Chris & Elisha are in love, so they got married. I’ll share more soon.

Before I talk about Hollie & Jason’s wedding I want to just mention something about the editing of these images. I’ve edited these images using less colour shifting and more old school techniques. I’m having so much fun at the moment learning more about photoshop. To be honest, I spent hours and hours and hours.. ok… about a day straight editing these images from Hollie & Jason’s wedding and along the way learning more about photoshop. I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Be kind

Hollie & Jason were married in Coffs Harbour at Aanuka Breakfree resort. I love love love shooting weddings here. I’ve probably shot around 10 or 15 here over the years and everyone of them has been spectacular. I also love the fact that you can do everything in one place. You can get ready, get married, have your photos and your reception all in the one location. I love it when weddings are easy on the bride & groom. It’s so nice to see them enjoy the day without driving all over the countryside.

It was so cool to see this wedding come together. Hollie was so good at keeping me updated and sending me photos of the dress and running ideas by me. The dress was gorgeous by the way!

Aanuka really is such a great place to get married. If I were from Coffs i’d totally get married there.

Hollie would have to be one of the most beautiful brides I’ve ever photographed.

Hollie & Jason had a lovely ceremony on the grounds of Aanuka. I remember another wedding there where it was windy and all the official documents flew away. I joined the chase for the documents and happened to pick up the certificate of marriage before it went into the ocean.

Love & respect

Everything went smoothly with lots of their friends & family keen to celebrate with them throughout the night!

Ahh.. I love shooting at the beach.

Cool shoes huh?

Check out those eyes!

I love images that express connection. Ahh.. so beautiful.

Leave Hollie & Jason some comment love

JD

Writing a blog post about where I find my inspiration should read a long list of famous photographers around the world that I might model myself after. I can’t deny that there have been photographers who I have met that have inspired me, but usually the inspiration hasn’t come from their images they create. It’s people that inspire me.

When I am photographing, the only real inspiration I have is the people in front of me. I often say that I wish I could just photograph in a desert with absolutely nothing around me because I actually love it when I have no distractions of the landscape when I shoot. Sometimes the location can add to the image, but often it simply acts as a distraction if you try and make the people in front of you fit with in with the landscape with no link to it at all.

The best advice I can give to someone who is lacking inspiration is to simply be fascinated. See what you are seeing like you have never seen it before. If you go into a photoshoot thinking this is just another one of those blah blah blah thingo’s that I did last week and yeah I’ll just go to the same place and do the same thing and it’ll be easy.. then you’re really setting yourself up for failure in my opinion. You’re unlikely to produce anything authentic and you’ll get super tired of your work in 5 mins flat. I often meet photographers who are so sick of weddings yet they still photograph weddings because they like the money. They assume I’m in it for the same reason and they rarely understand my enthusiasm for photographing art of people in love. There is something incredible about creating art from love. There is nothing more beautiful than love.

Discovering an image like this of Sandy & Bianca comes from letting go of all your own agendas and allowing people to openly express their love for each other.

We live in a world where copying is so easy and I believe our society is being trained by the media to imitate. I sit here watching a guy on Ellen singing a song that has been done a thousand times before. Am I going to remember this guy? Not likely. Will people sing along and say.. “ooh I love this song”. They won’t credit you for it though. It’s more likely going to remind them what they love about the original. People are placed on a pedestal & we are told to love them, then there are products that are brought out to help us imitate them. Photoshop actions anyone?

Imitation doesn’t open you up to the world of fascination, hence why I want no more of it.

What are your thoughts?

JD

Recently Catalina & Lachlan visited recently from Melbourne & we met up to photograph their love!
We photographed around the balmain area which I could shoot in way more often. It’s so nice there.
Catalina & Lachlan will be married in Brisbane in October. Can’t wait to photograph their wedding!

So, you love a girl. You propose. You can’t even imagine what is coming next. If I knew what a huge job planning a wedding was I might have considered my timing a little better. I am so glad I’m getting married, it’s just.. well.. you’ve got colours to think of, vendors to meet with, budgets to work to, families to keep happy. Heck, I just want to marry Cath.

So here’s what happened a few weeks after the proposal.. the engagement party! I never even thought i’d have an engagement party!

I wish someone told me to do up an extra button…

My princess

My two special ladies. My mum and my fiancee Catherine!

Me and my two awesome little dudes. My nephews!

They like killing each other.

Cath’s dad Mark is a bit of a champion bbq’er

We also learnt that Chocolate Fountains don’t work if it’s freezing cold.

This is Michael, you saw his shoot a few days ago. He took these pics. We love Michael! Check out his site.

It was so amazing to be standing there at my engagement party to Cath! Wow.

I’m often asked by new camera owners for tips on how to photograph a wedding. In this day and age lots of people who own cameras are asked to photograph a wedding. I’m not saying don’t ask a friend to photograph a wedding.. in fact I encourage it. It’s probably the best thing anyone could do for my business. The majority of my work comes from people who know people who have had awful wedding photos and have recommended their friends hire a pro! Also notice I am calling them new camera owners and not photographers! I do not call someone that buys a scalpel a surgeon.

Thought i’d add a random photo just for fun from Lashaye & Mark’s wedding for those of you that are here to see pretty pictures

Here are 10 mistakes that new camera owners make regularly!

1. Not having back up. Find out if your new camera owner has back up for all their gear. 99.9% of new camera owners won’t have this. It’s not a matter of it something goes wrong, it’s when.

2. Not having back up. But I already said that? I’m talking about different back up now. I’m talking about making multiple copies of the images in different locations in case of some sort of incident. Once again, it’s not if, but when.

3. Not having the correct insurance. It could ruin your photographer friend if something happens and they get sued. They also may not be legally allowed to photograph in some locations!

4. Not understanding light. Without light there is no photo. With a good understanding of light, you can do pretty much anything!

5. Not setting expectations or setting expectations beyond what they can reasonably do. If these people really think they can do what they have promised, then why am I getting these emails asking for help every day?

6. Not presenting images properly. One of the things that an experienced professional photographer can do for you is present your images in a way that will help you appreciate the images. A disc of unedited photos with no clear story is not ideal! Imagine going to the movies and having to watch Tom Hanks say “Life is like a box of chocolates” over and over again until he gets it right. You want to see it once, done properly, followed by the next scene that complements the story.

7. Not knowing how to set people at ease. This also applies to many professional photographers. They get so caught up in the technical aspects and fiddling with their cameras that they lose all connection with the people in the images.

8. Learning how to use your camera when you are photographing a wedding. This isn’t the time to experiment with what this button might do etc… format?… I wonder what the format button does!

9. Missing out on images that people expect. This comes back to setting expectations and exceeding them. The best way to avoid this is just to ask lots of questions and find out what they want & write them down!

10. Wasting peoples time. Generally an inexperienced new camera owner will take a long time to do what a pro can do in a split second.

For the new camera owners wanting to read more about photographing a wedding, I suggest reading the following article that my friend Antony Hands wrote on how to photograph a wedding!

James Day.
www.3words.com.au

Bianca & Sandy are potentially 2 of the most encouraging people I’ve ever met. There’s something about them that just screams “i’m going to make you feel awesome about yourself”.
I’ve been very privileged to be able to spend lots of time recently with Bianca as she runs an innovations company and is going to be helping me launch something that is going to turn my life upside down, around and inside out.

Bianca & Sandy were married recently in my home town of Armidale. They, like me, now live in Sydney but chose to have a wedding in a smaller town.

They chose to be married in the Catholic Church in Armidale which I love because the light in there is gorgeous!

The reception rocked at Petersons Winery. I’ll tell you a few things I love about that place…There are so many great places to shoot there, the food is great, the service is spectacular & the place just looks unreal.

I also loved the fact that they got ready at such wonderful places where it was easy to shoot. The girls got ready at Petersons guest house and the guys got ready at Lindsay House. I’m going to be recommending my fiancee Catherine to check out Lindsay house as a great place to get ready.

Sandy was such a handsome, stylish groom. I need to find out where he got his suit!

Bianca was amazing, as always.

Bianca has lots of fans. This little munchkin wanted in on the action before Bianca could even get into the church.

The flower girls were out the front of the church waiting for the bride… waiting.. waiting…. Patiently?

I love this.

I love the light in this place. so awesome.

The flower girls were so animated.

Happy campers.

Girl hair in the wind. Ahhh. It’s the best.

Contentment!

Petersons is such a great location!

Once again.. Petersons.. omg.

Sandy had a groomswoman, who was his sister. Cool idea I reckon. Don’t get any ideas, Jules.

A bridal party photo shoot with me is probably the most fun you can have with your clothes on

I like it when people don’t take themselves too seriously…

In awe.

The guests rocked the reception while Emily & Jarel & their band rocked the sounds. Wow, what a day.

Hello friends

He’s been described as my man crush.
She is my fiancee’s identical twin.

Introducing Michael & Jane.

Michael explained to me that Jane was his pizza girl. Jane worked at Michaels local pizza joint. Then Michael decided to visit Gloria Jeans where Jane also worked. He remembered her from the pizza joint. Michael & Jane went ice skating. Michael & Jane are now in love.

When I started dating Catherine, we all decided to go on a double date in the city. We got a pizza that was 1 metre long. We didn’t even go close to finishing it. We also took these pictures. There are photos that exist of Michael & I switching girlfriends and posing for romantic photos with them (they’re identical twins remember). They probably shouldn’t surface.

We met out the front of the Queen Victoria Building and just walked around & hung out. I like shooting like that. It means everyone is relaxed.

I get a bit jealous of Michael’s awesome hair & good looks.

This was taken at darling harbour out the front of the imax. I think Michael was telling Jane how he really wanted to go see Inception. What a moment

I love all the lines in this shot.

Shooting inside the QVB is a delicate balance of running from security and chilling out.

In their own world.

Pretty much my favourite shot of the day.

Please leave me or Jane & Michael a little note by commenting on this blog post!