The wedding of Rebecca and Joseph was on Saturday the 7th of June and I just could not resist showing off some of my favourite images from the day.
Each wedding is as unique as the people getting married and this was certainly no exception !
Rebecca and Joseph  had very definite ideas on the type of photography they wanted done on their wedding day, and had started a scrap book  full of ideas on what they wanted their wedding photo’s to look like, they cut out images from bridal magazines to give me an idea of what direction the style of photography needed to take.
Looking through their scrap book of ideas made it easy for me to decide on the location for the portraits, and also gave me ideas on how to process the original camera images. I often describe photography as being more like cooking than anything else as you can “cook” the same basic ingredients but end up with different results by mixing the ingredients differently or by adding your own special spices.
The day started off with going to Rebecca’s place about an hour before the ceremony.
Below are two versions of the same image, just “cooked” differently !

Some more of the beautiful bride !

The church at St Mary’s West End has a certain charm, made even more spectacular with the dramatic clouds in the sky, below are the original and “cooked’ versions.

While inside Joseph waited in anticipation.

Love this shot, they look so in love….

The church and the ceremony are the heart of a wedding, and I am always aware that I need to be as quiet as possible and blend in and become invisible. I am also aware that I need to take images from the perspective of the Bride and Groom as the ceremony is usually remembered as just a blur. The next image was taken with this in mind and when I asked Rebecca and Joseph what they were talking about  Rebecca said she was telling Joseph about the loverly stray dog that came up and jumped up on her dress …..just as she was leaving the house, and left two paw prints on her dress……. the dog had just stepped in poo …… !!!!

The location Rebecca and Joseph chose was Palleranda, mainly for the beach and Rebecca came prepared with special footwear !

This is what we came here for ! Rebecca had a shot just like this in her scrapbook and I knew that we could get a shot of the bridal party walking on the wet sand with their reflection. It was just a matter of waiting for the right light.

This is another shot taken straight out of the scrapbook of ideas ! I always caution people to be carefull of what they wish for as they just may get it !

This is my own concoction, and compliments the scenic shot above

Thanks Rebecca and Joseph for allowing me to share your special day, I could not think of a better job than what I have.

School formals can be pretty hectic affairs so Jess-Anne’s mum Jacki arranged to have the portraits done the day before, which meant that we had  a stress free shoot with plenty of time to spare.

Here are some of my favourites from the day

last Friday I shot Phillipa and Ray’s intimate wedding at Jason Smiths residence in Townsville.

Here are some of my favourites from Phillipa and Ray’s big day

Getting ready

Ray’s daughters where part of the bridal party and looked gorgeous !

The ceremony !

The view from the balcony was spectacular

I shot Rowan and Louise’s engagement shoot a couple of weeks ago on their property at Cungalla about twenty minutes from the hustle and bustle of Townsville. I really enjoy going on location like this as the challenge to come up with some thing unique and personal to them really whets my appetite for variety. I met Rowan and Louise at Louise’s parents place and then went in their car to the property, it was a good twenty minutes to Cungalla and the time was spent getting to know both Rowan and Louise.

While Rowan and Louise got changed into casual clothes I took a walk around the property, it was acres and acres of long green grass every where I looked. This was a real challenge as there were no trees in sight ( well within walking distance anyway) and I usually work with the soft shade of trees or any structure that can cast a shadow, the other thing that struck me was the utter serenity of the place and I really wanted to convey this in the portraits. it felt like a scene from that famous Australian movie “The Castle” . “Ah the serenity ”

I decided to feature the serenity, and to convey the vastness of the place. I asked Rowan for a ladder so that I could get up high and cut the horizon out of the picture.

The horses are Co-Jay and Flash.They have 5 horses at home at the moment and another 3 at Louise’s Mum and Dad’s place.

Rowan and Louise first met (this will surprise you) on Melbourne Cup day at the races here in Townsville in 2006

Rowan and Louise play for the Bowen Polocrosse Club, They can travel up to 6 hours for a carnival down to 5 minutes for the local ones

Thanks Rowan and Louise for allowing every one to share in your happiness and I am really looking forward to your wedding.

Cheers Dan

Just got back from a hectic fun weekend in BrisVegas where we attended krystal’s 21st Bling Party. The flight to Brisbane was delayed for an hour …….. Friday The 13th was working , to top it off when we got there another passenger on the flight decided that my luggage case was theirs and I ended up with just the clothes I was wearing until Saturday midday when they discovered that my pimp out fit was not to their liking and returned my luggage.

Madison and Lynda waiting happily at the airport for the delayed plane

Madisons photography from the plane

Christian checking out the beds in dorm 1 - there were 24 of us staying at Kerry and Raz’s

The boys hit the shops at Indooroopilly and met up with Aidan’s mate Josh Falco
thats Aidan being serious on the left with Josh in the middle and Mark licking his lips
in anticipation, another great photo from Madison who cut poor Christian out !

Madison hugging her brother Christian with his BLING eyes

Our family all blinged up and ready to party, now you can see why the luggage was returned, they would have gotten a shock when they opened it !
Mark, Aidan, Christian, Madison Dan and Lynda

Madison with blinged eyes

Kiwi cousins Michelle and Carlie find the Grand Ballroom

Dad (Raz ) and the birthday girl krystal !

Birthday girls family - Jasmine ,Kerry, Raz, and Krystal with Louise at the back

The North Queensland contingent

cousins - Lynda and Kerry

Grandmas Mary and Val all Blinged up and ready to r o l l

Dan and the maori bros - Bill, Raz and Syruss

the lolly bar at the party

The Stanford Plaza was a beautiful place

The pimp and his girls

some of the decorative bling

the cake

Mark and the girls - check out his guns . . . actually funny story about Marks belt buckle, his flight back to Townsville was delayed because when his bag got scanned by security at the airport they thought it was a real gun and he had to wait until the police could come and open the bag …. ha ha (NOT) so he missed the flight and spent another 3 hours in BrisVegas

Josh was thrilled to be at krystal’s 21st, check out his dance partners…

Grand- dad made the mistake if saying that his grandsons looked “Gay” in their costumes so he got an impromtu gay lap dance…..

Odette, Lynda and Jenny….. Lynda’s two new best friends..

Bill …. not much to be said here… he kept us entertained with his singing the night before

Madison, checking out the Grand Ball Room at the Stamford House

Waiting for a Maxi Taxi …. only took an hour

To Kerry and Raz and Krystal, Louise, Jasmin Thanks for an awesome time…. we couldn’t think of a better way to spend a weekend.

Hi All, its not often that i get to photograph an extended family with Grandparents, parents and grandchildren so I thought that I would share some of the experience.
Luigi & Aurora (They started it all )

The immediate family, Luigi, Aurora, Michael,Steven and David

The extended family

Grandparents with the grandchildren

And now the fun part, letting the kids loose

Spent the day at the Woodstock dirt Track titles with my son Mark, we arrived early to get a good spot in the pits.

Marks friends soon arrived , Adam, Peter, Ricky and Megan.

The bench racing started before the actual racing

A lot of time was spent in preparation and warming up

Tyre pressure checked

and finally a meeting to explain the protocol for the races

Some competitors would do or wear anything to phsyc out the opponents

Finally the races started

Some exciting racing ensued and it was even more exciting because I knew who the competitors where, here is a shot of Megan leading the field, she was so good that she even lapped some competitors

Oh I better put some in of Mark I suppose

The whole day was very rewarding on a couple of levels, I dont have many opportunities to spend time with Mark and it was really great to see Mark enjoying himself plus it was great to meet his friends and see how they all got along, they are all very supportive of each other.
Mark and his friends have just as much fun bench racing as they do racing on the track……. really great atmosphere.
I just wandered around and did my own thing and met lots of new friends and just took photo’s of whatever caught my attention.