28th Jan 2010, 8:27pm

Ok, who doesn't love Zoolander?  It's a modern classic right?  Not to mention a total gift to wedding photographers everywhere!  For years I've been getting the guys to "Gimme ya best Blue Steel!" and for years I've been threatening to put them on the blog.  

Well today is the day...behold a selection of my favs from the past couple of seasons...

As you can see, not everyone has studied the movie in great detail but the results are always good for a laugh!

BTW, I'm putting this up on Facebook too so feel free to go tag these handsome gentlemen :-)

27th Jan 2010, 10:01pm

I had this brilliant plan to add a FAQ page to the website.  So the web guys made me a page and said "there you go...add content".  Hmm, this is the point where I realise it wasn't THAT brilliant a plan :-)

Well rather than try to answer every question that has ever been asked I am going to start with one.  For no other reason than I was asked tonight so it's up there in my mind (you know, not buried under the random thoughts about dishes, washing, albums, supplier pics, replying to that week old email...anyway, I digress). 

So Sharleen (incidentally my 200th Facebook fan..yay!) asked what camera do I use...

I have 2 Nikon D700s and a D300 (and assorted 'backups' ie older ones that don't see a lot of action). I freakin LOVE the D700, it has amazing dynamic range (ability to record light and dark simultaneously) and it's low light performance totally rocks. I used to shoot with the D300 and Rach had the D700, now I have one too and I'm in luuurve :-)  BTW, how nice am I to give my second shooter the best camera?  I think I deserve some extra brownie points for that.

And while these cameras are pretty amazing pieces of technology they are only part of the story.  The lenses are pretty important too, my fav on the D300 is the 17-55 because I love wide angles.  I'm currently looking for a wide angle option for the D700.  My current fav on the D700 is the trusty 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 (Rach and I fight over who gets which one each week).  Oh actually, I also love my now ancient 80-200 (aka the BIG zoom)...perfect for getting intimate images without being in-your-face.

Ok, to be completely honest the most important question to ask about cameras is not about the cameras per se but about backups.  And I am a bit anal on this one (and I don't think it's a bad thing).  I want to know that as soon as something goes wrong with my camera or lens (and puh-leeze, it is definitely 'when' not 'if') I have a backup plan in place.  Usually within arms reach.  And you, the bride or groom will never know because we'll go to plan B without skipping a beat. 

So for all my waxing lyrical about which lens I love more the most important question is really  'How many backups do you have?'  And the short answer is that at any given wedding we have 4-5 camera bodies with us and usually around 6 lenses.  Do we ever need them?  Yup.  Have we ever needed all of them?  Nope, and I hope it stays that way!

Gotta have a pic...this is Rach working it as I got the settings right before Julie and Gareth arrived at the train tracks.  In case anyone is interested that is the D700 with the 50mm 1.8 on there.  And it was shot with the other D700 and the 80-200 2.8.

Anyone wanna inspire me to write my dreaded FAQ page?  What burning questions shall I include?  Or shall I just rabbit on about how much I love my camera some more?

26th Jan 2010, 7:56pm

Kyle and Caitlin met at Cambridge High so I think they officially qualify as childhood sweethearts!  They're best friends, totally head-over-heels, and a great team...

The first time I met Caitlin she told me how unphotogenic she is.  She had this great story about a childhood Santa photo gone horribly wrong (do they ever go well?!) and the end result was this life long conviction that she's not photogenic.  Now I hate to contradict...but really?

I don't even have anything to say about this picture other than it just makes me smile and I keep coming back to look at it again...

And one last fav...

Congratulations guys!  Thanks so much for inviting us to be part of your day!

25th Jan 2010, 9:07am

Oooo details!  I love the litte details that make each wedding unique...Rach and I often sneak into the venue before the guests arrive to photograph them (and to ooo and aaah!).  I just love when we see something really different, something that really says something about whose wedding it is!  Caitlyn is sudying to be a jewellery designer so these crystal draped branches were so perfect!  And Brian from Flower Concepts really stepped up to help Caitlyn and her fabulous Mum create this gorgeous, romantic, vintagey vibe for the tables.

and they just looked better and better as the night wore on and it got darker...

Check back tomorrow for more of Caitlyn and Kyle's pics!

22nd Jan 2010, 8:55pm

Loads of my photographer friends have started the year with 365 projects where they take a pic every day for a year and post them online...it's such a cool idea but I'm way too ADD for that. So today I tried to take a pic every 15 minutes...sort of a 365 project for people with short attention spans! Here are the 36 interesting ones :-)

21st Jan 2010, 10:09pm

Crazy tropical rain today...what's with that?!  But mmmm...lovin' the smell of rain on hot concrete!

And it's always a good excuse to indulge one of my fav passtimes; hacking magazines to bits and pasting pics into my ideas diary.  No magazine escapes unscathed :-)

The coolest thing is to look back and see the evolution of ideas, how some part of an image that I clipped a year ago turns up in something I shoot almost like magic.  It's like feeding the visual brain I think...or maybe like planting seeds and seeing what grows from them.  And that'd have to be the only kind of gardening I do these days :-)

Meanwhile the kids gave the Playhouse Disney website a hammering...

This is our friend Finn keeping an eye on Caro, gotta love it when friends come to play and everyone gets on so well.  Yay for summer rain and excuses to indulge and friends to share it all with!

20th Jan 2010, 10:00pm

I love it when the groom has tears in his eyes.  I know that's a slightly odd thing to admit!  But I love it when there is so much love that it's leaking out people's eyes...the guys especially y'know?  We have this crazy stiff upper lip culture where we have this thing about not showing our feelings and it's just so wrong (or is that just my excuse for tearing up behind my camera?!).  So anyway, here's to leaky eyes and not giving a rat's and being so in love you can't help but show it.  Here's to Kirsty and Corey!

And while we're on the subject of my favourite wedding things (ooo, that could be a regular blog feature couldn't it?)  Check out Kirsty and the girls with their parasols...

Congrats guys, it was a beautiful wedding and we loved being part of it!

 A couple more of my favs...

13th Jan 2010, 8:53pm

Julie is one of those people you meet occasionally, she's beautiful, smart, talented and if she wasn't so kind and caring you'd be green with envy...but instead you end up cheering her on and being proud to call her a friend.  And when she meets someone as awesome as Gareth...well all I can say is there were 140 people in that church and not very many dry eyes :-)

Julie and Gareth also opted to have a 'first look' and take bridal party photos before the ceremony...I think I'm becoming a bit of a fan of this I have to say!  It was such a lovely moment when they saw each other for the first time and without the pressure of an audience (unless you count us lol) it was really intimate and private. 

Congratulations Julie and Gareth, we wish you all the very best!

13th Jan 2010, 12:47pm

When Bella left New Zealand for London her family were worried she would meet some foreign bloke and never come home.  So they were pretty pleased when they were finally introduced to Lui who, despite his european sounding name, is another kiwi and a good Maori boy to boot :-)  They're not home for good yet but they came home to Bella's family marae in Mokau to celebrate their wedding.

In order to maximise their time with their guests, Bella and Lui opted for a 'first look' and bridal party photographs before the ceremony.  A mixup with cars and drivers meant that poor Lui was waiting nervously for Bella for about an extra 20 minutes.  Talk about building anticipation!

They had scoped out some absolutely gorgeous locations; a couple of wild beaches and I just fell in love with the cute bach in the background of this shot...

Not to mention Lui doing his best Calvin Klein model thang!

Bella and Lui have a young son, Graham, and it was really special for him to part of the proceedings (before disappearing off for a well earned nap!).  He was just gorgeous and narrowly avoided being kidnapped back to Hamilton by Rach!

Congratulations Bella and Lui, thanks again for having us be part of such a special day!  You DVD slideshow is already on its way to you in London...I hope it brightens up a dreary winter day to see the kiwi sun again :-)

6th Jan 2010, 3:09pm

I couldn't help myself, I had to go look at my pics from the shoot before I got on to Bella and Lui's wedding (sorry guys!) but honestly, how could I not right?

Our models were gorgeous and their dresses were gorgeous (from the very fab Louise Anderson...I'm a huge fan of hers from way back too).  Oh and the guys were handsome too but really it was all about the girls!