groom – Two Black Dogs

48 hours

October 21, 2013October 21, 2013Two Black Dogs17 Comments

We’re back from a quick trip south to attend a family wedding, it takes roughly six and half hours to drive to Port Macquarie in New South Wales so we had roughly 36 hours at our destination. Leaving the dogs at home with a dog sitter we loaded up the car and headed off, feeling guilty for leaving them but knowing that it would result in less worry all round. The drive south took much longer than anticipated as a result of two separate accidents on the highway, at one point we had to turn around and head north west before finding an alternate route south, adding an extra 100kms or thereabouts to our trip. By the time we reached our destination it was well and truly time to enjoy a cold beer and a glass of wine.

My mother in-law and her husband had moved into their new house, located in a rural area much closer to my family it makes travelling between the two locations much easier. Their new home is on acreage, the gardens are huge and overgrown but it is easy to see the potential and I know that they will enjoy turning it into something wonderful. Surrounded by trees the birdlife that visit the backyard are amazing, varying from the common noisy minor to magpies, eastern koels, rainbow lorikeets, satin bowerbirds and scaly-breasted lorikeets. Murphy the labrador and Sammy the border collie certainly seem to like the new place, plenty of sticks for Sammy to fetch and Murphy was pleased with his discovery of a kangaroo leg from the bottom of the garden.

The wedding was a wonderful opportunity to get together with family and the ceremony was conducted on the pretty grounds of Cassegrain’s Winery in Port Macquarie and the reception held at a local Returned Servicemen Club (RSL). The weather had been pretty miserable up until the morning of the ceremony, it was a relief to see the sunshine for such a special occasion. Even though I wasn’t there to take photographs, it is unusual for me to attend any event without my camera in hand and I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to get photographs of my immediate family together, plus I love weddings 🙂

Getting home on the Sunday seemed to take forever, but it was a much faster trip and I know that the time went slow because I couldn’t wait to get home and see our fur kids. The last 48 hours was a bit of a blur, lots of love and laughter and plenty of photographs to remind us of the fun.

My first time…photographing a wedding

October 13, 2013Two Black Dogs19 Comments

On Friday I spent the day photographing the wedding of a good friend, it isn’t something I normally do because I am not a wedding photography. This I did as a favour and because the couple did not expect or want formal, studio quality photographs – if it wasn’t me taking the photos it would have been my husband and he has even less experience. I have photographed a wedding once before, but it was as a second photographer – more of a sidekick really, to a much more experience photographer who was happy to have me along.

The nerves kicked in early in the morning and hung around until the ceremony, afterwards it wasn’t so bad and that has more to do with the fact that the bridal party were wonderful, they had fun, they laughed and smiled and not once did they appear to be tired of having their picture taken. It was one of the most enjoyable, relaxed weddings I have ever been to and also one of the smallest, making it easier to get a group shot at the reception and to make sure that everyone had their chance to have a photograph taken with the happy couple.

The bride and groom already have printed copies of the shots that I’m sharing with you, they’re off on their honeymoon today and will visit family overseas so I wanted them to have something to take with them. Is wedding photography something I would want to do more often, probably not, the stress would kill me however, it is wonderful to experience such a joyful occasion and to be able to capture the moment for friends.

Inspired to share…wedding photos

June 6, 2012Two Black Dogs16 Comments

I have been inspired by restlessjo, a wonderful blogger of many beautiful places and things, to share my wedding photos. Jo was reminiscing about her wedding day and expressed a desire to see the photographs from the weddings of other bloggers, I’ve always loved weddings and am happy to oblige Jo in the hope that maybe the sharing will be contagious 🙂

We had been together about 15 years before getting married on New Year’s Eve in 2007, it was quite a casual affair and more of a party with family and friends than a traditional, formal wedding. My Nanna was disappointed that we didn’t get married in a church, however my father told her that getting married outdoors meant that we were closer to God and that was the end of that discussion. In the weeks prior we had constant rain, thankfully the sun came out for our ceremony and the weather was unusually mild for an Australian summer making it the perfect day for a wedding.

Thank you Jo for inspiring this post and for causing me to reminisce about a very special moment in my life.

Cheers!