Meet Hannah and Luke.  Cute sure, but they've got such a great sense of humour as well!  They are the kind of people you instantly get on with, and they even laugh at my jokes!  Score!

Hannah is dropdead gorgeous, I can't wait till December to shoot their wedding!

You can tell they're great friends too, which is a fantastic way to start your married life together!

It's not too hard to get a great legs shot when you've got these legs to work with!

These guys loved to play, and came up with plenty of ideas of their own.

Like the playground.  I just can't help wondering how many 3 year old kids were looking at us like we were loonies.  Not to worry, I'm pretty used to that by now!  You can see by this stage of the shoot we were already getting on pretty well.

Clearly I couldn't have a fun and playful couple and NOT take them to the blue wall now, could I?

Get up against the wall, put your hands up!  Now there will be trouble....

Toooo awesome for words.....

Thanks for the shoot today Hannah and Luke!  Can't wait to show you the rest!

In other news: I was recently asked to do an interview for Digital Wedding Forum as the Featured Photographer.  What an amazing buzz that was!  I totally didn't see that coming!  So shoot on over there and read it today! 

Have you joined me on facebook yet?  Hu? Have you?  If not, get your bootie over here and press 'Become a Fan'.

Tomorrow I'm starting a brand new series titled 'Highly Inappropriate Places To Wear Your Wedding Dress'.  I can't WAIT to do some crazy stuff.  Watch this space!

I first met Sonya when I was taking her photo for a staff portrait at her work a few months back.  Yesterday I got to meet her beautiful family and spend some time getting some portraits of them too! 

This is them:

Sonya and Darryl have been married for 20 years, and they're so great together!  I love photographing couples so many years after the wedding, and the chemistry is still there.

Check out their gorgeous kids!

I offered to take Kate home with me.  She'd fit into my little brood quite nicely, but apparently she's quite happy where she is, even after I offered to swap her for a 2 year old, Sonya wouldn't budge.  Ahh, never mind!

Even Aimee seems quite attached to her.

Aimee, I would have taken you home too - but you would have even less chance of getting a horse in our family!

Teenage boys generally don't like to pose for the camera, and although Adam was no exception, he was such a great sport!

Aren't they cute together?!

When I first turned up, Darryl was just deciding on what to put on his feet.  He asked if I would be taking any pictures that included their feet.  Too right I was!  Clearly he hadn't discovered my crazy fascination with getting a feet shot at every session.  I do tend to draw blank looks from people when I try to explain how the head part of the body is so over rated! 

Thanks so much guys for inviting me onto your beautiful property, and letting me photograph you all!  You were an absolute joy!

This weekend I had a family shoot lined up at the malthouse, which has been postponed.  I was still pretty keen to do a session at the Malthouse, so I put a call out on my facebook page for a half price last minute booking.  (See, it does pay to join me on facebook!)  Before long Katherine called me up and booked her boys in.  I always try to capture the personality of everyone I photograph, and so all my 'romantic' malthouse ideas took a backseat!

I love this shot!  (and yes, we did have permission to be there!)

These boys certainly don't lack any personality, that's for sure!  And how can you NOT use a perfectly good outhouse in a photo or two?

I was shooting something else entirely, turned around only to see a much better photo happening behind me.  Sometimes you've got to have eyes in the back of your head!  As tough as these boys are, you can see they really do love their Mum!

They actually did exceptionally well, especially considering they had missed lunch completely!  I only have one boy, but I know that boys do like their food, and would rather not miss any meals if possible! 

I love the drama in this shot. 

Inside the Malthouse, and the light is just gorgeous!

Such a nice shot!!

Thanks for playing along boys, you really were great!  And well done Katherine for spotting my facebook announcement.  We had a lot of laughs, didn't we? 

Often I get so caught up with the fun of posting weddings and portraits on the blog, that I completely neglect showing off the other stuff we do too!  Here is part of a series we shot for Highfield Estate recently.  What I particularly like about this series, is how each photo illustrates the job that the person does.  They're not just the usual "This is Joe" photos. Sure they take more time and forethought, but I think it's totally worth it!

Setting the scene with one of Paul's gorgeous winter shots.  This was just before bud burst, we were super lucky to get a good frost!  Taken just as the sun was rising, this was not a shoot I was too upset about missing! 

But give me people to photograph, and then I'm all in!

This is one of the winemakers, Al.  I particularly love what Paul has done with the lighting here.  See the light pattern behind him?  That was Paul up on the catwalk with the external strobe through the grid.  Cool ey?  Another strobe camera right, lighting up Al and the doggie.

What I love about this shot, is the perfect spider's web on the tree, also the look of responsibility on the doggie's face.  It's a big job being the winemakers dog you know!

In other news:  We have released our Wedding price list and information for next summer (2010/2011), so if you've been waiting for us to open the calender for bookings, now's the time!  Drop us an email, and I'll send you all the info.

Yesterday I was thrilled to catch up with Sarah and Mike again.  Their wedding was a particularly special one, one I'd happily go to all over again!  Well, Sarah has kept in touch and become more of a friend then a client, so when I heard that she was coming through Blenheim again with their gorgeous little Callum, there was no doubt that we had to do a photoshoot!

Look at him!  Don't you just want to squeeze him?

It was great to see Julia again too, she is Sarah's sister and a bridesmaid at the wedding.

Callum's first time in a swing.

Do you get the feeling that he quite likes his Daddy?

Gorgeous family!

Sarah is still looking beautiful!

Mike and Sarah live in Singapore, and one thing they don't get over there is icecream in cones like we do.  Here in New Zealand they are still sold in most dairies, and you buy them by the scoop.  So we had to stop by and get some!

Bear with me while I play with some textures!  Until now I hadn't really bought into the whole texture thing, but it may just grow on me yet.

Mike has the FUNNIEST sense of humour, we had a real ball.  I'm not sure what the dairy owner thought of us though....!

Thanks so much for coming to see us guys!  It was so much fun, I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time!  Can't wait till we do it again :)

This weekend we've been lucky enough to have Paul's cousin Ruth and her gorgeous family staying in Blenheim.  Of course, we couldn't let the opportunity go without a photoshoot!

So this afternoon I packed up my six kids, and took them to Nana and Grandad's.  It was no small task getting everything ready all by myself, as Paul is away at an AIPA conference right now.  Nonetheless, I thought I was doing remarkably well..... until..... I discovered I was wearing odd shoes.  I kid you not.  Sure they were both black, but they were different heights!  It's quite a skill to not notice that for half an hour!

Anyway - if my pictures are on a slight lean, you know why.

First up, we went to the blue wall.  I asked "Who's going to do the best jump for me?"  And this was the response:

I'm pretty sure Aaron won that one!  He's got some mad jumping skills!

This is Sam, and believe it or not, this shot was his idea!

Alyssa is the picture of her Mum, what a cutie!

I don't know why I always like to do a 'feet shot'.  It's just part of what I do, I even did it this week on a commercial shoot, I just can't resist!  As Paul says, "the head part of the body is so over rated!"  I'm loving the sign on this one:

Who's doing the meanest face, do you think?

Then off to the park so that the kids could get some playing done!  In the meantime, I got some lovely pictures of just Ruth and Aaron.

Can you believe that Ruth doesn't think she's photogenic?!

I think even Aaron surprised himself, to be honest.

These guys are such a lovely couple, really warm and loving.  I totally wish they lived closer!

Check out the 'That's my Dad!' look on Sam's face.  Too cute!

Ok - that's me for now!  I've got a big month lined up, no weddings, but a whole bunch of family shoots to do.  I might even throw in a trash the dress for good measure!  Don't forget you can stay a little more up to date with the goings on at our place by joining me on facebook!