Mark & Claudine – The Wedding 2010-04-10

Our beautiful competition winners tied the knot today. The day was beautiful, simple, unique, elegant and emotional. It was everything a wedding should be. Both the bride and groom were super nervous before hand, but the second they saw each other they were centred again. I think that says alot about them as a couple.

Me on the other hand…what my day said about me is that I am an absolute clutz! While walking backwards I tripped into a cast iron bird bath, took a chunk out of my ankle, almost broke my finger and managed to not only drench my camera, but crack it a little too. Of course My loveable 5d held up and didn’t skip a beat. Still worked beautifully all day. (is it wrong to love a camera that much?). Oh and my butt was wet for a fair while too….

Mark and Claudine, congratulations on winning our competition, but also for the rest of your lives together.

j.

Nicole & Steve – The Wedding 2010-04-09

Today was a photographers dream. 3 hours before the ceremony with the bride & the groom! So we got kicked out of one venue before we started shooting (no permit)…but we went to a better location and got some amazing shots. Nicole planned everything perfectly, the girls were all fabulous and the boys looked amazing. I loved that Nicole and Steve choose to see each other before the wedding. It makes for a much more relaxed day, and as you can see from the first image, you still get that impact of seeing each other for the first time! Of course, once again, their beautiful daughter Ava stole the show….but I don’t think they actually minded!

A quick sneak peek tonight as tomorrow morning we are off bright and early to photograph the winners of our wedding photography comp for their big day. Big weekend (which means we are having a j [studios] slumber party with Bree & Hannah….here’s hoping for *some* sleep!) and we will be back tomorrow with another sneak peek….then we will collapse in a heap exhausted!

j.

Sneak Peek – the Duffy Family 2010-03-27

This morning I was lucky enough to photograph this gorgeous family in their home. There is something about photographing a family at home that seems right. Here they are in their everyday environment, doing every day things. This family had a beautiful home and I fell in love with their big beautiful front door. When mum said she wanted some photos there I was so happy I didn’t have to try to convince them to do it! Kids always seem more relaxed at home, and these photos I think really show this. These kids are all freakin’ adorable…especially the baby of the family. He kept pulling the cutest faces! While I was dancing around the lounge room with these kids (to Ella Fitzgerald – my kind of family!) I looked at dad and said “yup, this is my job!” How lucky am I???

Thanks for today. Can’t wait to get the rest of your gallery to you guys.

j.

What did I do today??? 2010-03-21

I jumped out of a perfectly good plane at 14 000ft today and raised over $2500 for charity…what did you do???

Ok maybe that was a bit cocky…but did you read the first bit??? I just jumped out of a freakin plane!

So what started as a joke turned into something that terrified me beyond belief. I have a complete and utter fear of heights. I can’t stand close too a window or on a balcony once we get to the second floor. But as most people know, I would do just about anything for the ACOCP. So I set about this ridiculous idea of me jumping from a plane to raise $2500 for the ACOCP.

The fundraising was slow going at first, but then in a matter of days we reached half way. It sped up for a bit, before slowing down and I was starting to worry we wouldn’t make our goal. But on Friday I was able to let everyone know we finally reached it. That was an awesome feeling, of course it was followed by sheer panic that I was now going to have to actually follow through.

A bit of a disaster struck when we realised we had no way of getting to Nagambie so I want to take the time to send a HUGE thank you to the lovely Tania who was my driver/support person. Tania is the aunt of the lovely Jordan, who was photographed by Gavin Blue for the ACOCP. It was so nice to hear from a family member on how much the photos meant to Jordans family. It was also an so appreciated that she gave up her entire Sunday (including having to leave home at 5am!) to be there with me for the jump. Tania is also a photographer and brought along her camera to take some shots of me preparing, and when I landed.

When we left it was still pretty dark and I was beyond nervous. Tania did a great job of distracting me and we chatted the whole way there (ok it was mainly me talking as I was super nervous). When I got there I had to fill in a tonne of paper work (it seemed they really wanted me to know skydiving was dangerous …. and that I would be in close personal phsyical contact with my instructor…  ) and then I got fitted with my very trendy yellow & blue parachute pants and my harness. I was also told what would happen in the plane and the exit procedure. That’s when I really started to panic. The exit procedure has me sitting on the floor of the plane, with my feet hanging outside the plane and bent back so my heels are touching the underside. Being told that we would be flying along with me sitting half out a plane seemed to scare me more than anything.

yes thats concern on my face…..

practising the exit procedure

mmm….blue & yellow parachute pants are so in this season….and don’t I look just fabulous in them??

Then began the waiting game. As you can imagine weekends are super busy. Not only was Skydive Nagambie donating the jump, but they had arranged for the super awesome Mitch donated his time and talents to jump with us and capture it all on video (should arrive this week!). But as Mitch was in hot demand as camera guy, and he was donating his time, we had to wait til he was free. We finally heard that I was up next. I was going to be the only tandem person along with a few solo’s. Wokka (my awesome tandem partner/instructor) came over to introduce himself and check my harness. Before I knew it we were making our way to the plane.

Now for all my fear of heights, I actually have zero issues with planes. Even this plane which was tiny and had a roller door opening. I actually really enjoyed the view and was able to talk on the way up. When Wokka told me we were only 6000ft up and still had more than halfway to go I went back to being nervous. After double checking everything was attached the green light went and the door opened. The next thing I knew I was watching people throw themselves out of this plane. Then it was my turn. By now the crazy Mitch was clinging to the outside of the plane while we were getting closer to the door. A brief moment in my head of OMG I cannot put my feet outside and I was sitting on the edge of a plane with my feet outside and two seconds later we were tumbling out. A few seconds after that and we were in free fall and hit terminal velocity (word of advice….don’t attempt to breathe through your mouth as you are hurtling to the ground at 300km/h). Now was when I had been instructed to interact with the camera. HARDER THAN IT SOUNDS! So I made some thumbs up and moronic faces and then before I knew it Mitch disappeared from sight as our parachute was deployed (that’s when you really notice how fast you are going – when the person who hasn’t pulled their chute disappears!).

What can I say from there apart from WOW. Quite possibly the most incredible experience of my life. Floating around (and bugging Wokka who was busy, you know, steering the parachute with “how far up are we now? What about now?”) was incredible. I actually finally got to look around (cause I was busy looking at the camera during freefall). It was incredible. Nothing else in the world can compare to that feeling. Of course I did politely decline when he offered to let me steer, but the rest was amazing. Apparently I was up there for ages (I think Wokka was giving me the star treatment) just floating around. He did also make us spin for a bit…not such a fan of that part. Before I knew it we were touching the ground and it was over.

YES! I have my own “Hero Walk” Image

I felt AMAZING. I can’t believe I actually managed to do it. I didn’t even scream!!!! So was it worth it? HELL YEAH!

And the best news – as of today we have raised $2655 for the ACOCP.

Thank you so much for all your incredible support in donations, in spreading the word and support (via text messages, emails, phone calls and twitter this morning to wish me luck). It has been amazing….

So what should be our big fundraiser next year? What terrifying thing should I accomplish next? (if you say snakes I will hurt you!).

j.

Image Credits all go to Tania Wholing

Sneak Peek – Nicole & Steve (and Ava) 2010-03-19

I first met Nicole after she answered a model call I had. I was after a very specific look, and something I hadn’t done before. Most people who answered the model call thought I was crazy, but thankfully Nicole saw past that and let her beautiful bub, Ava, be my first Urban session. She didn’t bat an eyelid when I wanted to sit Ava down in Alley ways or change her hats or her outfit. Nicole also spoke to me then about her wedding, but at the time nothing had been set in stone. I was delighted when a few months later she called to book her wedding…which is now just 3 weeks away. After a run of shocking luck when it came to me being sick we finally managed our shoot today at the beautiful Point Cook Homestead. With me working from home again I am finding myself exploring the local area more. Point Cook is AWESOME!!! The light was just phenomenal and of course they all looked amazing.

Can’t wait for the big day!

j.