Each year photographers are invited to submit their photos the Australian Institute of Professional Photography Awards. Thousands of entries are submitted and the judging is done by Australia’s top photographers – it is tough to impress these guys! So, I was very excited to find out that we won a silver, and one silver with distinction at the Australian Institute of Professional Photography Awards.
The silver with distinction missed on out being a gold by a whisker. The photos I entered were from travels I haven been on in the last year. We find that taking time out over the quiet wedding season (winter) to explore and photograph amazing parts of the world leave us inspired and energized for our next season of weddings.
This photo was taken in Hue, Vietnam, at the Thien Mu Pagoda. It was the beginnings of our love for photographing in the rain! This was awarded a silver.
The next photo has quite a story to it. It was during my travels to China in 2011, it was taken in a rural part of Sichuan Province, China. This part of China boarders with Tibet, and is a beautiful, magical area. The culture, food, architecture and people are mostly of Tibetian background, although it is much less touristy. And unlike Tibet, visitors can roam around freely without the need for extra permits and a guide as required in Tibet itself.
To get here I caught a local bus for 14 hours from Chengdu to Danba, via highway which was still under construction. It was amazing going through beautifully landscape meters from a rushing river, via rocky unpaved road, new bridges, and recently blasted tunnels which were not yet paved or anything fancy like that. From Danba to Tagong, it took approximately 4 hours, on 2 minibuses to get there. One of the minibuses involved me basically much sharing a seat with a young Chinese man, whilst a lovely, but extremely large, elderly Tibetan couple, and their bags of shopping also shared our 3 seat row. With about 20cm of space, I held my camera bag sideways on my lap as we bumped along the mountainous roads.
From Tagong, we followed some vague instructions to hike to this fabulous monastery A stray dog followed us all the way, when we reached the area we first met the nuns from Ana Gopha the nunnery. The hike was only meant to take 3 hours, but I think we zigzagged a little, as it was more like 4 hours across the grassy hills. With a couple of river crossings on the way.
When we stumbled upon the village the Nuns welcomed us where we sung, danced and played some games. We hiked a little more to the monastery down the hill, which is where this photo is taken, as the monks showed us around. I hiked back to the Ana Gopha later in the evening, to find that the one convenience store had already closed. I asked a nun where I could eat, and she invited me in. I ate with the nuns, they brought me a bucket of warm water to wash in, and insisted I stay the night. Despite having booked a simple room in the guesthouse above the convinced store, the nuns insisted I not walk the 20 minutes over there as I might get eaten by the dogs that are guarding the livestock over night.
The nuns and I stayed up late chatting… well trying to communicate. They laughed at me in the morning when I complained my hair was messy and their shaved heads were perfect, and in broken English, and my broken Chinese they offered to shave my head. We cooked in the stove in the middle of the room about 30cm from my bed. I was awaken at sunrise to the eldest nun in the dorm singing, for about half an hour which was the best alarm clock ever. As I brushed my teeth leaning over the ditch out front of their hut, I tried to squeeze the last drop of toothpaste out of my Colgate tube. Five minutes later, the eldest nun returned with a brand new tube of Colgate, which she insisted I keep… which was crazy as we were in the middle of nowhere, there wasn’t even running water, sewerage or electricity but they had supplies of Colgate! That’s what I get up to when I’m not photographing weddings!
So, I’m glad that I don’t just love this photos because of the story behind it… the judges have decided :) It was awarded silver with distinction.
Featured on thewest.com.au, this image was also a finalist in the 94.5 2012 Skyworks Photography Competition.
Crazy weather today for Australia Day Fireworks 2012. It was 42C in the morning, but by late afternoon dark stormy clouds began forming. We had stayed back at a friend’s BBQ a tad late so didn’t have it enough time to make it to the south side of the Swan River, but after seeing the sky we knew we had to take some photos… So we went to a car park roof top in the centre of Perth.
The lighting began just before the Australia Day fireworks started, creating an amazing display natures and man’s pyrotechnics complemented each other. It was an awesome skyshow!
The most important thing once you’ve got your wedding photos is to make sure you back them up print them out! DVDs and USBs aren’t made to last forever, and also as technology changes who knows how long DVD readers will even be a standard on computers, do you remember floppy disks and VHS videos!? As well as making sure you save your photos to an external hard disk, and online “in the cloud” for safe keeping, we highly recommend you have some printed.
One great option is to have your images made into a handcrafted archival wedding album for your kids and even grand kids to enjoy and share forever.
The album
Each album is individually designed and then your images are printed on Archival Paper. The pages are then ‘hot pressed’ with a protective layer which both gives it a nice textured look but also further protects the image on the thick card pages. The albums are then hand bound.
Albums are available in black or red leatherette, clothed in a designer handmade black and white jacket. Or you can opt for a textured vintage styled album.
How it works?
1. We can select the images for you, although we suggest you let us know which of the formal family photos you would like in your album as we don’t know which combinations are the most important to you. Also if you have some favourite images that you have to have in there we can use a favourite as a double page spread you are welcome to let us know, but this is totally optional. We are happy to select the rest by choosing the images that tell the story of your day, and of course the epic ones with your bridal party and bride and groom images. All of the selected images are then further retouched using high end editing techniques as per a fashion shoot in a fashion magazine. We can also apply fine art techniques, such as textures and other subtle effects.
2. The layout is then individually customised to fit your images and your story. As the album opens flat without a gap in the middle, we can include double page spreads to showcase your favourite images as a panoramic over both pages, which is 24 inches (60 cm) on the longest edge.
3. The final stage is for you to view the PDF design proof, where you have the chance to swap any of the images we have chosen by simply letting us know what image you would like to replace it with. You can let us suggest which colour cover will work best with the design or let us know if you have a preference.
The cost?
The images below are of our large Archival Flushmount 12×12″ Wedding Albums. Each album includes 20 sides (10 pages) for $1,800. There is the option to upgrade to any number up to 50 sides (25 pages). Extra sides are $85 each.
In addition you can order 8×8″ copies of your album , which makes a perfect gift to thank your parents. The 8×8’s albums are very cute, made to fit in an handbag, and are just $500 when ordered as a duplicate of a 12×12″ album.
Margaret River, Pemberton and the Stirling Ranges
Last weekend Richard and I actually had no photography bookings for the whole weekend. So seising the opportunity we decided to take Richards friend Katie who was visiting Perth from the USA down south to Margaret River, Pemberton and the Stirling Ranges near Albany.
Now we were unaware, but Katie is super-fit! Which left us a little worn out as we drove over 1500km in the 3 days, visit the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, Cheese tasting, have lunch at Leeuwin Estate, plus managed to climb two trees (the Glouster Tree and Dave Evan Bicentennial Tree- yes I made it the 75m up to the top!) and two mountains (Bluff Knoll and Mt Trio). Ok, I know they barely scrape in to be classified as mountains, but after climbing two in one day I think that equals a normal ‘mountain’ anywhere else in the world. We did not take as many photos as we normally would have, as we struggled to keep up Katie’s fast pace whilst carrying our camera gear (ok we do have to thank her for helping us out carrying camera gear up Bluff Knoll) but we really did need to weight her down to stop her sprinting up the mountain.
Overall a very fun weekend, and definitely an itinerary I would recommend for anyone wanting to showcase WA to visiting friend or relative in just a few days.
This Friday 14th is the opening night of my collaborative exhibition at the Blender Gallery in Joondalup. You are welcome to come and have a browse, the exhibition is on for a couple of weeks. If you are free this Friday evening, even better! You are welcome to come for the festivities (and free wine) on opening night,! I will have four photos printed on large canvas displayed there, two taken in China, one from Cinque Terre and one from Indonesia.
Artwork:
Title: Tanah Lot
Size 20×30″ (51x71cm)
Medium: Photography on canvas
Tanah Lot translates to “land in the sea” in Indonesian. Located in Tabanan, Bali, the temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped by the waves of the Indian Ocean. Tanah Lot Temple is said to have been built in the 16th century, as a place to worship the Balinese sea gods. The Tanah Lot temple has been a part of Balinese mythology ever since. It is believed that at the base of the rocky island there are poisonous sea snakes guarding the temple from evil spirits and intruders.
This image was created at sunset , using a slow exposure to capture the eerie glowing sky and powerful waves.
Title: Cinque Terre
Size 20×30″ (51x71cm)
Medium: Photography on canvas
Colourful homes perch on the edge of the rugged coastline in Vernazza, Italy, a charming UNESCO World Heritage listed fishing village. Dating back to 1000 AD, the area represents one of the best preserved areas of the Mediterranean. The Church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia , was built around 700 years old. The medieval castle, Belforte, was built in around 1550, primarily to protect the village from pirates.
This image was photographed at sunset, from the overlooking cliffs, capturing the town in bathed in a glow of warm light.
Title: Nanhu Lake, Hongcun
Size 20×30″ (51x71cm)
Medium: Photography on canvas
Price $820
This image was taken in the UNESCO world heritage listed Hongcun, in Anhui province, China. With its ancient buildings, narrow, cobblestone lanes and small waterways, the town was like an oriental version of Venice. At present, it contains about 150 historic buildings, dating up to 600 years.
The stunning Nanhu Lake was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1368 – 1644. The village is often described as “a living Chinese painting”. It is true – during the day the lake was surrounded by many Chinese art students.
This image was created in the early morning, where the ancient houses and misty mountains reflecting in the calm waters really do look like an ancient painting.
Title: Picturesque Bridge, Hongcun
Size 20×30″ (51x71cm)
Medium: Photography on canvas
One of my favourite destinations in China was the was the UNESCO world heritage listed Hongcun, in Anhui province, China. A long stone bridge translates from Chinese to ” Picturesque Bridge” provides a stunning entry to the 1000 year old village.
This image was created in the early morning, when the beautiful trees on the outskirts of the village reflect into the calm waters of Nanhu Lake.