Great fun. Thank you Althea & Co!

On Saturday Daniel said he wanted to take photos with the ‘Peep’ noise. We pretty quickly worked out that he wanted the sound of the studio lights as they reached full charge. So we went into the studio with two grubby kids and last night’s lighting setup to take some quick pictures. I like them. I just sat them in front of the big soft box to get a nice high-key look while I lighted them from camera right with a diffused beauty dish.

These two are of Daniel…

And these are of Cameron.

Beautiful kids!

Here are a couple more…

Thank you for the fun Nicole and all the best for Matric exams…

We got there around 15 minutes before the sun peeped over the hills. The lake was shrouded in mist and the birds were all over. Magical! Eugene and I were absolutely spoilt for choices! The biggest problem at that time of day is that the light is continuously changing so there’s a sense of urgency about getting the shot now, often with less concern for exposure or using a tripod. In the end I have 64 photos that I think are keepers. That’s pretty good.

More after the jump…

Thank you for looking.

The information overload that has swept over us from the Internet has created a secondary effect—being good at any skill has become an ongoing process of learning, practising and perfecting more than ever before. There are new techniques to be learned all the time, they’re described out there and there’s no excuse for not learning and progressing!

Strobist, my favourite lighting blog, recently published this article on lighting corporate headshots.  An hour of fun in the studio later and we’d managed this shot of Greg. It’s not quite there but I like!

But what does this have to do with a wedding photographer and his clients?

Everything I think. The  only  way I have of differentiating myself from the hundreds thousands of other photographers out there is by raising my act all the time. Raising the bar, making it harder for the others to play.

Because of the Internet, photographers at all levels are exposed to the very best photographers in the world. And many of them, such as Neil van Niekerk and others, are totally willing to share their techniques with anyone who is willing to read and try.

That’s the crunch, of course. You have to be willing to read and try. For the Strobist shoot that I copied I really didn’t have the right kit—I don’t have a ring light so a soft box stood in, I don’t have the two side soft boxes so Canon flashes stood in there—but the example is what matters. The new idea is there for the taking. All I had to do was make it my own with what tools I have. And, as I said, I like the result.

Couples getting married are faced by an overwhelming array of photographers of all skill levels, all claiming to be good, the best, top quality and competing for the ‘photographer’ part of the wedding budget. Perhaps they can use the Internet’s information deluge to thin out the competition.

“What technical blogs do you read regularly?”

“Who do you consider to be the world’s top wedding photographers?”

“Who influences your work most?”

“Do you copy other people’s work?”

You don’t need to know any of the answers to these questions—just letting the photographer talk will show if there is passion and a desire to learn and progress. That last question is a bit loaded. We are all influenced by what we see. Copying someone else’s work is only a problem if we do it slavishly, without imagination. Copying but making it your own is a wonderful way to grow and is also the way the whole industry progresses, on the shoulders of those who went before.

Well, now there’s this fantastic little editor. I can’t remember what it’s called and I can’t find out without exiting and checking its name because it doesn’t even run in a window. It creates a full black screen with green writing. Very retro. Very uncluttered and very focussed. Right now I don’t even know if there are spelling mistakes in here and I quite honestly don’t care. I am able to focus on getting ideas written done. Period.

It’s rather strange how it’s taken so long to get back to the days of simple text editors. I remember WordStar being something like this, only I could add little mark-ups to indicate italic or bold or whatever. Here I can’t even do that. Fantastic!

Oh, now I remember. It’s called ‘Dark Room’. It’s free and you can download it from somewhere. Now go and do it yourself because I’m busy typing. The original was for Apple of course and it’s called ‘Write Room’. Not much sense in that: ‘Dark Room’, ‘Write Room’. Oh well.

Managing to put together any kind of sense in a blog entry without fiddling and phaffing about is an ongoing struggle for me. I think it must be some form of ADD or something. This blank, black screen is spooky but it works. I also cannot help wondering when all the little green characters will start moving about and I’ll have to return to the matrix.

We learned that giraffes are really inquisitive – this one was watching our strange behaviour very closely!

The girl has attitude!

Thank you Tarryn and Marco!

Having a new camera, a Canon 7D, that has high ISO and therefore very good low light ability opened new opportunities. We ended up with  some awesome photos that would previously have been impossible.

The first set of bride’s formals were taken in the lounge at a window at between ISO 1000 and ISO3200. This one’s at 1000 and the next at 1600. Neither of these was possible on my old Canon 400D!

Follow the jump for some more…

The chapel’s stained glass windows and wonderful atmosphere were not to be missed so we took a couple of formal poses inside after the ceremony.

The first one with a bit of help from flash:

This one was spotted by Linda—look at that lovely and completely natural beam of light on the lovely bride!

We had a ball photographing this one! Thank you Hayley and Riaan!

Canon 7D, 200mm, ISO 3200

Generally I am a strong supporter of the philosophy that better equipment doesn’t make you a better photographer. But there are times when good kit makes all the difference…

When Canon announced the new 7D camera recently, I immediately decided that it was time for an upgrade from my (very) old and trusty Canon 400Ds that I have been shooting with for ages.

My main reason for the change was the amazing low-light capabilities of the 7D. So much of my photography is under challenging lighting. South African wedding venues seem to love dark thatch roofs and dark wood that suck up all the light and leave you with two options: lots of flash or lots of noisy photos on your previous-generation camera technology. Although I see myself as something of a Strobist, flash is not always the best way to go but delivering top quality is an unbendable principle.

My order was placed and the big day came—I was the proud owner of a 7D.

Just one week after receiving the new baby, we had a booking to shoot the 80th birthdays of an old friend’s parents—both of them! The venue is reasonably open with lots of windows but it gets pretty dark towards the middle of the room. I didn’t want to get in everyone’s faces with flash and the family had requested casual, natural photography of the occasion.

Enter the 7D and its low-light capability.

Canon 7D, 200mm, ISO3200

During the party I spent most of my time prowling about like a paparazzi with a 70-200/2.8 L Canon lens on the camera and shooting at ISO 3200. The result? I am extremely chuffed with them and the client is very happy. And that’s what counts.

Zebra Lodge is one of those typical bushveld game lodges that abound in that part of the world. The countryside is hilly with dense thorn bush and dusty gravel roads. (That’s ‘dirt roads’ for some of the English-speaking world.) We arrived there at around 11 in the harshest possible sunlight so we did most of our photography under the massive, shady bluegum trees. (Thank you, Australia, for exporting those thirsty, beautiful monsters to every corner of the planet!)

We were grateful for the relatively cool spring weather. And we’re forewarned for December!

Tarryn and Marco were great fun and keen to try anything we asked in the name of getting good photos! We had them jumping off a huge log, amidst warnings about sprained ankles from Mom Wendy, while we tried to get those cool airborne shots! Once again turning a deaf ear to  warnings, this time from the farmer, about the resident cattle they also went for a stroll in the veld so we could get the Out of Africa images. The happy couple survived:-)