Hayley and Aram's Wedding

Another day where the sky was a bit threatening and it did rain. Luckily the rain held off until we made it to the reception. The ceremony was a small church in Westbourne Park and the reception was at the Glandore Community Centre.

Here's a few photos from the day. We had plenty of time and visited Veale Gardens, Art Alley and Pinky Flat.

 Camera Settings  ISO - 1250   Shutter Speed - 1/500   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 70mm

 Camera Settings  ISO - 1600   Shutter Speed - 1/160   F-Stop - 5    Focal Length - 38mm

Veale Gardens

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/800   F-Stop - 8    Focal Length - 24mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/100   F-Stop - 5.6    Focal Length - 24mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/200   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 70mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/1250   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 98mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/160   F-Stop - 5.6   Focal Length - 70mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/80   F-Stop - 5.6    Focal Length - 14mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/2500   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 15mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/800   F-Stop - 5.6    Focal Length - 14mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/800   F-Stop - 6.3    Focal Length - 14mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/1000   F-Stop - 6.3    Focal Length - 14mm

Congratulations to Hayley and Aram.

If you would like to talk to us about your wedding check out our website at http://www.ctrphotos.com/

David and Hayley's Wedding

David and Hayley were married on the 2nd of March and I was lucky enough to be their photographer for the day.


The weather looked a bit threatening at times on the day but no rain arrived to spoil the day.
The lovely couple held their ceremony at Westminster College and then the reception at the Seacliff beach hotel. Photos were taken at Westminster and at seacliff.

Congrats to David and Hayley!!!!

The detail on Hayley's beautiful dress

Camera settings ISO - 1000     Shutter speed - 1/100  F Stop - 3.2  Focal Length - 38mm 

The beautiful Hayley

Camera settings   ISO - 2000   Shutter speed - 1/80   F Stop - 2.8   Focal Length - 34mm

The Ceremony Location - Westminster College

Camera settings   ISO - 400   Shutter speed - 1/1000   F Stop - 9   Focal Length - 24mm

My Favourite of the happy couple taken at Westminster

Camera settings   ISO - 400   Shutter speed - 1/125   F Stop - 2.8   Focal Length - 24mm

The view at dinner time

Camera settings   ISO - 400   Shutter speed - 1/6400   F Stop - 11   Focal Length - 70mm

The Standout of the day, taken about 10 minutes after the sun had dipped below the horizon, the lighting comes from my portable 100w spotlight, a similar effect could be achieved with flash. I love this photo as we catch the last moments of sunlight left in the sky in the background and we happened to catch the first star of the night just above them.

Camera settings ISO - 2000 Shutter speed - 1/125 F Stop - 3.2 Focal Length - 24mm

Most important camera settings

The following are the four main settings which affect how your photograph will turn out.

Shutter speed – Is the length of time that the cameras shutter will stay open to allow light into the sensor.


Aperture – Controls the amount of the image that will be in sharp focus or depth of field and in combination with the shutter speed controls the amount of light allowed to the cameras sensor. The lower the F number the less depth within your image will be in focus.

ISO – Is the film speed rating similar to ASA ratings which were on 35mm film. The higher the ISO the more light is allowed into the cameras sensor, however the higher the ISO the more noise or grain will appear in the final image, where possible it is advisable to keep this setting at 200 or lower to avoid any significant issues with noise.

White balance – White will appear different under different types of light, the setting compensates for the type of light source so that white will appear white and the colour tone of your photo will appear correct.

Exciting Announcements Coming Soon

Well hopefully by the end of next week we will have some exciting announcements to let loose on the world. Keep your eyes peeled

Sydney Workshop

Well I'm in Sydney this week to attend the workshop facilitated by Martin and Ryan Schmebri, two well known Australian Master Photographers. Hopefully a little of their knowledge and success will rub off on me and help take the business to the next level.

Costing a lot of money to be here for the week, but believe it will be a worthwhile investment in our future. Besides a payout from 20 years hard labour in another job is paying for it!

Hopefully get a bit of time to wander around sydney (with the camera of course), luckily staying within a few hundred meters of luna park and the bridge. Here's the view from the hotel room at dusk.

Hopefully be posting some more this week. There's not much else to do in a hotel room!

Time for new adventures

Well the winter slow down is here and we get a bit of break to be a normal person on weekends, pity about the weather. July and August are very slow for weddings, I'm sure people still get married at that time of the year just not enough to keep everyone busy.
Some exciting news (at least from my point of view!), as from the 1st of August 2009 we will be a full time photography company. Customers probably wont notice much difference, however photos should be available a lot quicker. Looking forward to helping create memories for a lot more people!
As usual if you would like any more information about us check http://www.ctrphotos.com/

So you want to be a Wedding Photographer

We get a lot of enquiries from people wanting to get involved in wedding photography, the majority of which we dont even consider. For us to even consider a request we straight away look at the following,

The first question we will ask is are you prepared to sign a non-disclosure and non-compete agreement. If the answer is no, its thanks but no thanks straight away. Why you ask, well for a couple of reasons.
One, we dont want to spend time and expense giving someone the exposure and training for them just to turn around and directly compete with us at the first opportunity they get. So this is the non-compete part of the agreement, we have built in an out clause and /or time period that someone cant directly compete against us.
Two is the non-disclosure part, as we are training someone its very difficult not to share critical information that they can use to compete against us, obviously we cant and dont want people using information they have gathered being used to compete against us in any manner. This also protects our clients information for unauthorised release/usage.

The second question we will ask is what equipment you are currently using. The reason we ask this is it will give us an indication of how serious the person is about photography and whether they have equipment which will provide a quality level that we would be happy to provide our customers. We might also ask some questions around how the camera is used, depending on which modes people use regularly will tell us whether they have potential to be a wedding photographer.

Bottom line is we shouldnt have to be teaching some how to use their camera, the idea is that we would be teaching someone about weddings not photography, and more importantly we generally look for people who are happy to work for us, not using us to get involved and compete against us.

Around the end of september we will probably be looking for people so if you know anyone who maybe interested let us know through our website http://www.ctrphotos.com/

Fisheye Lens

Well despite posting in various locations about Nikon Australia or any Adelaide Camera Retailers providing some sponsorship in the form of a 10.5mm Fisheye lens, no-one came to the party and after some debate purchased it myself.

What a fun lens to use. In the studio I've been experimenting with some up close portraits which create some really humourous caricture type photos.

I've had three weddings to do since the purchase and have used the lens on all three. Took some amazing photos inside St Laurences Catholic Church and by the Adelaide University footbridge, a couple of nice ones at semaphore near the lighthouse and some excellent photos at Camelot castle. I will post some here as soon as I can.

Don't worry about the distortion on this lens, if used intentionally and appropriately you can get some amazing results. As for correcting the distortion in software so far I would have to say I am unimpressed with the result from Capture NX, you will lose a lot of the image and end up with horrible blurring on the edges of the image. I'm yet to try the well regarded Fisheye Hemi or experiment with distortion controls in Photoshop, but at the end of the day you would probably be better off using a 12-24mm or similar if your looking for wide angle with minimal distortion.

As usual check our website http://www.ctrphotos.com/ for more details about our services

Where have I been????

A little while since my last post, I have just been so busy with with weddings and the post processing that haven't had a lot of time for much else at all.
I have been at some interesting weddings in the past few weeks. The 21st at Sunnybrae, the 28th at the Adelaide Zoo, the 4th of april at the Botanic Gardens and the 5th of April at Belair Country Club.
No funny or unusual stories to tell, all these days went fairly smoothly.
The 21st got some nice photos near the Port Adelaide Information Centre, only pearls of wisdom I can pass on from this day is that 45 minutes isn't really enough for bridal portraits particularly when travel is involved and when hiring a limo ask what drinks are supplied, the limo on this particular day only has champagne which I'm sure most guys don't like!
The 28th I was looking forward to being at the Adelaide Zoo, unfortunately the lighting was terrible. I believe the Zoo only allows wedding ceremonies to start at 5pm or after once they are closed to the public. Being this close to the end of day lights saving by the time the ceremony is finished it is starting to get quite dark. I'm sure it would be much better in the middle of day light saving when its not dark until 8:30-9:00pm. Flash lighting is very harsh and unfortunately had to rely on it to try and light up the scene.
The 4th of April went very well. Only pearl of wisdom here is that yes people you have to pay to have photos in the Botanic Gardens. Even though it is a public place, there is a fee whether you have your ceremony there or not. I presume this is to protect the gardens from masses of wedding parties wandering around the garden every weekend and it is policed.
The 5th of April was very interesting, the bride had some Brazilian heritage I believe and the reception was very much party orientated. The reception started off with a display of Capoeira, if you re not sure what this is, its like a mix of dance and martial arts, very fast and difficult to photograph although I think I managed to get a few good ones. Some of the solos were absolutely amazing! Later there was a display of dancing, not sure how to describe it but again very fast and the girls were dressed up in the full Brazilian carnivale style outfits, drummers and whistles which led into pretty much everyone being on the dance floor (very rare to see!). lots of masks, boas, huge novelty sunglasses and everyone having a good time!( and from what I could tell that was without too much alcohol being involved. Only thing I noticed, although the bride and groom didn't seem too concerned was that the celebrant was late, apparently got lost, no excuse in my book not when a decent GPS will set you back less than $200.

So there you have it!

The pearls of wisdom in summary

• Make sure the limo you hire has something for everyone to drink
• If travelling to locations allow a bit more time
• Yes you have to pay to have photos at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens
• Hire a celebrant who has a GPS or at least knows where your venue is!

Till next time

Getting Organised

This week we have had to turn so many people away that its not funny, which leads to the question, How early should you be looking to book services for your wedding??
There's no easy answer but i would suggest that its never too early. Once you have set your ceremony date you should probably be looking to pretty quickly book the main services you require. Ceremony Venue, Celebrant, Reception Venue, Cars, Photographers and Videographers you should be booking as soon as possible. Other services or products you will probably have the time to organise later, however if you dont secure the abovementioned you could end up missing out on your preferred service.
Peak times for weddings (for me anyway) are October/November and February/March/April. My bookings for the 10th and 17th of October this year were taken about 18 months in advance. The past couple of weeks we have had to turndown 4 people for the 10th, a couple for the 17th and a few more for other months.

So when people tell you that you need to get onto things as soon as your engaged dont brush it off, they are right! That doesnt mean you wont be able to find suitable alternatives you just might miss out on your preferred/ideal providers.