As a wedding photographer, I meet a huge variety of brides and grooms. Most are great, but every now and then you meet a couple that are such a pleasure to work with. Gina and Matt are one of those couples. They have to be the most relaxed and laid-back bride and groom I have ever photographed! They were like that from the first time we met, but I think it helped that they chose to have a very small, intimate ceremony in Martinborough with just their family to celebrate with them. Both families and the wedding party stayed at the beautiful Tarureka Estate Homestead in Featherston, Wairarapa, which was a dream to photograph, and gave us some great locations both before and after the ceremony.

Stay tuned for the images from their reception where Gina and Matt celebrated their wedding with their friends a couple of weeks later in Wellington.

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With the wedding season winding down here in New Zealand, I really wanted to have some fun with Susanna & Kryspin’s wedding. I always love to shoot the getting ready stages in the morning. It’s my favourite part of the day as the girls are generally relaxed and enjoying getting beautiful. It also gives me plenty of time to get some great creative shots. Susanna and her bridesmaids had their hair and makeup done at Is Bliss, who worked their magic and did a fantastic job!

After a short break, we headed off to do some pre-ceremony shots (which I also love BTW). We headed down to Island Bay then got some great shots in Happy Valley. The ceremony and reception were at Wilton House, which is a stunning venue in the Wilton Bush. It was the perfect day for an outdoor ceremony in their beautiful garden.

It was such a great day, and I had a lot of fun with Susanna, Kryspin, and all their friends and family. Thank you for allowing me to share your day with you!

Hannah and Jamin are due to have their first baby in January 2010.  I met with them when Hannah was 38 weeks into her pregnancy (2 weeks to due date), so she was very pregnant and very ready to pop!  Here’s a small selection of images from the session.

Christmas is one of those times when you sometimes realise that it’s the first time in a long time that the whole family has been in the same place at the same time.  This was one of those times.  The Brebners asked me to photograph a family portrait of them all as their eldest daughter had just come home from overseas.  Tauranga had turned it on for us over Christmas, and this day was no exception.  We found some shelter from the unforgiving sun under these beautiful trees and got some great photos.

Last Thursday I went to do this newborn photo shoot of seven day old Kahu-Ariki. At seven days old, he should pretty much just be eating and sleeping, which mum assured me he usually did. On this particular day, though, he wasn’t in the mood for sleep. During the three hours I spent with Ariki and his mum and dad, he must’ve only slept for a total of about 15 minutes! He was just wide awake and wasn’t interested at all in sleeping or posing for me.

Fortunately, we still managed to get some beautiful portraits of him with his parents. He thanked me by peeing on me, and then finally went to sleep so I could quickly get a few images of him with his eyes shut.