The Batblog by Photobat | Portrait and Wedding

One of the things that we wanted to do on our trip to Vanuatu was to get some sense of the life of the real villages, not the ones that have the tourism angle happening. One of the fundamental parts of Samma Village is their school. We made two visits to the school of about 40 students. The school recieves no funding from the government and is supported by christian organisations from foreign lands. More on the man who founded the school and also the rest of the village in later posts.

Susanna and Dave dropped by for the standard planning session and in the usual chat the happens in every planning session it came out that David proposed on a roof top with a surprise picnic. Than it came out that they have had many other roof top picnics and experiences. It got me thinking about where we could do their first family portrait with Mariella. I didn’t have to think too much because outside the office window the view is dominated by the Mecure. A phone call and some meetings later and it was all set, sunset on the rooftop.

Susanna also took the nesting process to a whole new level turning their bed into a real nest with willow branches!

So, what about a different spot to do a portrait… how about Salamanca Market at lunchtime. Kinda hard to shoot, but lots of fun. More soon.

He’s actully really good at kicking the ball, sometimes the ball does need a little bit of fatherly help to keep it heading in the right direction.

When I first read that there were Turtles in Vanuatu I was excited, I really wanted to get as close as possible to an animal I hadn’t seen before. I like turtles, but it’s been at a distance. That all changed on Moso Island.

We read that there was s Turtle Rookery on Tranquility Island (also known as Moso). We wanted to get there but really didn’t want to do the half day tour and see things that didn’t really interest us before we got to the rookery. After mentioning this to the guys at Havannah (the best place we have ever stayed) they arranged a trip for us on their little speed boat across the harbour to have our own look at the rookery.

I didn’t know what to expect, and after trekking through the jungle from the jetty we emerged into the rookery. Essentially it’s a heap of big white plastic tubs filled with turtles. The turtles are collected by local villages when they hatch and are bought to the rookery where they are paid for and then looked after until they are big enough to have a better chance of surviving in the wild.

The Hawksbill Turtle is critically endangered meaning that the species numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations. So that means there isn’t that many about. To be in a little area with over a hundred of this amazing and beautiful reptile was fantastic.

The little ones are fragile and not able to be handled, but as you go down the tubs they get bigger and bigger until you get to the 2 year old turtles in the final cement tanks. These larger turtles are ready for release. The rookery relies on tourists coming by and sponsoring the turtles and releasing them. Of course, we had to do this. We picked up, measured it up and Vikashni walked it down beach and released it. TM (As we called it) was tagged and each time it is seen thy researchers will send us an email to let us know how it’s going. Very cool.

I hope TM is out there having a great time in the sea eating lots of jellyfish

This is one of my favourite guys shots from the last wedding season. Shot in Craigs garage.

We spent a little time at a village called Saama, it is located on the top side of Efate about 40 minutes drive from Port Vila. There are more photos to come from the village itself, these images are from the Chiefs (last image) chicken farm. It is encouraged for the men to stay and work in the village, and if possible to create some money. The chief is leading by example and has set up a chicken farm up the hill from the main village. It is only in start up phase but there are a heap of chickens running about and strangely, a cat. It seems that the cat does not each the chickens only the rats who try to get the eggs. He does love a treat of coconut, which is fed to the chickens in these photos by Irene the chiefs wife.