Archive for February, 2010

Bob and I sprang out of bed (!?) at 2am on Saturday morning ready and rearing to go for Jason and Nanami’s wedding! Jason works with Bob at Hot Air and met Nanami at Hot Air. So, having known Jason for a couple of years, this was a special wedding for us to be attending and photographing.

Bob did the rounds of Cairns picking up the wedding guests in the bus while I picked up Nanami and her parents for the transfer to Mareeba in the car.

You may be asking why on earth we were out of bed at 2am? Nanami was out of bed at 1am having her hair and make-up professionally done by Shae from Tropical Beauty!

Jason and Nanami were married in a Hot Air balloon 1 kilometre above the earth just after sunrise on Saturday morning. 20 people from Japan, New Zealand and Australia climbed into the balloon basket to witness Jason and Nanami exchange their vows. Leisel from Our Ceremony performed a lovely ceremony in English and Japanese, which included a wonderful poem about flying.

The balloon landed a short time later and we all piled into the bus for the drive to breakfast. Breakfast was devoured at Ringer Rest only 5 minutes from where we landed. I took some family and friends photos in the lush paddocks surrounding the breakfast location before everyone boarded the bus for the trip back to Cairns.

We dropped everyone at the botanic Gardens for Coffee and Cake while Bob and I headed back to the shed to wash the bus and car.

All the drivers headed back to the shed shortly after us, where there was a mad rush to get all buses washed inside and out, get changed and head off to the  to join Jason and Nanami for their lunch reception at Cherry Blossom Japanese Restaurant.

A banquette of wonderful Japanese food followed! There were speeches and the cake cutting as well as a very efficient  Japanese chef cooking ice cream on a BBQ grill!

Thank you for having us at your wedding Jason and Nanami, it was a great day! Bob and I wish you both the very best for a long and happy life together.

Below are some shots from the morning. You can also go to Jason and Namami’s on-line album to see the images from their day.

After the ceremony photo courtesy of Hot Air

Photo courtesy of Hot Air

The first 8 or 9 weeks of each new year are usually pretty quiet for a wedding photographer in the Tropics! For obvious reasons, mainly the hot sticky weather and risk of cyclone, not a lot of people get married at this time of the year.

I like to use this down time to first: have a rest! (I also painted my house! OMG! What was I thinking there?) second, I have been catching up on the last couple of albums from the end of last year and third to learn more about my craft! I feel that you can never know or learn enough about the thing you are passionate about!

I also wanted to, for the first time, do a compilation of my favorite images from 2009 to share on my BLOG.

I had a great time going through the images from every wedding that I photographed last year. Each wedding and image has it’s own unique story to go with it. I remembered what a great time I had on each special day. The Trash the Dress images reminded me of the fun we had “drowning the gown” and how cold the water was for Paula and Jason’s TTD! It took all of mine and Paula’s encouragement and enthusiasm to keep Jason in the water!

I remembered the helicopter flights, the boat rides, the golf buggies, the four wheel drive tracks to get to inaccessible places, the ladders and roofs I stood on to get that perfect group photo and I also remembered the wonderful feeling I get every time I deliver an album to a happy bride and groom!

It was hard! I wanted to put everyone in there! I started out with 190 images I ended up with around 120.

I love being a wedding photographer and I love sharing and being part of each couples special day.

Thank you to all my wonderful brides, grooms, babies, Mums and Dad’s and other fabulous clients!
It was a great year!

Here is a 9 minute video of my favorites from 2009!

Comments are encouraged!

Ciao for now!

My first wedding for 2010! Gary and Adele came all the way from the UK to be married in the rainforest of Tropical North Queensland. It was just the two of them. A very romantic way to tie the knot!

The location they chose was the lush, rainforest setting of  Silky Oaks Lodge near Port Douglas.

It had rained quite a lot leading up to their wedding day, in fact the day before, Tropical Cyclone Olga crossed the coast just north of Port Douglas! As usual, after a cyclone, the weather came out nice and sunny! It stopped raining and everything had a wonderful washed clean look to it.

The ceremony was performed by Peter Santarosa at 4pm on the deck overlooking the crystal clear and fast flowing Mossman River.

After the ceremony we headed to the pool for some photos and then took the timber stair case down to the river bank.

Silky Oaks is the perfect place to be married. The surrounding rainforest and river make the  perfect backdrop for photos.

I left Adele and Gary enjoying a drink at the bar before sitting down to a delicious wedding dinner on the deck that evening.

Thank you for asking me to be your photographer Adele and Gary, it was my pleasure and I wish you all the best for a long and happy future together.

Below are a couple of images from the afternoon. You can also view Gary and Adele’s album on-line.