The break over summer gave me the chance to do so,me reading. I do read all year but the amount of time it takes to read a book greatly increases. I’ve just finished two pretty inspirational books, the first was The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner.

I saw the movie, but I knew there had to be some aspects that were more Hollywood than real story. The movie is actually only one year of his life and about a quarter of the book, there is so much more to the story. You can see that from a bad beginning with a abusive step father that Chris had to overcome more than homelessness to arrive at being a multi millionaire who now is helping to expand trade into developing countries. You can see that he learnt a lot from his upbringing and that focused him to be the best at whatever he was doing. It also shows his human failings which is good to see in a autobiography, if the whole book was “look how good I am” it would be a bit unbelievable. If you saw the movie, go grab the book and give it a read.

The second was always looking up by Michael J Fox. This is the follow up to Lucky Man, his first more show biz memoir that covers his early life and up to the diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease. That was a fantastic book and the sequel takes off where Lucky Man left off. It’s not a showbiz autobiography, more of a life after showbiz, life with Parkinson’s Disease and how he started his research foundation, following on with his political activism, exploration of faith and his stories of family life. What I took away from this is his fantastic optimism towards life and his dedicated work towards informing and promoting the research into stem cell research. This can be a little clunky to read, the politics side can bit a bit dry but persevere because the family stories are fantastic at the end.

These two books are quite inspirational, and a fantastic way to get some perspective to start the year.

I’m currently onto the Steve Jobs autobiography, it’s not on the kindle and it’s a big book and will take a bit longer to read. The speed of reading is greatly increased when I can pop the ipad into a bag and open the kindle app where ever I am and read a little.

So, what books did you get into over the summer, anyone else reading the Steve Job’s biography? What should I be looking to read next?

I’m down in the Binalong Bay / St Helens area this Saturday (14th of January) and have one spot left for a portrait session in the early afternoon. It’s yours for only $110 (normally $250) if you give me a call and book in on 0407 848 734.

Brax is a great little baby. He seemed to love his shoot, who wouldn’t with a new mum and dad doting over him, catering when required and a whole heap of new stuff about to lay on.

I had a past with Shane, apparently we worked together at Pizza Hut many many many years ago. And apparently he was in my brother’s year in primary school. And now he works at Coles and is the nice guy who looks after the online ordering which we take advantage of occasionally. Susan appeared in the picutre back in Shane’s Pizza Hut days, but after my time there ( I think, I really don’t remember much of those days, I do know I was 17, had a white 2 door 82 Ford Laser and I know I have a scar on one of my fingers from getting too excited when leaving on a delivery once, oh and I ate a bit of pizza)

Anyway. We are talking about Brax. Don’t think I have to say too much about him because I believe his cuteness will shine through in the photos below. Congratulations again Susan and Shane on your little man, lets hope he lets you get a good amount of sleep soon!

It was fantastic to catch up with so many clients down at the Apron market last weekend. Here are a few shots with more images up on our Facebook page

My dad went to get his camera cleaned in Melbourne and came back with a pair of cool shoes that didn’t fit him so I grabbed them.
What do you think?

It’s our 10th Birthday Party this Sunday. A Pancake Party to be precise. It’s going to be pretty awesome, when was the last time you went to a pancake party?

And the best part is EVERONE IS INVITED! All past, persent and upcoming clients, we are looking forward to seeing you there.

It’s my own pancake recipe which was loved at my old job, and Alan likes it a bit too (as does Saffron and the cat may like them too)

All the details are

Place: Tail race park, Riverside, Tasmania

Time: This Sunday. 30/10/11 at  10 am – 12pm – just drop by for as long as you like. Please bring a blanket/chairs to sit on

RSVP: By THIS THURSDAY, either in  a comment below, by phoneing up 63348789, by clicking attending on facebook or emailing vee@photobat.net

All ages are welcome we will have balloons and a MAGICIAN called Mr Beep coming all the way from Hobart just to entertain you!

Also let us know your favourite pancake toppings and we will see what we can do about having them there for you.

We are excited and look forward to seeing as many of you there as can make it!

But it never last long.

I told you big changes were happening.

We are 10 this year and all grown up, so time to get dressed in our new clothes and start to dance!

It’s really sad to say farewell to the old Photobat logo, it’s done us very well over the last 5 years. The good ‘ole circle P is still very much loved, but like a paisley bow tie, it was limited with it’s design applications. Our new logo is very versatile and we don’t need to write Photobat next to it.

So, this is the start of our facelift. The new website is on it’s way and will be up by the end of the year and from what we have seen so far it is awesome.

Bear with us as we will be looking a little confused in the brand area until all our new collateral is printed and delivered.

And if you are about on Friday and Saturday come to the Apron Market and see what fun things the new logo can do (it’s very uplifting)

Hi there, welcome to the Photobat’s blog.

Our main website is currently being repainted and getting some new curtains. So in the meantime please enjoy our latest work below or click the below categories to be whisked away to relevant blog posts.

Click for Weddings (note, we are fully booked to the end of April 2012)

Click for Portraits

Click for Natural Light Studio

Please click here to book a shoot or ask for more information.

Or why not give us a call on 03 6334 8789

Thanks again and enjoy our transition phase, the new site is looking pretty awesome.

Alan and Vikashni

Thanks again to everyone who voted for their favourite families in our competition. We had such a great time running this competition, it’s sad to say that 13 of the families were out Foxed by Bonnie, Heath and Lewis Fox to win the $1000 family portrait voucher! Congratulations and we look forward to catching up with you to shoot one of the cutest little red head boys we have ever met.

And  Nataasha Jamieson has taken out the $800 voucher and dinner for 4 at Black Cow Bistro! Congratulations Nataasha, we will be in touch soon to get you your vouchers

Thanks again to everyone who voted, think we might have to do this again sometime. And a huge thank you to all the families who joined in on the fun, we will be getting a little thank you to you soon.

We are currently running a competition to see which family will win a $1000 Photobat Gift Voucher.

Just for voting you will go into the draw to win a $800 Photobat portrait voucher and also dinner for 4 at Black Cow Bistro, one of our favourite places to eat.

It’s all really simple to enter, just head over to http://www.photobat.net/batblog/competition/

So, the biggest thing to happen to Photobat in the last 5 years is getting ready to be launched.
We would love to let you know what is happening and invite you along to our very special event later in the year.
Please update your details below so we can get you all the news as it happens, it’s all very exciting.

I stumbled through a few days last week. Early in the week things were looking promising, heaps of people dropping by to talk about what the love about their families and how we are going to turn that into artwork for their walls. Problem was I wasn’t quite feeling 100%. If I’m not feeling 100% my procrastination level rises by about 150%. Lots of things do get achieved when the procrastination sets in, mainly research. For instance if I ever meet Lindsay Lohan I’ll know what not to ask her about her house arrest and many other interesting things.

I gave up on Wednesday, I did manage to make it to my weekly stupid o’clock meeting but decided that 9am was my home time. I realised that night that conjunctivitis had decided to pay my left eye a visit. I don’t like visitors that turn my perfectly good eyes into zombie eyes.

Thursday afternoon saw all three of us at the doctors, Vee’s cough was nothing to really worry about, and same with Saffron, then the doctor turned her attention to me.  I hit the jackpot with 6 prescriptions (admittedly they were some back up things that didn’t have anything t do with my current ailments). She also gave me a doctor’s certificate to give to me saying that I have a week off on top of the days I’d already taken off.

So. Couch. Sleep. Tv.

West Wing season 5 to get more information on what was happening in the US with the debt ceiling. Yes when ever anything political happens in the US I watch what the West Wing did and learn. I think I’ve watched all 7 seasons 3 times.

After 20 episodes, Vee finally said she had enough West Wing.

So. Dexter Seasons 4-5. We were only going to watch season 4 but they writers did a bad thing in the last episode and made us have to watch the next season straight away.

I didn’t just sit on the couch there were many other fun things like play with a baby, anti-bac my hands, cook some food using real black truffle, anti-bac my hands, catch up on some reading, anti-bac my hands, clean up the cats explosive diarrhoea, anti-bac my hands, feet, legs, arms, head.

So I’m back in the office tomorrow, I dropped by there today just to check the answering machine and pick up a couple of things. 13 messages to return on top of all the rebooking. Might not have a voice by the end of tomorrow too.

On the plus side, a wedding on next Friday to shoot. First of the new season. Going to be fun to use a camera again, I hope someone reminds me which bit I have to look through and what button to press.

Another plus is that there is big change coming.

Hi, V here taking over the blog for a post. Brianna Schipper came to us and got some very cute portraits of taken of her family. As part of the getting to know our clients we discovered that Brianna is a awesome makeup artist. I saw some of her work and was intrigued about it. I’ve just had my wisdom teeth out and wanted to do a couple of things before the pain to make me feel good. One was make a lemon meringue, the other was to get a some new makeup ideas. I got sick of the usual way I use my make up so I called in Brianna to come over and teach me a few things.
It felt great that someone else was doing my makeup  even though it wasn’t for a special occasion. I wasn’t looking for really over the top ideas, just some tips for my everyday make up.

When Brianna was talking she was really friendly and easy going. She had some great idea about things for me to try. I really got my inspiration back again to try things that I haven’t tried for ages. For example i haven’t used lipstick in years, now I’m feeling a little more open to it.

With the full on time I’ve had of late with finishing my uni degree, looking after Saffron, and generally not being too well the last few months it was great to make some time for some self pampering.

I can’t wait to catch up with Brianna again and get some more tips, it really was a great couple of hours.

You can check out some more of Brianna’s work at her website Designer Bride. I suggest you book her for any special occasion you have coming up or just for a refresh of your everyday make up.

Thanks again Brianna for the great tips and make up.

I had some jealousy issues with Ivan and Alicias place. Cookbooks and coffee machine. Let leave it and that so we can focus on how amazing they made their wedding day was.

The best weddings are the ones with a real hugh lump of who the couple are. This wedding was totally about Ivan and Alicia. When Ivan first told me that they were looking to get married in June, in the Hartz Mountains and hopefully there will be snow, I was excited. This is a couple who actively wanted some average weather to play a part in their day. And it cetrainly did play a part, but that was ok, the rain was solved with an umbrella and the mud was solved by bumblebee gum boots (as if there was any other option). So Ivan has some scottish blood in him, so instead of the usual “i’m wearing a kilt” it was decided to go in search of some friendly and slightly frisky Highland Cows.

So you can tell they love the outdoors but they also love the indoors, especially their kitchen where they made their wedding cake. It’s not often that you get to the reception and the first thing the couple do is asselble the cake. So many more things I can say but I think the photos can say more.

Congratulations again Ivan and Alicia, may you have a long life and possible have some baby cows named after you!

Remember Annabelle? Well she turned 1 the other day and to celebrate her awesome parents threw hera birthday bash out at Holybank. A great set up by Brianna and Tim and heaps of family made it a great little event. Happy Birthday Annabelle!

We have a week left on our portrait special, you can get a $350 portrait voucher for us for only $50. The $50 will be donated to the SPCA in Canterbury in NZ who are in need some extra funds to help with their recovery from last months earthquake.

This is a great opportunity for you to get a portrait session done and also help out a great cause.

To enquire, please click here and fill in the form or give us a call on 6334 8789

Remember, offer only available until the end of the week.

Guess who is excited about Festivale? Give you a hint, it’s not the baby.

A couple of years ago I shot Nathan and Renne’s wedding.

Later that year I shot Craig and Monica’s wedding.

Today i’m shooting Dain and Lauren’s wedding.

The common thread between all these wedding, all the brides are sisters. I’m really looking forward to the wedding, these guys are great and i’m really looking forward to catching up with everyone. Going to be a great day, even if Aunty Monica has her big camera again!

Last year's winner, Dave and Shannon

We love to get out and about, we like to take photos, and we really like to eat. So this year we are mixing it all together for our Valentine’s Competition.

How to Enter

Tell us what has been the most memorable road trip / travel experience you have had with your partner.

Email it through to photobat@photobat.net with your and your partner’s name, and phone number by 4pm on the 7^th of February.

Prize is a $1000 Photobat Portrait Voucher and a $100 voucher for Stillwater Resturaunt

We will then create an image for all the stories entered and put them up into a special photo gallery on the Photobat Facebook Page on the 8^TH of February.

Get your friends and family to vote for your story by getting them to “like” your story in the Photobat gallery. The wining story will be the story that has the most likes on their image by the 4pm on Monday the 14^th of February 2011. Please note that we can only count the “likes” in the photobat gallery, “likes” on personal profiles are unable to be counted and not valid. Voting can only be done by clicking the “like” button under the image.

Some Conditions
Open to all couples, married or unmarried
Session must take place in Tasmania by the end of March 2011
Both partners have to agree to be entered into the competition
Prize not transferable for cash, or usable on product from a previous session.
Runner up prizes may also be awarded

Late last year I had the oppotunity to go photograph some of my favourite places in my home town of Launceston for Qantas – The Australian Way’s January edition, the inflight magazine of a little airline called Qantas. It’s always fun to head out into a place you see everyday and capture it. I  generally go for the details and not the touristy type of photos. I had to switch that side of my photoself off and shoot for for Launceston. It’s great exposure for this city and all the businesses that are featured. Let’s hope that the international exposure will bring a heap of people to town. Click here to read the whole story from the magazine ( pfd ).

Today is Christmas part 1. Off to meet me Great Grand Mother, 2 uncles and 2 aunts. Hope they don’t pinch my cheeks too much.

Tilly relaxing before her big shoot.

Going to be a great day, sun is out, buzz in the air! Congratulations!

Nespresso

This Friday / Saturday sees all sorts of clever people having stalls at the Niche Market down at The Tram Sheds in Invermay.

One of those clever people is Vikahsni with her Purple Finch jewelry, homewares and cute soft toy. On the Purple Finch stall will be a heap of Photobat Portrait Experience Voucher.

Along with all that we will be selling Portrait Experience Vouchers for valued for $350 credit, we will be selling them for only $50 with all of that $50 being donated to St Giles.

The Voucher will cover a planning session to find out how we can personalise the portrait session to you, the session itself and a purchasing session. You will also have left over credit to put towards starting your print collection.

This is a great way of getting some Christmas presents on the go, you could have the session in the next month and have the photos ready for unwrapping on Christmas Day, you could give the voucher to a friend/family member as a Christmas present itself.

So if you hear anyone wanting to get some photos done for Christmas, or are heading to the Niece market, let them know about this great value offer that is supporting St Giles.

St Giles is a leading disability service provider operating throughout Tasmania.

In any year, St Giles provides opportunities for over 5000 children and adults with disabilities to enhance their quality of life.

They have two major therapy centres, in Launceston and Hobart, delivering services to over 3,500 children. Their three respite centres, in Launceston, Kingston, regularly provide more then 120 families with a much needed break, and we also provide in-home respite care for children.

We hope to see you there!

Note, vouchers only valid for non-commercial portraits, not able to be used in conjunction with any other special offer or for purchasing of products from previous sessions.

Seeing as most major things like email, accounting and contacts are up the creek at the moment, i’m posting some Darren Hanlon clips to make me feal better. Hope you are having a good day! Technically we will be back to full strength soon, just as long as the coffee machine doens’t get a virus or somthing.

I love my girls

Dont’ you just love the curl of the hair. I think she’s part Astroboy.

And for everyone who said she’ll be the most photographed baby ever… well kinda right, but it did take us 9 days to do this shoot. Ahh tiredness.

This last photo was taken by Vikashni and features my hands. This is my favourite photo ever, it’s of me and my baby taken by my very talented wife.

It’s not ofter you get an email saying “some girls in town have been experimenting with Saffron”. We have no idea of these experiments, and were glad to find out they were experimenting on chocolate and not our daughter. It took us by surprise to find out that Theresa and the Cocobean girls had been working on a new chocolate inspired by the arrival of Saffron! We dropped in today and had a try and were in love with them, still can’t believe it. Such a special thing to do. I’m not sure when they will be avaliable in store, should be soon. Thank you again to Cocobean for just being all round amazing. Visit Cocobean’s website here, or skip that and just go like them on facebook.

And on the home front, things are going well. A brief glimpse of Saffron below, don’t worry there will be more… so many more!

Pierre’s, Launceston

Unfortunantly, George is not avaliable for catwalk work. He is a dog and doesn’t do cats very well.

Can you believe that these shots were taken in winter and in Tasmaina? I can because this is there I live, but many of those mainlanders probalby think it’s always freezing here! I met up with Phillipa and Alastar at one of their favoutite beaches kind of in but kind of out of Bridport. We got a bit energised by the sun and had a gret time exporing the rocks, jumping off sand dunes and just playing on the beach. Perfect for taking some photos. Thanks again Philipa and Alastar for being fun to shoot and for introducing me to an awesome beach.

Almost ready to explode the blog with the awesomeness of Nick and Rhea’s wedding. In the meantime here is a little sample of their batbooth antics with a rather happy looking Tasmanian Tiger

I’ve been looking forward to this wedding ever since we “Skyped” our first meeting. Me in the office, Cool couple in Japan. Now they are back and it’s their big day and i’m on the road to shoot it. Excited

Cupcake day is upon us again, it’s the day we open the gallery and you can come and buy some cupcakes with all the money going to the RSCPA to help out little and big furry and not so furry animals

Sally Alps from Alps and Amici will be judging our first ever cupcake decorating competition. We are looking for the most creative cupcake.

All the details are below

Judging

There will be two ways for a cupcake to win

Judges Prize

Judging will take place at 10am with Sally Alps selecting her favourite decorated cupcake. Winner will be announced on Monday the 16^th of August at about 6pm

Public Vote

All the entries will be displayed in the Photobat gallery and people coming by can cast a vote for their favourite. We will also put pictures of all the cupcakes in the Photobat Fan page so that people who can’t get in to the gallery can still vote. The image that has the most “likes” on it in the Photobat Page Gallery combined with the amount of votes entered at the photobat gallery will be the winner. Voting will close at 5.45pm and the winner will be announced on Monday the 16^th of August at about 6pm

Entry Details

Entry by $2 donation per cupcake up to a maximum of two entries per person. All money will be donated to the RSPCA. Plus if you have some spare cupcakes you can donate them to the cause and we can sell them to raise some more money.

Prize Details

The winner of the judge’s prize and the popular vote will receive a goodies bag filled with things from our supporters and suppliers.

Entries By

Entry time: Drop off Monday 16^th between 8am – 10am

Winner Announcement

Announcements of the winners will be made at about 6.00pm in the gallery with the winner being contacted by phone.

Competition Terms and Conditions

This is fun, so we want to keep it simple. In saying that we must say that the judge’s decision is final. For the public vote, the images must be “liked” in the gallery on the photobat fan page, any likes on personal profiles are not able to be counted.

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.

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.

Just discovered that one of my APPA prints made it on the tellie today, click about and have a look. 2.11 in is the shot being briefly talked about. This video also tell more about the award process, so keep watching.

The Australian Professional Photography Awards are rapidly approaching, It’s a stressful time. Searching images, spending hours looking at them, fiddling with them and occasionally getting a shot that you think is amazing. You follow all the rules including minimum print sizes, how it is mounted, figure out the category, pay the entry fee and then post it away so that a bunch of judges can spend a few minutes looking at it and give it a score. You always hope the score is a good one, but more times than not the judges just don’t see what the artist saw. So… why bother entering?

I enter a few awards every year, generally the Australian Institute of Professional Photography state and national awards, the Wedding Portrait Photographers International which is in the USA and a few other national ones. It does cost a bit to enter, many hundreds of dollars some most cases.

I don’t always win an award for all the effort that goes into entering but I find the process of entering is more valuable than the awards.

Each time I shoot always aim to get different and unique shots, some of which may get into my award image short list. This is at the back of my mind when shooting, but in saying that many of my award shots have come about by chance and I’ve only just happened to have the skills to recognize the moment, get the camera, exposure and composition working together and click the shutter. That’s my way of doing it, some photographers spend days and weeks figuring out what they are going to shoot, setting it up, post processing and printing. Each to their own.

Another reason for entering the awards in getting feedback. I get feedback from the awards process in the form of a score or if I’m lucky from hearing the judges discussing the print. Sometimes they rip it to pieces, saying about composition, technical things or that they just don’t get the story. But when they are ripping, that is the time I take notice of what they are saying. (Which could lead to me picking up something or just thinking that the judges just don’t get it!)

Another important part of the process is the feedback I get from other photographers pre entering. I have a little network of friends about the country who are all fantastic and different photographers. I’ll generally show them some of the shots and see what they think about them. They come back to me with suggestions and ideas that I never would have thought of, which again get used in my everyday work. It’s a two way street, I get to talk to them about their images.

I tend to trust my gut feelings about a shot, each judging panel is different and there have been a few times where images I have entered in the state awards and miss out but I believe in them and sent them off to the national awards anyway. Mostly the gut gets it right, but my gut has been looking at awards for years now and kind of knows what might do ok.

Before last years Tasmanian awards I learnt a heap. The most I’ve learned in front of the computer in years. It helped me in some awards, and it also changed the way I did things for my clients. Every time I look at a client image now I’m using many of the skills that I picked up on that day. It actually revolutionised my workflow behind the scenes. This is one of the biggest plusses for my clients, they don’t know about it (until now!), but my images in the last 12 months look a heap better then a couple of years ago.

So, I’m always on the lookout for something different, always working on improving my ways of working images and always getting feedback from others about what is good, and more importantly, what needs improving. And what do my clients get out of it, some like to say their photographer is award winning, but all of them are receiving quality that is always evolving.

Sometimes the images get awards, sometimes they don’t. Doesn’t really matter too much to me (ok, I get bummed and swear a bit but in the long run it doesn’t really matter) APPA next week and I’m entering a brand new category. I have no idea what the judges will be looking for in the images. So I may crash and burn, but I did learn quite a few things on the way to making the images so the clients still win.

Click here to see a gallery of all the images that won awards at last year’s APPA awards. There are hundreds of them from photographers all over Australia and around the world.

The shots in these posts generally didn’t get award i one place and then did in another.

Some details from a lovely afternoon at Tara Badcocks, eating cake and drinking tea.

Don’t know who Tara is? Check out her amazing work here.

Taken on our second anniversary… love you wifey!

The pets via iphone via Hipstomatic

5 Silvers for some prints and another silver for a wedding album. The wedding album went on to take out 2010 Tasmanian Wedding Album of the Year. Second time in a row i’ve picked up that one. Very happy about that. I’ll post the wedding album in it’s entirety soon… maybe even make it a slideshow.

Thanks to all the great clients who he were involved in making these shots happen!

If you haven’t dropped by the Red Bridge Cafe on the southen side of Campbell Town yet, you are missing out on one of the best little stops on the highway. I’ve dropped in a few times and think its great, good coffee, fresh food and vegies.

If you don’t know where Zeehan is, well it’s on the west coast and is well known for it’s mines. Not a lot seems to happen there but it’s an interesting little place.

My Grandparents used to own the Central Hotel in the middle of Zeehan and my dad, aunts and uncles grew up there. Last year we were passing through and saw the door was open. After wandering in and introducing ourselves the new owner gave us a look about. It’s interesting to wander the building that my Dad used to run around in.

I took some shots which is what this post it all about. The Hotel had fallen into disrepair over the last few years but is now on the way back up. Apparently there was a swamp where the kitchen was.

Look out for some misspelling and also the original licence that Vikashni spotted with my grandparents names on it.

Dave isn’t a chef. This may on most occasions be a bad thing. Unless he cooks a good meal for Shannon, she enters our Valentines Day Competition and then they win that competition!

We met up and spent some time exploring an interesting large building in town. Lots of great spots for photos and more importantly heaps of light. Add into the mix these two guys who were up for anything and it was always going to fantastic.

Congratulations again and thanks for the great shoot. And if you are passing Video City in Kingsmeadows, go say hi to Dave if he’s working!

Re live  Shannon and Dave’s winning entry by clicking here.

Towards the end of Andew and Trish’s day

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We may have got a little wet

A quick family photo of the Ivereigh’s before i head off to Binalong Bay for this weekends wedding. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Shot on Solomon’s 10 day, congratulations to Kylie, Travis and Ava. More photos to come soon

Hey Everyone,

Zakk here. I’ve been meaning to do a blog post on something I’ve been working on for a week or so now. Last weekend To Write Love On Her Arms hit Launceston to raise awareness about depression and to get people talking. After many hours hard labor, Saturday rolled around and everyone looked dashing in their shirts and with markers in hand, love was on hundreds of arms and many more people had a story to share.

There was so much positive feedback that we thought we would keep the momentum going. So many people put their time and effort in, and helped us out with the materials we needed. The best part?  It was all done by individuals. No political, commercial or religious backing, just people who genuinely wanting to make a difference.

A big thank you to everyone who helped, it’s already changed a small section of the world, as philosophically inclined as that sounds, it does actually make a difference. If anyone wants to get onboard, show their support or find out more information, go to our Facebook page.

<3

We had a slight issue with the photobat shop, but its all up and running again! sorry to those who tried to get on late last week and could not find their galleries, they are all there for you to look at now!

It’s catch up Batblog post time. Marcus and Natasha got married down at the French Hotel and it was one of the best ceremonies / receptions I’ve seen in ages. The ceremony was all about their story, family and friends. It included all the speeches by family and friends that are normally reserved for the evening and Marcus sang a song and Natasha gave Marcus a Legoman light key ring. The legal part was preformed by Marcus’s mun who is a real life celebrant. And I almost forgot to mention they all walked out to the band playing Rainbow Connection (Go Muppets!).

So if the ceremony wasn’t enough to rave about, then check out the details. TOYS! Having little “lego stations” around the reception so that everyone could make their own creations was a fantastic. But the crowning detail was the cake, a cake made of Lego complete with bride, groom and crane!

We played on a the famous Margate Train for some photos as well as about the amazing grounds and insides of D’Entrecasteaux, always a pleasure to shoot there, so many places for amazing shots.

The night finished with a fair amount of dancing and music. Marcus’s musical orientated friends and family got up and took turn in the band. Marcus also joined in on the bass for a few songs.

Stay Tuned for their BATBOOTH soon…

Congratulations to Shannon and Dave for winning our valentines day competition. they recieved the most votes for the following story:

“My Dave does not cook. He loves to eat but I think, like many males, he has a kitchen confidence issue! On the day in question, I arrived home exhausted, having spent the last few days in Hobart working on my honours project. I dragged myself through the door to be greeted by the smell of fresh basil pesto and the site of my Dave (who does not cook), in the kitchen with what appeared to be ingredients for a meal. I was given a light hearted scolding for getting home before the surprise dinner was ready! Because now, I was privy to the preparation…he took two chicken breasts and dressed them neatly with baby spinach leaves. This followed with a generous topping of pesto and several thin strips of red capsicum neatly laid across the pesto topped chicken. The final ingredient was a thin strip of prosciutto, which he tenderly wrapped around the chicken to secure the other ingredients. After a half hour bake in the oven, the surprise pesto chicken was ready! And while Dave ended up needing some help making sure the chicken was properly cooked, and still, to this day, says “pruscetta” (like bruschetta) instead of prosciutto, I will never forget the enormous effort he put in. Feeding a weary student is praise enough, but to get such a gourmet feast from a self proclaimed anti-cook, well…it must be love!”

Stay tuned to see their photos later this month.

A big thank you to everyone who voted and even bigger thanks to all of our couples for entering. Also to Cafe Rossilli on George Street for supplying the edible part of the prize.

And… I’m also going to give away a runners up prize to Kim And Eliza for coming in second and also being my favoirite story.

So, did you enjoy the competition???

8 people tell you their best experience of their partner cooking for them.

Head over to our Facebook Fan Page to read all the stories. When you are there you vote for your favourite by clicking the Like button under the image.

The couple with the most likes as of 4pm on the 10th of February receives a $800 portrait voucher, dinner at Café Rossilli and a bottle of 2009 Brook Eden Waters Edge Pinot.

Help your favourite couple by sharing their photo to your friends on Facebook.

Just before the storm.

My dad and his fish

Good luck Fish and Crew on the Launceston to Hobart. This isn’t Fish, it’s little Fish

Hope you have  a great day! And stop looking at the batblog and more time looking at your family. Unless you are Logan’s family in which case you are looking at family!

It’s our last day in the office until the 15th of January. That’s a huge break but after all te craziness of Christmas, we need a bit of a sleep in. We will of course still be about, shooting some weddings and we have already amassed a heap of work for the first couple of weeks we are back.

The Batblog is going to be on Auto Pilot with some blog posts scheduled for the next couple of weeks. I may even do a sneaky post or two from the weddings i’ll be shooting.

So have a great Christmas and New Year and we will catch up soon!

It’s our last day in the office until the 15th of January. That’s a huge break but after all te craziness of Christmas, we need a bit of a sleep in. We will of course still be about, shooting some weddings and we have already amassed a heap of work for the first couple of weeks we are back.

The Batblog is going to be on Auto Pilot with some blog posts scheduled for the next couple of weeks. I may even do a sneaky post or two from the weddings i’ll be shooting.

So have a great Christmas and New Year and we will catch up soon!

Quick little preview, more later in the week. Look out tomorrow for some Batbooth action!

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