A year in the work ... 2019 Pt 1
When I tell people that I work as a Professional Photographer ( I am not a fan of the term “professional by the way”, but I have yet to think of a better term ) normally the first question is “What do you shoot?”. I normally answer by running through whatever I have shot recently and end with the phrase “Whatever turns a dollar.”
But that answer doesn’t really cover what I do, so I thought that at the end of 2019 ( after just over 2 years as a full time photographer* ) I would write a blog about what I shot this year.
this term also doesn’t really fit very well either, because I don’t just work as a photographer, but I will explain more below.
Due to the amount I need to cover I am splitting this blog into 2 parts, so this is part 1: January to June.
January
So we need start the year with a bit more background; for the last 5 years I have been shooting weddings with Eva Bradley Photography ( www.evabradley.co.nz ), predominantly as a ‘second shooter’, but like most of the terms in this blog that doesn’t really describe my role.
So the start of the calendar year 2019 is in the middle of the 2018/2019 wedding season.
But my first shots of the year were shooting the New Years Eve fireworks for the Napier City Council, as part of the NYE concert held every year at the Soundshell ( the concert itself finished before NYE so doesn’t really count in this blog ). The client wanted shots of the fireworks and people enjoying the fireworks for promotional use for future events.
My first full gig for the year was the wedding of Mirize and Alastair on Friday 4th Jan at the stunning Black Barn Winery just out of Havelock North. For this wedding, and most other weddings for the year, I spent a couple of hours shooting the Groom and his Groomsmen getting ready, then headed over to where the rest of the Bridal Party was getting ready to shoot a first look, then off to shoot the ceremony and on to the reception. So as I said above my role at weddings is that of a Second Shooter to Eva, but for the guys getting ready and the reception I am on my own to shoot the goings on.
The other part to my role at EBP is that I process the photos from the weddings and export these out ready for the couple to receive. This normally involves culling my own photos down from the 1000-1500 that I shoot to a more manageable 300, combining them with the 500-700 that Eva culled her shots down to, and then process the combined images. This process normally takes about 2 1/2 to 3 days depending on the number of images and the amount of specific editing needed ( some weddings need more work than other depending on the locations we shoot, the size of the bridal party, etc ).
So the Monday after shooting the wedding I found myself in Eva’s studio by the beach in Bay View editing Mirize and Alastairs wedding images and putting together a slideshow of our pick of the images for them to receive within a couple of weeks of the wedding.
On the Tuesday I had a shoot booked with a local musician, Stretch, that I had shot with before ( I shot the images for his debut album ). This time he was after some promo photos for a series of upcoming concerts where he was pairing up with a local cello player, Paula. So the shoot was in the Century Theatre in Napier, and turned out to be a combination photo / video shoot as he also wanted some short video clips to use as promotion material as well.
After editing and sending 130 photos for Stretch’s shoot my next job the following Saturday was the Wedding of Emma and Vance at The Old Church in Meeanee. One of the highlights for me of shooting at this venue is the chance to get out at dusk and use the lights of the building to highlight the Bride and Groom in the stunning driveway, and this wedding provided the opportunity to get this shot. Logistically it can be a challenge to pull this shot off as it requires preplanning, timing to make sure there is still a bit of light in the sky, and a hurried setup of lights / lightstands / tripod, and then a B&G who are prepared to leave their guests behind for a few minutes, and stand still for a few seconds to get the shot. But when it all comes together it is worth the effort.
Again the Monday found me editing the images from Emma and Vance’s wedding ( for the rest of this blog you can assume I edited the photos from each of the weddings that I shot ).
On Thursday evening I had scheduled a photoshoot of a house between Hastings and Havelock North. During the later part of 2018 and the early part of 2019 I shot images of 5 buildings for their entries into the NZIA Regional Architectural Awards. This house was one of those and this visit was to shoot the exterior images at dusk ( I had shot the interior already on a previous visit ). I dragged Liz along for this one as I wanted to get as many angles of the house as possible during the short timeframe we had, and she actually shot my favourite image from that evening. Sadly, for whatever reason, the Architect chose not to enter the house in the awards for 2019.
Another wedding followed on 19th January, this time shooting Laura and Tony’s stunning wedding which had the ceremony at Woodford House and the reception at the Black Barn Bistro. Again I was lucky enough to get a chance to take the B&G out in the evening to get a few shots of them together, away from the fun and laughter at the reception.
After another week of processing Laura and Tony’s images I had a wedding with a difference to shoot the following weekend. At EBP we tend to shoot most of our weddings in the Hawke’s Bay region, so when we get a chance to venture somewhere new to shoot it adds an extra level of excitement to the event. And shooting Lisa and Kyle’s wedding in Martinborough was all about excitement. Again I managed to sneak them out for a few minutes, this time to stand beside the Ruamahanga River at sunset for some private B&G time.
Back to Hawke’s Bay the following week and processing wedding photos again.
A pair of architectural shoots finished out the month:
An early morning shoot of a house in Waimarama and the next morning a house in Westshore in Napier.
The house in Waimarama is situated on a ridge with a view out to Bare Island and it was a stunning location to shoot as the sun turned the sky red.
The Westshore property was a house that I had some involvement with when I was working for Architecture HDT, so it was nice to shoot the end product knowing how personal this house was to the clients.
FEBRUARY
My February schedule was largely taken up with shooting and editing weddings, with a couple of exceptions; I started teaching Architectural Technology at EIT in February for 2 days a week, and I had to finish off an architectural shoot for the Science Block at Taradale high school in time for entry into the NZIA Awards.
The role of teaching at EIT had started at the end of 2018 and I really enjoyed giving back to the architectural ‘industry’, so for the rest of the 2019 year photography was still main main source of income but half of my week would be taken up with teaching and associated duties.
As for the Science Block shoot, this was a reminder that sometimes things can come together at the last minute. The close off date for entries into the NZIA Awards was the 19th of February, so after many failed attempts to capture images of this building ( mainly due to weather but also due to building work which stopped me accessing the location to shoot ) I found myself on the morning of the 19th shooting in an ‘all or nothing’ scenario. Thankfully I managed to get the shots I needed and they were delivered to the client in time to enter the building.
For the month of February we had 5 weddings in 4 weeks, which meant we had a weekend with 2 weddings in it. And we also started to add some video content to our packages so for 2 of the weddings I was working double duty shooting photos and video of the ceremony and reception.
The weddings for February were:
Cara and Kane at Valley Devine out in Esk Valley north of Napier, Charlotte and Hamish at Gwavas Homestead in Central Hawke’s Bay, Sara and Karl at The Old Church, Teresa and Simon at their family farm near Taihape and Natalia and Andy in Hastings.
So a 5 weddings including a double wedding weekend, video shooting, and a chance to head out of Hawke’s Bay for a country wedding, coupled with the processing of the photos from these weddings and my teaching work, meant a busy month but a very enjoyable one.
The photo below is from Teresa and Simon’s country wedding in the hills east of Taihape and combines everything that is important to them; a loving couple with their restored Land Rovers and their best friends, on the farm that belongs to their family.
MARCH
March found me in the last month of the wedding season proper ( although this year we had 2 winter weddings outside of the normal season ) with 3 weddings in the month, ending the season with a stunning country style wedding in Central Hawke’s Bay. We shot the weddings of Sophie and Richie at The Old Church, Sam and Chris at Black Barn and Charlotte and Russell at Taniwha near Waipukarau. Again combined with photo processing, a couple of commercial shoots, and teaching duties it was more than enough to keep me busy.
Having the chance to shoot the wedding of Charlotte and Russell outside of the normal venues we go to was a real pleasure, and having that wedding be one where every little detail had been designed, and in most cases actually made, by the Bride and Groom made it even more special.
At the end of March I spent a day shooting some images for a local Funeral Director, Beth Shan ( www.beth-shan.co.nz ), that they wanted to use for their website and promotional material. The day was a mixture of shooting a staged funeral service and associated consultation meetings with ‘clients’ as well as shots of the 2 buildings they own in Napier and Hastings. This shoot was was arranged in conjunction with Grundy Productions ( www.grundyproductions.co.nz ) which is ongoing relationship I have with them to provide stills photography to their clients when required.
And to finish off the month something really different: Hawke’s Bay Tourism wanted to have me appear in a video promoting photography in Hawke’s Bay, so after a couple of meetings I got to stand on the ‘wrong’ side of the camera on top of Te Mata Peak to be the subject rather than the photographer. You can find the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw9J0ujuUho&feature=emb_title
And also as part of the arrangement with HB Tourism I wrote 2 articles on photography in Hawke’s Bay as well.
Here is a shot I took during the video shoot of Ezra from Huia Creative shooting me.
APRIL
At the start of April I was on a 2 week holiday in the South Island, principally to cycle the Central Otago Rail Trail. The trip as a whole was amazing, but the 5 days riding through the scenery of Central Otago was the definite highlight. And of course there were some photographs shot.
After returning to Hawke’s Bay in the middle of April I shot an awards ceremony for a local car dealership and got the opportunity to shoot some relaxed family photos for Eva ( of Eva Bradley Photography ), Brad and their 2 children on the beach near their home.
Oh and there was also a wedding ( yeah, I know I said the wedding season was finished… ). As part of my role at Eva Bradley Photography I sometimes to get to shoot with the other wedding photographer in the EBP team, Michelle Fey. So on the last weekend in April I shot the wedding of Fiona and Michael at Brookfields Winery on a stunning autumn day,
May
May saw me getting some commissions to shoot architectural photography for AHA ( aka. Atkinson Harwood Architecture www.atkinsonharwood.co.nz ). They were looking for shots of some of their finished projects, for use on their website and other promo material.
So I spent a couple of hours shooting the 2 houses that AHA needed shot, trying to convey not just the look but the feel of these 2 major additions to peoples homes.
JUNE
Right, back into wedding mode for a winter wedding at Te Awa Winery for Hayley and Jordy. This was the first of 2 winter weddings we had scheduled, one in June and the other in July. Now you might be thinking that getting married in winter is a bad idea but in Hawke’s Bay especially it can make a lot of sense; the venues for weddings are a lot quieter in winter, the weather is often more settled and always cooler than in summer, and with the earlier sunsets the reception will often take place with darkness outside which gives them a cozy feel and encourages people to interact more within the venue.
So Hayley and Jordy’s wedding took place on a clear blue sky day with enough warmth in the sun to make it pleasant to hold the ceremony outdoors but not too hot. And the venue looked stunning with the last of the autumn colour hanging in the trees.
The rest of the month was filled with various events that I was commissioned to photograph, and a workshop.
I shot the Flaxmere Parkrun early one morning. This is an international movement to get people exercising and this event in Flaxmere was the first in what was to become a monthly event. So I got to take photos of people having fun and getting exercise in a park that I had never really visited before.
The day after the Parkrun I shot the first of 3 events for FAWC ( Food and Wine Classic, www.fawc.co.nz ). FAWC is a biannual event run by Hawke’s Bay Tourism and the local food and wine producers, and celebrates the Hawke’s Bays best in food and wine ( and other beverages as well ) by creating a large array of events each with a different theme.
The first event I shot was Hapi High Tea, which paired the cuisine from Hapi ( www.hapi.nz ) with Gin from Dancing Sands Distillery ( www.dancingsands.com ), with each course of food paired with a different gin, and an explanation of the history and process of manufacturing a wide range of products which are defined by the label “ gin”.
The 2nd event for FAWC was “Meet the Makers” held at Te Awa Winery. This was a chance to enjoy a 4 course meal, with each course paired to a wine from one of 4 wineries ( Te Awa, Esk Valley, Vidal and Villa Maria ), and have the wine makers explain the process and background behind each wine.
The 3rd and final event that I shot for FAWC was the subtly named “Fat Freddy’s Drop loves Chinatown”, which surprisingly was a Asian Fusion cuisine evening hosted at Black Barn by members of the NZ band “Fat Freddy’s Drop”.
It was fun to shoot such a variety of events under the umbrella of the FAWC event.
The next event on my agenda for June was to run an Astrophotography workshop. I occasionally run workshops when I feel there is a need, and I have the time to put one together, and I was keen to run one to explain and show people the basics behind capturing Milky Way images within a landscape photography genre ( so called “Landscape Astrophotography” ). The workshop was held in the coastal settlement of Te Awanga, where I knew, if the weather behaved, we could capture good images of the Milky Way just after sunset ( to avoid the dreaded middle of the night shoots normally associated with capturing night sky images ). With 6 participants it was a good chance to explain the background knowledge of astrophotography and then walk a few hundred metres from the venue and allow people to easily put the theory into practice. The expressions on peoples faces, and the exclamations of delight, when they capture an image of the Milky Way in their camera is what makes the effort of running a workshop worthwhile.
And the last event for June ( and for this part of the blog ) was to shoot another event, again at Te Awa Winery, called the Grape Debate ( www.grapedebate.co.nz ). This fund raising event features a lighthearted debate between 2 teams of wine industry celebrities about a generally unimportant topic. And the evening rounds off with an auction of donated products, including a print that I had donated. The money raised goes to the local helicopter rescue service, and this is the 2nd year I had shot the event for no cost.
