New website

I am so proud and excited to announce that I have a new website and it looks gorgeous!  Please follow the link for all new and updated posts!

http://www.deannaphotography.co.za/

 

EXCITING NEWS - awesomeness

I have worked so hard to make this happen that I want to share it with everyone!  I just have to share with you that I am busy working on my NEW website with the awesome PoSil Consulting CC and I am so excited! It is going to be something old, something new, but NOT something blue...:-) 

So please be patient with me until it is up and running because I am not going to post any more work here. All will be up on the new website!

In the meantime, I'll keep you up to date with the launch!  Just keep on peeping in because you won't want to miss it - something special will be up for grabs!

I leave you with this quote:

"Life is an echo;

all comes back - the good, the bad, the false and the true.

So give the world the best you have and

the best will come back to you!"

Couple shoot - the photographers viewpoint (Helderfontein Estate, Midrand)

I am so excited about this post and just have to share it with you.  For the first time ever I decided to have a couple shoot done for Jacques and myself.  I got so many beautiful photo frames for my birthday this year and see that Jacques and I hardly have nice photos of ourselves together and those are the ones we took of ourselves (done as self portraits), we decided to invest in this.  Every time we get someone to take a photo I don't like it and think it has a lot to do with me not feeling photogenic at all or just being over critical of what I see on the photo.

After discussing it with him and both of us being super keen, I asked my awesome friend and photographer, Kat Forsyth, with whom I have second shot numerous times, if she would help me out of my misery of not having any nice photos of us.  I asked what she hasn't done at a shoot before and tried to organise all of the props. I also gave her free reigns to practise the "poses" she wanted to try for so long and never got to do before. I must admit that I was really nervous, as it is easier being behind the camera than infront of it...and Jacques stressing about it didn't help either :-). I had so many plans and ideas for the day and as Murphy would have wanted it, it started raining 10 minutes into the shoot.  After standing around for about 30 minutes we decided to continue with the shoot in the rain which made for awesome photos. Thanks Kat!!

Regularly, photographers moan about not having professional photos of themselves and to consider having it done by another photographer and give them some "air time" when you struggle getting clients yourself, is hard to swallow, but I need to stress that I now have more empathy with my clients and understand why they stress about a photoshoot.  I know even better what I can expect of them and how far I am willing to push them for beautiful photos.  I also realised that not having a good portfolio of myself I can't expect to draw clients who won't believe I can deliver a good product if I myself don't have something good to show of myself.  I do believe it has a lot to do with self respect and the time and effort you are willing to put into your own work for your clients. And in the end, if your work it good enough and the clients loves what they see when looking at your portfolio, they will choose you as their wedding photographer. 

Life is short and photographs are sometimes all we've got left of the memories we have created with special people in our life.  So spoil yourself and have some family photos taken or even just a couple shoot for you and the special person in your life, whether you are married for 10 years or still just dating.  If you see the result of how your love was captured by your photographer, I bet you won't regret it.  I don't!!

Enjoy the photos I have posted of the couple shoot of Jacques and myself at the beautiful Helderfontein Estate in Midrand. Jacques ended up being so awesome and so much fun during the shoot, even to the point where he wants this done more often!

Maybe one day I'll have the guts to do a portrait shoot on my own...hiehie

Featured on Oh Darling Bride - Ayanda and Thato's wedding

I am so happy to share with you that Ayanda and Thato's wedding at Avianto in December 2010 have been featured on Oh Darling Bride's blog! Go have a look at their website here to see what Ayanda had to say about their awesome wedding at Avianto in December 2010.

Lara and Arno, Riverplace - sneak peek

Just a quick sneak peek at Lara and Arno's wedding.  I assisted Kat Forsyth again :-)!

xxx

Cynthia and Warren - Makiti, Muldersdrift

One thing that I have not had to deal with till this wedding was shooting in the rain... I must admit that it is a challenge and it tests your photographic ability and knowledge to the max, specially even when it stops raining and the light still stays greyish...and running around with someone trying to hold an umbrella over your equipment is also not part of my fun things to do list...:-) 

The day started out with rain and Melanie, for who I second at this wedding, and I were hoping it would stop so we could get some couple photos after te ceremony, but just as soon as I met with Warren and drove to the Lion and Rhino lodge were he, his groomsmen and other friends got dressed it started to rain even harder and the temperature dropped to probably below zero :-)...and it didn't stop till sometime during the reception...

But coming back to Warren and his friends, who are all the most gentlemen of guys I have worked with, made for big laughs the whole day. It was also so amazing how relaxed Cynthia and Warren are with each other and it showed when we managed to sqeeze in a bit of time for couple photos when the rained stopped! They were keen to do anything just to get some photos of their special day!

I loved the images we got of them though! So enjoy with me!

xxx

Warren had his cufflinks made specially for his and Cynthia's big day...I just love these!

This little page boy is definitely one of my favourites...

So, we were brave enough to attempt to get some images in the last raindrops...