Street Portraiture | Obs Fest | Cape Town

Long before wedding photography was a part of our lives and even longer before photography was a job, the streets were where we spent our days wandering with a camera. Many of those days were spent with my good friend Otto Schulze and they are days I miss dearly. If you have never walked the streets in search of pictures then you have missed out on something very special. Grab your camera and go. Now.

Often you have no idea what you are looking for so you walk and you just look. Sometimes for ages but eventually that moment does come, where you are pulled towards someone for a reason you might only figure out on the way up to them. It might be the way they are dressed. A look on their face. Sometimes it isn't even at all clear why you are drawn to this stranger in the street, but it is already happening. You just have to go with it. There is always a moment of uncertainty, a period where you aren't sure what will come of this conversation. Most often they say yes. Sometimes they don't. Either way street photography forces you into interactions you might never have - all for a picture.

This weekend saw the coming of the annual Obs Fest in our little village of Observatory in Cape Town. Spun as an arts festival it's really a music festival on the streets of this well known arts and culture hub. We were dreading it. Apparently 15,000 party people descended on Obs last year and partied in the streets till stupid o'clock. Our house is inside the festival road closure zone so we imagined the chaos that might go on outside our door. We had planned to take the dogs and leave the city for the weekend but in the end the festival turned out to be a major disappointment. It could barely be called a festival in fact. Charging R70 entrance for a day was one reason it seemed the people stayed away. Bad organization seemed to be another. Either way we were relieved.

Obs village was a ghost town. You could walk down the middle of most of the streets where cars might normally be. Although it was a really low turnout there was still a great mix of people out on the streets. A few real characters too. Obs is known for this mix of hippies, artists, students and professionals and even its own local chapter of Nigerian gangsters. Everyone gets on fine. Strange as it is.

The following pictures are from two hours on the streets of Obs Fest and the first street portraits I have shot in probably five years. Thanks to everyone of the strangers that said yes. You made my weekend.

The Streets - oh how I have missed you.

Travis

Cape Winelands Wedding | Webersburg Boutique Wine Estate | Alan and Caz | Sneak Peak

We lucked out again last weekend with a gem of a couple, Alan and Caz. It was our first wedding at the Webersburg Boutique Wine Estate, near Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands, and another chance for us to work with Kim and Kate, our favorite girls from Wedding Concepts. They once again did an amazing job putting an epic wedding together for these very special people.

We just had to share something small from the wedding and decided on this image of Alan and Caz on the dance floor, completely unaware of everyone around them. It was one of so many of them interacting like this. It's our job to watch a couple for a night and so, it was never very long before we would see Alan lean into Caz to kiss her cheek or put his arm around her and gently pull her in. Sure, every newlywed couple is like this, but there was something very different about the tender and reassuring interactions between them, that made our job so easy.

We can't wait to share the rest with you all.

welovealan&caz

love
welovepictures

Destination Wedding | Mauritius | Mohan and Jacqui | Part 2

Mohan and Jacqui

The Sands Resort and Spa

Flic and Flac, Mauritius

July 2011

We sat for the longest time trying to cut back the number of images for Mo and Jacqui's post but we just couldn't. Two posts it had to be. Part two picks up after of the ceremony on the beach and details the two portrait sessions we shot on the day. So forgive us if it looks like the post jumps around a bit. The first was before the ceremony began in some tough mid-day sunlight, but we managed to get some great stuff out of it. If this group had not been such a great laugh this may have been a lot more difficult. Our second session with them was post-ceremony when the mist and cloud gave way somewhat. The weather in Mauritius changes so quickly. We never really knew if we were up or down but again we worked with it and got some really beautiful, intimate images with them. They were so easy in front of the camera.

The reception was also broken up in two. A formal dinner out on the deck followed by a good "get-down" in the resort conference room. Things started to swing from here and we couldn't help but join in. One of the craziest love booths we have ever shot went down that night. This is what happens when you let a bunch South Africans and Australians loose in tiny conference room on an island in the middle of the Indian ocean. Some of our favorite images from the wedding came from this part of the evening and just looking at them takes us right back to the island.

enjoy

love

welovepictures

Destination Wedding | Mauritius | Mohan and Jacqui | Part 1

Mohan and Jacqui

The Sands Resort and Spa

Flic and Flac, Mauritius

July 2011

July was a bumper month for welovepictures. Within ten days we covered weddings on the island of Mauritius and in Canada. More polar opposite destinations you could not find, but if you asked us to pick a favorite, well, we couldn’t. welovethemboth.

Mo and Jacqui, who are Australian, have a great love for the island of Mauritius and, after traveling there together on a few occasions, decided it would be a great place for their families to come together to celebrate their wedding. Jacqui’s folks, originally South Africans, moved to Australia before Jacqui was born and so the island was the ideal half-way destination for the families from Australia and South Africa to meet.

This wedding took some doing though. Planning a wedding is tough. Planning a wedding in a country that is not your own (without a wedding co-ordinator) really is an amazing feat. Just imagine packing suitcases full of decor items, only hoping that they arrive safely. We’ve all had bags lost by an airline at some stage right? Thankfully, this is not one of those stories and we’re glad to say everything arrived safely.

A small, but special, group of family and friends from all over the world joined them on the island and spent the week hanging out together at The Sands Resort and Spa, Flic and Flac. The Sands is everything we imagined it would be: private beach, hundreds of palm trees and an infinity pool overlooking the ocean. We couldn’t believe our eyes. We couldn’t believe we had escaped the wet winter weather back home in Cape Town for this!

The wedding was like no other we have ever experienced. These guys wanted the celebration to reflect their own mix of cultures and backgrounds rather than the everyday western wedding traditions that didn’t resonate with them. Jacqui wore an epic burgundy dress! Awesome! Mo, who is half-Indian, looked amazing in a traditional Indian outfit. They hung out together before the ceremony. No surprise at either end of the aisle (note the homophone! haha!). The bouquet wasn’t tossed but rather presented as a gift to each grandmother during the ceremony - a small and sweet gesture of thanks for a great examples of love and longevity in marriage. It was great to see such a personal and laid back approach to the wedding formalities. It says a lot about Mo and Jacqui. They really are wonderful people.

The weather was perfect until just before the start of the ceremony but didn’t seem to bother anyone, least of all Mo and Jacqui. They took it in their stride and with big smiles. They were getting married after all.

Thank you so much guys, we had such an amazing time with you an your family for the few days we were there. You spoilt us.

This post is broken up into two parts because there’s just too much to show you all from this amazing wedding. Part Two to follow tomorrow.

love

welovepictures

Jacqui’s is a real talent too. Check out her work here.