Petra and Marteen elegant wedding in blue

For all the wedding lovers, here's a keepsake... I love all the brides that have come to me for their wedding invites,  and even thought each of them are special, there are a few ones that will always have a place in my heart. Petra is one of them...
I met her last year at the Tygervalley Wedding Expo and a few months later she came to see me. Our meetings were 15 minute "work" and an hour girl's chat sharing advice and tips for our weddings; from Honeymoon destinations to wedding shoes.... by the way, did you see her beautiful blue shoes? If you are looking at getting a color shoe but you can't find it in the shops, check Anella Wedding Shoes, they have many models and they can all be dyed to any color...
Petra married Maarten in December last year and had a beautiful wedding with reception at Val du Charron Estate. Here are a few images that Cape Town based photographer Christelle Rall took of the couple.
Congrats Petra and Maarten: wishing you a life full of smiles and happiness!

Week #3: My Photography Project - Life is a beach

So this was the third week of my photography project and I chose to shoot one of the most beautiful things here in Cape Town; the beach! These pics I took at the sea-pools on the left of Camps Bay Beach. The afternoon was just amazing with the perfect Capetonian sunset and warm-golden light.
The most exciting thing is that I took all these pics on MANUAL mode with the Nikon 70D: yeayyyy.... I'm so excited and I understand why people rave so much about shooting in manual mode; it really gives you space to play so much. I took many, many pics and to my surprise there were so many nice ones.... I can't wait for this coming week pics...

Week #2: My Photography Project - Proteas at home

 

This is the second week of my Photographic project and I've been practicing quite a bit with different objects at home. But what I have chosen for this week's post is Proteas and flowers at home.
I love Proteas, they have become my favourite flower, so during this time of the year when they are in bloom, I buy every 2 weeks a bunch for home - these ones Arri got for me.
I shot these in Program mode as I'm still not confident with Manual but learning little by little. I think some of the pics are nice but they could be better, like focus, depth of feel and lines in the composition could be improved. But saying that, I'm very proud with my second entry.
I have also been researching and trying to understand more about shutter speed and aperture and realized that the lense I'm using has quite a small aperture 3.6/ 5.6. Well, I don't know if that's small but I was just finding it difficult to shot with little light (this week rained everyday except for yesterday and today). Or is just an excuse to buy a new lense?... hehe... Hopefully next week, I'll be able to post some shot in Manual if they don't come all blurred... Happy weekend everyone!

Week #1: My Photography Project

I don’t know how exactly I decided to start this project… I guess it must have been a mixture of reasons:

. being my wedding over, I need a new project to focus my attention on and something that inspires me and pushes my creativity

. the fact of living in this beautiful city with so many good features and the best lighting in the world (by the way , have you noticed the light we have had these last two days? Oh my… Everywhere I drive or walk to, I can see hundreds of beautiful pics…

. I also want to be able to take good product shots… I look at the pictures I take of the stationery I design and mmm, it really doesn’t make justice to the designs… the images could be much better and I want to improve this…

. and of course inspired by Maree Louw, our wedding photographer. Oh wow, she really is amazing. I’ve not stopped looking at our wedding pictures this week, I totally love them!!! (you’ll see them very soon) And it’s not only the lighting, composition and editing of the images, it’s the way she has been able to capture the essence of the moment and in a picture show how the day really was. And that’s what I think is the most beautiful and difficult thing about photography: being able to capture in just one still image, a moment, a feeling or a sensation. If you want to see Maree’s work, please check her web here and if you are looking for a photographer, you know who is my number one recommended. If you are more into photography, you can also check her film and lomo blog here which is so cool!. Oh, and Maree, I hope you don’t mind that I‘m using the same layout for this project as your blog… it just makes the pictures look so delicate and beautiful….

 

So the truth is that I don’t know much about photography and even many times I’ve tried to learn about exposure, aperture, shutter speed, different lenses or the importance in shooting raw, I never really got it. I think I’m pretty good with the computer so my lack of knowledge on how to shoot might have gotten “unnoticed” (perhaps only by people like me, heheh) thanks to photoshop and editing. But now I want to learn how to take proper pictures. I want to be able to shoot images in full manual mode. So what best way to learn this than by practicing? As they say: you only need to spend 10000 hours of your time to become a pro in a certain discipline. It’s not that I want to become a photographer (besides there are way too many good ones out there) but I just want to be able to take a picture, look at it and say “wow, that really is an amazing photo”!

So inspired by 52 Photos Project and many other Photography initiatives, I decided to start my own “Photography Project”. The task is very simple: just take a picture or series of pictures once a week. I’m not going to put themes or tasks but make sure every week I photograph something different so I can practice different styles of photography.

So for my first week, what better thing to shoot that something I see everyday in Cape Town: Lions Head and Table Mountain. I took these pictures last afternoon with my husband camera (which normally just seats unused under the bed): a NIKON 80D with a 87mm lense (not that I know what that means, heheh). I shot everything in Program mode (at least trying to move away from AUTO, hehe) and then edited them in Lightroom with some cool presets I got a few days ago.

Can’t wait to shoot more pics and learn a bit more. Have an awesome weekend everyone!

Lucy and Duncan Whimsical Day

 

Duncan met Lucy one evening in London. They fell in love and moved to South Africa, got a home, 2 dogs and a cat... 9 years later, Duncan popped the question and Lucy said "yes"!
Yesterday I published Lucy and Duncan's wedding invitations - Here's a small selection of images of their wedding day! Congratulations Lucy and Duncan for your beautiful wedding: hope you have many, many more years of joy and adventures together...

Lucy and Duncan Wedding Stationery

When Lucy and Duncan contacted me a few months ago, I couldn't hide the excitement to work on the design of their wedding invitation and stationery. Lucy and Duncan live in beautiful Cape St Frances up the East Coast together with their cat, dog and collection of vintage VW combis. 

They wanted their invitations to be whimsical, organic and to include an illustration of the couple driving one of their cars. Here are some images of their invitation, thank you card and tag... I hope you like as much as I do...

From Miss to Mrs: this is my story

For those of you that follow my blog regularly you must be wondering why I haven’t  been writing in so long… Did Mocho take a long holiday? Has she gone on a sabbatical? Did Vicky quit Mocho Loco and is doing something else without letting us know? Well, none of them… I actually have being busy getting married to the love of my life so please do know apologize if I’ve been a bit absent lately… I just couldn’t miss the most important day of my life…

As a little girl, like many others, I would dream with meeting my prince charming… I don’t know how many days, weeks, years I’ve spent thinking and wondering how my happy ever after story would be…

I went through many stages, from thinking that I would marry Prince William, Mc Caulay Culkin or any male walking on Earth to totally hate men and think that I would never meet the right one so I should just become a nun… Thankfully none of this things happened at the end.

After meeting many boys and having a few dates/relationships, some better than others, in the summer 2006-2007 with 23 years old, I decided to do a Ski Season on my college holidays in Aspen. It was a time of search for new adventures, for new friends, new ideas and experiences... But never thought I would find my future, current husband there…

I have always been more a fan of summer and beach, so going on a 4 months holiday/work trip to a ski resort, was a big shot for this big city Argentinean girl. To my surprise I did have the best time ever: I made new friends, I made good money, I lived the American dream and funny enough, I went back home with a South African boyfriend… I met Arri in the firsts few weeks of my trip, he was working as a cashier in the restaurant next to the fancy one where I was waitressing, but it was not until the last 3 weeks before heading back home that we started dating…

I remember at the airport saying to him “thank you so much for everything… please, if you ever come to Buenos Aires, don’t forget to let me know so we can meet up”. A week later, and I will always remember this day, he phoned saying he was coming to visit: I knew that my life story was about to change…

Arri came to visit me for 3 weeks, I came to visit him for another 3 weeks and on December 2007, after I gave my last exam at University, I moved to South Africa…. Of course at the beginning I thought I was coming for a summer, that then turned into a few months, a few years, actually 5 years now!

It’s impossible not to like this place: there’s something magical about Cape Town that makes me feel like at home: it has the perfect combination of small town vibe with city life living surrounded by the most incredible nature... And with such a nice boy by my side, I didn’t have other option, heheh…

Last time we went to visit my family and friends in Buenos Aires, just over a year ago, Arri asked my dad for my hand and the next day he proposed me with a beautiful rose gold and diamonds ring…

Since then, we’ve been planning our wedding…. It was about a year of preparations and I must say: I enjoyed every second of it. From the weekend drive we did in search of our perfect wedding venue, to all the nights sewing flags and making paper pompoms to the 2 days set up prior the wedding with a fabulous team of friends: it really was a fantastic journey that we enjoyed together with our closest mates and beloved families…

And the day of the wedding? Oh my gosh: it really was the best day of my life!!!

So here are a few pictures that Maree from Natural Light Photography and some friends took of the day but I promise I’ll put a lot more up soon and share more of my wedding stories with you… But right now I must go to share a lovely afternoon and sunset with my husband…