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Mickey Mouse and a Praying Mantis | #stayathome

Am I going crazy or did a Praying Mantis dance with Mickey Mouse?

Am I going crazy or did a Praying Mantis dance with Mickey Mouse? Perhaps not.

I used to own a macro lens when I had Canon equipment (a long time ago), and since then I have been using Nikon equipment and I resorted to borrowing an extension tube from a friend. It can turn any lens into a macro lens, but the downside is that it’s not as quick to use and precise as a macro lens, and also not as sharp…but it does work. These were shot at 12:00am which means the sun is blazing on all cylinders, but my trusty Godox AD200 allows me to shoot using high speed sync, so I can shoot at any shutterspeed I choose. And its powerful enough to balance the sun, and also darken the background. Without the flash, the background would be completely over exposed and I won’t be able to isolate the the subject. It is not as powerful as the bigger Godox flashes, that can completely over power the sun, and in some cases even darken the effect of the sun. I would be able to get this effect if I add another AD200 next to mine and to fire them at the same time with the same power, but I only own one flash. Long story short, this is an amazing piece of equipment. I have seen that Godox is launching their AD300 Pro in SA soon, and it will give a kidney…hey…don’t judge…lockdown has dried up my income…just joking…I like my kidneys…but I would love to own one.

Enjoy the photos. I also sprayed the Praying Mantis with water, and my idea was to catch the spray behind the insect but it didn’t work so well, so I photographed the water droplets on him…which turned out super cool!

I also had some fun with my Lego Mickey Mouse minifigure! I thought it would be cute to make them dance! I used my AD200 with a Magmod grid and blue gel from the right, and my Nikon SB910 flash with orange gel from the left.


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Mickey Mouse got hitched | #stayathome

Mickey mouse got hitched! #stayathome #lockdown2020 #covid19

Wynandvandermerwe covid19 lockdown lego married-7.jpg

My daughter has this cute little doll Lego, and just knew I wanted her to get married…and the only other Lego I could find with a tuxedo was Mickey Mouse. It’s the Mickey Mouse from the first cartoon Disney made, and I think they make a cute pair!

I used my LED light and flashlight (with a long carton tube, this focused the light) to light the toys, and I used my wedding tricks to photograph them.

My original idea was to photograph Mickey Mouse and Petunia (I am calling her Petunia) in a water droplet, and it turned out it is impossible…I guess I am going it wrong if it is not the case…hehehe. I then improvised by placing the subjects underneath the glass table and I made 2 big droplets on the table and I photographed their faces in these droplets. I also tried suspending them in the air underneath the table, and it resulted in very moody misty photos…which is also a cool effect. I also then improvised by placing the subjects on the glass table with droplets and I then placed color squares underneath to get the color pattern from the squares displayed in the droplets. I got this idea from Jacki Bruniquel a while ago and I have been dying to try this technique. This is magic and I love the results!

For the other photos I went around in my yard to photograph them. I used my LED light to light the subjects and I played around with my flashlight with effects. The carton tube, which focused the light, made for really interesting photos, and I also used a pattern with the photos at the end…if you light into a paper with cut-out stripes…then you get stripes in the shadows. The is easily done with a Magmod system, but I dont have the patterns. (yet)

Enjoy the photos and please comment and share with your friends!

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Stuart and Nicole | Wedding | Hertford Country Hotel

Such a beautiful and wet wedding at Hertford Country Hotel. Stuart and Nicole looked amazing and I love all the colours!

A real man loves his wife, and places his family as the most important thing in life. Nothing has brought me more peace and content in life than simply being a good husband and father. Frank Abagnale

Wow, what a wet few days before the wedding, and also during the wedding. It started to rain on the Thursday and it never really stopped, and we had some good downpours during the wedding! But that doesn’t stop Stuart and Nicole and her guests…I have a smile in almost every photo I have taken! It was probably the most challenging wedding for me to date due to the weather, because it’s darker than normal and having people cramped in small spaces because they can’t be out in the rain makes it very difficult…and the rain delayed almost everyone getting to the venue…but I really love the outcome!

I told Stuart and Nicole that we will take photos in the rain during their couple shoot, and they were like “Yeah, sure!”…I mean Nicole woke up with a sore throat and she had 20% of her voice the whole day, but they were keen to tackle the rain. Luckily we didn’t have pouring rain during the couple shoot, and we even improvised a little by adding some water (one of the groomsmen squirted water on them to create lots of water for a really cool rain shot). I realised that with the really cool rain photos out there, there was lots and lots of rain, and we only had a little rain…so to make “lots of rain” I made holes in a water bottle to create a soft downpour on the couple…and it WORKED!

The bridesmaids were also full of ideas…I can’t take credit for the photos where they opened the umbrellas to get water on Stuart and Nicole…so I guess they are also to blame for making Nicole wet…hehehe.

This was my last wedding for 2019 and what a way to end of the year!

Enjoy the photos. Please be so kind and leave a comment at the end of the blog post! a little love goes a long way!

Here’s a list of all the suppliers who were involved to make the day special.

Venue: Hertford Country Hotel | Live Music: We Will Worship, Muneyi Romeo, Mpho Ntuli | Wedding dress: De La Vida (La Sposa design) | Shoes: Shwezu | Flowers and decor: Talita from Flowers Direct | DJ: Victor from Flash Mobile Studios | Makeup: Tash Studio | Stationery: Express Marketing

(Click on the image to enlarge)

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wedding photographers, wedding photography Wynand van der Merwe wedding photographers, wedding photography Wynand van der Merwe

Teaser! Stuart and Nicole | Wedding | Hertford Country Hotel

Such a beautiful and wet wedding at Hertford Country Hotel. Stuart and Nicole looked amazing and I love all the colours!

A real man loves his wife, and places his family as the most important thing in life. Nothing has brought me more peace and content in life than simply being a good husband and father. Frank Abagnale

Wow, what a wet few days before the wedding, and also during the wedding. It started to rain on the Thursday and it never really stopped, and we had some good downpours during the wedding! But that doesn’t stop Stuart and Nicole and her guests…I have a smile in almost every photo I have taken! It was probably the most challenging wedding for me to date due to the weather, because it’s darker than normal and having people cramped in small spaces because they can’t be out in the rain makes it very difficult…and the rain delayed almost everyone getting to the venue…but I really love the outcome!

I told Stuart and Nicole that we will take photos in the rain during their couple shoot, and they were like “Yeah, sure!”…I mean Nicole woke up with a sore throat and she had 20% of her voice the whole day, but they were keen to tackle the rain. Luckily we didn’t have pouring rain during the couple shoot, and we even improvised a little by adding some water (one of the groomsmen squirted water on them to create lots of water for a really cool rain shot). I realised that with the really cool rain photos out there, there was lots and lots of rain, and we only had a little rain…so to make “lots of rain” I made holes in a water bottle to create a soft downpour on the couple…and it WORKED!

The bridesmaids were also full of ideas…I can’t take credit for the photos where they opened the umbrellas to get water on Stuart and Nicole…so I guess they are also to blame for making Nicole wet…hehehe.

This was my last wedding for 2019 and what a way to end of the year!

Enjoy the photos. Please be so kind and leave a comment at the end of the blog post! a little love goes a long way!

Here’s a list of all the suppliers who were involved to make the day special.

Venue: Hertford Country Hotel | Live Music: We Will Worship, Muneyi Romeo, Mpho Ntuli | Wedding dress: De La Vida (La Sposa design) | Shoes: Shwezu | Flowers and decor: Talita from Flowers Direct | DJ: Victor from Flash Mobile Studios | Makeup: Tash Studio | Stationery: Express Marketing

(Click on the image to enlarge)

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Melt, Ohna and the twins | Urban session | Melville, Jhb

This was one of the coolest shoots I have done and love the photos! Melt, Ohna and the twins are such a beautiful family!

Wynandvandermerwe melt ohna family photography street mellville urban gauteng-14.jpg

I had the privilege to capture Melt and Ohna’s maternity shoot two years ago, and look at the twins now! Wow, they are soooo freakin cute and they were a breeze to shoot! They were doing their own thing, and I have learnt to follow what the kids do with family shoots, and it works amazingly! It also helped to show them the flash button on my camera, and they could press the button and “shoot” someone (I mean it looks like lightning going off when the flash fires) as incentive! They loved it! We did the maternity shoot in Melville one early morning, and they wanted to recreate some of the images but with the kids, and its amazing how a place can change. Many of the places were not there anymore, but I must say the “updated” Mellville looks amazing. I just loved the protea murial which wasnt there the last time!

Enough said. This was one of the coolest shoots I have done and love the photos! Please leave a comment at the end!

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Gizelle and Raiden | Matric Farewell | Gold Reef City

Raiden and Gizelle’s matric farewell shoot was fun-filled and so colourful! Just love playing with smoke grenades!

Raiden and Gizelle’s matric farewell was such a fun-filled and colourful day! And wow, Gizelle you looked absolutely stunning! And I just loved Raiden’s white suit and they truly complimented each other so well!

My new favourite toy is smoke grenades! I must say, it looks easy using a smoke grenade in the photos, but it gets interesting when the wind doesn’t play along. We did the creative shoot at Gold Reef City and I knew I couldn’t use the smoke grenades over there, so we did the smoke grenade photos at Greenfields Guest House in Alberton, on their little stoep on the roof. And here the wind sort-off twirled in many directions. The one moment its blowing in your face and then next moment it comes from behind…but hey…we got seriously cool results, and luckily we had 2 smoke grenades to play with!

At the end of the day I did a few fashion shots with Gizelle and geapers….she is amazing in front of camera! Just look at the results! I must say my Godox AD200 with softbox helped a lot. I also used my Godox AD200 flash with Magnetmod Grid with 1/2 CTO gel when we did the creative shoot at Gold Reef City!

Gizelle’s makeup was done by Pretty Little Things!

Enjoy the photos and please leave a comment at the end!

(CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

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Teaser! Gizelle and Raiden | Matric Farewell | Gold Reef City

Here’s a sneak peak of Gizelle and Raiden’s matric farewell yesterday. Wow, Gizelle looked absolutely stunning and Raiden looked radiant in his white suit! We started at Gold Reef City and ended at Greenfields Guest House in Alberton!

Teaser! Gizelle and Raiden | Matric Farewell | Gold Reef City

Here’s a sneak peak of Gizelle and Raiden’s matric farewell yesterday. Wow, Gizelle looked absolutely stunning and Raiden looked radiant in his white suit! We started at Gold Reef City and ended at Greenfields Guest House in Alberton!

Enjoy the photos and please leave a comment at the end!


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Teaser! Matric Farewell 2019 | Morrells and H/s Linden

A sneakpeak of the matric farewell photos I did today and OH BOY! I love them!

Teaser! Matric Farewell 2019 | Morrells and H/s Linden

Wow, I had fun with these young adults! Corlé de Villiers asked me to capture some memories for daughter, Menine, for her Matric Farewell. She booked a slot at Morrells for beautiful venue photos and pics with the family and Menine and her friends arranged for us to take pictures at their school H/s Linden, Johannesburg.

I brought along 2 smoke grenades (purple and orange) as a little gift and I must say those pictures came out amazing! I just love the emotion in them…..I almost felt like screaming “FREEDOOOOOM” when they shouted and jumped…and the orange smoke grenade definitely burnt longer than 90seconds. It was almost like it would never stop.

Oh yes, the pictures where they are standing on a table…welll…that is the desk of the vice principal at H/s Linden. He must be the coolest teacher on the planet. He said they can do whatever they want…”you can even stand on my desk if you want” and they did…!

Here’s a sneakpeak of 80+ photos because I know people these days want to Instagram almost immediately what they looked like…and I want my clients to Instagram my photos…heheh!

Please leave a comment at the end!

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