The Batblog by Photobat

At the Odd and Even market a couple of weeks ago in Hobart, Vikashni was approached to see if she wanted to have a stall at the Design Island Market as part of Arts Tasmania’s Design Island. The market is THIS SUNDAY IN HOBART. details below.

So what will she have on show, well there will be her very soft and and snuggly Snowpeople (above), Bunnies and Kittens. She sold very well at the last market and i’m sure will do well at this one too. So come have a look, touch the soft toys and fall in love with them like everyone else seems to do!

I’m quite proud of Vikashni getting into this market, i really think she has a talent at making really cute things, her online store is at http://heartvandana.etsy.com/

Details are…

Design Island Market
4 May 2008 10am–3pm
27 Tasma Street, North Hobart

Tasmania’s top emerging and established designers and craft practitioners invite you to the Design Island Market. Take home some of Tasmania’s finest craft and design of 2008: jewelry, glass, textile, ceramic, product, fashion and furniture design. Buy unique production pieces, prototypes or one off works, directly from the maker!

Some birds from Melbourne above…

 In other news the dreaded lurgi hit the Photobat office last week. Zakk was out from Monday with a bad cold and I got hit on Tuesday with a sore throat, which turned a bit worse on Wednesday and on Thursday turned into not being able to swallow or speak, fever, headaches and a bit of dizziness. Turned out to quite bad Tonsilitis and an order from the Doctor to not work for 5-7 days… I’m at day 4 now and have mostly taken the Doctors orders, did manage to do a couple of time sensitive shoots but apart from that it’s been nothing. So my apologies if I haven’t returned calls or emails, i’m sure there are heaps waiting for me. I’m going to do a couple of half days Monday and Tuesday and then I hope to be working at 100% again. Vikashni is doing a great job at looking after me and supplied a lot of soft and gooey food and also drove me to the couple of shoots, she will make a good wife (in about 3 weeks!!!)

 I have consumed about 3.5 packets of panadol, quite a bit of penicillin and 2 evil fishermans friends that Garry in the newsagency said would clear up my throat… they didn’t but i learned a couple of things, firstly, Garry isn’t a Doctor and secondly fishermans friends are EVIL. (but Garry is a great newsagent and I trust him with my magazine purchasing)

Another Saturday another drive south for a wedding. This time we had the fantastic opportunity to photograph Kala and Michael. We had a brilliant time on the engagment shoot so i was really looking forward to the day, and it didn’t dissapoint. Early start with the boy and then a few shots of Michael in his music room…  he’s quite talented (check out his website here or even his wikipedia entry here). So his music room was somewhere he really spends alot of time, i was instantly taken by his organised bookshelves!

Then off to find Kala and the girls, (one of whom you may recognise from here ). As usual, it was a contolled sense of chaos in the house full or people coming and going.

Did i mention that the house had heaps of good spots for photos?

And then we went outside

It looks like these girls have seen a ghost. I can’t tell you how much fun we had on the day, everyone was so much fun to be around and so unstressed.

The Hobart Town hall was the place for the big event and what a fabulous location it is. A new place for me and i hope to get there many time in the future.

How is that for a dip? It didn’t go to plan in the rehearsal but went off with out a hitch in the ceremony and the crows went wild!

As Michael’s life is music and opera I had to create some more dramatic shots… how could i not, Michael does serious so well.

Plus there was some play time with the rest of the bridal party.

Plus Idon’t think the Marine Board Building on the waterfront has looked so good in a photo.

And sorry Kala, Michael laughed when he saw this one and i love it, so my apologies!

There were too many great moments from this wedding, i haven’t laughed this much in a long time. We were truly honored to be there to record the day and I can’t wait to get the rest of the photos to you guys!

We had such a fun time on Saturday shooting Michael and Kala’s wedding. I had to post this shot straight away.. more to come on Wednesday!

Oh, and it seems that the website and my email were down for a couple of days. All is good now and i’ll get back to those emails soon.

On Saturday, Zakk and I had the great pleasure of shooting Dan and Elise’s wedding. It was fantastic to have such and easy going couple, even when the rain came it was no problem!

Like always i caught up with the girls and guys before to get some preparation shots. First it was off to Convict Cutters for some shots of the girls getting their hair done. The guys and girls there did a fantastic job, and I’m sure it wasn’t because of the bridesmaids is one of their stylists!

Dan and the boys were out at Dan’s parents place in Evendale. I noticed the contrast in cars in the garage as i arrived, the Chrysler and the beat up old van. I had no idea the beat up old van was pretty much the 4 groomsman and a family icon known as the Tonemobile. I love different kinds of wedding cars, and it’s great to have a car that has a special meaning .

Elise and the girls had their final preparations at her Grandparents house, which has the most amazing garden. All the girls dresses were made by Elise’s mum, were only finished the morning of the wedding and looked fantastic.

The wedding was out in Longford at the little catholic church near the sports grounds. The place was packed with family and friends. After the ceremony we headed off to Richmond Hill, a property near Cressy that I had never hear of before and very glad I know it now. The place has so much character and hundreds of good spots for photos. Just as we arrived the rain also arrived. It didn’t really dampen the spirits, it was gone before we knew it and let us get some great umbrella shots.

we went for a walk into one of the fields to get the last of the light. I was a little excited by the light and location and didn’t even mind laying on the wet, cow poo infested grass to get these shots! (special thanks to the guys at Daisy Fresh Drycleaning for getting the stains out!)

It all ended with the warm and fully decked out reception out at The Happy Chef at Jessen Lodge.

Congratulations again Dan and Elise, I hope Thailand is fantastic and I’ll see you when you get back!

The Epson Tasmanian Professional Photography Awards were on again last weekend, i had a little bit of success with 2 silvers in the general category and another 2 in the wedding category. Below are some shots from the judging day.

And the award images are…

Georgie and Garth came up again after also getting an award in the US last year

Scott getting a hug from his brother in law in Hobart

Marek Larwood from We Are Klang, taken at last years comedy festival, with hand models Steve and Greg

And Rufino the Catalan Casanova from Mikelangelo and the Blacksea Gentlemen.

Congratulations to Ian Wallace for taking out the big one, also to Phil Kurvita for taking out the wedding, as well as Dan Cripps and Belinda Fettke for getting their first AIPP awards under their belts. Also well done to everyone else who did well, it was a really great standard of images.

Did some pregnancy shots for Rob and Susan today, this is a preview with Arnie, Rob’s 19 year old cat.
More to come…

From a pre wedding portrait session last week… more to come…

I had a very brief trip to Melbourne last week, i was in town for about 9 hours. The firs think i saw when i jumped off the skybus was this ad for Danny Bhoy’s Dvd.

Soono after I found myself at a picnic full of international comedians, including the delightful Howard Read, his wife Natalie, their very cute son Samson and as yet unnamed bump that will be their second child. The picnic included a brief bit of boating, where I showed how much I didn’t learn at Sea Scouts.

I finished my trip by hanging around at the town hall, the center of the Comedy Festival. Caught up with many great comedians and found out all that had been going on at the Festival.

I also did a shoot with a UK comedians called James Dowdswell. More on that later…