wedding – Two Black Dogs

Happy Wedding day!

April 27, 2014Two Black Dogs10 Comments

A wedding is a happy occasion and more so when the person getting married is someone you’ve known and loved for a long time. My husband’s little sister Lou was born when he was close to finishing school and we met when she was about two years old, chubby cheeks and beautiful blonde curls. Two weeks ago Lou married the love of her life and it was fun and laughter all the way.

I didn’t lug my DSLR to the wedding, they had a couple of photographers and everyone else had cameras so I chose to take a few shots prior to the wedding and then stick with the point and shoot camera. Lou is very photogenic and like most people of her generation, completely comfortable with having her photo taking thanks to the extensive practice of taking selfies. The photos I am sharing with you capture her excitement, including the happy dance she did in the apartment before heading to the church.

Enjoy!

Lou’s excited to be getting married face

My year that was…2013

January 5, 2014Two Black Dogs10 Comments

2013 was, in some ways, a really crap year personally and professionally with change and uncertainty, anxiety and worry featuring heavily for several months. Thankfully, there were many bright moments and things started looking up towards the end of the year. This post is my year in review in pictures, dogs are a constant, along with flowers and our local wildlife, these are the things that really kept me sane and brightened my days.

Bundy and his cone of shame

Pelmeni Russian Dumplings made by our German/Russian guests

Bamboo landed on our roof during Cyclone Oswold

Statue at Mt Tamborine Botanic Garden, photograph taken during a Bluedog Photography course

Fries with grated Feta

Aretha the staffy at AWL

Cavalia under the big top

A March wedding for my Mother in-law

Easter Eggs

Foster puppies with Bundy

Stingray at Seaworld

April sunrise at the beach with Maxi and Bundy

Finally success at taking a full moon photograph

Two black dogs sharing a bed, this is a rare occasion – Maxi hates sharing her bed

Rainbow over the pond

Nobby’s Lighthouse at sunrise, Newcastle

High Tea

Paella at our work farewell, saying goodbye to colleagues after a restructure

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.

The joy of a morning walk along the coast

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012Two Black Dogs8 Comments

A wedding on the Sunshine Coast gave us the perfect opportunity to spend a weekend in the coastal town of Caloundra, about one and a half hours north of Brisbane. The wedding was held on the headlands, thankfully there was no rain but the ocean breeze made things a little interesting for the bride and her veil which had to be held by the bridesmaids throughout the ceremony. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun evening of celebration with the usual dancing and champagne, still, we managed to be up early for a walk along the beach even though the hours of sleep were few.

Caloundra has made the early morning walk easy, where there is no sand to walk on you can walk along the footpath and a boardwalk makes navigating rocky heads much easier. Serious photographers (not me) were out with their super duper zoom lens’ and tripods, I settled for minimum baggage and more often than not, tilted horizons which were easy enough to fix on the computer 🙂

Despite the beautiful sunshine, at 7am it was still quite cool with a slight breeze coming off the beach and much of the path still in shadow. Dog walkers, joggers and surfers were already in action, at one point we just stood in the sun watching the waves role in and loving the fact that we had made the effort to get out of bed.

As we walked back towards the centre of town and the plethora of cafes open early for all the tourists and locals who like to get their morning caffeine fix we saw several very cool cars parked near the BBQ area. Not sure whether this was a usual haunt for car aficionados or a stop for car loving friends out on a day trip, but I couldn’t resist taking a photo. Don’t ask me what sort of cars they are, cars are not my thing so feel free to leave a comment telling me what they are if cars are your thing.

We stayed at the Oaks Oasis, a nice hotel however, eating in the hotel restaurant when there were so many lovely little cafes by the beach seemed a bit silly. We dodged the cafe where all the cyclists were meeting because who wants to be surrounded by sweaty, smelly men in lycra, and chose a small, but busy cafe not far from the water. Hubby and I love Merlo coffee and we could spot the big blue Merlo banners and umbrellas from a mile off, the bonus was the extensive range of delicious sounding options on the breakfast menu and there was no resisting the Eggs Benedict with bacon.

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!