Getting our ducks in a row

Well it seems that all our ducks are falling into place and we've just updated our blog with our new price list!  Exciting times I tell you.

If you're interested in hiring us for your big day head along to our new packages page to see what we have on offer.

If you want to ask us some questions or simply send us some love then go to our contacts page or email us.

Look forward to hearing from you (unless you're a nasty spammer - you can stay away)
Denise & Rainer

Beach Engagement: Shane & Melissa

With the sun beating down and the wind howling, blowing hair and sand everywhere, we knew we'd have a tough shoot on our hands.  But perfect conditions can never be expected (in fact as a photographer you always prepare for the worst) and so we persevered.

Taking photo's of people who love to have fun, makes working not feel anything like work.  Shane and Mel sum that up perfectly.  An hour and a bit spent taking photo's under less than perfect conditions, flew by with  Shane's numerous jokes.

Usually on shoots like this it takes the couple a little while to get into posing and "acting" in front of the camera.  There's the awkwardness and shyness and usually the first few shots are a bit crooked.  Na ah, not this time.  Even more surprisingly, Shane was extremely comfortable making eyes at the camera.

This is one of the first photo's we took during the shoot...

Eventually Mel got the giggles because of Shane directing her to "look this way, "stare out to sea", "let's both look at the ground".  This fabulous art direction forced Shane to admit that he'd been watching America's Next Top Model for inspiration.  While he was joking (we hope he was joking although he did mention the name Nigel Barker...) we managed to get some very "model" like shots of the couple.

and fun people make for fun photo's...

and gentle moments make for loving photo's...

And kissy moments make for great ring shots...

Lots of love

Denise & Rainer

2011 Photo & Film Expo

Last weekend (sorry, it's taken a little while to write about this) Rainer & I traveled up to Johnessburg to attend the annual Photo and film Expo, hosted by Nikon and Adobe.  What an awesome experience.  Our trip up was very last minute so we were only able to spend a single day there, but the expo itself runs for 4 days and is about everything photographic.  Throughout the 4 days there are workshops and courses which are open to the visiting public.  We attended as many as we could although I would have loved to attend more.

Panoramic of the entire expo.

While we attended a talks on lighting and photography skills, for me the most interesting talk was on using your digital SLR for videography by Richard Finn Gregory of the Ginko Agency.  Wow!  What an eye opener.  It was so interesting to see how things are progressing in the industry.  We were very honoured to be the among the first viewers of the latest Watershed music video, which was shot using various Nikon DSLR's, by richard and his team at Ginko.

Richard getting ready for his talk on using your DSLR for videography

The view from the top

Nikon was one of the major sponsors of the event.

All the "big" names in the industry were there, including Epson who are the leaders in the printing world.

I can't wait for next years expo.  Also, I can recommend going for all 4 days as there are so many workshops and talks and many of them are simply once-off's.    We'll definately be there for the full expo next year. 

See you again soon

Denise & Rainer

For the love of art

"Old Balgowan"

So when I'm not off photographing people and I'm not tucked away in my office doing my day job (which is art reproduction and fine art printing), I'm making waves as an up and coming fine art photographer.  Well I like to think so anyway...

As I mentioned in our first post, I studied photography for 3 years at the Durban Institute of Technology (formally the Natal Tech).  Here I earned myself, after much hard work, a national diploma.  While I love my day job I would ideally love to spend all day taking photographs of beautiful things and seeing beautiful places.  In a perfect world I'd have oodles of cash and just spend my life drifting from one interesting place to another (with the guy of course).  Oh how I long for a perfect world.

For anyone interested all of my work, plus many works of other fabulous photographers and artists is all available to view and purchase (hint hint) on an online gallery set up by my daytime job.  The PictureBox Online Gallery is an ingenious website where artists and photographers can sell high quality prints of their work.  The best part of the Online Gallery is that you can tailor make an art work to suit your budget and your space.  Say you fall in love with a picture but you can't afford the big framed canvas you saw on exhibit somewhere.  Go to http://gallery/picturebox.co.za and find the image you like.  From here you can opt to have it printed on any of the five fine art papers on offer and at the size best suited to your home.  Seriously, it's that simple.  I encourage everyone to go browse and see what's on offer.

"Pietermaritzburg City Hall Organ"
(this is on of the largest pipe organ in the Southern Hemisphere)

"The Purple Rose"

"Yellow Clivia"

"The Avenue"

"Orange Flower"

Thanks for reading.  Chat soon
Denise (& Rainer)
a GUY & a GIRL

Baby "Jamaal" Richardson

John and Dayle are having a baby.  John is determined it's a boy who they are going to call Jamaal (I'm not even sure how you spell Jamaal).  Dayle is determined that whatever it is, it will not be Jamaal.  She far prefers Laquisha (again, not sure about the spelling...)

This past weekend was Jamaal's baby shower, a baby shower with a difference...  As Jamaal has fun loving folks there would be no tea and cakes and talk about pregnancy, there would instead be beer and snacks and chatter about what Jamaal should really be named.  As you can imagine, the more beer and snacks consumed, the better the name suggestions.  By the end of the afternoon, Jamaal was looking pretty top compared with some of the other names being thrown about.

 "Dayle with Jamaal's loot"

"Big Brother (of the fuzzy kind) Max keeping his eye on the goodies"

We can't wait to meet you Jamaal

Denise (& Rainer)

Chris & Sophie

Chris proposed to Sophie on Christmas day last year.  He presented her with a ring and got down on one knee and literally gave her the surprise of her life. This really was turning out to be a Christmas Sophie would remember forever, earlier in the day she received a car but this seemed quite insignificant right now.  This moment would be the one she spoke of when she told people what she got for Christmas.

Engagement shoots are great practice for the big day.  You get used to being in front of the camera and all your awkwardness can move aside.  Chris & Sophie definitely felt strange about having their pic's taken in such a "formal" way but they adapted quite quickly and were soon pro's. 

During the course of the shoot, Chris & Sophie felt more relaxed an we got some beautiful shots.

And just as we were about to leave both Chris and Sophie were so chilled and at ease in front of the camera it was almost sad to say goodbye.

Congrats Chris & Sophie.

Chat soon,

Denise