Over the weekend I shot Sam and Siobhan’s wedding at Tala Game Reserve in Durban. Actually Tala is like a big open zoo more than a game reserve, I’ve been up to the Kruger Park a number of times, on game drives there is always a tracker (those guys are amazing) and you don’t bump into anything unless you are lucky! At Tala the animals are literally on your doorstep, I mean literally! There I was brushing my teeth looking out the window to rhino (3 of them), wildebeest, impala (of course!) and a couple of other antelope.
Even better Siobhan and Sam invited me to come a day early as their guest (I love my job!!) It was a small wedding with only 35 invited guests which meant I got to know everyone by name at the end of the stay 
One of Tala’s signature wedding photos at the moment is of a bride and groom kissing with a giraffe in the background (great shot!), I really wanted to do a variation on that with a giraffe as well, actually I wanted to do one with rhino but the the last thing I needed was to turn the photo shoot into a reality shoot! Although the bride and groom with a 2 tonne rhino close on their heels would make for quite a good shot… hmmmmm next time perhaps 
Did I say the animals were on the doorstep?!?! I’m convinced Giraffe secretly live in underground den’s scurrying away at the site of a wedding couple with a photographer, well at least that’s what happened to us on the day, go figure because the night before we saw 7 of them!! I was told there is no such thing as a giraffe den.. I beg to differ! They are 3 meters tall… how well can that camouflage actually work!! (There is a reason I failed game ranger school!)
In the end we made the call to simply shoot as we went, if the giraffe’s came out of their dens then so be it
When we got back there were Zulu dancers waiting for the Sam and Siobhan, the guests were also surprised by them… well not surprised as in “look over your shoulder and there is a Zulu warrior with a massive spear behind me eeeeep!!!” more like oh look Zulu dancers … goody!!
I love watching these guys, and it often goes through my head as to just how scary it must have been living your life as a British soldier with a few thousand of these guys bearing down on you, all of them in very bad moods!
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Awesome stuff Greg!! Just LOVE the pic of the little flower girl spilling the petals
Just writing to say hello and check out the blog. What a place to get married in, the photos are amazing ! You really can take a photo and your efforts last year in NZ inspired me to get my first ‘real’ camera, a Nikon DX60 and I am terrible at it but hey I’m in there. Hope all is well.
cheers Clare