We had the fun job of shooting these Jaguars last weekend.  Bex, Nic and Karen were great sports and got back into their wedding gear.  I'm sure it was a little colder than their wedding day in March though :)

Oh how much I would LOVE to reshoot Paul and I in our wedding gear - however as my dress is half a dozen sizes too small for me 13 years and a handful of children later, I think it would not only be rather painful to try - but produce an extreamly ugly photo!

Unlike our fabulous looking couple - you guys look hot!

How cute is this?!

Of course, this is one that Paul shot!

Just after we started, the weather just closed in and started raining.  Oh dear, what a pain!  However, within about 15 minutes it had started to clear again - and gave us a beautiful day to play with.  Sheesh, almost like Auckland weather!

What an absolutely beautiful bride!

You know I can never leave a possible photo opportunity hanging, so I got our willing models to do one more thing for me....  see that grass up there guys?

I can't even think of adequate words for this image...  but it puts a smile on my face :)  I was shooting with my 70-200 lens, and not paying too much attention to what Paul was doing.  He had his 10-22 and got real low... brilliant work my friend, I'll keep you on! 

Gosh I've enjoyed producing some wedding pictures again, can't wait for the summer season! 

We've been back home for 24 hours now, and the sweet relief of my own bed again - ahhhh.  There's always this peaceful feeling of being back in my own home again, and a sad feeling that it's all over, until next time :)

As usual, there are lots of photos to record our time away, but showing them to the world one by one would bring us back to the old days of forcing visitors to sit and suffer through an evening of holiday slides.

Anywho - this was the snow.  It was very cold, and filled me with much terror, but we never did die and the children had a marvellous time.

The bushwalks in Hanmer Springs are fairly pretty too!

After four soggy days in Hanmer, we travelled over to Christchurch and took the kids to Orana Park Zoo.  Ever patted a giraffe? 

I don't actually know what this display was for, but we took advantage of it - and made poor little Sammy model for us, again.

The next day we went to the Museum, in search for some ancient family heritage.  Nope I don't think we're related.

Paul didn't have any luck either.

An old street inside the museum - so cool!

So that was it in a nutshell.  A fun time had by all!

We've had our family holiday planned for some time now.  We've taken the family down to Hanmer Springs this week, and then on to Christchurch for the weekend.  The first day was great fun, becoming prunes in the hotpools and seeing what was around the place.  Then the weather packed in - really packed in.  So the next 3 days we spent inside, willing the rain to go away (turns out willing doesn't help).  On the last day, we decided to go find some snow up a hill somewhere.  I thought we were about to fall off and die at any moment, but turns out we didn't die at all - which is great because we've got a ton of stuff to do when we get home!

We're in Christchurch now, heading home tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone for your patience if it took a day or two to return your emails and calls while we were in the middle of nowhere.  I've got a bunch of pictures to blog - but the connection where we are is a little on the pathetic side, so for now I'll just show you our snowman :)

Last night and this morning we photographed the South Island Short Course Championships.  We got a ton of shots I love, but I'll post just a few here...

Really hard to choose favourites - but I think these two next pics are right up there.  First the anticipation....  On your marks....

Go!  The burst of light, the action.  Ahhhh - love it!

Thanks - I love it too :)

It wouldn't be me shooting it if I didn't do a legs shot now would it??

I'm pretty happy with our first sporting event, a totally different experience!  The rest of the collection will no doubt be put up on the DigiProofs website in the next few days.

Wanna know the secret to a really great pet or child photo?  Get down.  Down.  No - even further.  Get right down!  That's it.  Feel that tickle under your chin?  That's grass.  And don't worry, the stain will probably come out of your shirt... probably.

How it hurts my artisic side to see people pointing their cameras down upon children and pets.  Sometimes this can be an effective use of making them look cute and little - but more often than not, it's just plain pointless.  Get on their level, interact with them, and really capture them in their world.  You'll find just one little change will create far more interesting photos.

Paul caught this shot today - perfect example! 

I'll get him to post more shots from this house soon, really one worth blogging I think!

Is there something you're just yearning to know, that you think I may be able to help you with?  Just email me, or drop a note into the comments - and you never know - the next tidbit may just be the answer you're looking for!

I think it must be my turn to finally make a post on our blog.  This afternoon I edited up a couple more shots for Ben at Windhawk Helicopters.  I think Jess is getting a wee bit jealous of all my flights... actually I know she is... so far the score is 3-1 in my favour!

I can't tell you how incredible the experience is - I thought the thrill might wear off after a couple of flights, but every time it is an awesome experience.  In fact it is so awesome that I'm willing to keep on going, just to see how long it takes until I have had enough... ;-)  So, here are the pics:

This panoramic shot was taken standing on Ferny Gair.  The mountain you can see on the very left, just behind the tail rotor, is Mt Tapuae-O-Uenuku - affectionately known as 'Mt Tapi'.  Most people don't realise that it's the highest peak in New Zealand outside the Southern Alps!  It is so hard to show you in a photo how amazing the view is from up there - you have to see it for yourself to appreciate its magnificence.

After that Ben left me on top of the mountain while he did a couple of flybys - I was holding the other photos ransom, so he had to come back and get me.

So, I think that had better be all for now.  I'll have to try this blogging stuff again sometime.  Paul

Jema was one of my very best friends during my teenage years.  She came back to Blenheim last week, and we saw eachother again after years apart.  I wish we had more time together to do a proper session, but before she left I was able to spend a couple of minutes with her gorgeous little Ashley. 

So cute!!