…he’s a crazy uncle at a wedding

“i must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
and all i ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by…” -John Masefield

i like to call this my tri nations in union wedding! a kiwi marrying a south african and living in australia. i haven’t actually asked what goes down when the rugby is on though… (go wallabies!).

debbie is stunning and martin is gorgeous and together they are so cute. it was really too easy to photograph this wedding with such great models! they were married at st josephs in subiaco and had their reception at caversham house.

debbie is hot. you can totally tell that from her toes ;)

like i said, hot.

the flowers- i was loving these colours so much.

how cute is dad?!

as you will notice from the following i’m addicted to their pine forest series! this was my last shoot here before the trees were chopped down and i’m so happy that they are extra beautiful!

such a fun bridal party

love love love (with a capital L)

deb & marty thank you for choosing me. i wish you so much love and happiness and joy. here’s cheers to you with a glass of red  ;)xo

thought i would share a couple of images from my new favourite camera. it’s called the double shot and it’s awesomeness knows no bounds! this little cam shoots two images onto one 35mm frame. it makes me happy everytime i process a roll of film, because i never know what i’m going to get back. it’s a surprise filled change from digital.

these scans are straight off the negative with no retouching. it’s a colourful feast for the eyes!

tash and jeremy are awesome (that’s why they are my clients!).  they live in melbourne now but came back to perth to get married. i was looking forward to photographing their wedding because tash had so many cool ideas for locations and props and details. we became friends even before the big day because she bounced so many ideas off me, which was so great to be part of. they wanted to have photos at places that had meaning to them, doing things that they would normally do. tash’s cousin helped source some vintage-y bikes, her mum did the beautiful flowers and produce basket, jeremy was in charge of the balloon and a number of friends and family helped create the bunting. i loved everything about this wedding and had a hard time choosing images to post!

meet the ever cool, calm and collected jeremy…

tash suggested some domesticity (wife in training?!). this is her getting the bunting ready…

hotness everywhere! i adore tash’s gwendolynne dress.

we did the location photos before the ceremony. jeremy’s face when he first saw tash was too much. x

this shot was a re-creation of the illustration used in the invites (see the reception detail below) 

the girl can work it!

i hope i am allowed to repeat… this is where girl first told boy that she loved him. while choosing apples. LOVE LOVE LOVE

their favourite coffee spot. seriously, these guys are way cool!

jeremy’s turn for hotness- extra love this first one.

here is more of the bunting… every one was unique.

this might just be my favourite of the day…

the reception was held at lamonts and all of the table arrangements were done by tash’s mum. each centrepiece was different and included fruit and vegetables. so pretty!

this line from a baha’i prayer “these two bright orbs are wedded”  is a perfect description for tash and jeremy. love you guys, thank you for having me. may your days be full of love and laughter, friends and food, sangria and salsa. xo

a little piece of the rotto serenity…

kath & david had a small and relaxed wedding onboard the paddle steamer decoy. it was a celebration all about family, friends and fun and i felt immediately welcomed into the group.  so a big thank you to everyone and especially to kath & david for asking me to be part of their day- and for being one of the most laid-back couples ever!

just a few images from the day:

this is a pic of my sister from a couple of years ago. it was recently part of a mcp actions blog post all about candy and bubblegum. this is just one of many photos that haven’t yet seen the light of day. as you can imagine this shot was interesting to co-ordinate- so we spent a lot of time and laughter achieving it.

my sister has been (mostly) patiently modelling for me since i was a student. she will always help me out (even when she doesn’t want to) and she can really get into character! she’s pretty awesome and smart and way cool. basically my sister rocks!

i met faye a while back- and ended up photographing her family:

faye is part owner of backyard aquaponics who are the aquaponics experts of australia! aquaponics is based on productive systems as they are found in nature. it can be loosely described as the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics and this is where the name aqua-ponics originates. it basically means you grow food plants which take nutrients from the fish pond underneath- the plants clean the water which then cycles back to the fish. too cool! and you can have small systems right up to huge ones, which means that they are suitable for all homes.

anyway, faye asked me to come down and give the crew some pointers on using their digital slrs. these guys are mad photographers! here’s one of faye’s great pics (because i LOVE frogs!):

i think i learnt more from faye than she did from me! she is in love with nature and plants and systems and mostly BUGS. of any kind. she gets so excited over bugs that really, you kind of have to be excited too! walking around the aquaponics systems she is looking so closely and actually seeing- things that most people would never notice. it really made me realise how easy it is to miss, even for a photographer like me who is supposedly always looking! faye can point out the tiniest off eggs, notice some unusal fly, or find a wasp that has parisitised a caterpillar (i think that’s what it’s called?!). after hanging out with her for a few hours i felt that i had been missing out on a whole world, and i now have a new found respect for the mini eco-system of my backyard (except for the cockroaches!).

here are a couple of things that i noticed thanks to faye’s influence and way of seeing. i’m so glad her enthusiasm and knowledge has rubbed off just a little! :)

i am having my first solo exhibition and it officially starts this saturday- hooray! fotofreo is a month long biennial festival of photography that showcases the work of both australian and international photographers. my exhibition is part of the fotofreo fringe festival- a photographer had to pull out and i saw a tweet about how the festival was looking for someone at a late stage to take this place. i actually didn’t think i had anything suitable until organiser seng mah emailed me after looking at my website…. and next thing you know it’s all on and i had six weeks to make it happen!

so that six weeks has flown by and the time has arrived. i managed to organise myself, decide on the images and get them printed and framed- sounds simple but there was much agonising over what images worked together and how exactly to display them. my head has been full of thoughts and ideas and it’s been hard to think about “real” work at the same time! the opening party is sunday and i think i will be happy once that is over and i can forget about the photos for a month! (hopefully they will get lots of viewing in that time!) but really, it is exciting and also kind of strange. the exhibition is a collection of images from my trip to china in late 2007, and of course i love the shots, but i never really thought about doing anything like this with them. so i hope others can enjoy them as much as i do!

here’s the cute invite made for me by kulcha, which is where the exhibition is hanging. if you can, please go and see it- and let me know what you think!