Samantha and Stuart - Wedding II

A few more...

Samantha and Stuart - Wedding

A sneak peak...

Lake Grace - The Reconnaissance

I did a mad day-trip to Lake Grace on Saturday with 4 of the other artists from our East of Us arts project. We're planning to spend a week there in March 2010 as a lead-up to Denmark's annual Brave New Works festival. The idea is that 10 Denmark artists (4 musicians, a sculptor, 2 visual artists, 2 writers and a photographer...me) spend a week collaborating creatively with each other and with the local community, have an exhibition of the results on our last evening and then repeat the exhibition two weeks later in Denmark during Brave New Works.

Saturday's mission was kind of a pre-recce recce (we'll hopefully spend another weekend there over summer to put a few more things in place) to meet some of Lake Grace's artists and to get a feel for the town and its surrounds.

It was a huge day, setting off from Denmark at 6am, returning inspired but weary 16 hours later.

A big, big thank you to the lovely and very talented folk who showed us around - Kerry, Michelle, Tanya, Annie and Phyllis. Lovely to meet you all - see you again next year!

The journey

The largest of the many shallow salt lakes in the area.

We're always strangely drawn to the old rubbish tips in towns - Lake Grace didn't disappoint! An old wicker chair...

Beware...kangaroos crossing :-)

Robb & Jodie - Wedding

I had a wonderful time recently photographing Robb and Jodie's wedding here in Denmark, WA. In many ways it was very traditional but their approach was delightfully relaxed and unconventional. Even discovering that their celebrant had had a heart attack overnight left them worrying more about him than about the task of finding a stand-in celebrant for that afternoon. Beautiful people, stunning settings, happy photographer :-)

Coastal Splendours exhibition

I've been photographing lots of amazing artwork this week as everyone set up their exhibitions for this year's Southern Art & Craft Trail. It also provided the opportunity to photograph my lovely friend Anthony Docherty again for some publicity shots for his exhibition with Chris Lee. We headed to the coast and managed to grab this one - called "Collaboration" :-) - between storms.

Doc and Chris are just 2 of the artists participating in Coastal Splendours at the Centre for Sustainable Living in Denmark, WA. The exhibition runs until Sunday 11 October, 10am-4.30pm every day.

Foto Freo 2010

I've been invited to be part of a combined exhibition for next year's Foto Freo - Fremantle's biennial international festival of photography. It's great to have a reason to get out and take some photos just for me :-)  I'm planning on doing a kitchen-based series of photos to show the different sides of the local community. Spent a lovely morning with Luc Longley and Anna Gare in their kitchen this week...as I walked in and spotted the clothes pegs in holding Anna's hair back, I knew we were in for a fun shoot. And the timing was perfect - Anna's busy doing recipe development for her new TV series and book so I picked up some cooking tips along the way, and got to eat yummy cake. Thanks guys!

Gift vouchers

I've been designing new gift vouchers this week and have made them available through my website or directly from me. They can be redeemed against wedding photography, portrait shoots, prints, wedding albums and books, so apart from making great birthday and Christmas presents, they can be added to 'wedding present' lists by the bride and groom.

The extraordinary David Rastrick

Well after months (roughly 36 of them) of saying we'd like to catch up to do some photos, I finally got together with musician and environmentalist David Rastrick this morning.

Iris Awards

I was delighted to be selected as a finalist recently in the annual Iris Awards for portraits, run by the Perth Centre for Photography. I'd entered a photo of a local Denmark couple, Colin and Barbara, taken in their kitchen. It's called Standing Still.

If you're interested, the exhibition of the finalists runs until 27 September at the PCP Gallery in Brisbane Street, Perth. Check out their website for opening hours: www.pcp.org.au

Jodie & Robb

I'm looking forward to a final catch-up with Jodie and Robb this weekend, before their wedding next month. Last time we met we did some pre-wedding photos down by the river but I think my favourites from that day were the ones I took over coffee beforehand...