South African wedding photographer Jacki Bruniquel takes her job seriously.
So seriously, in fact, during a recent wedding ceremony she was so engrossed in getting the perfect shot of the bride walking down the aisle, her hair caught on fire – and she didn’t even notice.
“Everyone who photographs weddings has a crazy wedding story,” says Jacki on her blog.
“I always thought that my most ridiculous wedding story was the time I sat in horse poo whilst doing a few groom portraits right before the speeches were about to start.”
But that was before Jacki shot Emma and Murray Burton’s wedding in October.
“I stood a bit too close to a candle and my hair actually caught alight! One of the videographers managed to get a clip of it just as it caught alight. Unfortunately he didn’t get all of the smoke as I had hopped out of the way!”
Jacki, whose curly locks were pinned up to keep them out of the way while she was shooting, continued snapping pictures of the bride coming down the aisle with her father before realising something was wrong.
After furiously patting out the flames – and a little help from a quick-witted groomsman – the flames were extinguished and everybody, including the bride, had a good laugh.
“In that situation the only thing you can do once the flames have been patted out is to once again …… laugh and keep on shooting. It was funny. It was certainly a wedding I will never forget that is for sure and my hair did actually need a trim!”
Talk about being a hot shot, eh?
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