On the 29th of September 2012 I photographed Emma and Murray’s wedding at Netherwood in the Natal Midlands. During the service I stood too close to a candle and my hair caught alight. It could have ended badly but it didn’t …… I just patted out the flames and carried on shooting. It was rather funny and certainly a wedding that I will never ever forget !!! Knowing full well that there were heaps of people in the audience with cellphones and recording devices as well as a videographer  I knew that this incident would hit the internet. I am not afraid to have a good laugh at myself and asked the videographer and my friend Mark Thompson from Beyond Measure Productions if I could publish the few seconds of footage that he got of the whole thing on my blog! You can check out the video as well as what I wrote here.

I didn’t really think about it again ….. life happened … I was in Joburg and then Mozambique …. I got ill with flu and suddenly I was in the UK and then Antigua in the Caribbean and then back to the UK. Things were quite busy and I wasn’t online much.

But while I was on my travels I started receiving all sorts of messages from people from all over the world to tell me that they had seen the video  …..

Then a friend emailed me from Oz to say they saw me on the news ….. the news … What?????

The news?????????????????

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I came home from our Antigua/ UK trip to a mountain of mail, and included in all of that was a brown envelope containing a copy of the latest Umhlanga magazine. Storm Catterick recently wrote an article about me titled “Photographers to look out for” – 6 whole spreads and the front cover. Wow I am honored!

Here are her words as well as pics of the pages.

There’s something about a good photograph that captures the imagination and enchants the eye, whether it’s because it’s a memory that will be forever frozen in time, or the fact that you can capture the most precious moments in someone’s life!

I have always envied the way in which photographers view life – how they can find something aesthetically pleasing in even the most insignificant or less-than-attractive thing. We are so blessed in our small town to have some truly amazing photographers here, all unique and different in their own way, but with one common underlying factor – they are all brilliant!

With this in mind, we decided that during the next couple of months we would profile some of Umhlanga’s best photographers who we think you should look out for when capturing that next special moment.

In our first edition we are profiling Jacki Bruniquel, a photographer who is known for her unique style and honest way of capturing memories in her photographs. Jacki is also an accomplished artist, something which enables her to take photography to an exceptional level. With her incredible knack for capturing wedding memories she is fast gaining the reputation for being one of South Africa’s most creative wedding photographers. Jacki Bruniquel is this month’s local photographer to look out for!

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Everyone who photographs weddings has a crazy wedding story ….

I always thought that my most ridiculous wedding story was the time I sat in horse poo whilst doing a few groom portraits right before the speeches were about to start. I was sitting in the grass shooting away and when I stood up my assistant gave me a look that indicated that something was very very wrong. She had a reason for the horrified expression – My butt was covered in brown manure! Not cool. What was even more uncool was the fact that I didn’t have another pair of pants to change into and it looked as if I had had an accident in my trousers. There was nothing I could do. I just had to laugh and keep on shooting!

There have a been more incadents but this latest one really has to take the cake!

While photographing Emma and Murrays wedding at Netherwood I stood a bit too close to a candle and my hair actually caught alight! One of the videographers managed to get a clip of it just as it caught alight. Unfortunately he didn’t get all of the smoke as I had hopped out of the wayl!!!! In that situation the only thing you can do once the flames have been patted out is to once again …… laugh and keep on shooting. It was funny. It was certainly a wedding I will never forget that is for sure and my hair did actually need a trim! (although I have to say that it hasn’t been quite the same since then!!)

Thanks so much to Mark Thompson from Beyond Measure productions for freezing that moment in time …. (I think …!) Mark is a dream to work with if you are in the market for a videographer!

When the Dali Lama was asked what surprised him the most.

He said Man

Man

Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health.
Then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present,
and as a result he does not live in the present or the future.
He lives as if he’s never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.

I took some time off recently to breathe and to put back into what the past six months had taken out of me. My fiance Stu and I spent some time in the bush and up in the mountains. I spent many precious moments smelling the sound of the wind, hearing the smell of the sunshine, listening, breathing and being.

I put my camera down for the most part ….. sometimes as photographers we need to see all around us, to feel, to hear, to taste, to touch, to smell. To truly be in the moment rather than trying to construct the moment from that little rectangle. This is my belief anyway, this is what I did.

Here are a few pics I did take.

PS Have you noticed how you stop breathing when you click the shutter (or is that just me??)

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They say that you don’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.

Have you noticed that life has a funny way of throwing curveballs at you? Have you noticed how something that seems like the worst thing to have happened to you at the time often lands up being the best thing in the long run? Have you noticed that listening to your inner voice more often that not leads to personal growth?

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I get alot of emails from people these days asking various questions about photography. A couple of days ago I received this one

I absolutely adore your work, every wedding you do is so fresh and unique to each couple. I was just wondering how you get so many different angles in on one wedding? I find I get stuck into ruts when I shoot so I always enjoy hopping onto your site for some inspiration.

Thanks so much Jen for the kind words.Very humbling! I thought that the best way to answer this question is with some photos that Tash has taken of me in action.

In order to see things from a different perspective you need to change your point of view!!! This generally means getting a bit dirty, giving yourself a stiff neck, possibly getting wet, risking your life (see scooter pic) and equipment (see ocean pic) … but at the end of the day I think its worth it when you get that cracker shot!!! I am a very active photographer and I literally don’t stop when I am shooting a wedding. I strive to keep looking for new angles or new ways of seeing things so I am always climbing on top of things, lying on the floor, jumping behind things …. here are the pics to prove it and I am sure all my brides and grooms will be about to vouch for my crazy antics (and the fact that I sometimes loose my shoes on the way!)

Thanks to Debbie for the pic of me on the scooter in India. Shooting Shane and Laurie’s wedding was one of the best days of my life!

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The week before my 35^th birthday I picked up the book Annie Leibovitz at work and a wave of “Oh my word I am 35 years old and just haven’t achieved enough washed over me”. I am hugely inspired by Annie’s work particularly her early portraits. She has a way of capturing personality rather than just taking a photograph of a person. Her portrait work blows me away.

I began to beat myself up a bit. I looked at all her amazing pictures and suddenly became racked with self-doubt.  I was comparing myself to her!

I recently wrote a Facebook status update saying that I would be taking on an intern in July (which I will elaborate on further in another post) And I got an email that said:

“I would love more than anything to work for you. If I could be anywhere near as good as you I would be happy. In fact looking at your blog makes me sad as I feel like my work is so nowhere. Please pick me.”

It was then that I realized how silly I was being. Just as ‘anonymous’ was comparing herself to little ol me, so I was comparing myself to Annie.

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The other day I opened one of those wedding magazines that only feature the suppliers advertising in them (you know the ones). I turned a few pages and noticed an image by a well- known local photographer; only the name on the image didn’t correlate. The name on the image was advertising a photographer that I had never heard of. A few pages later and BAAAAM there it was again. Once again I recognized an image belonging to an established photographer. Except this image had in fact been replicated by someone else and used in an advertisement.

This really irked me.

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If you aren’t a photographer then this blog post really isn’t for you and you should probably just hop out of here. If you are a photographer and a lighting guru the same applies.  If however, you are a photographer who needs to brush up on his or her technical ability to produce and mould light to create awesome pics and up your game, then this blog post is especially for you!

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I have recently had a number of people call, mail and Facebook me to ask my advice about getting into the wedding industry and to find out what it is like to be a wedding photographer.

These people have ranged from photography students to people who enjoy photography as a hobby.

My answer is always the same. Wedding Photography is an insane amount of work and to do well you need to be creative, adaptable, technically sound, good with people and skilled at running your own business. It also helps to be a little obsessive! People seem to think it is an easy job or a way to make a quick buck and unfortunately it is this attitude, along with the digital revolution, that has resulted in a lot of fly-by-nights and wedding photography disasters.

I have therefore decided to write this post on what it is really like to be a full time professional wedding photographer. Please note that this is written from my own personal perspective, and I tend to be a workaholic who is constantly pushing myself to be better, do better and create more ….. Sometimes to the detriment of everything else!

I know there are wedding photographers out there who have it all figured out and have successful businesses, take amazing images and have a balanced personal life. I bow down to those photographers and wish I could be more like them. (By the way … I don’t really know any personally! Except for, maybe, one!)

I also know there are those photographers out there who are happy to deliver sub-standard work. I am not one of those.

So here we go.

What it is really like to be a wedding photographer?

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