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Hawaii – The Wedding

JD — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:22:48 +0000

Well here it is, the post about Kara & Cliff’s amazing Hawaiian wedding – It was hard to narrow it down to 30 images to show on this blog as it was such a great wedding to showcase.

The difference with destination weddings to the ones I shoot in Melbourne is that you get to spend quite a bit of time with the couple and their friends and family in the days leading up to the wedding at dinners, drinks etc so by the time the wedding comes along you feel like part of the family so to speak. Kara & Cliff are an amazing couple and Heidi & I have got to know them quite well and it was an absolute honor to be in Hawaii to not only document but to witness their wedding and we now consider them friends for life. It’s also a bonus that their little angel Mataya and our daughter Lola are only a day apart in age and are now bff’s, they are very cute together. Not only do Kara & Cliff rock but all their family and friends we had the pleasure of meeting were heaps of fun too and made our trip all the more enjoyable hanging out with them.

Now to the wedding – I will let the photos do most of the talking but just viewing Kara & Cliff together in the images you can tell that have a great connection and are head over heals for each other. Being such an intimate wedding where 34 people had traveled from Australia and landed on a beautiful beach 1000′s of km’s away was such a buzz, you could feel the excitement and love as the crazy Captain Howie proceeded over the ceremony.

The reception is where the switch really got turned up into party mode (I was right at home), it was an amazing setting overlooking Waikiki beach on sunset cocktails in hand a traditional Hawaiian band playing in the background complete with hula girl, the perfect end to the perfect day. Once the camera was away in the bag the cocktails kept flowing and we had a great night partying with all the other guests.

Thanks Kara & Cliff for an amazing experience I hope the photos do it justice.

Jo & Dan’s St Kilda Wedding

JD — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:28:04 +0000

Jo & Dan were referred to me at the start of the year and when they came into the studio for the consultation straight away it was a wedding I was looking forward to photographing.

When I arrived at the boys house in the morning the weather was looking pretty dodgy but the sun broke out by the time the ceremony came around and we made the most of the beautiful weather for the bridal party photos.

The ceremony was great and the priest was the famous Father Bob who is a very funny man and kept the ceremony quite interesting.

I love shooting around the St Kilda area as there is so much diversity of backgrounds and places to photograph all located within walking distance. The bridal party really got into it which was great as it make the whole process so much fun and it shows in the photos.

We then headed into the Royal Melbourne Yatch Squadron for the reception, the baker boys had the dance floor packed all night which I took full advantage of and got some great dancing photos.

enjoy!

wedding rings

wedding dress

wedding cars

Father Bob

bridal party

St Kilda Pier

Royal Melbourne Yatch Club

emotional speeches

bridal waltz

Artistic beach images

JD — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:59:13 +0000

I was recently approached to do some artistic beach themed images to be hung on the walls of an upmarked bayside seafood restaurant. They were after something a little different than just landscape images of the beach so I decided to do these images with a bellows lens. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these lenses you can move the lens left, right, up and down to distort the picture and the focus which gives them that dreamy look.

The images below are a selection of what I have taken around the Brighton, St Kilda, Beaumaris and Black Rock area in the last few weeks. They will also be available to buy as limited edition prints on canvas so if you are keen please email me through your interest to johl@jddigitalphotog.com

Brighton beach boxes

Melbourne city skyline

St Kilda sea baths

A wedding shoot with a difference – Mt Dandenong & Sorrento

JD — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 07:42:23 +0000

This wasn’t your typical wedding shoot, Eileen & Kim are from Singapore and are getting married over there in December. It is a custom of Singaporean weddings to have a photo shoot before the wedding so the album can be ready and shown on the actual day. Generally this shoot used to take place in Singapore but it is becoming more popular to travel to places like Australia to get the images taken and have a little holiday while they are over here.

We started off up at Skyhigh in the Dandenongs for a chilling morning shoot and then headed down the coast to Sorrento for more photos after lunch. The sun came out to play and it was just beautiful at the beach, we took our time and got plenty of cool images to make an album for their big day.

It is a bit of a luxury to not be under the same time restraints and pressure of the wedding day and in that sense it was more like a portrait shoot. I hope to be doing more of these in the future and possibly photographing a wedding over there as well!

bride & groom

Skyhigh Mt Dandeong

Sorrento back beach

Pre wedding portrait shoot at St Kilda Beach

JD — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:32:49 +0000

In what was one of the coldest windiest days in July we braved the elements and went down to St Kilda for Jo & Dan’s pre wedding shoot last month. Despite the inclimate weather we got a great collection of stylised portraits for them to choose from and had a good chat about their upcoming wedding . I love photographing couple portraits in winter, as you will see below they give off a romantic, fun & cuddly vibe that really is the essence of Melbourne in winter.

The pre wedding shoots continue to become more popular with our clients, not only does it help having a ‘practise’ shoot but you get some beautiful timeless images of you as a couple before the wedding day.

enjoy!

St Kilda Pier

Melbourne in Winter

St Kilda beach

Chris & Miranda’s Wedding @ All Smiles Sorrento

JD — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:38:52 +0000

Another beautiful wedding at All Smiles, this time at their Sorrento venue. Coming into the wedding I was a bit worried about the weather considering the time of year, and the ceremony was held on a cliff over Sorrento back beach in the late arvo. But I needn’t have worried as it was perfect. Because of the timing and low light, Chris & Miranda decided to do their location shots before the ceremony, which allowed us to take advantage of the beautiful light and not rush the whole process.

They didn’t have a bridal party so it was just the two of them and we had a great time walking the beaches and piers around Sorrento before the wedding. They were both so relaxed and comfortable with one another which just made the photos that much easier. You can tell looking through the images how happy and in love they are, I think when you get a great set of shots from a wedding when looking through them you can get a real feel for the couple and what they are like and I think you can certainly pick it up in these images.

enjoy!

groom

The bouquet was amazing, and the colours were so vivid. Another great job from Debbie O’Neil.

wedding flowers

I love the way the sun is lighting the veil in this image, you would think it was summer!

bride and groom

Sorrento beach

wedding cake

Chris & Miranda had a table full of lollies and little bags so as everyone left they could make up their own lolly bags – such a cool idea!

fun wedding idea

I love capturing some of the couples expressions during the ceremony, which is quite a lot easier with outdoor weddings.

candid ceremony photo

expression tells it all

emotions after the ceremony

amazing view from All Smiles, Sorrento