Ernst and Valine Wedding Portraits, with Friends!

Ian Mitchinson — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:57:00 +0000

Ernst contacted me earlier this week to see if I would be available to do some portraits of him and his beautiful bride to be (Valine) at Le Bonheur Wine Estate. I was already shooting a wedding at La Bonheur crocodile farm in the morning so I was a tiny bit confused, as they sounded to me to be the same place, except one ended in Crocodile Farm and the other in Wine Estate…Well I checked with Mr. Google and apparently there are two venues very close to each other, and both with the same name, and that have nothing to do with each other….PHEW! Anyway, the wedding that I was shooting was in the morning and ended at 4pm, and they needed me to shoot at 5pm…so perfect!! I signed up. The weather was amazing for shooting with perfect light and light clouds, and Michelle (my assistant – And Cape Towns best assistant I will gladly point out!!) spent a good while picking out all the spots that we would like to do the portraits at. Well when the newly weds arrived the heavens opened up and it began to pour down big style. I was tempted to shoot in the rain, but on second thought…

We did most of the shoot in a tiny room, and then luckily got access to the winery. It was fun working with this couple, and even more fun having 20 people crowding around me while shooting, advising exactly what I should be doing…Thanks Guys!. I love the feel of these images, and it reminded me of my days as an assistant working for legendary portrait photographer Greg Dean, in Canada. We would often be in situations where we had a small space to shoot due to weather. I learn’t most of everything I know about flash lighting from Greg and those days of shooting in doors and in places that required imagination to create interesting imagery. Hope you like this special selection.

Location: Le Bonheur Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

Wedding Photography of Ian Mitchinson » le bonheur wine estate

Ernst and Valine Wedding Portraits, with Friends!