The Batblog by Photobat

It has been over a year since I first met Anthony and Amanda, at that time Amanda was quite pregnant and gave me a hand in updating my pregnancy folio. I have to say, both Anthony and Amanda are very special people, so friendly and I found myself staying a bit longer than normal for a chat at the end of the session. So now Ella is about and I have been back three times to photograph her so that we could put together an album showing her first 12 months. She is very very cute in both looks and in what she does, she is lucky to have such top parents who are completely in love and in awe of her!

 So below is the podcast that follows the Castray’s progress, from Pregnancy to just after Ella’s first birthday. It has been a preverlidge to spend time with this awesome family and I’m looking to catching up with them again soon, if only for a cup of tea!

 

 The Castrays [00:03:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Saturday, Sunday and even Monday saw me out of town and all the way down south in Hobart. We even transported the office so the viewings we had down there were in the hotel apartment where Zak and I were staying. We even took the espresso machine and Coco Bean Chocolates! If you were down in Hobart you may have seen that Saturday afternoon saw a huge range of weather in a short time, one minute it was nice, then windy, then a flash flood followed by locusts! (well, i saw a grasshopper). We had a shoot booked in for the early evening and there was no way to predict what would happen, so we decided to postpone this one (normally it would be all go with the amazing weather, but i was scared of the 9 month old flying away).

So Zak and I played a game in the hotel room. Basically we had to see how many unique photos we could get out of the one hotel room using only what we had in the hotel room. There was no video light or reflectors either! We tooko it in turns, shot for shot, if you stuffed up your shot, too bad, it was gone and the camera was passed over. I reckon we got at least 50 differnt shots in the one room. My favourite is below… i’ll have to get Zak to post his favourite of me in the next few days.

Sunday and Monday were spent in the company of many other photographers and students at the AIPP Festival of Photography. A couple of photographers from Sydney were down to share some insights into what they do and how they do it. Generally there was a bit of inspiration being thrown around.

I’m not sure how many others noticed the interesting occurrence that all the photographers ended up having lunch at Say Cheese..

Our speakers were:

Grand master of Photography David Oliver. I have known of David since I first became a member of the AIPP and he has no idea how much of an inspiration to me he is… well, he may know now… This was the first time I had seen him speak and I again got a heavy shot of inspiration. Check out his work here

Graham Munro was our other speaker, and it was the third time i’d seen him speak but the first time that I really had some time to chat with him. He is the only speaker I remember from the first AIPP National conference I went to… maybe because he told a few to many jokes, but also for the imagery. I guess you could say that you never know what you will get with Graham as a speaker, he pulled out the goods on monday and I have about 8 pages of notes to disect (and a few jokes to memorise). Check out Graham’s work here. Plus a different photo of Graham here as portrait of the week

And then on the drive home there were some clouds… so a work in progress below. So what do you think of it? Leave a comment if you like, i know i would like you to!

This one kinda got lost in blog world, but it’s here now! We shot little Issac a month or so ago and he was very cute!

Darcey was also very cut and needed some shots with his bone.

And this is one of my favourite hand shots for a long time, i just love the yawn with the other hand.

Congratulationa again on your beautiful baby boy!

Glen Campbell, great photographer and even better country singer, ask him to belt out a few lines of Rhinestone Cowboy if you ever meet him. He loves it when people ask him to do that.

Shot for portrait of the week, a couple of weeks ago.

Samantha and Simon’s little boy celebrating his second week in this world with a big yawn and a photoshoot.
More soon.

Tacks

When I first met Scott and Vicki they were not engaged, and by the time their portrait session came around they were. So it was great to be able to document that newly engaged time in their live and follow it up with their big wedding day.

The rain clouds were very threatening early in the day and there were some worried looks, but by mid morning it was all good with blue sky and just a little bit of wind. it didnt’ worry the guys, they were too busy bowling to notice the weather.

Then off to Scott and Vicki’s place for a quivk bit of refreashment and some getting ready shots. These guys were having a bit too much fun, I have no idea what they were doing before we arrived, but it kept them smiling! I think Scott and his twin brother probably got up to a lot of mishief when they were young.

I had a reflective time, with some shots of Scott in a mirror and as you will see down below, vicki reflected in a puddle.

The girls had their hair expertly played with by the team in at Convict Cutters.

Then off to Vicki’s parents place to get ready.

And how cute are the page boys? As you can tell, one wasn’t quite into having his photo taken

The church was amazing, it’s St Mary’s out in Hagley, a small country town about 20 minutes east of Launceston. It has been a place i’ve wanted to shoot in for years and it was such a nice little church with a heap of character.

The page boys wer given little cars as thank you gifts, they loved them so much that they created a race track around the aisles of the church.

How much cool are kids at weddings?

After the ceremony we took advantage of the church and used it as our backdrop for a few photos.

Then back into the seaport for a few more photos before ending up at the Cataract Bistro for the reception.

I am always on the look out for a great shot to finish off the day, and I thought it woudl be one with heaps of clouds, but by the end of the day it was so clear and only one little cloud was hanging around for the sunset. luckily it was a great little cloud!

congratulations again Vicki and Cott and thanks for letting us come and play on your day. I hope you are having a great time away and I am really looking forward to showing you the rest of your the photos.

Last week while the world was watching an election in a far away land, I was out witnessing Michael and Georgina exchange vows at the Red Feather Inn. Another special thing about this elopement was that it was shared with their son Remi, who was the ring bearer.

These guys are worldly, meeting in London and eventually settling down in Warnambool and then deciding to get married in Tasmania.

 The girls from the Red Feather were in tears!

 After the ceremony we took a few photos around the property and in the Inn itself.

Meanwhile, super celebrant Barb Youd was busy looking after Remi and eventually got him to sleep!

I hope you guys had the most amazing time in Tasmania and i’m sure you will be back. I’m looking forward to showing you the rest of your photos soon. Thank you again for letting us share your elopement.

Wayne liked me because I have a Holga. I liked Wayne because he had a Holga and many other little lomo cameras. So Heidi had to like me because Wayne liked me and I liked Heidi. So, there you have it! They are getting married next year and i’m looking forward to it, these guys like different, which opens up a whole bag of ideas for me!

These guys spend a little bit of time at Hudsons, so that is where the session started… right from the beginning my ideas were a little bit out of centre but with these guys it was no problem.

We did settle down into some more regular shots, but look out for the wedding. I’m working on somthing very very special and also a bit different to compliment the regular wedding shots that I always take.