It starts with a boy and a girl coincidentally getting to know each other…

Two years down the line, next thing you know you are blissfully engaged and planning your special wedding day J  You might ask me how to choose the right wedding photographer.  Truth is that it’s different for every couple getting married.  My advice would be to have a look at a few photographer’s portfolios and meet up with your favourites. 

It’s important to take note of “how the photographer makes you feel”.  Do you feel right at home and at ease?  Did the photographer manage to comfortably start up a conversation which just grew from strength to strength?  Secondly you need to ask to view their  wedding portfolios, how many brides do you see? If there are only a few chances are good that they haven’t photographed many weddings.  Which in turn might mean that they don’t have enough experience to handle any situation which comes their way.  You can even go as far as asking them for a few references (previous brides and grooms) you could phone and chat to.

Lastly, never be hesitant to voice your opinions and queries.

Hope this gives you some insight on how to better “interview” your wedding photographer to ensure that they are the right one for you!

Riani Labuschagne & Yolandi Jacobsz

Wedding photography

We’ve all seen them, on magazine covers, billboards and even on TV.  Super cute photos of babies are everywhere!  I’ve come to the realisation that nine out of 10 parents (most people actually) would love to have photos like these taken of their babies but they haven’t put any thought into what it takes to get these beautiful baby portraits.

It’s a fact that babies are “hardwired” to smile at faces they recognise (this means you, mommy and daddy)  This is an age old survival mechanism to make them even cuter to you, so you will do your utmost best to give them your all.

So in your photoshoot we really appreciate when you also make an effort to make your baby smile.  I can promise you that you are probably more than the  one-hundredth person I’ve seen pulling faces, making animal noises pr playing air guitar as if your life depended on it, simply to get your little one to crack a smile.  And frankly put we prefer it this way J

So don’t forget to bring your “wacky side” to the studio as we love them all!

Riani Labuschagne & Yolandi Jacobsz

Cute baby photos

I got a phone call this week to photograph a one year old’s birthday party, not at all a strange thing, you might say.  To me it feels like I did this family’s maternity photoshoot just the other day!  When I was little I could never understand why grown-up’s always comment on how much kids have grown and now I know why…

This is the exact reason why we recommend doing a family photoshoot.  Kids tend to grow like little mushrooms J   And every age is accompanied by some kind of classic age-related traits.  You might NOT find some of those traits very funny at the moment but believe me when I say you will miss some of it the moment you realize they have grown out of their old stage of development and moved into a new stage.

For example: toddlers 2-4 yrs have this specific way of holding your face with each of their little hands on either side of your face , and they don’t do this often as they get older.  Or one we all know is they don’t simply hug you, they tend to grab you around the neck and squash you to them J

So what I’m trying to say is that it’s a truly fun experience (it’s even been compared to playdates by other families) for the whole family…

Riani Labuschagne & Yolandi Jacobsz

family portraits

The people you choose as your groomsmen, or as your bridesmaids, are chosen for a reason. These are the people you have shared many incredible moments with, and they know you best.  We always say to all couples who come and enquire about wedding photos, that even in the chaos of getting everything together and planning a mass of things, because a wedding has so many moving parts – when the day actually arrives, you are supposed to do nothing else but have fun. People don’t always know how important this is, because it is unfortunately a day that goes by extremely fast, and then all you planning, only becomes the beautiful memories we as photographers got to capture on the day.

On the day so much is happening, and so many people has to get ready for this affair, and many jokes and laughs are shared, and we love to interact with our couple and the whole entourage following because the comic moments that come out of that, are priceless.

We love these photos, not only because we enjoyed the wedding so much and the atmosphere was great, it was because the couple was relaxed, and made for wonderful times, and that is what we would want all couples to remember- our job is to catch to moments, and catch it, we shall, all YOU have to do, is enjoy your wedding day, enjoy your friends, and trust us to bring the very best out of your special day.

Yolandi Jacobsz & Riani Labuschagne

Wedding Photography

So you have just heard you are pregnant and you are ecstatic, well you should be J  It is one of the most amazing times in your life.  I have always thought of pregnant women to be similar to angels (yes I know that sounds very dramatic) but you are part of a miracle when you are pregnant – or that’s the way I see it.

When you get to 34 – 37 weeks you might not think you are “pretty” enough to be taken photos of and that is why we do our utmost best to make this an awesome experience and give you very arty photos, so that you can look back at this time with a sense of wonder.

Looking at other sample photos on the net is definitely recommended as it will give you a better idea of what to expect from your photoshoot, and if you are not sure what to bring or to do in your shoot, you are more than welcome to give our pro female photographers a call and chat to them to make you more comfortable with the whole concept. 

Someone asked me once if they HAVE to be naked in these photos, and I replied that not necessarily.  I would still recommend some shots where you wear something like a boob-tube so your tummy isn’t covered and showing, but you can also bring textured materials with which we can “wrap you” and do shots like that.

I guarantee you that it’s the experience of a lifetime…

Riani Labuschagne & Yolandi Jacobsz

Arty pregnancy photography

It’s always wonderful to be part of the excited and a bit anxious milieu where the ride if getting dressed before her-and her husband to be’s big moment. The bridesmaids are having fun together and giggling about something, and the bride is making sure she looks like a million bucks, because it’s quite a daunting idea knowing that not only will your smiling groom have his eyes on you, the whole of the room will as well.

Luckily brides are filled with the situational butterflies, and her eyes are sparkling in anyway. We always make sure to spend that little bit of time with the bride before she gets in the car, to get a few intimate and personal portraits of her.  She’s glowing and lovely, and very beautiful in her dress, and these things are what make a wedding so much fun to shoot, because it’s a day filled with beauty and love, and our job is to sneak in all of these precious moments that will make your package just that much more amazing.

Do your wedding photography through Louise Diesel Photography; our dedicated team will make sure to capture the most loveliest of moments on your very special day.

Yolandi Jacobsz & Riani Labuschagne

Excited Bride

We all have dreams of what we would like to become one day, and as everyone are different and unique, so are these dreams and aspirations. If you perhaps have the dream to become a model one day, the very first place to start is by getting a portfolio made of yourself. Models have to have the ability to take good direction, because people like photographers and art-directors, have a very clear idea of how they would want their shot to look, and if you’re able to mould into that vision, you will be successful in it. A modeling, or portfolio shoot, is tremendous amounts of fun, and even more so for me, because I get to play around with the medium that is the foundation our profession is based on – light. Photographers get as excited about light as small children would about Christmas presents.

In about all of my modeling shoots, my subjects surprise themselves, which I feel a privilege to be part of the moment, and I can see the end-product in my mind, knowing what I want to achieve with the shot, and the look I want with it. I would encourage anyone wanting to get good photos done of themselves to come for a shoot by Louise Diesel Photography, you would be pleasantly surprised and awed with your amazing product.

Yolandi Jacobsz & Riani Lauschagne

Model photographer