I had the absolute pleasure of photographing little Mika’s 1st Birthday party.  Lucille is her grandmother and organised the whole party at her house.  This was my second visit to the family as I have also taken Kirsten’s matric farewell photos with a studio set-up at their house. They had loads of activities lined up for kids of all ages and sizes.  There was of course an old classic face painting, so we had fairies and boys with ben 10 watche walking around everywhere And what would a themed kiddies party be without a merry-go-round?  The kids truly enjoyed this ride and the caretaker adjusted the speed of the merry-go-round according to the children’s ages.  So no worries of anyone getting hurt!Then there was the jumping castle with a motorized surfboard in the middle of it for the older kids, this looked like so much fun I was thinking about giving it a try!Lucille really pulled out all the stops for her little granddaughter   As you can see they even got a little motorized train which took the kids for rides up and down the street.Doesn’t this little guy just have the cutest face, everytime he came around he waved at his mother and everytime she would wave back.  The wise people say that only once you understand an occurence like this will you be ble to understand the meaning of life.Little Mika’s birthday decorations was done by a company called Crazy Chameleon and the party was themed 101 Dalmations.  The little table was set with little dalmations money boxes and everyone got kitted out with a dalmation dog maks   And last but not least here is a pic of little Mika.  She is a very happy little girl and looks exactly like her cousin Kirsten   She had a fun filled day and I captured some great memories!

Riani

It doesn’t take a scientist to tell you that almost every woman on this planet thinks about their wedding day (gathering ideas and colour schemes) long before the day she actually gets engaged.  So right after this I would put Matric Farewell, also a once in a lifetime day for most of us and truly special.  It’s all about finding the perfect dress, shoes
and accessories (and of course the gorgeous date    ).  Firstly everyone wants to look different, so since the beginning of the year every matric girl pages through magazines and surfs the internet to find ideas for their magical matric farewell dress and whole outfit actually…

You can either have your matric dance dress made (and design it yourself by combining other ideas and creating your own masterpiece), or you can go to hundreds of shops and look
for THE dress…

Samantha ‘s mom D.ann contacted Ryan (Louise’s husband, they’re cousins) to photograph her daugter’s matric farewell, and being professional photographers we made sure we reserved the date for this special lady. On arriving at the house I was introduced to their 7 dogs and 10 birds (from parrots to love birds and even a beautiful bird called
an Eclectis)

Samantha is a dancer, she does Latin-American, Hip-Hop and Freestyle (and others that I can’t remember off the top of my head)  So she has a great physique and her professional make-up artist ( who also does her make-up for dancing competitions) knew exactly how to apply her make-up, eyelash extensions and bronzer . He even had a “gold) spray for Samantha’s hair, to darken her hair almost the same as bronzer you put on your skin, but just for your hair.  He also had Sam stand with her head bent over and sprayed a product onto her hair and let it
“set” to make sure the volume in the curls would stay there the whole night long (probably the next day too…    )

After taking some posed family photos to add to her matric dance photo album we left for Eagle Canyon Golf Estate just off Beyers Naude to meet the stretch Hummer Limousine. I just had to take a few fun “girl” photos in the car, leaning against the car etc…   Sam and Daniel was so impressed with the limo that they insisted that I take a few
pics inside as well.

I had a great time with you guys and I’m sure your evening was fun-filled!  Can’t wait to photograph your dance competitions…
Riani

Can you believe it’s almost that time of the year again?  Time to go on a diet, time to do a hair and make-up trial and most of all to find the ideal matric farewell dress!!!  So exciting if you are a girl   I think the guys just kind of find a pretty girl which they like (or their girlfriend ) and just kind of tag along.  Have you ever heard of a guy who decided on what colour him and his partner will be wearing to the matric farewell?  I haven’t either..  Your  Matric Farewell is one of those special once in a lifetime events (unless you’re dating someone older than you )  And it is actually really nice to have an event like that after your final matric exams to just relax and catch-up.  Well technically it might be a little for the girl’s to show off but anyway…   I still remember people didn’t recognise me at my matric farewell because I tend to never really get that dressed up… LOLThis specific couple had been dating for just under a year, she is the captain of the first team hockey squad and he is the captain of the first team rugby squad so they really go together.  I remember telling him to fix his tie and he told me:” It’s not a tie it’s called a krawat”    Apparently they had to beg him to consider wearing a tophat and when he finally fitted one immediately decided that it really makes his outfit!You can also include your whole family in your matric farewell photoshoot, start off with the two families to make sure they don’t get bored and then move onto couple and detail photos.So don’t hesitate to contact us if you feel that you would like to have your special memories captured in a unique and relaxed way!!!! Riani

A few matrics clubbed in and decided on getting a Limo Bus to take them to the matric farewell and share in the fun!

They met up at a guest house in Alberton.  All the while it was threatening to rain and the wind was blowing really
hectically..  We got a walled in section with a great garden to do the family photos.  The family was quite shy at first but really got into it after a while.  After all, you only have your matric farewell once.

Donné’s dress was absolutely beautiful.  She chose the material and pattern herself and according to her, she put it together
quite easily.  This is one girl who knows what she wants.  She was a little worried about the slit in her dress as the wind
kept showing everyone some leg the whole time… but having sun bronzed legs and being as thin as a reed I told her not to worry (If you’ve got it flaunt it – that’s my motto    ) 

Anyways, I then photographed them in the lush garden.  At one stage Donné said that It was starting to rain and as I hadn’t felt a drop of rain I told her it’s not raining and positive thinking would keep the rain at bay, and 15 mins later we could see some blue sky..Voila!  (Never underestimate the power of positive thinking)

Photography Tip: When taking family pics and photographs like these, the background isn’t always about colour but finding a uniform backdrop that won’t detract from your subjects. As always lighting is vitally important so look for shady spots so as to avoid harsh shadows on the subjects faces. You may also need fill in flash if the background is very bright or if the lighting is low.

Back to the photoshoot: We moved back into the humdrum of the guesthouse where everyone was meeting up and it was a little bit of chaos.  And  because I’m quite short I had to stick my arm in the air a few times for them to be able to find me.  Photos with your friends are the ones you look back on in a few years, and there were quite a lot of friends to photograph…

There were so many people with small digital cameras that I felt surrounded by the paparazzi 

Finally the bus arrived, and
all the guys and girls started getting in. Other parents got into the bus and just took a random photo without being able to see everyone’s faces.  As we always make sure to get the shot, I got onto the bus, turned the booming music down and asked everyone to pose for two photos and everyone happily obliged. 

Anything to get the shot… (famous last words?)

HA HA HA!!

Riani     

Well done Riani – th epics are beautiful as are the subjects – and yes – us crazy photographers do whatever it takes to get the shot!!!