An international wedding in the truest sense, Norwegian photographers Edyta Szalek and Thomas Gudbrandsen of etphotography traveled to Gambia for Janne and Yaseenhe, who live there while Yanseenhe runs a restaurant in Banjul.
The bride is a Norwegian who’s been in Africa for the last ten years; the groom is half Lebanese and half Polish; the couple not only recruited the photographers to fly in from Norway, but their band and magician were from the U.K.
“It was a wedding where it came guests from all over the world, so it was a really a multicultural event,” Gudbrandsen says. “To be honest, it felt more like being guests for me and Edyta, than it was work, cause the couple checked up on us several times a day to see if we were doing fine.”
When it comes to photographic challenges, Gudbrandsen says it’s always different when the team goes “south” where the sun is quite different from the Norwegian climate. “The jobs we have home in Norway always makes us play with dramatic nature, mountains and dimmy light and dramatic skies,” he says, “while going south if its Italy or Africa always challenge us with ‘too good weather.'”
Gudbrandsen says that one of the biggest challenges was finding a good balance with three videographers also covering the event. “It takes concentration and lots of goodwill from both parties so everyone can get the angle they are looking for,” he says. “Its a must to find a cooperation before it all starts so we don’t need to fight to get the right shot.”
In the team’s gear bags were what Gudbrandsen describes as “as little as possible knowing that it’s 14 hours of hard work in front of us.” That meant one set each with Nikon D3s and the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. “This covers more or less 95 percent of all need in a day like this,” he explains. Left at the hotel-room was a set of backup camera-houses and lenses: 70-200mm f2.8 and a wide-angle 14-24mm f2.8.
To see more of etphotography’s work, visit their website.
To submit a Wedding of the Week, email Jacqueline Tobin.