It was a humungous pleasure to do explore around the Waterfront docks on a beautiful Cape Town evening with Layla and Paul.  I nearly freaked out at this amazing location we stumbled upon. I'll be posting some amazing images from their wedding in a few days time.

Despite howling wind, protests of 'not liking the camera' and interuptions from traffic and a bergie, we got some awesome couple shots of Kirstin and Tony. Looking forward to your wedding at the end of this week!

I shot Jess and Rob's engagement session in Kalk Bay 2 days after their gorgeous wedding - more images from this to come in the next few days!

For the very dedicated blog-stalkers, you guys might remember David and Fatima's wedding from way back last year February! We did things in a bit of a weird order and last night I did their 'engagement session' with them with the last light of the day, my favourite!

We did an urban-style engagement session for Grant and Taryn in and around Cape Town city centre - I love urban shoots are there are so many different spots to shoot. It was great to meet you guys after only chatting on the phone, thanks for dodging traffic to get this shot:

It was a rainy, miz, winter's day in Cape Town, I was feeling a bit sleepy and I have to admit the thought of snuggling up with a hot cup of tea was more appealing than heading out wiith my camera - but I had loads of fun shooting Sam and Mike's couple session. As always, capturing the connections and beauty within and between people makes me come alive. 

I've already shot these guys wedding but thought I would post some images from their awesometastic engagement at Kalk Bay. Jon is a photojournalist for Go! Magazine and Jess gets posed in many cool places for his many articles and so she really knows how to work it for the camera! A wedding sneak peek to follow shortly!

I was so stoked that Greg and Carly wanted to go somewhere a bit grungy for their engagement shoot - my favourite! So we headed off to the docks near to the Waterfront and got some really cool shots...I AM being strict with myself and limiting the number I post but here are a few...

When I told Karen and Bruce that I was dying to do a wedding shoot in a township, they thought it was a brilliant idea. Since they arrived in Cape Town a few days before their wedding, they decided to swap an engagement session for a 'Trash the Dress' Shoot, which is a fairly recent trend where you have a shoot in your wedding gear after your actual wedding.

I don't really like this phrase - it conjures up visions of a bride rolling in the mud with a 'sexy look' or savagely shredding silk or jumping through a ring of flames (too much caffiene or not enough sleep?). I think it sounds tacky - perhaps it should be called something much cooler such as a 'Post-Wedding-Couple-Shoot'.....not. I did think of a few alternatives but nothing really stuck... Relive the robe, Dress Deja vu or F*** the Frock? I know a lot of photographers read this blog... perhaps some of you guys have a better idea? We can start our own South African trend :-)

In any case, I regress. So I don't like the term but I do love the idea. Basically you do a shoot in your dress where we have time to be creative and get cool shots at a different location, but without the pressure of a wedding day and without you worrying about your dress getting dirty. I know my wedding dress is still sitting in my best friend's cupboard in Joburg waiting to be dry cleaned, 5 years later. It probably doesn't fit anymore and if I have a daughter one day I'm pretty sure she won't wear it to her wedding. So you may as well get the most use out of it now!

Back to Karen and Bruce's session though. Karen completely got the ball rolling and hired a guide and guard to accompany us to Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay as I wasn't too keen to head with my gear unaccompanied to a township. We had a great morning cruising around the streets and shebeens much to the locals amusement and got some awesome images! I also snuck in a few other images on the way which you can view on my portrait site.

It's been a while since I've blogged - lots of weddings to shoot and people to meet, all amidst a crazy festive season. I've already shot Doug and Ruth's amazing wedding which I'll be blogging about shortly - but for now are a few shots from a super-cool, super-windy engagement session that I did with them a few days before their wedding. It really was so windy that we could barely walk and my camera was being blown about madly, never mind Ruth's bright funky dress - but as always I think that negative elements in the weather can make for some great shots like the one below that wouldn't come about under 'perfect' circumstances (if such a thing exists in Cape Town!). 

Anyhoo, a few shots for today: 

It's pretty typical that when someone asks for the quintessential view of Table Mountain for their shoot that the midsummer weather turns nasty and the mountain disappears behind a thick curtain of rainy cloud, accompanied by a raging wind. Shahra and Razzaaq were completely unfazed by the weather and totally worked it for the camera - all I had to really do was push the button and keep the lens dry. I'm pretty sure that when I met up with them earlier this year they led me to believe that they hated having their photo taken, something about Razzaaq being shy in front of the camera? These guys were like professional models and provided the local canoe club, resident 'bergie' and car guard with a whole lot of eye candy entertainment on a rainy summer's evening.

I know I always go on about how awesome people are but these guys really are a fantastic couple and I can't wait for their wedding in 6 weeks time. Maybe I'm just lucky enough to always 'work' with awesome people.