoen - Pretoria Weddings, Potchefstroom Weddings, Freestate Weddings, Limpopo Weddings, Johannesburg Weddings

We are closed

Ben — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:22:10 +0000

Just a quick note that we will be closed until 13 September. We will reply to any mail as soon as we are open again.

We are fully booked for 2010, but if you need a pricelist for 2011, please send an email to prices[at]benviljoenphotography.co.za for an automated response. We will be able to notify you upon our availability for your wedding date when we are back in action.

Paul and Maire at the JCC

Ben — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:45:25 +0000

I’m not sure what it would be like to be saying your wedding vows in the direct presence of your about-to-be father in law, but I know that Paul does. Paul and Maire were wedded at St.Columbus, with Maire’s father conducting the main parts of the wedding ceremony. Maire’s father consented, Paul survived, and a great crowd made for a very interesting evening at the Johannesburg Country Club. Pauls brother gave one of the best speeches I have heard to date, clean, dry, and funny as ROFL.

Some details:

Ceremony at St.Columbus Presbyterian church

Reception at the Johannesburg Country Club (CCJ)

Dress by GF Bridal Couture

The Lord of the Rings tree

Seems like these guys are eager to propose, but for all their effort, the guy on the left simply took (as opposed to caught) the sacred lace

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Phillip and Liezl [in] Anderland

Ben — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:11:59 +0000

This was our first wedding after the winter, and what better place to start off than at our favourite venue, Anderland. Like with all things in life, it’s the people at Anderland that makes it such a special place to get married at, and to work at for that matter. Neil as always was sweating away (literally) to make sure that we are having as good a time as the couple is, and the ever cool and collected Hanri has a way to always make you feel like you are their only favourite photographer. That amazing chicken dish also helped.

Phillip and Liezl were a pleasure to photograph, and as mentioned in the speeches, they really do complement each other delightfully. Being the first wedding of this season, I will start off with a diluted list of about 20 of my favourite moments of the day. No apologies for the number of b&w images anymore.

It’s the way that Phillip caresses her neck that makes this photograph for me

Cindy and I agree that this is probably our favourite image of the day

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a pajama beach stroll

Ben — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:36:38 +0000

I didn’t know sand can get that cold around the east coast…sandals are recommended.

Maita and Reagan in Swaziland

Ben — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:20:20 +0000

This wedding was the best thing that could happen to a photographer closing the doors for a month or two. Just editing this wedding made me laugh and (almost) cry all over again. The speeches could really have carried on till morning.

Anyway, things are returning back to normal at the studio. News is that Cindy has joined me full time as of the 1st of August (well, the 2nd I guess), and as some of you might know by now, she will be handling most of the e-mails and other admin around the studio.

Following are a few of my favourites from Maita and Reagan’s wedding. Since I personally love B&W (who doesn’t?), this selection reflects accordingly.

Coolest band ever at a wedding, they made the trip to Swaziland worth it on their own, and they caused a fair amount of camera shake on my part. Pity I don’t have a name that I can post, but I’m pretty sure they were local.

For photographers

Ben — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:00:23 +0000

A short while back I mentioned in an interview that new photographers in business should decide what they want to photograph, and focus most of their attention and skills on that particular genre. I recently read this at the bottom of a wedding photography website, and it is a good illustration of what I don’t mean,

“we specialize in weddings, studio photography, corporate functions and events, product photography, schools, matric farewells, modeling, families and birthdays”

We had a professor in Homiletics class who had to constantly remind us that, “if everything is important, nothing is important”, referring specifically to the way some students were basically yelling all the way through 40 minutes of preaching.

If you specialize in everything, you don’t really specialize in anything. So, what is it that you want to shoot?

Nicky and Warren – Casalinga

Ben — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:50:33 +0000

Nicky and Warren’s was a sweet, intimate wedding in a romantic dark chapel, with looming clouds waiting for us outside, which later had us pulling out our jiffy bags for camera protection during our photo shoot in the woods, right across that mile long driving range (who hits a ball that far?). It wasn’t really one of those romantic kind of showers, you know, where the couple spends a few minutes dancing around the wet with the photographer creating stunning “I’m singing in the rain” kinda images. No, this was more like the kind of rain that Noah could have expected, and had us praying that someone with a giant umbrella would magically show up. It didn’t happen, at least not for us. Upside is that if I had to choose a place for this to happen, Casalinga would probably be it, with guaranteed caffeine goodness awaiting you after any wet escapade.

Following are a few images, and I included some details shots this time…we actually do shoot them.

…on stringed instruments

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Ayobayoba (we were there)

Ben — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:35:43 +0000

Jenny and Raymond in Stilfontein

Ben — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:39:26 +0000

It would seem like I found a little niche in that area of the world, seeing that this is our fourth wedding in that small town. This time I am posting late as I decided from now on to post on the blog only after all the editing has been completed. I have several reasons, but one is that I do not waste a day looking for images I want to post, and also I get to post the images that I really like after having spent some time on them, and not just the ones that initially caught my eye.

Jenny got her images this morning and sent me a heart warming message,

“Ben, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH, I am so impressed and grateful!!!!!!

Much appreciated!!!! Sjoe I don’t even have the words!!!!”

I’m not sure who made the dress, but Dress is by Jean Nalida Designers, it’s pretty ornate and seems like it could have taken ages to create.

I’ve never seen a groom suffer as much during his speech as Raymond did. The poor guy was completely drenched long before half time, and not with sweat

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Fifa fever

Ben — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:12:08 +0000

Yes, it finally caught up with me and my heart breaks not being at the party.

at least I have a vuvuzela…

one from the archives…quite a while back