They came in spent the morning getting pampered and then we got to the photo shoot. It was so lovely to see such a beautiful mother-daughter relationship being celebrated in this way, and my favourite moment, is when I showed Rose the images on the back of my camera and she welled up saying”I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!” Those moments are the ones that push me to do this and make it clear that these beauty shoots offer far more than just photos.

The post Mother/Daughter Beauty Shoot | Emma & Rose appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

Just check out how much fun these girls had at one of my ‘Girls Day Out/ Bachelorette’ Beauty Shoot at the stunningly opulent Pure Restaurant at Hout Bay Manor.

There’s no better way to celebrate with the girls! Contact me for package details.

The post Girls Day Out / Bachelorette Beauty Shoot appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

So I thought I’d offer up some advice on what to do once your photographer has given you your photos whether they are wedding photos, family photos or even your own holiday snaps.

The first thing to know is, that most professional photographers do keep backups of your photos, so if you are unfortunate enough to lose your images, you should be able to contact said photographer for another copy of the disk, whether for a fee or out of the goodness of their heart. Know this though – in the world of photography, hard drive space is like real estate. It’s expensive and it’s finite and it needs to be maintained. So although your photographer may keep backups of your images, as the years go by, they are likely to have the occasional big purge now and then to clear up some much needed disk space. Make sure to ask your photographer, how long they keep those backups. It could range from 6 months to 2 years. But my suggestion to you is, work on the premise that they don’t keep backups at all.

What that means for you is – yes, you have to take responsibility for your own photos. Not what you want to hear perhaps, but it’s the  truth.

So here are 5 tips to safeguard your professional photos and valuable memories:

1. When you receive your disk/usb drive or whichever medium your photos are packaged in, copy your images onto your computer immediately.
2. Directly after that make a second, or even third copy of your images and save them to different hard drives that are separate to your main computer.
3.  Sign up to a cloud service like www.dropbox.com or www.skydrive.com or other cloud storage services that you may already belong to and save a copy of your photos in the cloud. There are numerous services to choose from, each offering either limited free storage space or premium storage space. If these particular photos were from a once in a lifetime event, then I would say paying a small fee to store them securely online is worth it.
4. Burn your photos to several disks. Keep one for yourself and keep it safe, somewhere completely separate to your computer, office or even your home. Keep it at work if you have to. In addition to this, give a copy of the disk to your parents, in-laws, bridesmaids, best-friend, cousin, whoever! Just give a couple of copies of the images to someone you can trust and who will keep it safe for you.
5. Lastly, print out your images, frame them, mount them, put them on canvas, or whichever medium you like, and put them on the wall or mantelpiece. What use is it to have your photos on a disk or hard drive if you’re never going to look at them. They remind you of happy times which deserve to be remembered and appreciated. Display them with pride.

Mounted & Framed

Hope you find these tips useful. If there’s any other’s you’d like to add, I’d love to hear them in the comments below.

The post 5 Tips to Safeguard Your Professional Photos appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

I met Letishia at one of the many business networks I attend, not too long after arriving in Cape Town. On one particular evening at a cocktail event that I was photographing, I happened to get a pic of Letishia. I remember at that point thinking that I would LOVE to photograph her. Years have since passed, and as with most things in life, it’s all about the timing. After I started shooting these Beauty Shoots not too long ago, Letishia mentioned that she would love to have me photograph her. Queue the Yay!

So last month I had the honour of photographing Letishia, her amazingly beautiful daughter, Calla, and her exquisitely elegant mother, Adelaide. And OMG! Mind blown!

I did the preview with Letishia yesterday and there it was. That moment when she went teared eyed when she saw her own beautiful image staring back at her. To my surprise, she told me she was a little nervous about seeing the photos. Not sure whether her’s would be ‘enough’. Seriously. Letishia, you are beautiful inside and out. Don’t ever doubt that!

Thank you for an awesome girls morning, I hope you all enjoyed it and LOVE the photos as much as I do!

Hair & Makeup by The Exquisite Look

The post Beauty Shoot | Letishia’s Mother-Daughter Shoot appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

I’ve wanted to start adding a bit more depth to my beauty shoots with a bit of foreground and background interest. That’s the beauty of shooting a friend – they let you test, experiment, see what works and what doesn’t. Well, this certainly did work and I will start using these in future beauty shoots as a result.

Tell me what you think….

Hair & Makeup by The Exquisite Look

The post Beauty Shoot | Nicola appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

The post Before & After | Nicola appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

Most of my beauty shoots are done in pairs, with the intention of the girls enjoying the experience of a morning of pampering together. Giggling, having fun and playing girly dress up.

Rozanne was Pippa’s +1 after winning the shoot at a Nuptial Networking breakfast. Rozanne is the owner of Entree Catering and such a sweetheart too! Easy going, chilled and magnificent to photograph! Her smile just lights up the room.

The post Beauty Shoot | Rozanne appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

Pippa’s infectious smile lit up in front of my lens and we had an absolute ball playing dress-up. I loved editing these and have been itching to share a few from the shoot! Pippa wanted to get a couple of corporate shots for her business as well as the more girly, dress up type. I think we managed to tick both of those boxes quite nicely!

Hair & makeup by Ceclia from  The Exquisite Look

The post Beauty Shoot | Pippa appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

Feast your eyes on these beautiful wedding cakes:

The post Wendy’s Wedding Cake Design | Cake Photos appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.

I just love seeing this transformation taking place. When a women goes from natural beauty to knock our bombshell!

The post Before & After | Kim appeared first on Abigail K - Wedding & Beauty Photographer.