Cromwell Wedding
Towards the end of January we did a wedding for Mel and Steve. We got their package away to them earlier this week. This is the email we have received today from them
What can I say guys! The photos are fabulous, the album amazing, what a very exciting package to receive! Steve and I have just relived our wedding day oh the memories. We are both absolutely thrilled. We feel very privileged to have had you as our photographers. Thanks a bunch Keep in touch!!!!!!! Mel and Steve
Busy Weekend
Its another busy weekend for us. Three weddings this weekend. We have another wedding at Te Anau (we know the road now) one at Trelawn in Queenstown and one at Lookout Lodge. We are also getting a lot of enquieries for Winter weddings. As we always do, we are offering our winter special which give brides a 15% discount off all our packages for June. July and August. (Conditons apply) and that is already proving a winner. Keep an eye on our website for all the details
Te Anau Wedding
Jan, Lisa and Wayne travelled down to Te Anau for the second of three weddings down there this month. Nic and Simon had their wedding on the front lawn of the Distinction Hotel on Friday afternoon. After the ceremony and family photos it was a flight on a couple of helicopters up the mountain for some group shots before finishing the formal shoot around Te Anau. The day involved Video and Photography so it was a big day for the team but certainly one we thoroughly enjoyed with Simon, Nic, Sheree, Darryl, (Monkey, dont ask), Kyra, Lyle, Cameron and Ryan. Thanks guys for making our job easy.
Queenstown / Wanaka Wedding
Following our Friday wedding in Te Anau, Jan, Lisa and Wayne travelled back through to Cardrona for a wedding which invloved both Video and Photography at the Cardrona Hotel. Donny and Vanya booked our Aspiring Package. We started taking photos at 10am and went through to around 9 when we captured their first dance. The ceremony was held in the grounds of the Cardrona Hotel, the celebrant was Jools McKnight, the formal photos were shot at Lake Wanaka and at Wanaka Station Park and the reception and dance were held back at the Cardrona Hotel. It was a wonderful day despite the fact that there were some showers. Again what a wonderful Bride, Groom and Wedding party to work with. Thanks guys. We had as much fun as you did.
The Wedding Kit Essentials
With the recent advancement in Digital Photography and the competitive pricing of camera manufacturers, it is inevitable that there will be more amateur photographers being asked to photograph weddings. It can be an honour to get asked to photograph someones wedding but also a burden if you are not adequately prepared. There have been unfortunate accounts from people, losing data, having camera failures, lens failures and other pear shaped events you will want to avoid!
Below is a check list of preparations and the standard gear for photographing a wedding.
CAMERA(S) - A minimum requirement is a 10megapixel SLR, but as we know with technology it isn't fail safe and we wouldn't advise anyone to photograph a wedding without a back up body. A back up battery or more importantly a battery pack will also be essential.
LENSES - A good quality wide angle lens is essential for group shots and capturing the overall venue as well as a fast zoom lens up to 300mm for the more intimate moments and allowing unobtrusive shooting. Any other lenses will help as back ups such as a 50mm prime .
TRIPOD - A sturdy tripod will come in handy for group shots or at minimum a monopod to prevent camera shake.
FLASH - A high quality Speedlight (preferably two) is vital for low light situations such as indoors or for fill flash where shadows are turning the guests into silhouettes! Don't forget back up batteries for these also as they are thirsty little suckers.
DIFFUSER AND REFLECTOR - These are great photographer tools when the sun is harsh. They help to minimise shadows and soften the light, just try not to blind people by shining the reflector directly in your guests eyes!
MEMORY - Lastly have LOTS of memory , we shoot on either 4 or 8gig cards and have a pack of approximately 8 cards per person. This way if one card fails you will not be losing as much information.
BACKUP - After you have captured your beautiful photographs the last thing you want to do is lose them. After every wedding we back up each card to a computer, this is in turn backed up to a hard drive. Following this we have a 3rd party computer we back up to and an external drive we take off site. We can not over emphasise the importance of backing up your images.
Obviously gear is just part of a wedding and meeting the couple and establishing a rapport with them is equally important. There are many factors to discuss with them such as the style of photos they are after, venue details, the days schedule...a bit much to cover in one blog!
Below is a photo of the minimum kit we take to each wedding. As we always say to our Brides, this is one of the biggest days of your life. You cant re-run it because of Camera or Equipment failure. This is another reason why we always have two Pro Photographers with their own kit, at each wedding.
Busy Week
The team at Aspiring Photography have a big week this week with one family portrait sitting, one commercial shoot and two weddings. Three years back we shot a Wedding in Nasby for Nic and Geoff. There are now four of them and along with Milly and Wade they are coming through to Wanaka today for a family portrait shoot. We have a small commercial shoot at an Automotive outlet to tidy up on Thursday in Queenstown. We are doing that while we travel to Te Anau for another wedding. The wedding is on Friday, and then on Saturday we have a big wedding at Cardrona. Both weddings involve video as well, so it be a full truck and a couple of fun days
Te Anau Wedding
Jan, Lisa and Wayne left Wanaka on Saturday morning in perfect sunshine. The further south they went the darker the skies became. When the ceremony for Andree and Daniel's wedding began at 2 pm the light rain had stopped and apart from the odd gust of wind, the weather behaved itself. The ceremony was held in the Glass Chapel. After the ceremony they did family photos. They then took formal photos at Ivon Wilson Park and the lakefront.where the dramatic skies provided a beautiful backdrop. Thanks Andree and Daniel for a great day.
Cromwell Wedding
A couple of weeks back Jan Lisa and Wayne did a wedding for Melissa and Steve in Cromwell. It was a whole day shoot. Just got an email from Melissa. Thanks Mel not hard to get fabulous photos with really happy people.
Hey team
" Wow the photos are stunning I cant believe it, I am so so happy."
Take care
Mel
Te Anau Wedding
This Saturday Jan, Lisa and Wayne are off to shoot a wedding in the new Wedding Chapel at Te Anau. Over the nex few weeks we have three weddings at the chapel. This wedding involves photos and Video. On Sunday we are doing a family photo session in the park (Weather permitting). The following weekend it is off the Te Anau for a Friday Wedding and back to Cardrona on Saturday. Both weddings again involve photos and video.
Queenstown Portraits
A few weeks ago we took photos of a wonderful couple from the US who were out here for their honey moon. On Friday this email arrived....
"Hi there!
Just wanted to let you know we received our photo disc today - figured it would come as soon as I wrote you! :) John and I just spent some time going through the pictures and all we can say is WOW and THANK YOU! You captured so many great shots and we can't thank you enough! Each shot reminds us of the little moments we shared during our shoots and all the laughs we had with both of you....remember how we struggled with the umbrellas?! Ha ha! Anyway, we just wanted to let you know that we are so happy with the pictures and so grateful we got the chance to meet you and spend time with you! You are truly talented with such a unique style....we will enjoy these pictures for the rest of our lives!
Thanks again so very much; can't wait to come back for another visit!
Lyndsy and John"
Thanks Lyndsy, we had as much fun as you did
Dunedin Wedding
Jeremy and Wayne travelled down to Dunedin for the Wedding of Karen and Michael. All the family was at the home of the couple when we got there including Michaels Mum and Brother from Germany. We started with lots of family photos at their home and then shot some on our way to the venue for their Ceremony. We stopped at the Lookout at Port Chalmers and the Dunedin Railway station. The ceremony at Glenfalloch was lovely. It was held on the Bridal lawn and the weather was kind until we wanted to spend some time just with the newly married couple. The rain fell as it can in Dunedin, by the bucketful, but still we had already captured some lovely images from their big day. Jeremy will start to process the images tomorrow.
Northburn Station Wedding
Lisa and Jan had a full day with Isla and Jordan in Cromwell and at the venue for their wedding at Northburn Station. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable wedding with the morning spent with the girls at the hairdressers and with the guys at home playing with Etah, their Samoyed, who was their ring bearer. Then it was away to the Northburn station for the Ceremony which was conducted by Glennys Logan from Cromwell. The girls took the formal photos up amongst the Central Otago rocks and tussocks as well as around the Northburn Station.
Queenstown Weddings
We have a number of weddings over the next three months being held in Queenstown at the Stoneridge Estate. It is one of our favourite places to shoot a wedding in the Queenstown area. There are so many places to go to get great shots. Often we are asked to put up some photos of Stoneridge for some of our brides to look at. Here are a few if you are looking for venues or are holding your wedding at Stoneridge in Queenstown.
Jody Direen Photo Shoot
Jody is one great Wanaka talent. We are thrilled she chose Aspiring Photography to do all the photos and design work for her new album which is being recorded in Sydney starting later in February. It was a hot afternoon when we started the shoot. We visited several locations and ended up with a particular shot that Jody wants for her new Web Site. Three of us were involved in the shoot and for the big lake shot Jeremy at the end of the day, proved he will go to any length to get "The Shot" . It was a great day which ended up in the studio for some action shots that allowed us to get a free concert and listen to some of the material from the forthcoming album. Tell you what. This is one album that will be worth waiting for. Thanks Jody. We had a great day, and yes Ive cleaned up the studio.
Mt Cook Wedding Photographer
Aspiring Photography has again been selected as the photographers of choice for all the weddings held at The Hermitage Aoraki Mt Cook for the next two years. We consider this to be a real honour and over the past year that we have worked with the super professional team from Mt Cook, we have loved every wedding we have done there. We have a number of weddings coming up over the next six months at Mt Cook and I know that they are getting a lot of enquiry for the next 12 months from overseas.
Weekend of Weddings
This weekend we have two weddings. The Girls are off on Saturday afternoon to a wedding at the beautiful Northburn Station. The wedding starts at 4.00pm.Jan and Lisa are doing the formal photo shoot in the grounds of Northburn and down on the edge of Lake Dunstan. Jeremy and I are away on a road trip to Dunedin for a big wedding at the Glenfalloch Gardens. I used to shoot a lot of wedding s at Glenfalloch years ago and I love the venue. We are using the Gardens and a couple of places around the Otago harbour for the formal photo shoot. Next weekend the team are off to two weddings . One is being held at the Distinction Hotel and Chapel at Te Anau. The the next morning an early start when we head back to Cardrona Hotel for an all day wedding.
Twizel Wedding
We sent out the final package of Images Photo books and motions shows to Laura and Roger. We did their wedding a few weeks back. Got an email from Laura last night,We LOVE the photos! They are amazing. You guys gave us a great start to the day, and were awesome to work with! We now just need to spend some time sorting out what we want to do. Do you have a price list for printing photos and also putting some on canvas? Thanks again,Laura and Rog. Thanks guys we loved spend the day with you
