Ask the Photographers!

Afternoon, lovelies! I’m just stopping by to let you know about an exciting feature we have in the works with Luis and Kerry of Piteira Photography. Not only am I a big fan of their gorgeous photography, but this husband and wife team are just the loveliest, and I’m happy to count them as friends. In fact, I’m looking forward to seeing them when they’re working in South Africa this summer wedding season (December/January) and this is where the great news comes in – they have some availability, so if you’re still looking for a wedding photographer over the busy season, you can nab this awesome pair! Their work has been featured all over the place: Style Me Pretty, 100 Layer Cake, Ruffled, Bridal Musings, The Pretty Blog – and of course, right here on SouthBound Bride – so you know you’re in the best hands.

To celebrate their South African trip, Luis and Kerry have offered to step in as our experts for the day. They’ll be answering your questions about wedding photography, posing, light – whatever you’re wondering about. They also planned their own (gorgeous) South African wedding from abroad, so they have awesome insight into planning from afar. So here’s the deal: just leave your question at the end of the post (or on our Facebook page) and we’ll put all the answers together into a special post.

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Q&A with Anneli Marinovich

Good afternoon my dears, and a good afternoon it is when I get to introduce my readers to one of my very favourite industry people. Anneli Marinovich is a long-time supporter of the blog – she was one of our first sponsors and since then I have had the pleasure of getting to know Anneli both as a person (she’s lovely!) and as a businesswoman and photographer. And let me tell you, this girl is going places. Not only does Anneli shoot the most beautiful pictures that really capture the moment, but she’s super switched on, which has made working with her a pleasure. In fact, Anneli and I are currently working on a special project that I can’t wait to announce very soon! In the meanwhile, I thought it was high time I got my friend to answer a few questions for us. And remember – although Anneli is based in the UK as I am, she also shoots during the season in South Africa, and she’d love to hear from you!

Hi Anneli – thanks for joining us on SBB today! How did you get started as a photographer?
I’ve always enjoyed photography, especially travel and street photography and after we tied the knot in Cape Town in 2009, having had a wonderful experience with our own wedding photographer (Andre van Niekerk), I decided to look into wedding photography. I took an intensive course focusing on building a successful wedding photography business when we returned to the UK and realised that this was what I wanted to do… full time. I shot my first solo wedding in London in May 2010 and absolutely loved it. The decision to leave my full time job in advertising came in July 2011 after having shot weddings part-time for just over a year as well as second shooting with established wedding photographers, and I haven’t looked back since!Read More

Q&A with Piteira Photography

Happy Friday, friends! It’s been a crazy but wonderful week at SBB headquarters, as I take a bit of a break to enjoy the Olympics. I’ll tell you more about it on the weekend, but for now, let’s just say that I am super excited and proud for all our gold medal winners! And speaking of South African talent, I have an awesome (part-South African) duo to introduce you to this morning. I first came across Kerry and Luis of Piteira Photography when I featured their adorable engagement shoot right here on the blog, and after that I started following their gorgeous work both in South Africa (where they spend time every year) and in Portugal, and they have really just gone from strength to strength. Somehow we all managed to synch our schedules and catch up in Cape Town in March, and they were just as warm and lovely in person as they’d always seemed online. I love the story of how they met, and I wanted you to meet them too, and to hear a bit of what they’ve learned working in Europe as well as SA. I love the concept of a husband and wife team shooting a wedding – not only do you get two talented photographers and two lens perspectives, but you also get two  creative minds. And I’ll give you an insider tip – Kerry and Luis just happen to still have dates available for December 2012, so drop them an email and let them know I sent you. ;) {Oh, and PS, come back later today for a special SBB announcement!}

Hi guys! Thanks so much for talking to me today! Tell us about how you met?
We met while working as photographers for a cruise-line company and worked together onboard for several years before moving to Portugal.

How did you get started in wedding photography?
Honestly, it was quite by accident. We never really thought about being wedding photographers because we didn’t really identify with the traditional, posed, cliché style that was predominant in the industry… we didn’t even think about it for long enough to consider that wedding photography didn’t have to be like that, until we were asked to photograph a wedding close to where we live. It was a last minute request and a favour for a friend so we took it on and it totally changed our minds about what wedding photography can be. The couple was madly artistic and gave us free reign to shoot whatever, however we wanted, the ceremony and decor was totally original, bohemian and completely non-traditional, we had the best time ever and at the end of the night we decided that if we could shoot weddings the way we shot that one, we could do this forever… and that was the beginning.Read More

Bold Boudoir from Monica Dart

Woo, it’s Friday! What will you all be doing this weekend? Before that gets started, here’s a little something special for you. You may already know how much Cap Classique luurves Monica Dart, not only because she shoots beautiful weddings, but because she managed to make me look half decent in our photoshoot a couple of months ago. What you may not know about Moni is that she also shoots shut-the-front-door-beautiful boudoir pictures. Now I know what you’re thinking: ugh, boudoir. Rudey dudey pictures of you in your nuddies trying to look like a model from your husband’s FHM collection. Or maybe you’re thinking: “maybe, if I were thinner”. Because when you’re going to be wearing undies in front of a camera, you can never be skinny enough, right girls? Wrong. See, here’s what I have discovered about boudoir in the last couple of years, since it’s become a bit of a trend here in wedding world. One, you may give it as a gift to your husband-to-be, but really, it’s something you need to do for YOU. It’s not only a lovely experience to be dolled up and pampered, and a liberating one to be part-clothed in front of a photographer, but what it really is is an acknowledgment to yourself that even with your lumps and bumps, you deserve to be turned into a piece of art. And art is exactly what a photographer like Monica produces – yes, you’ll be frozen in time looking hawt, but this kind of shoot is as much about what you don’t see as what you do, and it’s class all the way. As with an engagement shoot, you’ll want to think about styling and making it a reflection of who you are, and then just having fun with it. The ladies I know who have been there have all said that it made them feel incredible, and really accept themselves and their bodies in a way they hadn’t before. Sounds bloody fantastic, I’d say. Sign me up, Moni!
PS And yes, your eyes do not deceive you. Below you’ll find boudoir shot on an empty South African Airways aeroplane. How. Awesome. Is. That?!?

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