Ray and Mona's Wedding - 1920's Glamour

Ray and Mona's Wedding - 1920's Glamour

25 Oct 2008

I was very excited to photograph Ray and Mona's wedding. Ray lives in Sydney whilst Mona lives in Zurich and Mona found me via the internet. What a leap of faith to hire me.




The weather in Sydney has been nothing if unpredictable this week with gale force winds and unseasonably cold temperatures. Ray and Mona chose to get married on a Friday at Balmoral Beach followed by a reception at the Bather's Pavilion. Thankfully Friday dawned bright and sunny.



Mona looked absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress with perfect accessories matched by a bouquet of roses by Blond Flores and Ray was a happy, happy man.




Some reception details.



Bruce and I were both honoured to be part of your celebration.

Jillian

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Royal Botanical Gardens Wedding

Royal Botanical Gardens Wedding

19 Oct 2008

The weather in Sydney has been a bit unpredictable of late but Saturday dawned fine and sunny. I photographed a small wedding party of 25 this past Saturday at the Botanic Gardens. The group consisted of immediate family members and close friends. Four of the cutest grandparents were in attendance - three grandmas, all of whom reminded me of my own grandmothers, and one sprightly grandpa.





The ceremony took place at the Vista Pavilion in the Botanic Gardens followed by photos in the gardens, drinks at the Intercontinental Hotel and a dinner at the Pier Restaurant at Rose Bay.




As the wedding party was so small with no attendants, the bride had the lovely idea of presenting a bouquet of orchids from Waratah Florists to all the female guests.



I'm photographing another wedding at Balmoral Beach this coming weekend so look forward to some more wedding photos,

Jillian

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Lemon Syrup Cake

Lemon Syrup Cake

6 Oct 2008

Now that I'm back home and back at work, I've started to bake again. I'd planned on baking today but the pears needed for the recipe didn't ripen in time, so that cake will have to wait for another day. The weather has also been very dreary and I do prefer to photograph food using natural light. I did have to use the flash for some of the photos on today's blog when the sun just refused to come out and play.



I've attached 2 lay-outs with lots of lemon syrup cake pictures. I've adapted the lemon syrup cake from a recipe found in Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cook's Companion, which has become my go-to Lemon Cake recipe.



I don't normally sample my cakes but I did eat a piece of this cake and it was good!

Jillian

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Wedding Season

Wedding Season

4 Oct 2008

Wedding season is almost upon us. I'll be photographing 3 weddings in the space of 3 weeks, something I've not done before. That's a lot of editing to do so to keep my energy stores up I'll be consuming a lot of chocolate.

If at all possible, I like to meet with my couples a week or two before their wedding. In some cases 6-12 months may have passed since we last met so it gives us the opportunity to get reacquainted. We talk about their plans for the day, walk through the venue or the location they've selected for their portrait shoot and assess the lighting conditions.



I met with my October 18 couple, who will be getting married in the Botanical Gardens. Today was pretty grey and drizzly but even so, the gardens were looking gorgeous. The couple has chosen some of the prettiest spots in the gardens for their portraits and I'm really looking forward to their wedding day.


Jillian

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Hong Kong

Hong Kong

2 Oct 2008

When I planned my 5 week holiday, Hong Kong was not on my itinerary. I had used every second of my annual leave and then some, so getting home as quickly as possible was my goal. My travel agent Kurt arranged a creative return route which involved a flight from Lisbon to Barcelona, Barcelona to Helsinki, Helsinki to Hong Kong then Hong Kong to Sydney. There was a tight connection between the arrival of the Finnair flight into Hong Kong and the departure of the Cathay flight to Sydney. What could possibly go wrong?



It all went to plan until the flight from Helsinki was delayed by an hour, resulting in 26 Sydney passengers being offloaded in Hong Kong for 10 hours. Some of the passengers chose to stay in the Premiere Lounge but I couldn't really face the thought of being cooped up in the airport. Even though I was hot, tired and dirty I caught the train downtown to Central.



I think it's 4 years since I last visited Hong Kong but I'd forgotten how busy it is. It was also a Sunday so every-one was around and about shopping or meeting for lunch. It was incredibly smoggy that day so it was hard to get a decent photo of the skyline.




In the end, I only took a couple of photos because I was tired after 3 days without much sleep. I tried to take photos of the Star Ferry but the ferry staff kept waving their hands in front of my camera - I wasn't quite sure what I was doing that was wrong as I've taken photos of the ferry on past trips without any problems. Can any-one help me out here?



Over at the Convention Centre in Kowloon I kept bumping into wedding parties. I hung around long enough to take photos of one of the brides. Obviously "candid" wedding photography is not the norm in Hong Kong. Whilst I snapped the bride having a cooling drink and being fussed over by her friends, her 2 official photographers were cooling their heels.

I caught the Star Ferry back to Central and went back to the Airport to wait for my flight home to Sydney. It's hard to believe I've been back at work for 2 weeks already,

Jillian

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