Five Photographers I want to be

As you all know, it's no secret that I'm a huge blogstalker. Especially wedding photographer blogs. Don't freak out, but I have 129 blogs in my "favourites" folder alone. And that's the small folder! I tried to count the rest but I got tired when I hit 180-something and I wasn't nearly finished, but take it from me, it's a lot. Most of the time I don't even get to look at some most of them, but I can't bring myself to delete them. I'm a frickin hoarder, people. Didn't you know you can hoard online? Oh yes, you can.

So when people ask me who my favourite photographers are, I don't know how to answer that question. I can't have 129, obviously. And I do know that I like some of those more than others, but that I can't keep dividing the folders into more and more subdivisions: "Perfect Photography", "Near Perfect Photography", "Usually Awesome Photography", "Really Great Photography", "Pretty Good Photography" - yeah, those are the types of categories I would need to start having. So, for now I just have favourites, 2nd tier, and The Rest. But to pick the favourite favourites out of the Favourites? How do you do that?

Well, when I started thinking about it, I realised I could look at it in another way: Which photographers do I want to BE? Whose style and use of colour, lighting, settings and imagination do I want to emulate? Whose portfolio gives me the same feeling that I want my clients to have when they see their photos for the first time? Hmm. This was slightly easier. You see, while there are numerous photographers I admire and love, their style just isn't mine. I'm excited to look at their work, but I can't picture myself producing work like that. It isn't "me". So that immediately cut the list down...a bit. The rest was just a long hard look and an even harder cull. But here is my list, in no particular order. Getting them to five was difficult enough. Ordering them would be impossible.

1. VUE PHOTOGRAPHY

Oh, the bliss. The HAPPINESS that I get from pretty much every single one of their pictures is indescribable. The colours are saturated while still being light and fresh. I don't believe that every one of their weddings can possibly be so beautiful and perfect in real life. But somehow they make them look like it! Feast your eyes on some more:

2. CAMERON INGALLS

Magical is the word I associate with Cameron Ingalls. His photos feel like stepping into a beautiful wedding-fantasy land. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a lens filter called "fairytale magic" that he uses, because, whoa, are his pictures gorgeous. Take a look and see what I mean:

A rainbow? Are you freaking kidding me with the magicalness? Or is that "magicality"? :-)

3. CHRISTINE MEINTJES

Fresh, clean and simple. That's what Christime Meintjes' photos always say to me. I love her use of light and how bright and happy her photos are. And yes, it was her workshop I attended some weeks ago. I really want to steal emulate be inspired by her style! :-)

Here are some more:

 

 

 

 

 

4.  SUSAN STRIPLING

The magic light photographer. That's what I call Susan Stripling in my head. Because somehow she seems to take any light she has, and turn it into a magical glow. I don't think I really appreciated this until I started photographing myself. Now I have deep admiration and huge respect (and a lot of envy) for how her pictures turn out!

 

 

Delicious light, can I marry you?

5.CHELSEA NICOLE

I chose Chelsea Nicole for this last spot because her work really stands out for me. There's something "fashion shoot"-ish about it, but it never looks overposed or overflashed. It still has a natural look for me, and I'm sure it takes a lot of hard work to achieve that behind the scenes! I want to learn how to do that!

 

PS - If you want to see the cutest dog ever, go see this engagement shoot Chelsea did! ADORABLE.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dear:

Trista Lerit, DrewB, Andrea Carlyle, Shooting Gallery, Bobbi & Mike, Ed Pingol, Ksenija Savic, Lauren Clark, Mario Sales, Leigh Taylor, Tinywater, Natasha Du Preez, Lizelle Lotter, Sarah K Chen, Clayton Austin and Marie Labbancz, you totally rock my world as well. Some of you are beautiful, some of you are funky, some of you are fashiony, but you're all brilliant.

Twitter makes me lazy

Too lazy to blog, that is. It's so simple and fast to tweet an idea that, really, you could have expanded upon and made a really good blog post about. Or at least a little blog post that isn't too boring. And then you kind of feel like you've said it already, so what's the point. Then before you know it, you haven't blogged for a month.

So I'm going to try and expound on some of my twitter thoughts, and see how that goes. Because I tweet a LOT. Lots of them are replies to people and retweets, but still. It's a lot.

I'm Facebook friends with this girl I was in a show with 3 years ago. She keeps sending me random chat requests with enticing messages like, "I'm going to tennis later and I don't feel like it, LOL" or "I'm so sleepy today. LOL" or "I'm taking drama class next year, LOL". I'm just not sure why she feels the need to tell me these things. She's still in high school, and I'm 30. This wouldn't bother me (I've got a bunch of fab high school gals I follow on twitter, cos they're AWESOME), but she and I have nothing in common. We were in a show 3 years ago. That's it. We don't need to chat. I barely know her.

And what's with "LOL" lately? It's gone from meaning "Laugh Out Loud" to, "I have nothing to say here." Mr Ruby Slippers and I have started using it ironically now; it's the only way.

I'm obsessed with Broadway and musical theatre. Oh, right, you knew that. I desperately want to get to Ravinia next summer (USA summer, not mine) for the Sondheim 80th birthday celebration. And apparently Patti LuPone is playing Annie Oakley there! Aaargh. You Yanks have all the awesome stuff. So now I need to make money to go to America next year. It'd be perfect timing because it's winter and therefore non-wedding season here. Anyone want to hire my Photographer Alter Ego for a shoot in the US? *HINT* :-)

I'm tired. I'm always tired! Oh wait, that's not news, either.

Goodnight, then. I'm going to try this twitter-blog thing every day now!

And because I love pictures, here's a photo I took of some birds outside my window. I took it through the glass, which is why it's not 100% sharp (and if you saw how dusty my windows are, you'd know it's a miracle you can see them at all! :-))


PS - if you want to follow me on twitter, you can find me at http://twitter.com/KatForsyth .

The workshop...

...kicked ASS. It was fab, it was brilliant, it was everything I hoped! I got some great pics (go see my photo blog if you haven't already!) and Christine was a really great "teacher", for want of a better word, even though it really wasn't a teacher-student dynamic. Christine said she wanted the workshop to feel like a group of friends discussing stuff around a dinner table, and it did (and the stuff we ATE around the dinner table was fantastic too). :-)

For those of you who care, my flight was delayed by over an hour, but luckily I'd set aside enough time so I was still there nice and early, although I did have to forgo the nap I'd wanted (I don't DO getting up early). The best husband in the world ( Mine. Suck it!) dropped me off and fetched me on Sunday evening, so I didn't have to face the long airport drive. And my GPS came though and told me where to go properly, there was no hassle picking up my car (even though it was a VW Golf, which are impossible to drive. And I've driven a BEETLE, so I know what I'm talkin 'bout!).

So all in all, a fab weekend. I feel really fired up about my business now. First up, a better blog; second, fab business cards! Oh yes. Hopefully fab weddings will follow. :-)

And because a post is not a post without a picture, here's a favourite from the workshop e-shoot:

Alice in Waterland

Some of you may know the site DeviantART. It's an amazing forum for photographers and artists to display their work and get inspired by others. Some days I've practically lived on there, there is so much gorgeousness to see. It's like photography porn (in the best way, just as sites like Style Me Pretty and The Brides Cafe are wedding porn:-))

Anyway, I was wandering about there tonight, and I came across the most gorgeous set of underwater images by sugarock99. She's taken a series of Alice in Wonderland-themed shots (except they're Alice in WATERland, in this case) that are absolutely breathtaking. I just had to share some of them.









Go see the rest! And look at her other underwater pictures; they're magical.

Now I want underwater housing for my camera, boo.

Photographer Friday: Christine Meintjies

Another South African photographer feast for you today! This time it's Christine Meintjies.



Wellingtons - soooo cute!

The reflection shot on the right is sublime. And I love the horses!





I don't even like wine, but boy do I like this picture:


Gorgeous.