day one in south africa

The view of Paris from above

I have finally arrived in Johannesburg after a day and a half of traveling! It started off with a delayed flight in Toronto and an uneventful layover in Heathrow Airport. The most excitement Heathrow had to offer was me lurking around the surrounding chairs by the charging stations waiting to snag an outlet. Oh and there was a cashier who wouldn't let me pay for my Harper's Bazaar because my £20 note was "too old." Whatever that means.

Before I touched down in Joburg at 7:30am, I had the loveliest view of the rising sun. Wish I could see it everyday.

Some free promotion right there for South Africa Airways

 And last but not least, enjoy these pictures of my Uncle's lovely fish :D

nequita & matt get married

Sometimes you drift away from friends for multiple reasons but I'm so happy when we get back in touch. It's almost like we never had that period of disconnect. This happened with Nequita and myself - we met in high school but drifted apart during our university years. One day, I received a message from her asking if I could photograph her wedding. Without any hesitation, I said "YES!"

On the day of the wedding, it snowed quite heavily but it created such a wonderful atmosphere - it's what people dream of when they think of a winter wedding. Photographing a winter event was definitely a challenge and I'm so grateful I wore my snow boots to kick away the snow so I could create paths for the groomsmen and bridesmaids. Not only that, it was quite chilly outside so the photos had to be done quite quickly. Looking back, I can now recognize that this was a great learning experience that challenged both my creative and technical skills.

Thanks to Nequita and Matt for not only letting me capture their important moments but also for letting me meet their wonderful family and friends. I hope the best for your future and can't wait till I see you both again.

On a side note, I never realized how long it takes to create a wedding blog post. I can now see why it takes many photographers forever to upload them. You have to decide on your favorite pictures, make sure the colour scheme matches and make sure the sizing is appropriate. It was definitely an experience.

editing process #1

Like I promised, I have finally gotten around to posting my editing process. I have decided to start off small and then move to the more complicated ideas further on. For this process, I have just posted a before and after because it's a simple edit.

So the shot above was actually a test shot (I hadn't gotten my setting right yet) but I liked it so much, I decided to use it. The problems with this picture are:

- It's underexposed
- There's too much green for an Autumn shoot
- Her shirt is not tucked in

Despite the edit being simple, the process was much more complicated.

- Increased the exposure by 2 stops (if I recall correctly), increased the vibrancy and added some fill light using CameraRAW
- Used the selective colour tool to make everything an autumn orange
- Used curves to add more red into the foilage on the ground
- Used the liquify tool to bring in the sides of her shirt
- Added a circle gradient around the light source to make it softer

As you can see from the before and after, I didn't do too much to it besides increase the exposure and change the colour but it made a world of a difference.