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