Josef Chromy Vineyard – Special Guest Jonathan Wherrett.
Note, Vee and I had the cake…. Jonathan didn’t, even if it looks like he did!

I love magazines; there are a few piles of them at home. I’m always excited when a new one arrives in the post office box. Today’s delivery was doubly exciting. Capture is a great read for photographers, covers a lot of interesting and important things relating to the industry of shooting everything in Australia. The current issue is their inaugural Annual filled with what Editor Marc Gaffen describes as “a selection of the finest work produced in the last 12 months.”
Heaps of good photos, including the one above taken at Brad and Elisha’s wedding. There were 5 wedding photos chosen for the annual and I got one of them. Quite exciting to get an image in there, I can’t imagine how many were submitted.
I’m off to buy these doggies some treats…

The last few weeks have been a little crazy, seems like I’ve only spent a couple of days in the office. Actually, I have only spent a couple of days in the office. We have been all over the place, started off with a bit of speaking over in Perth WA. Great place, great photographers, great people, great food, great wine, great coffee and great grates too (you know I love urban shots!).

The whole reason for the trip was to do a presentation to about 80 photographers along side David Oliver, Christian Fletcher and Ric Syme. I really enjoyed the event and had heaps of good feedback. While out west I finally got to visit Jorgensen Albums, this is the place I get all my wedding and portrait albums hand made by a team of skilled and passionate people. I’ve been using these guys for about 6 years now, talked on the phone, emailed and sent Christmas cards to, but never met them in person. They were all taller than I expected.

I must have said a funny. Christian Fletcher, Me and David Oliver doing a joint Q and A at the end of the presentatioin, photo by Vikashni Moyle, she is talented!

It was fascinating to see all that went into making the albums and the amount of staff working away. I’ve got some images I’ll post soon. Then it was time for not working time. Summer is coming and I can see it’s going to be very busy so any time I can get at the moment is spent with Vee.

We managed to pack a lot in 2 day, both in things we did and things we ate / drank. There was catching up with photographers, checking out galleries, drinking wine, tasting cheese, waiting for sunsets that were always obscured by clouds, and then also some more wine tasting. The Margaret River / Dunsborough area were incredible, and I am looking forward to heading back there one day.

Some Holga action north of Margaret River

Clooney at Barwick Vineyard

Voyager Vineyard

Vikashni shooting the sunset, somewhere south of Perth

Then home for a couple of days and just as I got back into the swing of things it was off to Hobart. Hobart was a mix of Vee time, client time, learning time and speaking time. It was all based around a presentation I did for the Tasmanian Division of the Australian Institute of Photography. Vee also managed to into the talking spirit, doing a presentation to the happy snappers on social media. I was proud of her little talk! My talk was about evolving in photography from shooting body parts to shooting weddings and other stuff.

When that was all wrapped it was off to home for a few hours, a quick trip to the office and then on a big metal bird to the home of iconic music houses and water crossing structures. Yes, Sydney. A few days up there learning things, getting inspired and hanging around with some awesome photographers.

A shot of the back of a guys head with some kind of iconic bridge in the background

So I’m back now fully inspired and ready for action. There will be some changes about the place, nothing too major and all very cool. It may even involve some new products and saying good bye to some old ones. Looking forward to new ways of processing my images, getting new things up on the website, getting back to some old ways of shooting and catching up with all the clients who are coming back for their Christmas photos. Anyways, hope you are well and things are moving at a manageable pace in the right direction for you.

Oh and Congrats to Deb F for being the latest random Batblog comment prize winner! Some cool things are heading your way once I find out where to send them! Remember, big prize of limited edition art print will be drawn at the end of the month for a person who comments on the Batblog. Why not leave one now???

We did this head shot of Jeremy a couple of weeks ago, and now it has been published in ‘Inside Harcourts’, the magazine for Harcourts International.

Click if you want to have a read!

Another year and the Epson Tasmanian Professional Photography Awards have been run and won.

This year I managed to pick up 8 Silver awards over 4 categories.

In addition to this I also picked up

2009 AIPP Tasmanian Wedding Photographer of the Year (sponsored by Bride Tasmania)

2009 AIPP Tasmanian Portrait Photographer of the Year (joint) (sponsored by Fuji/Photoforce)

2009 AIPP Tasmanian General Photographer of the Year (sponsored by The Edge)

2009 AIPP Tasmanian Wedding Album of the Year (sponsored by Seldex)

And was named the 2009 Epson AIPP Tasmanian Professional Photographer of the Year.

Basically I’ve gone from no trophies to 5 in a day! Was kinda embarrassing going up to receive all the awards!

Big thanks to the AIPP for running the event, the judges, Zakk and Matt, Rocco, Phil K, and of course to my beautiful wife Vikashni. Plus thanks to all my fantastic clients, I am really lucky to have so many fantastic people to photography and share happy times in their lives. I love my job love sharing it with you all.

And well done to Zakk to for getting his first silver award! Click here to see it

The below images are the silver award images.

You may also hear me if you listen to ABC Southern Tas tomorrow morning and also HO FM tomorrow morning.

And my other entries that played a part in winning all the catergories are below

The last shot is of Tara Badcock’s clothing titled Theda Bara’s Cocktail Party, pink silk camisole top.

 I might blog some of the stories behind these images in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

The Laptop has met an untimely death. Storm damage. Window blew open. Rain came in. Laptop was on. I wasn’t in the office. More rain came in. More rain came in. Laptop was still on. More rain came in. Rain stopped. I came in. I swore. It is now in laptop heaven.

So all is kind of on hold. The laptop was the main comminication centre, so email is a little limited at the moment, plus accounting, plus newsletter that had just been written.

So we apologise for any inconveniance and slowness in getting back to you. We havn’t lost anything, just a bit of computer and a heap of time.

On the plus side if you are in Hobart this weekend pop into the Derwent Entertainment Centre and check us out at the Bride Tasmania Wedding Expo. We have somthing new to show you. Tell your friends, family, anyone who is getting, would like to or has a strange fascination with weddings to come and see us!

As most of you know, next Sunday is the annual best of slideshow being held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery at Inveresk. This year there will be two screenings, both the same show, but two different times. 2pm and 3.30pm. Rsvp to production@photobat.net letting us know which screening you would like to come along to. There will be wine, there will be cheese! Bring along some friends and family too, everyone is welcome.

So all next week on the Batblog I’m going to be giving some teasers shots of some that will appear in the presentation. Plus, I will be asking a question in both talks and if you know the answer you may just walk away with something very cool!

So RSVP, check the Batblog www.photobat.net/batblog and come and win stuff! (a hint to what is on offer may be a dvd)

Paint the walls, check.

Sorry about that, I kinda disappeared for a week or two there. I’m happy to say I’m alive, refreshed and ready to take a heap of photos this year. I will be digging into my emails and messages in the next couple of days, expect a call.

Over the last couple of weeks I did a few shoots, and also the weeks before Christmas were crazy, so the batblog is a feeling bit neglected.

Never to fear, it will be going completely nuts in the next couple of weeks to get updated. There may be a little less writing, that way I don’t have to think too much and the photos can get our of the hard drives and see the light of day.

Some photos of the animals from the break.

I got a cool, heavy based frypan for Christmas. It was sitting on the bench about to be washed and seasoned for the first time when I left the room for a second. When I returned, Kooshan was sitting in it. This is a photo of Kooshan a minute later sitting in his Laundry… or as we like to call it, his cell. He spends a lot of time there.

Kaba got a bone thing, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. He decided it was precious and spent a lot of time protecting it and not eating it.

This is an older one of Mouse I hadn’t posted yet. He is helping Vikashni with her sewing.

And this is my pretty wife.

So, what does this year hold for Photobat? Well, soon we will see what is behind door 36… Plus a bucket load of weddings this month, quite a few portraits and as usual, a heap of stuff that we have no idea about yet.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year, and look forward to talking, seeing or emailing you soon!

Click here to be whisked away to the newsletter….
Or click here to sign up and possibly win yourself an Adam Hills DVD.

The Photobat Facebook Page has just gone live. Head on over there if you want to check it out, and maybe become a fan? Maybe? Go on! Click here

Plum is a new resturaunt in Salamanca Square in Hobart. I took a few shots when I was showing Di and Sam (who is co owner) their engagement shots.

 I love the colour in this place

The menu looks great, and as they have a fantastic breakfast menu i’ll be sure to ery it out next time i’m down. Really looking forward to it

And yet again… a sneak peak.
It seems i’m only posting previews at the moment… So a bit of background as to what is going on.

I’m doing a heap of shoots that i’m really really happy with, but I have not had the viewings for them yet, and I only post the photos to the Batblog when the clients have seen them. SO patients!

Also i’m in the process of training up a new photoshop guy, he is doing a great job and catching on quickly. He has a great eye for detail and i’m sure he is going to do an amazing job on every ones photos.

So lots going on, expect a few podcasts in the next few days, a couple of real blog posts and maybe a surprise or two.

I think i need a hair cut. Comments?

I’m so excited to tell you all that the brand new Photobat shop is up and running! This has been in the works for a few months now and promises to be one of the best additions to the photobat wedding experiance. From now on, all Photobat weddings will be uploaded to shop.photobat.net so you can send your family and friends to see and purchase your wedding photos.

And if that wasn’t cool enough, you can now make one off payments for things like portrait sessions and wedding booking fees.
Head over to shop.photobat.net and view the sample gallery to see just jow cool it all is!

I just received in the post the 2008 / 2009 edition of Bride Tasmania. It’s always fun to get a new magazine and the first thing I did was sit down at the nearest cafe and flip through to see the latest ideas, stories and designs.

The latest Photobat Ad

Peppermint Bay’s spread features a few of my shots from Scott and Paula’s wedding

Morilla are featuring my wedding shot of Monica and Craig.

And 4Kombi‘s are using a couple of my shots also from Morilla are featuring another shot of Monica and Craig’s wedding

Vikashni, her little sister Susanne and I went off to the APEX Australia Teenage Fashion Awards at the Country Club last Sunday. Photobat sponsored second prize in all three categories of the event but I had no idea how amazing the whole thing would be. To fill you i, each entrant designs and creates their own garments and they, or a friend, models it for them on the stage. There were three categories, evening wear, casual  day wear and fantasy.

The standard of each section blew me away, everyone was so talented. The fantasy section was really impressive, these were garments that are not really made to be worn in everyday situations and were open to the creators imagination.Plus some entrants really researched ideas and themes behind their works, giving them many different levels of creativity and also thought.

Stay tuned for some shots of the winners in the next few months. And well done to APEX Australia for creating such an important event, aimed at inspiring and supporting creativity in teenagers.

I spent all of last week in Melbourne, it was a quiet trip with the purpose of learning. I took part in a 5 day seminar with  Jerry Ghionis. Who is Gerry I hear you ask? Well let me tell you. Jerry is listed by American Photo as one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world, listed as an Icon of Imaging by Microsoft and winner of a bucket load of awards from all over the world.There were participants from all over Australia and even as far away as New Zealand and Malaysia.

It was fascinating to see learn from a photographer who has been influencing my work for the last 12 months.

So, 5 days is a long time and there was so much information, ideas, tips and inspiration given that i’m still buzzing with everything that happened. There are many parts of what I do in photography and business that i’m working on improving to take my standards even higher. There are not too many things that will change over night, it will be more of a gradual process.

So stay tuned for more changes, more exciting products, new services and better images. I’m excited and a bit pumped!

And sorry to everyone to called and emailed while I was away, the seminar was all consuming of both brain and time. I’ll be getting back to you very very soon.

Check out Jerry’s website here

That’s right… a new office phone number! Only took a couple of years to get one.

Ok, it’s 1.10am. Being up this late means I’ve been being a bit geeky and doing website things. A WHOLE NEW SECTION. Yep, this is the biggest thing to happen to the website since I accidentally broke it last year.

So head over to www.photobat.net and click on the portrait gallery. It’s now divided up into sections covering, Pregnancy, Babies, Commercial, Couples, Kids, Families, Individuals and finally Pets. It’s still got some tweaking to do,find some more photos, add some more text, but it’s up and I can’t wait for you to see it!

Next post… is about communications…

I asked my smart wife Vikashni to write a little introduction about RSS feeds, just incase you didn’t know about them… so here goes, V’s first post on the Batblog.

Have you ever of noticed a RSS logo or link on websites that you have visited? Have you ever wondered what it is? This article is a basic overview of what an RSS feed is and how it can save you time on the internet.

So what is a RSS?

RSS stands for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. It is a way of delivering information to you from constantly changing websites straight to your computer.

Initially they were set up for news websites so that the latest headlines were constantly updated to your computer, now that the technology has spread other websites which have new contact added to them have taken on the RSS technology as a way to keep people up to date. For example you now find RSS feeds on everything from real estate websites that update you on the latest listing through to celebrity news sites that up date you on Paris Hilton’s latest dog fashions!

So what does this all mean for you?

If you subscribe to a magazine, the latest addition will arrive in your mail box as soon as it is released. RSS feeds work the same way with out having to pay for subscriptions. You can scribe to your favorite websites RSS feeds and use a RSS feed reader to look at the latest content on that website.

By using your RSS reader you can subscribe to all of your favorite blogs and news articles and have then arrive in one central place, saving your search time.

How do you subscribe to RSS feeds?

To subscribe to RSS feeds you need to use a RSS reader. There are a few different types of RSS readers, there are ones that you can install on your computer, others that are web based that you log into and your email program may also have an inbuilt reader.

Personally I prefer the web based reader because I can look at my RSS feeds from any computer that has internet access and I do not have to install any new software on to my computer.

Various email programs have RSS readers built into them, check your email software’s help guide for information on how you can set this up.

Using the popular web based readers is probably the simplest way of subscribing.

A lot of web sites have buttons like the image below

By clicking on the type of reader that you use it will take you to your RSS readers site and add the subscription to your RSS feed list.

Web based RSS readers

Google Reader

My Yahoo

Bloglines

Desktop RSS Readers

Windows: SharpReader

Mac OS X: NetNewsWire

So that is the basic overview of RSS, so don’t be afraid to try to subscribe to some feeds. Also, there is a video here that explains the whole RSS things in a very clear way.

Feel free to leave any comments with other suggestions about this topic, thanks for reading!

You may have noticed over the years that I have received a few awards from the Canon Australian Professional Photographer of the Year awards, organised by the Australian Institute of Professional Photography.

The top shots from the year go into a national traveling exhibition, which will be in Hobart later this year All the award winning shots go into a book, the latest of which just arrived this morning.

I still get a buzz seeing photos in print, the books are full of spectacular images and is very inspiring. That’s my shot of Rusty the dog and Gerry above him.

You can buy copies of the 2007 book and many of the previous year books here.

I have just added about 2 months worth of images into the portrait of the week section of Photobat.net. For those new, i set myself a little challenge to do a portrait each week just for practice. That was about 270 weeks ago and i’m still going.

The above shot isn’t in the Portrait of the Week, there is a different one. I thought i’d put up an other shot of the Albanian accordian playing busker/begger from Athens. He seemed to be a hit from the post below.

Click here to see the latest shots for portrait of the week

I had a message from Tom while I was away letting me know that the 2008 Canon Australian Professional Photography Awards were turning out to be very different from previous years. In a word, it was a bloodbath. Many of great photographers were scoring much l ower than usual, so I was terrified about my images. In the end I did manage to get 3 Silver awards for the below images and I was over the moon about it!

I’m really glad the awards were hard this year. I talked to some photographers and the tough judging is only doing good things for the industry. If what received a gold award the year before, a similar shot probably shouldn’t be getting the same result the next year. The awards are all about improving the industry, and if the similar images keep getting the same awards each year, the industry will not move forwards.

Big congratulations to some of the friends who took out categories this year including Damien Bredberg, Nick Melidonis and Peter Adams. Very big congratulations to Mercury Megaloudis who was one of the many photographers who opened his studio to me when I was first starting out and shared his knowledge. You can see all the top winning images here.

Also, the Tasmanian Division of the AIPP has some really fantastic photographers, quite a few managed to get awards this year which was fantastic to see. It’s not unusual, most years Tasmanians fair very well in the awards. So well done to Alice Bennett, Phil Kuruvita, Richard Bennett, Janie Boyd, Rob Burnett, Sarah McGregor, Janet Perkins, Jan Perkins, David Walker and Ian Wallace for getting more awards for Tasmania!

So my winning images are below, again this year all from commissioned work.

Pip Branson as Rufino the Catalan Casanova, Shot while shooting, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen in Hobart

Marek, from the British comedy group We Are Klang.

Renne and Nathan. I nearly entered this on last year but changed my mind at the last minute.I’ve regretted not entering, so I had to enter it this time. It’s one of my favourite wedding shots, which is why I have it as a massive canvas in the office!

The latest Straight From The Photobat is up an online. Or it should be in your inbox if you have subscribed to it.

In this edition you can Win WINE!!! Also read why Mum’s Don’t Like Chocolate, find out who is the portrait of the month and more!
Click here to have a read

Thanks again to the 80 people who showed up for the presentation, especially the 70 or so who got there in time for the presentation! It was really fantastic to put the show together and review everything i had shot in 2007, and i’m alredy planning the best of 2008 presentation! (By that I mean i’m going to put aside my favourite photos each month to save me many nights of searching every photo I took in a year.)

Special thanks again to Zakk for doing his best with the wine pouring and stuff, Rob for taking some photos of the thing, to Vikashni and Chung Mai for helping with the platters, and to Vikashni again for putting up with me in general (not a small task).

So i guess it’s onto the wedding planning now… just over 3 months to go…

Just thought i’d drop a little blog post to let you know whats been going on and to appologise for the lack of posts this week.

I’m frantically preparing for the Top Shots 2007 projection this weekend as well as getting some office house work done. The slideshows are coming together well, I keep remembering other photos that I have missed that I want to show, but can’t because the presentation would run for hours and hours.

I got a surprise today when I sat down to vote for photographers for Capture Magazine’s Australia’s Top Photographers 2008. I had no idea that I had been nominated in the portrait category! Which is cool, especially to be named along side many of the other photographers who are nominated. All the nominated photogaphers get a chance to vote for their peers and then the Top Photographers are announced in Sydney and published through various Yaffa magazines.

There are so many fantastic well known and inspirational photographers listed, so just getting nominated is nice! I’m looking forward to see who gets up to win, I have some other friends also nomiated in various catarories including Rocco Ancora, Glenn Campbell, Ryan Schembri, Damien Bredberg and another Tasmanian Rob Burnett 

I took a few photos in 2007, in fact, I took a few thousand.I always have loved showing off my work and am very proud of the way my images have developed in the last 12 months. So it’s time to show you all my favourite shots in an audio visual presentation. This is only on for one afternoon only, and not an exhibition that is hanging on the walls, so this is your only chance to see it.

Some of the highlights will include documentary work on the East Coast bushfires and backstage at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, Holga images, urban and natural landscapes plus heaps of kids,families, pregnant bellies, animals and shoes.

In addition there will be a presentation of some of my favourite portraits of the week taken over the last 5 years. The POW started as a way of practicing and pushing myself by taking a different portrait each week. Some of these portraits are commissioned; others are self commissioned and feature comedians, musicians, brides, animals, fictional characters, photographers and everyday people I have bumped into.

The presentations will take about 30 minutes.

2pm February 10th 2007
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Inveresk, Launceston

Entry is Free and there will be prizes!

Please RSVP here as we have limited seating available andmay have to reschedule more viewings.

PLUS FESTIVALE IS ON, SO YOU HOBART PEOPLE SHOULD COME UP FOR A DRIVE!!!

So, as predicted, a shot i supplied of Chris and Cal’s wedding was used in the paper, the Melbourne Herald Sun. And as usual, no Credit… so I’m putting my own credit here so you can go read the story which is quite nice, just notice that the photo is a genuine Photobat!

Hi there, Happy New Year! I’ve jumped right back in the deep end this year after having a few days off, so it is all really busy now and I can’t see it slowing down for quite a while.

Christmas involved a bit of driving to see my family up the North West Coast, where my Aunt’s granddaugher, Bridie had her first Christmas, which made for some nice shots including the 4 generational shot.

And then straight back to Launceston to see V’s family before collapsing in a heap from over feeding. After Christmas I had planed to go back to work, but decided a few days off would be good, so i actully went and took photos for myself and thought up some things to work on for this year.

The plan for 2008 is

Shoot more details for my own personal fun

Shoot more landscapes

Share more stories and tips

Learn to spell and do that grammar thing proper

Blog More

So I hope all is going well, and look out for another year of photos, i know a little of what is coming up and i’m excited. Hint, there are some babies, bellies, weddings, landscapes, car parks, holga and some secrets.

Happy New Year and have a good one!

I spent quite a bit of time working on my weddings during the off season., I really wanted to get some new products in my range and the from listening to comments and feed back have added a couple of new products.
Firstly, the new Pano Album

I am always working on new things for my wedding albums, and really wanted a panoramic style album but the manufacturer i use didn’t make them. So I worked with them to manufacture this special sized album, 10 inches tall and 16 inches wide. It adds a whole new level to the design aspect of the albums with more space to layout images.  Thje album is priced the same as my large album and is still fully customisable with cover materials, matt types and embossing and photo covers.

The next new product is the 4up Proof Books

 I have had a few requests for bigger photos in the proof book, so I now offer an upgrade to a 4 per page proof book. All still laid out on an A4 size book with a hard cover. This book now offers greater clarity of images so you can see more of what is happening in the images and also good for older family members who may be a little hard of seeing. The book is available as an upgrade to the standard 9up proof book that comes with every wedding coverage.

If you are interested in more info on either of these products, fill out the contact form and i’ll get back to you.

My bags finally arrived, all 500 of them. So now when your order it ready you can pick take it home in your snazzy Photobat bags. Now i just have to figure out where to put the boxes…

Georgie and Garth’s wedding from earlier this year is being featured in the latest issue of Tasmanian Life magazine, go check it out!

There are heaps of great last minute Christmas presents, but unfortunately great portrait photography isn’t one of them! If you are thinking about giving a Photobat portrait or wedding reprint as a present this Christmas please take note of the dates below. These are in place so you can be guaranteed to get your photos to give on Christmas day!

I’ll still be shooting after this time but will not be able to guarantee that you will have delivery for the big day, but I will try my hardest to get it to you.

High school comming to a close and the leavers dinners are the next big thing. Girls in dresses, guys in suits and all that fun stuff!

Everyone goes to so much effort, and it seems a waste that you get lined up like cattle for a quick photo in front of a boring background for a photo that shows little personality.

So I’m on the look out for school leavers and their families who actually want natural, relaxed and fun shots of their leaver all dressed up. The shots will be taken on the night of the ball at a location that has some meaning, adding another level to the photo. (Think outside the square, Parks, Inveresk, The Gorge, there are so many places!)

In addition to the leavers dinner shoot, I’m also throwing in a family portrait session. This session will happen on another day* and will be very causal and natural.

Normally 2 sessions including pre consultation, information pack on how to get the most out of your session, the shoot itself and a viewing session are $195 each, but with this offer you get both for $66.

I’m also putting together a package to go along with the leavers dinner part which will offer terrific value for money and also provide some great Christmas presents.

Be quick, there are only limited times available. Fill in the Enquiry form and I’ll get in touch with you really soon!

Please get in touch with me and let me know if you are interested, or pass it onto someone who may be. Only available in the Launceston Area (sorry)

*If the photos are taken on the same day it will look a bit odd with only one person dressed up and everyone else in regular clothing.

I’ve just confrimed my order for some really cool Photobat bags, so in a month (or 2) i’ll have some bags for people to take away their prints and albums in. I’m very excited!

This is my ad in the latest Bride Tasmania magazine, out now at many Tassie newsagents.
Designed again by Felix Blackman

No, this isn’t an email scam, just letting you know that the SignUp to the Straight From The Bat E-Newsletter competition finished up tonight at midnight.

All you have to do to go into the running to win $1500 worth of portrait credit from Photobat is to sign up to the newsletter. The easiest way to sign up is to just click here.

The newsletter comes out monthly and contains:
Exclusive special offers
Competitions
Special offers from Launceston retailers
Invitations to exhibitions opening
A variety of interesting stories about my photos, from comedians and musicians to everyday people.

Your details will be kept secure and not released to any third parties and you have to option to unsubscribe anytime you like.

So sign up and maybe win!

My latest Ad that will be popping up in the new island wedding mag. It’s a bit of a different concept, designed by Felix Balckman. I have another ad which is going into Bride Tas, i’ll post that soon. This ad is for a double page spread, so the break in the middle is allowing for the fold

You can see it big here Any comments appreicated

Busy! I’ve had quite a few shoots over the last 10 days, starting with 3 shoots in Hobart

on the one day Sunday week ago! Plus there have been a few from last week and I shot another 3 on the weekend. I’ve been shooting babies, pregnant bellies, kids, rocks, families, a miniature dachshund, some individual portraits and a primary school!

The primary school has taken up a bit of time, the idea is to document the kids for a banner that is going to be places in the school yard and some photos to be hung in a permanent exhibition around the school. Basically, I’ve been walking around the school, popping into classrooms, hanging around the playground at recess and then some more class rooms. Ans no I’m not a stalker! It’s been great to work with the students and staff. It’s the first time I’ve been in a primary school in a long time, and I’ve enjoyed watching all the kids interactions, it all brings back memories of when I was at primary school.

I’m also really looking forward to next week, the AIPP are holding their Southern Exposure conference at Cradle Mountain, about 100 people are heading there, which istehe most people ever! The presentations should be inspiration and educational, but as usual, you tend to learn the most over dinner and a drink talking with the other attendees. I’m also hoping to get out and do some shooting around the mountain, nothing tooextreeme!

Stay tuned, a lot of posts coming up with heaps of shots. I reckon I can almost fill up a new gallery with the new shots!

But for now… some teaser shots!

For a while my wedding album options included the twin matt option for wedding albums, but over time it somehow disappeared. But now they are back!

The twin mats combine any of our standard colours as either the top or bottom mat to create the appearance of a matted frame. You can also have gold and silver for the bottom mat.

Mats are available in charcoal, white, indigo, forest and cream. The sample pictured has a white mat on the bottom and a black mat on top.

The twin mats really give the albums a bit of an extra kick and look really cool. If you would like some more information on pricing, please get in touch and i’ll get it to you. The twin mats are only avalible wedding albums, so unfortunalt they can not be used in the portrait folio albums

This week I had the opportunity to go on coordinating a workshop with one of Australia’s top wedding photographers, Rocco Ancora. He’s so good that Vikashni and I have him booked for our wedding!

The day was all looking to be perfect, no fog! The last time we had a speaker in Launceston their flight was cancelled due to fog and I had to quickly book him onto another flight so he actually arrived to do his presentation. This time it was a security scare that threw the spanner in the works. I managed to get a local photographer, and mentor of mine, Rob Burnett, to do a presentation at the last minute, while I waited at the airport to pick up Rocco, whose plane arrived 2 hours late!

It’s always fantastic to see how other photographers work and bounce ideas off one another on how we all do things. I am really inspired from the session today, so look out anyone booked in for a portrait soon, I’ll be trying out some new lighting techniques that will make your shots even better!

I keep in quite regular contact with many photographers around the country, most of who I’ve met through the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, Australia’s top organization for photographers. Having all these people to talk to, share ideas and generally chat about photography is one of my major educational tools. We all help each other out which benefits all our clients! Photographers are a magnificent bunch, and if you are an aspiring photographer, I really recommend you join the AIPP and go to some meetings, it’s the best way to continually evolve your photography!

Check out Rocco’s website. http://www.imagesbyrocco.com.au/ The photo at the top is a quick snap I took at the end of the day when we retired to a local bar to discuss airline security.

 Next time we get a speaker down they are going to be booked on a flight arriving the night before!