Well, its been quite a while since my last blog post! Things have been pretty busy for me of late and the blog has been somewhat neglected. I’ll sit down one day soon and fill you in on all that’s been going on, but today I really wanna share a recent wedding with you all.

A little while a ago now I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Kashi and John’s wedding celebrations. Their Melbourne festivities were spread over two days. Friday, Kashi’s father hosted their Hindu Wedding Ceremony. It was a small intimate celebration in his beautiful front yard in Kew. The rich green foliage from our wet winter mixed with the warm reds and oranges topped off by the glow of the afternoon sun made my job capturing the whole thing pretty damn fun! Keeping with traditions the Hindu Ceremony Incorperated Kashi’s parents, with her dad, Max playing a big part, he even washed John’s feet

It was a beautiful ceremony that ran very smoothly, especially seeing as Kashi and John hadn’t gone through a rehearsal. Their love for each other, their enthusiasm and real, genuine personalities shone through during the whole evening.

The first 15 minutes or so was all about John

finally Kashi was able to make her entrance and it was well worth the wait!

As always comments are appreciated – let John and Kashi know how spectacular they are!

Soon I’ll post some stuff from Kashi and John’s “western” Ceremony, so stay tuned.

Ok, for all you cricket nuts looking for a Wedding venue that appeals to your senses, how about the Rupertswood Mansion – the birth place of the Ashes. The Rupertswood Mansion in Sunbury, just 35 minutes from Melbourne is a delightful place for a Wedding with a beautiful exterior and precisely restored interior there are an abundance of great Photography opportunities.

Rupertswood has a number of sites for your Wedding ceremony, out in the gardens using the mansion as a stunning backdrop, inside the Chapel or one the interior Victorian rooms of the mansion.

The chef’s at Rupertswood believe strongly in providing fresh local food, which isn’t hard to find given their proximity to the Macedon ranges region, Daylesford, Woodend, Ballarat and Bendigo.

All around, the Rupertswood Mansion offers a very unique setting for your Wedding day and will provide great photo opportunities.

I recently travelled up to Sunbury to check out a couple of great Wedding venues and hunt for great photo opportunities. The first place I visited certainly lived up to it’s reputation – Emu Bottom Homestead is a fantastic place to get married and very photogenic.

There are a number of old sheds on the property that provide great backdrops for your Wedding photography. The textures and colours of the old rusting roofs and stone walls, juxtaposed with the natural colours from the local gum trees provide interesting contrast. Throw in a few homestead style wooden fences, some old retired farming equipment and you are all set for your Australian Homestead Wedding!

If you’re looking for a venue with a country feel that’s not too far from Melbourne you really should check out the Emu Bottom.

The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car at Campaspe House in Woodend was the serenity! It’s so quiet and peaceful and the air is fresh – the perfect atmosphere for a Wedding. I wanted to feature Campaspe house because of the great gardens you have as options for wedding photo locations. It has a lovely front garden that is intimate and colourful with a few great little spots for photography as well as a terrace garden and more lush green spaces at the rear of the house. The great thing about these separate gardens through out is that each has it’s own distinct feeling. This is great for Wedding portraits as it means we can stay at the one venue and still have a variety of different backdrops and moods. The front garden is more rambling, with beautiful large liquid amber trees, hedges and smaller tree’s, the terrace garden has a romantic feel, nestled amongst crab apple tree and the pottage has a strong, clean symmetry that allows lots of play with angular compositions.

Being just outside the town centre of Woodend, which is part of the Macedon Ranges it’s only about 50 minutes from Melbourne. All through out the Macedon ranges area your guests will find great accommodation. By staying the night they can visit one of many spa’s in the area, head over to hanging rock or pop into the surrounding towns and browse the antique stores and sample the fine local produce.

Here are a few photos taken during Autumn of the gardens around Campaspe House.

Another great Wedding venue in Daylesford is the Lake House. Situated above the Daylesford lake the view from the deck looking across the water and surrounding trees is just beautiful. Lake Daylesford is quite large and would take a little while to walk around, especially for a bride in heels. Fortunately you don’t have to walk far from the Lake House for great scenery and photography! Wooden foot bridges, a little pier and silver birch trees provide great context for the country wedding vibe.

There’s a great advantage to having your Ceremony, Wedding photography session and reception all at the same venue. Quite often when we head off for photos the whole bridal party will join us. But after a little while the portraits with the bridal party will be over. Now, don’t get me wrong, you’re bridal party love you and they want to share this day with you BUT they don’t want to spend a big chunk of it taking photos. With the whole day occurring in the same place the bridal party can leave after their portraits are done and wonder back to the rest of your guests while we have some more photos of just the two of you.

Here are a few images from around the Daylesford lake.

If you’ve been entertaining the thought of an out of town wedding – somewhere a little more quiet with that fresh country air then you really must consider the Daylesford Convent as your Wedding venue.

This is another one of those really great locations that provide you with one location for the ceremony, reception and photography. Recently I’ve been featuring many of these wedding venues that can host your entire wedding day. It’s an option that I favour for a few reasons – Having your whole day in one location makes things easier for your guests as they don’t have to worry about traveling from the ceremony site to the reception – going through the trouble of actually finding the reception site and then some decent parking. But, I think the biggest thing is that it allows you, the couple to spend more time with your guests – we don’t have to travel from ceremony to photo locations to reception. We can assign time to take portraits around the venue while your guests mingle and indulge in canapés and champagne before you re join them for the celebrations!

The gardens of the Daylesford convent aren’t huge, but a very manageable size with great little pockets of varying colours, textures and lighting. From area’s big enough for a family portrait of 15 people to little alcoves for some personal space and intimate portraits of just the two of you.

Here are a few photos that merely scratch the surface in terms of the different colours and textures available to us as we wonder the gardens.

Gowanus is an interesting little section of Brooklyn, like most of New York City it has a colourful past. It’s know to most thanks to its canal – for a lot of people the word canal conjures up visions of Venice’s beautiful canal’s with stunning architecture and it’s classic gondola’s, but for the Gowanus Canal these scenes couldn’t be further from reality.

For 100 years the Gowanus canal was a dumping ground for all the local factories from chemical factories, fuel refinery companies and coal yards.

The result of all the abuse has left the canal a stinky, filthy mess filled with all sorts of terrible toxins and pollutants, seemingly void of all life. Finally it looks as though something is going to be done about this and a clean up solution figured out. I find Gowanus itself to be a really great place to wonder, it still has a very gritty, industrial feel which is in stark contrast to the graceful and elegant old brownstone houses sitting in tree lined streets just a few hundred yards away in Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill

Gowanus is still home to a lot of mechanic’s garages and salvage yards. But the old factories and warehouse are being slowly rebuilt and some already house artist studio’s, IT start up companies, fashion labels, even high end reception venue’s – with that typical Brooklyn grit!

Once they solve the smelly sludge problem of the canal it will be even more pleasant to wonder through, bring your camera, you’ll have a great time – Just make sure you get there quick before the big developers come in, tear down the old buildings and put up soulless, modern apartment buildings!

You’ll even find street art from Shepard Fairey!

Sault is one spectacular Wedding Venue! Nestled against the Wombat state forest in Daylesford, Sault Estate is a one-stop venue for your Ceremony, reception and Wedding photography.

The major attraction here are the rows and rows of Lavender bushes that are a feast for the eyes and provide amazing colours and textures for your Wedding photos. Unfortunately when I stopped by the lavender had neared the end of its season, but through spring and summer the grounds of the estate burst with the beautiful purple hues and sweet scent of the lavender.

The grounds also host great open spaces with views of the state forest as well as a lake populated by ducks and swans. The front of the restaurant is made of sandstone which give a classic look to portraits and the back decking provides an amazing view over the lake as the sun sets in the west – the open areas of Sault are perfect for some great late evening and twilight portrait sessions.

It’s totally impossible to go to Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York and not come across something that makes you smile!

No doubt it’s a place with a lot of history, but let’s be honest, it’s seen better day! Back in the day (pre 1940′s) it was THE place to be for fun. Cruising the board walk these days you’re still up for a bit of fun – you can grab a paint ball gun and “shoot the freak”, ride the cyclone, watch some baseball, have a swim, jump on the wonder wheel or sit back and enjoy an ale from the Coney Island Brewery.

Plans are in the pipe works for “improvements” to the theme park, I just hope they don’t strip the place of it personality.

I’m looking forward to going back sometime soon!

This week I took a drive up to Daylesford and the surrounding towns of Kyneton, Woodend and Trentham. What a gorgeous area! It’s so great to be able to leave the city for the day, slow down and breath in some fresh, crisp country air. This whole area, which is 45 minutes to 90 minutes out of Melbourne is a fantastic place for a country Wedding – The scenery is beautiful with so many opportunities for amazing photography and the people are so friendly. Wondering in to the venues that I visited I was always greeted by a warm, genuinely friendly face.

One of the huge pluses for the Hepburn springs area is it’s beauty is present all year round – lush greenery and beautiful flora from spring thru summer, the incredible reds, orange and yellows of Autumn as the leaves change and the fairytale-like snow covering of winter.

Over the next week or two I’ll post some photography from some of Daylesford and Woodend’s amazing wedding venues such as Campaspe House, Daylesford convent, the lake house Daylesford and Sault.