Last wedding for my surprisingly amazing first wedding season of many that I hope it will happen here in Tel Aviv. Never thought that the melty month of august (when you feel you won’t handle the entire summer) could be the highest point of my year referring to unions. Lucky, postpone it twice my ticket back to Brasil to document this and other 5 amazing weddings! 

So many new things to document and freeze the moment I’ve been facing it,  that It gets me more and more  excited to make photo sessions, weddings and e sessions with families and random people around Israel… For the moment I’m a foreign here and it’s not hard to get amazed for all the new things, people and local culture I’m having the chance to  see, experiment and photograph. Six ceremonies/parties so different, singular and emotional weddings in these 6 past months that I was gifted with and most important, can’t tell enough about the special, nice and cool people that’ve been crossing during my journey here at the Middle East.

This wedding came thru a special good friend that I accidentally met in a bar in the beginning of this year. Avital, the cutest smiley blondie in TLV brought me joy and after a fast look thr my website, said was going to help me and indeed, happened.

Luda and Or are such sweet and good persons that I’ve got amazed with their kindness and how I was treat while photographing their wedding and at the meetings we had before - Gonna make a future post about my impression of photographing weddings in a different country and how I feel well received here.

They’ve got married in a super nice and cool Vegan restaurant in South of TLV, named Sura Mare in the end of October. High temperature, cool, few, special beautiful people and a gooood dancing floor!

Esse casamento era pra ter sido postado ha tempos de tão especial que foi. Por diversas razões: Foi o último evento de um ano agitado

I said that I would be fast with this other post since I’m talking about these two special people that crossed my way. Felt blessed after all my thoughts if my style would be accepted here in Israel to have this couple as my first one. I can be blessed or frustrated with what is about to come… But the other ones that I’ve been photographing and the ones that are coming now, on August I’m more than excited and happy :-)

Who knows me good, know how hyperactive I am and how I can get even more on wedding days. So imagine myself shooting in a new country, new culture, new locations and many different way to celebrate a wedding, No sleeping! Here in Israel, weddings work so different than in Brasil. From closing the deal, making of, ceremony, party, food, gifts and outfits. And yes, you can see people wearing havaianas, shorts and outfits that you can wear to go to the beach. It’s all about of celebrating with lotsss of people ( they can say that a small wedding have around 300 people) and don’t think main actors here are the grooms, who gets in a pedestal is the food, it’s all about the food, and after food a bit more of food, then drinks and lots of dancing and then, food again!  Here, most of the weddings  can happen from Sunday - yes, I photographed a wedding on a Monday - to Thursday since Shabbat starts on Friday till Saturday when the first star show up on the sky. 

Lihi and Oran aren’t religious, they are far from that. So the wedding happened on a Friday afternoon in The Negev Desert, South of Israel in a special place, few cute and charming cabins built by the lovely owner in the middle of nowhere somewhere of the Desert. Everything from this wedding was made by the grooms, family and friends. From the invitation to decorating the place and the main thing from an Israeli wedding, the food! They called the event as  social wedding since they asked for the guests bring a special food made by themselves and not money or gift - here they are used to give money for the grooms. So, Lihi told me that it was really important to document the food.So I did not only document, I tried the food and it was one of the best meals that I had here in Israel, a country that food is something else.

 The vibe of the wedding was amazing and I can’t forget to tell that never saw so many cute kids together in one place! Besides that the whole family from the father’s groom was from Brasil, soooo I spoke lots of portuguese, ah how’s good to speak our mother language. Beautiful ceremony full of emotional speeches,  sprightly dance floor, a surprise from friends and family ( they made a band to sing and play for them ) and to tie up they released chinese balloons to the sky.

So again, enough with the blablabla, I’ll stop with the mimimi and yalla pictures! Hope you guys like it as much as I did documenting this day <3

Hello hello! Unfortunately as it happens to lots of my partners in crime ( my good photographers fellas ) we get so busy photographing, editing and dealing with our special clients that we forget to post fresh things.

I’ve been absent from here with good excuses :-) I decided to leave my hometown, São Paulo and moved to Tel Aviv, amazing city based in Israel. For the past 5 months I was a participant of a internship program for “young” jewish people - Not sure if with my 30 years well lived I can call myself young.  But, besides that, I’ve been exploring Israel culturally and emotionally  in such a profound way that I didn’t have the opportunity to do it at the other times I’ve been here. Soooo, after those months I’m more than sure that I’m ready to move here for good and become an Israeli citizen (Mazal Tov for me!!!)

Some of the amazing trips I’ve been doing I posted in my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fabi.kocubey

But after I’ll make a post telling a bit more of this amazing and unique experience with a selection of the best best pictures - Hard work since I have more than 5.000 pics from this season.

This post is a special one since I came here with this huge black wall to climb it without knowing what I was about to face it. Butterflies on my stomach, imagining what and who I would have the chance to photograph here, if I would get the opportunity to photograph a wedding that I could call mine, if my style  would be accept here and many many other questions since this scorpio crazy brain thinks a lot.

I had the great opportunity to photograph an amazing couple for my first wedding, yes, my own wedding <3 Things that are meant to be, a good friend of mine that I met here, Eduardo was working at a Startup and his boss had a super super amazing photographer brother. We got introduced, I photographed a wedding with him  as a second shooter and after that we got connected. Etay Levi had a friend from his childhood, the groom - that was getting married and unfortunately he wouldn’t make it since he was booked already. Sooo, he recommend me :-) and after a coffee  casual meeting in one of those many charming places we have here in the White City it was set.

As I said before, I had this big fear that my style wouldn’t fit here and be accepted, since Israeli photography in general is really different from my way of shooting and especially the after edition. I thought would have only those “square” weddings. Buttt for my good luck, I was dealing with amazing and nothing square couple. A perfect beautiful ginger (addicted to them) bride full of freckles and a handsome long hair groom ( with a Brazilian father ).

I had to adapt my workflow here since photographers offer a really really different things and prices for their clients. One of the things that it is included at this package is a pre wedding photo session. Even that I don’t get paid for this, I like a lot the idea to photograph the couple at a new, amazing and exciting locations and besides that, having the opportunity to get to know them better so I won’t look like these weird person with a camera next to them at the wedding day.

Lihi and Oran, my beautiful first couple lives in Old Jaffa / Yafo a super super cool place and for the name you can see that it’s an historical city really connected to Tel Aviv. From my vision that came from a huge city, São Paulo, could be seen as a really close neighbourhood. These days, artists, hype and cool people lives there since it’s bit more quiet full of nice restaurants, galleries, cool modern stores and flea markets. Sooooo, nothing better to make the session around that area. They took with them their cute dog or we can call him the first soon, Tzampa - Dogs are more than allowed in TLV, they are loved and respect all over the places.

Ok ok, enough of writing, let’s achieve the main goal, pictures! Long time no see my fellas but I’ll try to keep posting. 

Next post ( today!) I’m gonna upload the pictures from this amazing and with a different ideals of a regular wedding that happen in the Desert, yes Negev Desert!

Nos diversos workshops e palestras que venho frequentando desde que larguei a empresa que criei e nela estagnei durante quatro anos, joguei tudo que não me fazia bem pro ar, desapeguei sem olhar para trás e voltei a estudar e ir em busca de novos projetos para me reencontrar. Fosse eles na area da fotografia, da alma e do corpo, ouvi constantemente a frase SAÍR DA ZONA DE CONFORTO. A rotina que criamos inconscientemente faz com que a nossa evolução seja tão lenta ou quase inexistente. Capaz de passar um ano inteiro, acharmos que estamos produzindo, fazendo acontecer, mas possivelmente ligamos a chavinha do automático e no fundo mesmo fizemos sem nos dar conta.
Acho importante o fotógrafo ter uma especialidade, assim como médicos. Vamos ao médico que cuida da pele, do coração, da alimentação e por isso quando queremos uma foto específica temos que achar a pessoa certa para isso. Aprendi na marra! Quando era menor, na época da faculdade de fotografia eu abraçava qualquer job que me aparecia na frente. Acho que faz parte do show, além do mais, como saber o que mais gostamos de fotografar se não experimentamos? Mas foi nessa vivência que descobri que a foto de comida realmente não é meu forte.
Grandes amigos na vida faz a gente saír da linha de trabalho e talvez dessa tal zona de conforto. A Anna Kanji é uma amiga de longa data e de bons trabalhos realizados na parceria voltados para moda já que ela é expert no quesito produção!
No meio do ano a Anna me procurou para que eu fizesse as fotos do novo projeto dela e do marido dela, Italiano nato importado diretamente de Puglia, filho da Puglia! Eu de cara falei não. Primeiro por não ser minha especialidade e segundo por saber o grau de exigência e expectativa das fotos… Ela é a rainha das refs e tem um olhar super refinado para a fotografia afinal, bom gosto não se adquire, nasce com. Lá vieram mil referências e a maioria delas com uma luz que não se parecia com a minha e lá fui eu para meu amigo google em busca de tutoriais e sites de especializados em foto de comida.
Sorte a nossa também contar com a ajuda da minha mãe Rebeca conhecida entre minhas amigas como a Reeba, grande florista e portadora de uma vasta dispensa de props e cacarecos que fizeram as nossas fotos ficarem ainda mais belas :-)
Fiquei super tensa para fazer as fotos, mas sair da zona de conforto, fotografar algo que não faz parte da rotina faz com que a gente coloque a cuca pra funcionar e achar alternativas e diferentes opções de soluções para executarmos as fotos. Vou te dizer que fotografar um alimento branco, mole e suculento com elementos bem mais escuros e contrastados me deixou tensa demais, mas ao longo do dia fomos achando cantinhos da casa e cenários para compor bem com as deliciosas burratas do chef Leonardo Russi!
As que normalmente vemos por aqui são feitas com leite de búfala, já as do Leo são fabricadas artesanalmente uma a uma com leite de vaca e originalmente vindas da região do Leo, Puglia é um antipasto dos melhores, entre uma manteiga e um queijo cremoso, incrivelmente delicioso! Para maiores informações entre em contato pelo IG deles: @burrateria
Enjoy the ride and the Burratas :-)