The Batblog by Photobat | Portrait and Wedding

So this shoot may have almost been too much fun and the cool thing is that there is a wedding in the future with these too which i’m sure will push the fun into overdrive! Nick and Rhea came all the way from their little home in Japan for the shoot (they may have come to see family for Christmas and have an engagement party too, but i’m sure the engagment photography session was the main reason )

The plan, lets meet and Jackman and Ross. It was closed. So we just wandered the steets of Battery Point and took some awesome shots, had lots of laughs and generally had a very fun time.

I’m really enjoyed working with Michael and Camille, they are a nice Melbourne couple who decided that Tasmania would be a really great spot to get married. And a couple of weekend ago they did just that. Almost everyone at the wedding was an import and Tasmania put on a great bit of weather for them all.

The day started off with some guys getting their fill at Zum, where Michael’s son met us then off to Zero Davey to get all dressed and pretty. I took one of my favoutie ring shots ever there and enjoyed watching four grown men attempting to tie the same tie at the same time.

We found Camille all pretty in pink hanging out with some family and friends at the IXL apartments. I’d never been to the apartments, quite a spectacular entrance. The girls all chowed down on various nice things before being ushered out so Camille could get ready with her Mum. I like a different coloured wedding dress, Zakk describes this one as fairy floss pink, which is a little better than my descriptive attempt red pants left in the wash with the whites. It was a great pastel pink colour that really suited Camille.

When everyone was ready it was time to meet up before the wedding. Michael and Camille arranged some time for family photos and come couple shots before the ceremony. Of course, the family shots were slightly interrupted when Michael’s dad got into a spot of bother we a few thousand bikers (he got stuck in the toy run traffic). We found a heap of different spots around the water front and took some of my new favorite wedding shots. I really liked the portrait I took of Michael’s son Zak sitting on the floor in T42. We then met up with everyone to get on board Peppermint Bay II and head down to the ceremony at Peppermint Bay.

I’m lucky that in my job I get to spend heaps of time photographing people like these guys, they are so nice! Congrats again Michael and Camille

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???

Looking for somthing to do this weekend? It’s a nice time to go visit the monkies in City Park, and then swing by the Design Centre on Tamar Street and check out the Van Wonderland exhibition. It’s still on for another couple of weeks. Go on, it’s quite good!

Here are the details, the second part of my contribution to the exhibition.

I ventured over to Melbourne to photograph Ghostpatrol. It’s not the first time, but it was the first time I had visited Mitten Fortress Studio studio. Another eclectic collection of bits and pieces everywhere, it is a fantastic space to get inspired. We even climbed out the window and took some photos a few floors above Elizabeth Street.

Ghostpatrol is doing something special for Van Wonderland, something that hasn’t been done at the Design Centre before. He is doing illustrations straight onto the wall of the gallery. Check out some of his work at ghostpatrol.net

Van Wonderland is an exhibition of work by contemporary crafts practitioners exploring a mysterious world of not-quite-real objects and creatures, based upon historic western perceptions of Tasmania (‘Van Diemen’s Land’) as a distant and little-known island at the far reaches of the globe.

This ‘new world’, full of strange and exotic flora and fauna, could be by turns beautiful and sinister – just as the strange Wonderland explored so famously by Lewis Carroll’s Alice.

Step into Van Wonderland and explore the mysteries within. And don’t forget to take your teacup.

Participating artists include Tara Badcock, The Purple Finch, Erin Tappe, Hideyo, Cat Badcock, Ghostpatrol, Megan Perkins, Omar Misa, Helen Goninon, and Anita Dineen with accompanying photography by Alan Moyle (Photobat).

Come to the opening, Friday 18^th September 2009 at 6 pm, Design Centre, Tamar Street, Launceston, RSVP by email or by 6331 5505. Exhibition open until the 18^th of October.

After a frantic couple of days in Hobart, Vee and I took the long way home, travelling some back roads to see what we could find.

Our first discovery was actually suggested to us by friends in Hobart, Puddleduck Vineyard. It’s in the Coal Valley just before Richmond and is a very cute little cellar door with equally good four legged friends. We tried all the wines and they are all really nice, it was hard to narrow down what bottle to buy, the Bazil Riesling won out in the end.

The Bazil is named after the famous dog Bazil, who along with Peggy are the Pembroke Corgies that run around and greet all the visitors. Bazil is famous for bing in the Wine Dogs book, and the soon to be released Wine Dogs Australia 2 features both of them.

The place has a relaxing feel to it, owners Jackie and Darren were pouring the wine and there was a really homely feal to how they introduced their wines and the on flowing conversation from there.

So, the wine is great, Jackie and Darren are great and the dogs are great. Three reasons to stop by when you are down that way. I can guarantee we will be dropping back.

We kept driving up strange roads, via Baden where I took these shots of the old hall, or church. Not exactly sure what it was.

Last week I was in Melbourne with some spare time and decided to just go for a walk. The above video is the result, a mini documentary of Brunswick Street in Fitzroy between Gertude and Johnston.
Let me know what you think, should I do more of these?

I first entered the Australian Professional Photography Awards in 2001, and got nothing. I had no idea what I was doing back then, I had talked to a photographer and sent in what I had. So nothing came of it, the next year I was a bit more on the ball and picked up a couple of awards, and have been getting some ever since.

This year I received the honour of Master of Photography with 1 Gold Bar from The Australian Institute of Professional Photography. I was presented during the awards ceremony in Sydney with a gold bar to be added onto my Masters ribbon.

How this all works is that for every silver award you get one point and ever gold award you get two points. If you receive 5 points with in 4 years you become an Associate, I received this in 2003. The next step is that if you receive 10 additional points within five years you become a Master of Photography, I received this in 2006. From then every additional 10 points gained within 5 years gets you an Gold Bar.

So after my name I get to put, Alan Moyle M Photog I

Just as a trip down memory lane I’ve put together a podcast of many of the award images over the years. These aren’t only APPA ones, they include images that have received awards all over the place.

Enjoy!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA9F1gqW7aU[/youtube]