Reflection is a great way to decide how to move forward and improve. About 4 years ago, a friend of a friend approached me to help document her wedding after seeing me carrying my camera at our common friend’s wedding, I was the young “Uncle Bob” =) All the photography I had done before was dance related which included high speed movements on stage and the key focus was to capture beautiful form in a moment’s notice. Little did I know that, the need to be quick and perceptive that I picked up from dance Photography allowed me to shoot weddings so seamlessly. Being the complete newbie to the industry, I took on the full day wedding day, starting in the wee hours of the morning of 6am, meeting the Katherine and the girls(her bridesmaids) at her hair and makeup artist. Much to my ignorance, I ended up sitting around for a good 2 hours while their hair was being done. That didn’t mean that it went by slowly; with Katherine’s incredibly bubbly personality, she and her bridesmaids made the morning an ease.
The wedding party continued on from the Rydges, Southbank where the bridal party stayed the night before, to St Edward’s Catholic Parish Daisy Hill where the ceremony was held. I was pretty happy with the ceremony, capturing all the key moments quite comfortably with my experience of growing up in a Catholic school and attending Mass regularly. Even with all my confidence, I was quite taken aback when the priest beckoned me on to capture photos after the signing.
Since the reception was held at Currumbin in the Gold Coast hinterland, Katherine and Lloyd opted to get their bridal and location photos done at Elephant Rock on the beach. Katherine came ready, preparing gumboots and parasols for her bridesmaids for beach walking. It was a simply perfect day, blue skies which is not the greatest light to shoot in as a photographer. I much prefer shaded or cloudy settings which ensures balanced and non-reflective skin tones not to mention, no squinting bridal party! It was pretty easy, finding this nook behind Elephant Rock capturing half of the photos before adjourning to Amore Gardens for the rest of the location photos and reception.
The night ended up a high note with a James Bond themed wedding dance and I might or might not have joined in for a little dancing myself! 4 years later, even till today, one of my MANY favourite moments is capturing the bride and groom “Love Tunnel”. It just creates such a great atmosphere for the bride and groom being sent off by their friends and family, it never fails to bring a smile to their faces. This is the wedding that got me started into this whole new industry of wedding photography, I got my first referral from this wedding and have gone on to shoot many more weddings. This really opened my eyes to how much I love capturing the different forms of happiness, love and the many amazing moments that happens on a wedding day.
