Hello Pretty is Winding Down

After more than ten fulfilling, magical years beginning in the good old days of 2012, Hello Pretty is retiring and heading off to the beach with a drink with a tiny umbrella.

Read our goodbye letter

The Dollie House

Pretty Personal with Riz & Resh of the Dollie House

 Pretty Personal with Riz & Resh of the Dollie House

Photographic duo Riz & Resh are long time friends and favourites of ours - they recently made us look fancy in our own little photo shoot, and we've had the likes of A Ring To It and Bow Peep turn to them for product photography. Bottom line is, they have mad skillz.

And to our delight, they've joined us as Hello Pretty sellers! They're selling product photography packages that are pretty darn great, and we felt that they deserved to be on the other side of the lense for a change.

 Pretty Personal with Riz & Resh of the Dollie House

  1. Hello! Tell us a little about yourself.

    The Dollie House is the home to Riz and Resh Dollie.  We're both simple beings who find great pleasure in food and greenery (not the bushy kind you're thinking of).

    Resh is a quiet individual with a vision of living clean and building a sustainable existence for his family.  He is the eldest of five brothers and is an avid yogi with an honours in Anthropology.  He is also the prettier member of The Dollie House. 

    Riz has a great passion for people and Instagramming meals.  Riz has worked in every sphere of media and has been messing around with cameras for over ten years. Riz's students gave her a pet name; B.B.D. (we will leave this open to your interpretation).

    We both travel as often as possible and feel as that it's an essential part of the growth of a person.

  2. How/why did the Dollie House?

    The Dollie House was the love child born from our shared passion for visual pleasure.  We both hail from art backgrounds and chose to focus on the anthropology of people and their memories.  We're both fascinated by human behaviour and observation, and photography was a good way for us to express what we saw and experienced through sharing brief passionate moments of peoples' lives.

  3. What do you love?

    We both thrive in any natural environment and have a keen affinity to aesthetics of the visual kind.  We love pretty things, appreciating good food and reading as often as possible  

    Riz loves talking and Resh enjoys silent conversations.  Resh loves cooking and Riz loves eating. We love constant change, hence the choice to grow The Dollie House.

  4. Can you tell us about the wonderful things the Dollie House makes/does?

    We offer a range of lifestyle photography packages and visual styling for shoots and interiors.  Riz focuses on events, family, portrait, maternity and wedding photography.  Resh thrives in making things pleasurable for the eye and desirable for the soul; he spends his time styling shoots and visually merchandising store windows.

  5. Tell us something unusual about you/your trade/etc that people generally don't know.

    We shoot weddings most weekends and because we're so passionate about our jobs, we often become family confidants for the day.  After a few hours with a client's family, we often feel like we're a part of the family.  People always feel the need to share their family histories with you.

    We both love visual storytelling, and voluntary information usually helps strengthen the visual depth of the photographs.

 Pretty Personal with Riz & Resh of the Dollie House

These beautiful shots by Ronél Kruger Photography.

Our fancy pants photoshoot...

Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House
Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House

Recently we've found ourselves being asked more and more for team photos, and since we are all often scattered countrywide (and sometimes even world wide!), we decided to go the whole hog and get some professional kiekies taken.

So, after deciding to take the plunge came the next daunting step. *Cues backing track* Who you gonna call? (I'm so lame. I know.) Anyway, we called on The Dollie House. Knowing the standard of their work and having seen the results first hand in the shoots they had done for sellers (including A Ring To It and Bow Peep), we were confident we were in good hands.

Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House
Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House
Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House
Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House

They were just the best. Since we're all kind of awkward people and are fairly camera shy, they prescribed a glass of wine before hand - a prescription we were thrilled to fill! I mean, what's better than tarting up with your gal pals with a glass of bubbly in hand? (and Scott. Shame. To quote Harry Goldenblatt from Sex in the City, it's his lot in life to be surrounded by women. And to pour the wine.)

We got all fancied up and trekked through to Bottlegger Coffee Company in Sea Point, who were most kind and accommodating, and the Dollies made us laugh so much and feel so comfortable that we didn't feel like awkward posers for even a second. (Look, this doesn't come easily to any of us. None of us are ever going to make it as schmodels.)

Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House
Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House

After a quick costume change we shot off to Green Point Park, where we upset a security guard because we were clearly too old and too heavy to be clambering all over the jungle gyms - we managed to convince her that we would be lightening fast, although the "too old" part became glaringly apparent when we had to untangle ourselves from those same jungle gyms. The knees guys - they're the first to go.

And then finally, we zooted off to catch the sunset from Signal Hill. It was gorgeous, our faces ached from laughing, and we ended the day feeling pretty darn excited about life. Thank you so much to the Dollies for making us look good in this amazing shoot - we were thrilled with the photos.

Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House
Hello Pretty photoshoot with The Dollie House

Cute nê?

Follow this awesome couple on Instagram here and here - they're so lovely, and take photos that make you want to visit cool places and learn to cook amazing things.

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