Oliver and Chantel got married at Galagos Country Estate on the 31’st October 2009. We did their engagements shoot (e-session / pre-shoot) at Galagos as well during August.
Oliver’s brother came all the way from Germany where he is studying for a degree in Industrial Engineering to be by his brother’s side as his best man. No shortage of brains in this family – Oliver is an Actuary for Pete’s sake! The room where they got dressed had lovely natural light flowing and had a white ceiling for great bounce flash shots to fill in the shadows.
Chantel’s dad was quite emotional when he handed her over to Oliver. I wonder what he knew…?
The wedding chapel / lapa at Galagos is one of the most challenging places we’ve had the privilege of photographing weddings in. It is very dark and has no white or light-coloured surfaces to bounce flashes off. You also can’t walk around freely as the seating is right up to both sides. As a wedding photographer you really have to pull out all the stops to get some nice looking wedding ceremony photos there.
As difficult as it is inside, so awesome is it outside. There is nice walkways and lots of vantage points to take photos from. We normally ask the guests to form a guard of honour for the throwing of confetti to allow us ample photo opportunities as the bride and groom walk past, but at Galagos the walkways kind of “forces” people into that formation automatically.
Oliver and Chantel were great sports and we had loads of fun – getting the best of both worlds. We took a lot of spontaneous fun shots and they played along just as hard for some serious posers.
Ah, the reception venue. Another stunner with a grass roof :-( Beautiful to look at and have your wedding reception in, but EXTREMELY challenging for your wedding photographers. Hey wedding planners – photo = light and graph = draw. We draw with light…
What is awesome about Galagos’ wedding reception venue is the size and layout thereof. It is quite huge and has a balcony area right around as well – offering cool places to shoot photos from. That is when the 70-200mm F2 VR Nikkor lens really comes in handy: you get to zoom in quite tightly and can make use of the little light there is available.
OK, this is now starting to sound like a technical article… Sorry guys – I’ll stop it.
The first dance was so beautiful. A minute or so into the dance a Galagos staff member started to release rose petals from above – waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy above. I reckon the reception venue’s ceiling is probably 6 – 10m high! In the low light it looked like it was raining or snowing on them as the gently swayed to and fro.
When the party started it REALLY started. It sure helps when you’ve got loads of young, energetic people at your reception. They had their own clowns there as well, as you can see above – nope, they’re not a couple or that way inclined: they just did it to tease their real partners!
Thank you for making us part of your special day Oliver and Chantel.
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