If your wedding photography needs are for the year 2014 or 2015, we have some irresistible special offers available for a short time only. Our popular wedding storyboards are free with some packages, they are normally $750.

As another "first", we also offer a wedding makeup artist and hair stylist who will remain with you during the entire photo shoot. This service has been extremely popular in the past, our brides have been thrilled to bits having someone there to look after bridal party beauty and styling.
Our wedding makeup and hair stylist only charges standard rates, and provides the extra time free of charge. This is the only service of its kind.

If you would like to know more, visit our wedding photography packages page to see an example of a storyboard.
For more information about the specials, complete an enquiry form on our contact page today.

What's the real value of wedding photos? Not the wedding photography that produced those images, but what the wedding photographer delivered to the client?

Recently someone came in to collect their photos from us, and brought with them the client who'd used our services and subsequently referred their friend to us.
We got talking about the time that had slipped away at an ever-increasing rate, since the first client's wedding, and reflected on the changes since then.
I asked the first client how often they look at their album, and the answer surprised me.
"We look at it at least twice a week, and then it goes on the bedroom cupboard near the door for me to grab if the house is ever on fire."
Wow- what an answer!

I paused for a moment, and said: "Get yourselves out, don't worry about the album. We have the artwork files, as well as all your images archived in three separate location in fireproof vaults. We'll always be able to have your album remade for you."
"Gee" the lady said,"not many photographers would guarantee that!"
Yes- it was an interesting comment. I find that most photographers don't want to accept the responsibility of looking after something that might be needed years or decades from now, if at all.

Where are your wedding photos stored? What is your backup plan?
At the very least, you should have an off-site copy made. Wedding photos don't need ultra-critical storage conditions, like film from yesteryear. Just have one set on a hard drive in a fireproof vault and another set on a flash drive also in a fireproof vault, and you should be good to go.

The optimum resolution for wedding photography depends a lot on the end use of the images. Facebook needs less resolution than wall-sized murals, and the file formats of today might not necessarily be readable by the technology of tomorrow.
Read more about the best resolution for wedding photography if you're unsure of your pixels, bits and megabytes.

As you plan your wedding with much anticipation, it's hard to imagine ever losing the pictures.
We get about 3 requests per year, to rewrite wedding photos to USB, because clients lose their images. Most of the time, it's because a computer system failed and there was no backup copy of the hard drive. Of course the DVD or USB which originally held the wedding photos has long gone- lost somewhere in house moving, baby arrival, or just absorbed by life itself.

The point of all this?
We've got you covered- but cover yourself too. Backup and store your wedding photos safely, so that you have peace of mind- and enjoyment- for the future.

As the year draws to a close, we'd like to thank all the people we've had the pleasure of working with over the past 12 months. The coming wedding season of 2013 promises to be huge- we're already at more than 90% capacity, never have I had to turn away as much work as I have in the last 8 weeks. The email enquiries have flooded our inbox.

It's probably also a good chance to mention that all our Christmas deadline albums, storyboard and print orders for all weddings right up until 8th December 2012, will be ready before Christmas.

Our wedding photography bookings for 2014 are also filling alarmingly quickly- there's so much going on in the world of wedding planning. Brides who are in the planning stages are encouraged to read our wedding photography planning tips which have been updated, after assessing the times, punctuality and organisation of the previous season's weddings.

Santa Claus arrived very early at our studio, and as soon as they were available in Australia, brought a Nikon d800e to our desk. What a fine beast of a machine- and hard drive hoarder- it's proven to be! The size of the RAW files is closer to 50 megabytes each, as written to storage media- so you need some serious hard-drive real estate for storage!

We'll publish a review on this mighty beast of a machine sometime soon.

Here's something you don't often see. If you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, and you're having trouble focusing on the bride's dress, then you're definitely not alone.

The wedding photo shown here was taken at the wedding reception, before the wedding had begun- in fact it was taken before either of the soon-to-be-weds were even ready. The bride engaged us to do her hair and makeup, and the groom hadn't left the house yet when we arrived. With the wedding cake sitting there on a table, begging to be photographed, we thought we'd get the bride and groom to do a super-casual cake cutting photo.

You might be wondering about the groom seeing the bride before the ceremony, on the day...

I have been a professional photographer for over thirty years, and when I started, one couple in a hundred would have wedding photos done together before the wedding. Now it's about one in twenty- so it's become more of an accepted thing. Especially as people live together before the wedding day and often have children before they are married- it seems to make a lot of sense logistically.

I should add that this couple are having their photography after the wedding ceremony, and the picture shown here is just a random shot, an opportunistic snapshot taken in fun, on a pocket camera. We'll upload some of the wedding photos, of the wedding which hasn't happened yet- over the next week or so, when we have caught up with things which need doing before Christmas deadlines.

Stay Tuned!

We've recently added some images to the gallery of Forest Edge Weddings which also feature shots taken in and around the Gembrook home of Puffing Billy Railway.

Puffing Billy has a range of settings and props which work well for wedding photos. These provide a rustic setting, old sheds, railway sleepers and station exteriors bring a touch of old-worlde charm to the photography.

You'll notice that the wedding portrait of the bridal couple with the HQ Holden Monaro has been converted to black and white and partly restored to colour. This image was made outside the old water tank within the station car park, and a wedding reception at Forest Edge restaurant in Gembrook followed the photography session.

It helps immensely, if you think about the style of your photos when you select your wedding transport. The car and setting work well here, even though the car is more recent than the look of the station, it seems to fit into the location well. The partial colour conversion works, to bring the elements together.

An equally appealing harmony comes from the old Buick "Straight 8" sedan pictured against the backdrop of mauve lavender and dark grey sky, outside Forest Edge.

See images from this shoot on the Forest Edge Weddings gallery page of our web site.

As wedding photographers we often get asked by guests to recommend a good camera, that is not an SLR. Something that gives awesome results, yet fits into a purse or pocket.

The recently introduced Nikon Coolpix P7700 Camera fits this bill perfectly. We've got one for the fun of just going paces and not being a professional photographer- it produces staggering image quality- comparable to a Nikon D7000 DSLR with a professional series Nikkor lens.

The dynamic range is impressive, there is a ton of detail in the highlights and shadows, and both can be further enhanced with the tiniest amount of RAW file processing.

Now you've probably been scratching your head and wondering- but remember- we're talking about a recreational use camera here, not something you would use to shoot a commercial gig.

In such a compact portable bundle, this is one helluva great professional toy

We've uploaded another wedding photography gallery- this one has made use of three Kenworth trucks as the bridal transport of choice on the wedding day. The bride arrived to everybody watching in the car park, and made an exciting exit from the truck she and the groom own, to the Potters Chapel.

Using trucks in wedding photography can be fun- a couple of things stood out that are worth mentioning.

Wedding photography is often short on time, it makes a positive difference if the bride is early, as our bride on this day was. To start the wedding on time, and to utilise the opportunity for photos with the trucks, extra time should be allowed.

On this day, there was extra time, and the bride arrived early. The wedding photography flowed, nobody was hurried.

The drivers provide the wedding photographer with an advantage by positioning the trucks correctly upon arrival. This helped the dynamic immensely

To see the wedding photography from the day, and check out the complete gallery, visit the Potters reception wedding gallery on our web site.

We've had a very busy month. Our wedding photography has gone through the roof, with people loving the value added specials and free giveaways. We've long held the belief that wedding industry suppliers charge way too much for what people are getting, simply because "it's a wedding".

To ease your financial burden in organising this massive event, we have given away something real and tangible. Not a print, which costs very little- but a beautiful framed storyboard- the kind which sells for $1190 at studios who have tried to copy our style and design.

We've also updated our web site- in particular, the one which relates to budget wedding photography in Melbourne. Go check it out, you'll see a long overdue, refreshingly different page layout and design, by yours truly...

As for a sneak preview of what's in the mix right now, here's what you can expect to see real soon:

• yet another url with a new website about to go live
• more wedding photography galleries on the melbourne wedding photographers site
• news about exciting new products to show off your wedding photos
• announcements of wedding photography course dates for budding wedding photographers
• test results comparing prints from a professional lab, downtown consumer store, and home printer, using a file prepped to optimum specification within a controlled colour space

To say we have been busy is an understatement. It's amazing what you uncover, when you start to dig- I suppose it's for that very reason, that archaeology exists. However, the level of "dark ages" thinking out there, in relation to print output is astoundingly mind-numbing.

An equally distressing point to note, is how few people actually understand the real relationship between resolution and print quality. Some of these people are shooting weddings, and others are working in consumer level print stores.

The next month will be exciting. Stay subscribed!

Spring weddings are bursting forth in Melbourne with the regeneration of foliage after a dormant winter. As we struggle to find some sunshine in the winter gloom, it's a great opportunity for brides to think about the wedding photography timeline they have prepared for the day.

The spring light has a unique quality- soft and low, like chill out music- it paints flattering tones on brides, wedding dresses, landscapes and limos. The secret to successfully working with this choice palette of Mother nature's favourite colours is to schedule the photography session for the optimum time.

Have a look at our wedding photography website, the front page has links and previews of articles which outline the perfect wedding photography planning guide.

Wedding photography works best with generous time allocated on the day. This ensures that there will be flexibility to deal with any unscheduled interruptions, and that you'll still get all the shots you want, as well as have a great time. The fun will come through in the photos, and this is what you will remember of the day as you look back on it in the years ahead.

We've posted some great wedding photography specials for people planning 2013 or 2014 weddings in beautiful Melbourne.

There are value packed offers available by completing an enquiry form on our contact page. We'll send you details of these specials by email.

Take a look at the example of a wedding photo storyboard on the prices page. The storyboard on display there is from a wedding at Ballara Receptions, in Eltham. Storyboards are great- we get lots of requests for them, because of their stylish, elegant simplicity and appeal.