Still Busy .... and loving it!

So much for a relaxing weekend! After traveling away the other day, I had the opportunity to go to the wine country of NSW at Pokolbin to photograph the wedding of Claire & Simon. They are a great couple and it is the second wedding I have done for this family of 4 daughters and it would appear that there will be 2-3 more including a son from what mum Michelle said to me at the wedding. I enjoyed getting to capture the happenings on their special day. The wedding was at the Tamburlaine Members Lodge and Function Centre, and was just as beautiful as the service. I got to meet the owners and their staff. As a photographer having been to hundreds of receptions, good service of this standard for a "worker" is rare, but this place would rank very highly on my list if not the highest. Thanks everyone, you were wonderful! What a great venue. It is perhaps appropriate to mention here that Springfield House in Dural is another venue that I did not list in the previous post of this article, that also fit the bill. I never mentioned them largely because I feel like one of the family there, and never a worker. I will put their website address below as well.

http://www.springfieldhouse.com.au/

Tamburlaine even had fireworks going off while the couple were cutting the cake on the balcony. It was a little hard to capture it fully as the rain was coming down as well, as we stayed under the awning to shield the couple and the cake but I got a shot off you can see below.
Tamburlaines & Springfields details are here if any of you are interested. Contact them, you won't be disappointed. (copy url and paste to your browser)

http://www.mywinery.com/tamburlaine-organic/public/welcome.asp

Claire and Simon got ready at and were staying at the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley at Lovedale, past Cessnock, where I happened to see the entourage of the band Matchbox 20 who appeared to be at the same hotel ready for their open air concert at one of the wineries around the corner.

Just prior to me going up the coast I had a phone call from a worried man called Gavin, who shared a story with me that he was getting married on the weekend and had a phone call just two days before the wedding saying the photographer couldn't do the wedding, he had double booked. There are a couple of things that can crop up and certainly there are instances where difficulties can arise, though two days before the wedding to advise your client is really in poor form. So with some degree of distress, they had asked a couple of people and their enquiries led to me. So whilst I had originally thought I would have a day in the weekend to myself, I was doing another wedding. Whilst I was tired and sore from aches and pains and that, I loved it all.

A post script to the wedding of Claire and Simon, as I left the Cessnock area it "bucketed" down with rain, here I was at 12:10 am or thereabouts on a fairly remote road and I am driving through a massive downpour and I hit a small dip in the surface of the road and I aqua planed in the car and it was a little scary as my car started to veer into the other lane, it was at this moment of distress I could feel that electronically, things were coming into play without my instigation with car and then instantly the car's handling changed and I felt and exclaimed WOW! I was in the Audi A6 and I am so grateful for engineers and people whom to me are faceless and nameless, who have created so many safety aspects to a vehicle that in no small measure saved my life, or at least, saved me from a serious accident that loomed with a large and ominous tree I saw approaching through the windscreen. I don't know if Toyota can claim absolute ownership of the statement "Oh What a Feeling" slogan but the feeling I had was pretty sobering and amazing I don't mind saying.

I got home at 2:15am and then had to transfer all my files and images to a bigger hard drive and charge the batteries, clean the camera, get the shirts and trousers ready for the next wedding and pre-arranged photo shoot for an Author I had to do in 6 hours time. So after what appeared to be 5 mins of sleep I arose and prepared for the shoot of the Author in the city with her daughter Sydney, named after the city! Claudia is a German author who travels the world and meets with a host of interesting people. She resides at the Mecure in Darling Harbour when she is in Sydney and numbers my hero Nelson Mandela amongst her acquaintances and spent Tuesday last with Keanu Reeves. What a lovely brief hour I spent with her and her daughter.

Then I went to the next wedding for Gavin and Joanne. Gavin was getting ready at Windsor a little over 40 mins drive from the city now thanks to the M7, and then Joanne was getting ready at the Crowne Plaza in Castle Hill. You might say it was a royal weekend with two Crowne's involved. It went very well and inspite of the downpour, good that I take a few changes of clothes, it went off without a hitch. It was quite thrilling to be a part of their special day, and I really came to know that they loved what I did by their numerous comments and rapturous expressions of praise at the reception. The thing I felt most grateful for, is that just hours before, I had not known them and at the end of the wedding I felt we became dear friends. A wonderful feeling. It is an honour and a satisfying experience to say the least.

Joanne & Gavin's pics