BLOG HAS MOVED!!!!

This blog has officially moved to the following address:

http://www.firstglimpsephotography.com/blog/

Please do not come back here – all further posts will be on the new blog and the previous ones have been transferred over.

Such an adorable couple!

Alana & Daniel are getting married in September so we ventured into the city for their engagement session yesterday.  We started at the Botanical Gardens and then worked out way past the water and into the city.  It was bright with blue skys when we started but then got pretty dark.  About 5 mintutes after I got into my car at the end of the shoot it started BUCKETING down rain.  Talk about good timing. 

Anyway, enjoy your sneak peak guys.  I’m looking forward to your big day.

Claus & Sharleen’s Slideshow

Claus and Sharleen are the sweetest couple and it was such a privilege to photograph their wedding a few weeks ago.  The focus of their day was on sharing their special day with the family as many of them had travelled a long way to see the wedding.  They had some very beautiful details and their two beautiful children made an adorable page-boy and flower-girl!  The before photos were taken at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.  The ceremony, cake and speeches were held at Manly Park, and the reception was held at the Boat House at Manly. 

Anyway, I won’t say any more … the slideshow will tell you a much better story of their day. 

When you click on the slideshow it will take a little while to load.  It may also ask you to download a program.  I can vouch for the program – it has never caused problems with my computer or any of my clients.

http://www.firstglimpsephotography.com/ejlertsenwedding

Lauren & Ryan’s Engagment Slideshow

I love doing engagement sessions.  It is such a great opportunity to spend time with my wedding couples without all the distractions of a wedding day.  I thought I’d post Lauren & Ryan’s whole engagement session for people to have a look at.  I posted a few of their photos a few weeks ago.  These were taken at Newstead Park in Brisbane. 

To see their complete slideshow then click on the following link:

 http://www.firstglimpsephotography.com/laurenryan

10 of Kylie’s top wedding tips

Continuing my 10 things posts I thought I’d do something a little less about me and something that could be helpful to the brides out there planning their wedidngs.  Here are my top 10  top wedding planning tips.  I hope they are of some help to you as you plan for your Wedding. 

#1.         Time your day carefully. 

This is one of the most important days of your life and you have invested a lot into it.  To make the most of it make sure you will have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the details.  Try to put your ceremony earlier in the afternoon or consider doing your photos before the ceremony so you don’t have to rush away too quickly after it.   

#2.         Minimise travel on the day. 

Excess travel on the wedding day eats away time that you could be enjoying yourselves.  Try to get prepared close to the wedding venue and plan to have your ceremony, reception and photos within a reasonably close distance. 

#3.  Get ready at a nice location. 

This location will be in quite a few of your photos earlier in the day.  If you don’t already have one consider borrowing a nice quilt and nice furniture for the bedroom that you will be getting prepared in as this can enhance your bridal portraits.  If you are hiring a hotel room make sure that you plan well for your departure as this can be very stressful just before the wedding.  If you can afford it book the room for 2 nights so you do not need to clear the room completely prior to your leaving.  If not, allocate a few people who are not in your bridal party to help move your luggage and belongings out of the room while your before photos are being taken. 

#4.  Choose your Bridal party carefully and voice your expectations before the day. 

I have seen many bridesmaids almost ruin people’s wedding day because they are too focused on themselves or their family to care for the bride.  Surround yourself with positive, fun and relaxed people on your wedding day.  Make sure if your bridal party have children that there are other people taking full responsibility for them on the day.  If they are trying to care for their children they will find it difficult to focus on their job for the day. 

#5.  Choose some unique accessories that fit with your day’s theme.

I willl try to record the little details such as your perfume bottle, jewellery, shoes and other accessories so take some time to make sure they all fit with the image you want of your day.  Surprisingly enough, people often ask to see you shoes on your wedding day so if you invest in really nice ones they will get noticed.  Chinese umbrellas and fans can make a great accessory for photos as do wraps for the girls in winter. 

#6. Get your make-up done professionally

This is definitely a worthwhile investment as quality make-up will make a big difference to your bridal portraits and will help to make you look that extra bit special on your big day.   

#7. Carefully consider your hair style

From a photographers point of view I highly recommend that your hair is worn up on your wedding day as down styles often do not hold very well in the wind during outdoor photos.  I’ve had many photos that would have been perfect if it wasn’t for the hair blowing across the brides eyes.  If you plan to have a down style maybe talk to the hair-dresser about ways you can pin it for the photos so that it is does not come across your face. 

#8.  Consider coloured flowers

Recently most of my brides have had predominantly white flowers in their bouquets.  These are beautiful but I generally find that coloured bouquets seem to photograph better. 

#9.  Try to resolve any conflicts before your big day

There are often points of contention with family and friends leading up to our wedding.  You don’t want to be feeling tension on your big day so if at all possible try to resolve any conflicts you have before the day.  An apology can go a long way even if they seem partly to blame.

#10  Have realistic expectations of your Wedding day.

Sometimes people build up such big expectations of their day that can never really be fulfilled.  Try to remind yourself that even if a few things go wrong, that it’s still going to be a wonderful day. If you have really specific expectations of people then make sure they are aware of them before the day so that they have a chance to meet them. 

Rainbows

I have to confess.  I’m having a bit of a run of wet weddings.  Please don’t hold it against me.  I’m sure that any other Brisbane wedding photographers are having the same problem over the last month or so.  It seems to like to rain on Saturdays.  Anyway, the up side is that I keep managing to catch rainbows.  Here’s a few from my more recent weddings.

Baby Legs

Isn’t she adorable! 

Clause & Sharleen – Just one for the moment

I really enjoyed my day photographing Clause and Sharleen’s wedding yesterday.  We decided that because they were having their cake and speeches later in the afternoon we would venture out for some photos in the morning.  We did a lot of their location photos out on a yacht.  This one was just before we went onto the water at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.  I’ll post more later.  I just thought I’d share this one that I found when I started editing. 

 

Checking out a Wedding Venue

One think I like to do if I haven’t photographed in a particular Wedding location is to go and check it out before the Wedding.  Things happen so fast on a Wedding day and it really helps me to have an idea of the types of shots I will get ahead of time.  Here’s a few shots of I got on Wednesday when I was checking out tomorrow’s location.  Hard to believe that first one was actually taken in Brisbane.  I thought our only beach was at South Bank!

A Blog that really tugged at my heart…

One of my hobbies is looking through photography blogs.  Today I found one that really pulled at my heart.  Sheye Rosemayer who is a photographer lost one of her little girls in a tradedy a few years ago and this blog reflects so much of her journey through it.  I know my biggest fear in life is loosing one of my girls or Mark and this blog really did remind me how short life can be and how much I need to treasure each special moment with them.  I thought I’d post the link to the blog here in case anyone else needed the reminder. http://sheyerosemeyer.blogspot.com/ . 

I’m purposely not putting a photo on this post because for me, part of enjoying my family is putting down my camera and just enjoying the moment.  Many parents regret not taking enough photos but for me I’m learning not to take too many.  Some moments are meant to be lived, not captured.  I don’t want to forget what they looked like but I also don’t want to miss out on those fun spontaneous moments. 

In the words of Sheye:

“What has become clear to me though is that you can plan and hope all you want, you can imagine and presume and expect life to go a certain way but really, there is no watertight guarantee.   All the days are “normal”.   The happy ones, the sick ones, the bored ones, the tragic ones.    I am no expert, I have less clarity than the average person but what I have found, because of One Normal Day (the day of her daughter’s accident), is this:

Live each day, every single day, with the understanding that one does not necessarily lead into the other. Hug your family.  Tight.  Put aside What Does Not Matter. Tomorrow could be a completely new kind of normal”.