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Wedding Inspiration – Shoes
Apr 3rd
And to go with our recent post on dresses, what else do we need? SHOES!!! Oh yes.
You know, Marcus says that he doesn’t get my obsession with shoes. Looking at these images, I think he does. Just a little bit. Some of these are Adam’s images too of course, but he loves shoes just as much as me I think!
Aaaahhhhh…….shoes. I may get married again just to slip on some divine footwear like this.
I can’t tell where you can get exactly the shoes we have shown here (sorry), but I can tell you that these places are very popular with a lot of our brides looking for fabulous footwear……..
www.net-a-porter.com/shop/shoes
Check out our other wedding inspiration posts
Gold Coast Wedding – Kaitlin & Scott
Apr 1st
It is a glorious day in Brisbane today. Big blue skies, soft sunshine. It reminded me a lot of the weather the day of Kaitlin & Scott’s wedding. A PERFECT day to be married in a stunning location close to the Gold Coast.
Kaitlin & Scott’s wedding was something like a fairytale. I watched the flowergirls at this wedding just looking at Kaitlin in awe. I just know they thought she looked like a princess and that they had walked straight into one of their own fairytale dreams. You’ll see it on their faces.
Kaitlin & Scott have Danielle of White + White Weddings and Amini Concepts to thank for helping create this magical day. Together they created something truly amazing, glamorous and a simply perfect fit for this wedding and this couple. From the moment Kaitlin emerged looking so stunning in her DARB dress to the spectacular ceremony at the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove to the sparkly detail at the reception at Hyatt Sanctuary Cove The Grange, all of it combined to tell a once upon a time story of two people in love. The beautiful flowers were by Bouquet Boutique and that stunning cake, Cake Star.
Kaitlin and Scott deserved nothing less that a perfect day. They are smart, funny, hardworking, intelligent, wonderful people. It is so right that they found each other. Kaitlin and Scott, thank you for letting me be the one to record this day for you. May you live happily every after…….
Wedding Inspiration – Bridal Dresses
Mar 29th
Well here it is, my first post sharing the views of the women of Studio Impressions. You hear from Marcus & Adam all the time, but actually, the girls at Studio Impressions outnumber the boys by 1, and our love of weddings comes from a whole different angle to the boys. What is one of the things we love most about Weddings? THE FASHION of course! So here is the first in a series of posts for all the brides-to-be out there and for all the women who just like to have a plain old sticky beak at anything fashion related.
Years ago I used to grill Marcus every weekend on the details of the wedding and he would tell me heartfelt stories about the people he photographed & their families. Lovely, but what I really wanted to know was what colour were the bridesmaids dresses; who was her designer; what were the flowers like….. you know, all the really important stuff! I don’t ask anymore, now I just check out the wedding images myself.
There are 4 girls at Studio Impressions and Mondays are usually spent oohing & aahing over the most recent brides’ shoes, or dress or the way she has done her hair. Then we dream about what we would have if we were getting married, or in my case, married again… (to Marcus of course!)
It dawned on me last month what a wealth of info on wedding fashion we have in our files here. What a perfect place for others to look for inspiration! So, here is the first of a series of posts compiled by me & the girls of Studio Impressions, on wedding fashions from the past year. We will post on yummy wedding things like dresses, flowers, hair , shoes, cakes, table decorations, and whatever else we see & think you’ll like. All of them will be from a 2011 Studio Impressions wedding. As much as I wanted to, we couldn’t include something from every wedding (you’d be scrolling down for days) instead we’ve given you a little of this & a little of that because variety is the spice of life, and of weddings. Glamour and beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes and colours and budgets. So if you are planning a wedding or you simply like to look at pretty things, this is for you, and for me……thanks Marcus!
Starting our series with ……………drum roll……………….WEDDING DRESSES!…………
Designer: http://www.phillipalepley.com/ www.johannajohnson.com.au
Designers: Top: www.henryroth.com.au Bottom Left: www.pallascouture.com.au Bottom right: www.darbbridalcouture.com.au
Designers: top: www.pronovias.com.au and the rest above are www.verawang.com.au
Unfortunately we don’t have the details of the designers for the dresses below. They were just so darn to-die-for that I just couldn’t leave them out.
Check out our other wedding inspiration posts
AIPP Professional Photography Awards
Mar 28th
It is Photography Awards season here in Australia. Although it always seems to sneak up on me, I love the Awards process. At times it is more of a love/hate relationship. It is hard to put yourself out there. Even after years of entering it is a confronting experience. You are putting something you have created, up to be judged. But the reason I do it is because it makes me stop and think about my work and it tests me creatively. When you push yourself, you have to become a little better and in the end that makes a difference for the people who trust you to photograph them as a professional.
I’m pretty happy with how my prints went this year, but what I am most proud of is not my work, but Aurelie’s. Aurelie really put herself out there this year and she not only just went okay, she became Runner Up Queensland AIPP Illustrative Photographer of the Year. The smile on her face was better than any award I’ve won. Aurelie joined our team a little over 2 years ago and has quickly become an incredible shooter, fast booking weddings of her own. You can check out her portfolio of images in the photo gallery here.
This was just one of the many moments already this year that have reminded me how lucky I am that Studio Impressions is more than just me. Studio Impressions was started by me, but it is really a collective of passionate talented people who love photography and how it can make us laugh or cry or argue or smile. Each one of them is talented in their own right. I’ve told you about Aurelie and you often see Adam’s work on this blog, but also sharing our little workspace are Karen & Tania who create cuter baby images than I can, and Gabe who is my right hand man at weddings and has recently produced some of the most beautiful albums the Studio has ever done. And then of course, there is my wife Penny who has been there behind the scenes from the very start, by my side, building this dream of ours. It really is a team I am super proud of.
I’ve decided it is time that you started to hear a lot more from them too. Along with Adam’s weddings you can look forward to some future posts of weddings by Aurelie and newborns by Karen, and I have asked Penny to write a few posts of her own too. I think it will be nice to hear a female voice now and again, starting tomorrow when I let the girls loose on the blog to share their favourite wedding fashions.
In the meantime, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all the very deserved Award Winners at this year’s Queensland AIPP awards. Here are just a couple of Aurelie’s gorgeous images that scored solid silver with distinctions from the Illustrative and Wedding categories.
New Nikon D4 Camera Image Samples
Mar 20th
With much anticipation on my part last Thursday, the courier arrived with a shiny gold box. The new Nikon D4 camera had arrived. Before photographing my first wedding on it, I was lucky enough to have two days of portrait shoots to get a good feel of the camera. The camera is slightly different to the D3s so having time to get acquainted was very welcome.
First impressions? Wow. The camera feels great in the hand. Focusing seems effortless, and the high noise ISO performance is, in my view, not just equal, but slightly better than the current D3s.
It was fantastic for photographing my weekend wedding of Will and Faith. Yes that is their real names. Penny says they must be destined for blessed lives and the strongest marriage, because that’s what you need sometimes – some will and some faith. We told them we think they have to name their firstborn Hope. I’ve posted a sample from their beautiful day at St Johns Cathedral and Customs House .
If you would like to make some comparisons on the quality of imagery for yourself, visit here to see early D3s samples that I took when that was first released. You could also look at my most recent wedding images shot on the D3s here, shot a few weeks ago in Sydney at Rebecca and Dan’s wedding.
Like all new cameras, a little care is needed to ensure your the setup matches your shooting preferences. There are a few buttons and operations that are a little different to the previous model so it can take a little time to get used to this before heading straight on into a big shoot. The most notable difference I found was that the easy exposure compensation dial is the opposite to the D3s. It is easy to get used to but a little frustrating if your second body is a D3s or D700.
Over all I think the D4 is definitely a step up. So happy I’ve ordered a second body.
On a side note – seeing as I mentioned settings, if you would like to know more about the camera settings and shooting techniques I use you’ll find this post helpful “My Camera Settings”
The images below have been developed in Adobe Lightroom 4 with minimal adjustments. No adjustments have been made to alter (or to reduce) the noise in the images.
ISO 1800 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 2200 f2.8 @ 1/125th
ISO 8000 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 12800 f2.8 @ 1/60th
100% crop
ISO 1100 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 7200 f2.8 @ 1/60th
100% crop
ISO 4000 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 9000 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 7200 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 12800 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 4000 f2.8 @ 1/60th
ISO 7200 f2.8 @ 1/60th
100% crop
ISO 12800 f2.8 @ 1/60th
Sydney Wedding – Rebecca & Dan
Mar 10th
2012 has been off to a fantastic start and I have been holding off sharing some great weddings on the blog because I still have some weddings from 2011 that I want to post. I just can’t wait to share this one.
Rebecca and Dan had a traditional jewish ceremony at the Sydney Great Synagogue. It was my first opportunity to photograph here and it was AMAZING! Rebecca and Dan have the most loving extended family and their wedding was full to the brim with love and laughter and overflowing with joy. Rebecca is a fashion designer and Dan a chef and they are two of the nicest people I’ve met. They are really, completely, in love.
So many things happened during this wedding that made their love obvious, but one of the most touching things I’ve ever seen a groom do for his bride, happened at this wedding. Dan is not known for his musical ability and has never played an instrument. In secret, in the months leading up to their big day, Dan learnt to play piano just so he could play a romantic song for his new wife. If that isn’t enough, the whole way he did this was so special. With no fanfare, Dan just walked up to the piano and then to everyone’s surprise started playing “Close Cover” by Wim Mertens. When he had the attention of the whole room, he stopped playing and let a version on the Ipod take over while he left the piano to take Bec’s hand in their first dance as husband and wife. I had been told there would be no first dance as this is what Bec herself thought. No-one knew that Dan had planned this romantic gesture all along. Well done, mate. Impressive. And dedicated.
I could tell you so much more about this wedding. It had everything and then more. There was so much going on that even with Adam along to co-shoot, I found myself finishing at 1am but still too energised to sleep. The truly amazing Philip Carr from Philip Carr & Associateshas to be credited for the smooth running of this beautiful wedding, and the band Glass for keeping the dance floor of the Sydney Hilton, full all night. A big thank you to Clare for the hand.
Bec wore Vera Wang and the Bridesmaids dresses and shoes were designed under her own label Bec & Bridge.
There is just not enough time or space in this blog to put down all the little moments that filled this wedding day, or to explain all the things that made me know how special this couple and their family was. Instead, I’ve put in more than my usual number of images, in the hope that you will all see that for yourselves.
Bec and Dan, thank you for choosing Studio Impressions. It wasn’t just a pleasure, but an inspiration, to be part of your wedding ceremony. May your hearts be forever filled with this much love.
Wedding guests are welcome to click on the link to view Rebecca & Dan’s sneak peek slideshow.
Wedding guests are welcome to view all images on the online gallery.
(Slideshow and gallery are password protected. Please contact Rebecca & Dan for access.)
