When my cousin turned 25 she had the idea of wanting to have a shoot done with her close friends and family, in a boudoir style. On the day I had a quite a few nervous ladies not knowing what to expect and how exactly this was going to happen. As a photographer I know, that being in front of the camera could be daunting, it makes many people feel uncomfortable because they are not too sure what expect. It takes some skill to get people comfortable, one which I enjoy a lot. It means I get to connect with many people, most of them strangers who are clients I am meeting for the first time.

This shoot turned out to be such a success  as the girls enjoyed themselves tremendously. My cousin got her wish for her birthday, and opted for having a beautiful calendar made of all of her beloved ladies. When you want to have a special birthday done, and want to enjoy the time with your friends and create beautiful memories, something like a group boudoir shoot would be just the thing.

Yolandi Jacobsz

A wedding does not only mean a bride and groom gets married that day, it means their friends and family get to share in the celebration with them, enjoying the wonderful décor put together by the couple to give the day extra flair, and make it picture perfect. These small details were usually chosen with such care and precision, and one would very much like to remember all aspects of the day. Décor shots are very important, because a bride and groom are in that happy state of mind, where nothing else exists for them, but each other, as it should be too.

Many weddings are categorized by how they were put together, and many of your guests will still remember the small little things that made your wedding special, such as the table settings, the flower-arrangements, and the colour-scheme, and that is why we spent the time to get good images of these important things.

We’re a studio that prides ourselves in giving our clients the very best of our abilities, always going the extra mile, and using professional equipment to ensure the highest possible amount of quality.

Yolandi Jacobsz & Riani Labuschagne

JHB wedding photographers

It’s that time of the year again and as always I can’t believe how fast this year has just flown by…   What does Christmas signify to you, to me it’s a time of gratitude.  To say thank you for all the blessings which we have received during the year, to say thank you for friends and family and so forth.  The list is endless.

This Christmas of 2011 I am most looking forward to spending this very special day with my whole family (meaning all 12 of us, mom and dad, siblings,their better halves, kiddies, grandma and even my dogs)   So make some time today to sit and reminisce with your loved ones about the highlights of this past year and give thanks for each and every challenge that crossed your path, and if you look carefully you will see how these “opportunities disguised as challenge” made you grow.

To my crazy funny and VERY loving family, I adore you all! J

Riani Labuschagne

Our journey started with a girl and her Madrinha walking into the studio to enquire about having beautiful photos taken at “the girl’s” special 21^st birthday celebration and we’ve been having a blast ever since!

They have taught us all about Portuguese customs, delectable food and sense of family the Portuguese community share    {oh yes as well as how BIG these families are…lol)

Eileen and Quentin’s wedding day (this is “another girl” from this same family) is one that I won’t soon forget.  As I browse through their photos I realize that Eileen is smiling in probably every second one of them, which I love as this is exactly who she is.  So vibrant and bubbly, she might have been the bride (so it’s her wedding) but she was helping the bridesmaids dress and talking and laughing along with everybody there

As you can see from the photo on the steps, Portuguese weddings is just one of those occasions where the whole family gets involved.  This was taken at the house where she was getting dressed and they came to see her here.

On the morning of their wedding day there was dark rain clouds looking and the wind was blowing terribly, and in the end the wind had blown the clouds over and even got us a beautifully spontaneous photo of Eileen’s veil fluttering in the wind… haha (was SO funny – after this we took it off) 

After that we took the wedding couple to do some shots by themselves (not just us I might add, as we had friends and family tag along too J  Gotta love them!)

We are privileged to share in all the special moments with you and with such friendly and photogenic people I am sure we can only capture beautiful memories!

Riani Labuschagne & Yolandi Jacobsz

Professional wedding photography

We had a wonderful opportunity recently to photograph an important Muslim event, called a Walima. The Walima is held the day after the actual official ceremony of a wedding, and a great deal of the families who got married, friends and family are invited. People originating from the east has a very colourful and elaborate way of dressing  up, and we enjoyed their beautiful sari’s, Punjabi’s and dresses so much.

A lot of planning and effort goes into events, and a décor- and colour scheme is usually chosen to create a certain atmosphere. This event was so stunningly put together and the hall looked beautiful and colorful, such as the people attending as well. We always make sure to photograph the small little details and the décor, as we know the couple and the family, who put together the lovely event, want to remember the day in the best possible way. Most events are held in arenas or halls, and it’s usually a bit darker inside these rooms. The photographer must have high-end professional cameras to be able to capture the details without blur, and still retain quality. We always pride ourselves on using quality equipment, and providing a service to our clients that give them the best possible product, that will make them remember their event in a visually spectacular way.

Yolandi Jacobsz & Riani Labuschagne

Walima Photos

Most people like to celebrate their birthday in some style or another, be it a party with friends and family, or going on a trip for the significance of getting older. I recently did a shoot for a close family member, whose idea it was to celebrate her birthday by having all the close women in her life photographed in a boudoir/nude style for a birthday calendar to keep for years to come.

As women, she felt we should celebrate our bodies, and feel comfortable in our own skin, no matter what age we are or how we look. It’s always very satisfying to do a shoot with people – a wonderful subject to work with – and be able to get their personalities to shine through. I always make it a mission to give different people to right amount of charisma just to pull that special something out of them.

In our line of work, lighting plays the biggest factor – it’s the medium that we play with. It’s what makes images burn on film, or the digital plate in cameras, and we can play around with it and manipulate it to create shots that takes your breath away. It is used strategically in shoots like boudoir – or nudes, because the body should only be shown in the best possible way, and the make the woman in front of it, as comfortable as possible. We only want positive images, and therefore we take our work very seriously, with a tad of fun, because we love what we do as well.

Yolandi Jacobsz

Unique birthday photo idea

A couple’s wedding day, is a euphoric, crazy, beautiful day – and no other day would look and feel exactly like that day again. There are suppose to be long, lovable stares into each other’s eyes, giggles from the little flower girls, an excited groom waited for a breathtaking bride, a reception hall decorated with precision and care – and then, there are the photographers hired specifically to capture all of these wonders.

It’s a long day starting from hair and make-up & then dressing – but it builds up to a point where a glowing woman walks up to man in a handsome suit, witnessed by friends and family, and the most important thing – is just that they get to say “I do”. We as photographers chose this profession – or the profession chose US, mostly because of our creative eye, in seeing all of these little details that the couple in their cloud-nine state, don’t see and we spend the whole day looking for them.

All photography as we said, has its own sense of appeal, but a wedding is extraordinarily special, as it deals with all things “nice” in life – a father with pride in his eyes, a mother with tears in hers, a beautiful dress, food “crafted” with precision, gorgeous flowers and decorations – and everyone that just smiles because they can’t help it.

We were fortunate enough to shoot a wedding recently with both Riani & myself there, and we captured it from two different angles – a bonus for the couple, and more to work with for us, and looking at all of those photos afterwards make us proud that we were the ones to create the only thing a couple has left after the wedding – their photo’s and the memories of the day.

Yolandi Jacobsz