The Batblog by Photobat | Portrait and Wedding

A different wedding…

It is fun when two pasts collide at a wedding. By that I mean that two different parts of my life were linked together last Saturday when Brad (who was at the same college as me in Melbourne) was married to Elisha (who was in Venturer’s with me and received her Queen Scout Award the same year as me).

So, this promised to be different… I’m not sure if you will pick what makes it different. A hint might be to check out what Brad is wearing, or check out the little dogs, maybe another hint would be the locations, possibly something else was the music selection for the brides entrance (anyone up for some Korn?).

These guys just threw down the challenge to give them something different, and when that happens I tend to go a little nut. Finding locations to take the photos around the areas that we would be travelling in was also fun. Using the large coloured walls of Cash Converters and Chickenfeed to contrast the bride and groom came off so well. And Rollerworld! Nothing says different to me like helping a bride climb through a burnt out window to get to a vandalised roller skating rink. Add into the mix the reception at a scout camping ground and you have a clear view of a different wedding.

Like every wedding, I could post many more photos but need to keep them a surprise for Brad and Elisha when they get back from their little jaunt in Thailand (it was warmer in Tasmania than Bangkok today, so I don’t see why you needed to go all that way, we have good Thai restaurants here too!)

Rollcall: Suit by City to Street, Dress by Timeless Elegance, Celebrant Barb Youd, flowers by International Balloon Land, Ceremony held at the Tailrace. Photographers fueled by Red Bull, gluten free bread and ginger biscuits.

I had a call last week from the President of the Queensland division of the Australian Institute of Professional Photograpy asking if I would be interested in doing a presntation at their Hair of the Dog event up in Brisbane. Sounds like a bit of fun, i’ll whip something into shape for the presentation, I then asked the question how long do I have to present? 90 minutes… twice… on the same day…

…

I said Brilliant!!! and have started to prep a talk. I think it is supposed to be mostly on Portraits, but i’ll probably mix it up a bit.

I only just wondered who dropped out, who’s shoes am I filling, who is the person people have actually booked to see? I did a little searching and discovered i’m replacing Robin Selleck, a celebrity portrait photographer… quite a big name… seems like I have very big shoes to fill (especially since my shoe size is a 6).

Now unlike Robin, I haven’t had exhibitions tour nationally with sponsorship from big multi national companies, don’t have any books out and certainly have not been featured in almost every glossy in the country.

As I mentioned, i’ll be presenting a bit of a mix of things, most people will be interested in my work with comedians and musicians, i’m also hoping that most people will enjoy my take on the domestic wedding and portrait world. I’ll be adding in a little bit about my marketing and personal projects. So if you have booked in to see Robin, please check out my site and my work, I’m not a swish high flier, I don’t have a producer or manager. I have me and my mobile and some friends. I take photos because I love to do it and have met some fantastic people while doing it, some shoots take months to organise and last a few seconds, others take a few seconds to organise and last hours.

So, the shoes i’m filling are much bigger, but I WILL WEAR BIG SOCKS.

See you in Brisbane next week! Mention this blog post and i’ll give you a lollypop!

 Hair of the Dog site

Great Couple + Bay of Fires + Great Weather = Fantastic Wedding. More soon.

Yes… this is a wedding… this is at the Cemetery. We also got some good shots in the burnt out rollerworld.  You may want to check back later in the week to see some more… like his suit and all the dogs…

A few photos taken on the drive back from the East Coast on Australia Day, we were up there to shoot a wedding on the Sunday and stayed over to have a good breakfast and take some photos for fun on the way home.

We all had a really nice breakfast at the Village Store and More in St Helens, which has fantastic coffee, great breakfast menu, an Aussie rock singing chef and apologetic waitresses who only apologise about the chef’s singing. I wasn’t worried about the singing, I recognised it as Ruck Rover and surprised the chef by knowing who they were. The place is vintage, you spend most of your time reading the old magazines and newspapers that cover the tables.

On the drive back we stopped in Derby, which is V and my regular stopping spot on the drive back. Zakk and I explored the old grandstand (more photos to come) and then we all discovered that the Devonshire Tea’s at Berrie’s cafe are quite good, plus they gave Kaba a drink.

Just after Christmas we headed off to Low Head to shoot the Findlay kids, we played with toys, catapulted frogs, made a “cave” under the dining table and even checked out new trampoline.

 I remember when I was young we always asked for a trampoline for Christmas, but having parents who are both in the medical field, we never managed to get one. Elliott and Mia got a trampoline for Christmas and we had to take photos with it. As you can see, I even managed to get under the trampoline! No injuries to anyone. So I think my parents should still buy my brother and I trampolines for Christmas this year, but they now have to buy two as we don’t share a bedroom or even live in the same house anymore.

 Oh… I should mention that Mia accidentally jumped on Elliott’s arm the day after the photos and broke his arm… freak trampoline related accident! Get mended soon Elliott!

 Lucus was the other winner of the 7LA cutest kid competition from way back, we eventually got the shoot in early this month.

  He has such a great smile, but didn’t want to show it to me, so we had to tickle it out of him!

Last Friday was a heap of fun. Ebonee and Paul’s wedding was fantastic and there were so many little things that made the day so much fun. Initially Zakk and I did some private investigating work, searching Salamanca for Paul and his parents… after doing a sweep of all the cafes there was only one more place to look. The Pub, and that is where we found them! From there we went off to a tiny little room at the Battery Point Guest House to take some shots of Paul getting his gear on. This tiny room had a wardrobe, in the wardrobe was the bathroom, which was kind of cool and also quite wierd, but Paul looked good!

Ebonee was in a little bit more spacious room at the top of three flights of stairs in one of the best places I had shot a wedding in Tasmania. If you haven’t heard of D’entrecasteaux, you will be soon. It is set to be the best wedding location in Tasmania and John and Sheryl the owners are also fantastic. So it has everything as you will see below.

As you can see Ebonee looked amazing, and the rooms in this location let us come up with some really different images.

And of course a little bit on Bon Jovi lead to some girls getting up to no good…

 As the weather was all over the place, an inside ceremony was called for, and i know i’ve said it many times before, Kay Haward did another great job at marring these two.

 A quick snap to be sms’ed over to Paul’s family back in the UK

How much do I love this spot? I’m sure there are over 1000 different spots for photos. And I could have used them all if there was time, Eb and Paul are so cute and photogenic.

 Thanks again Eb and Paul for sharing your day with us, we had a ball and your shots will be up on the website soon. Enjoy the rest of your stay in our little Island before heading off to that cold gray England place!

No we are not at the beach, we are moving the production office. It was a hard slog but we managed to move everything into the new office way over the other side of the hallway. What does this mean???

well, all the production, computers and stuff are now in a different location but the viewing room /gallery stays exactly where it is. It will be expanded soon and have some touch ups but for the time being it is all just business as usual.

We will send some pictures of the new office soon.

(and the pic above is another one from Rhys and Jess’s engagement shoot)