I received this lovely email from one of my brides last week… it made my day so I thought I would share it!

I kept meaning to tell you at the wedding – Just after I booked you a year before the wedding, I was in this gorgeous designer bridal store in Dubai called Frost and the Lebanese owner was asking where I was getting married. Long story cut short – when I said New Zealand she said the most stunning wedding photos she had ever seen had been of a bride she sold a dress too who got married in New Zealand, but she couldn’t remember where or any of the details.

Even though I was telling her I’d already booked my photographer (didn’t mention your name) she keep persisting that I find this “amazing photographer” and so she ran off back to her office to find out the details. Mean while I standing there thinking “There’s hundreds maybe even thousands of wedding photographers in New Zealand… what’s the chance…” A few minutes later she appeared with her laptop and a shot of this bride at Mudbrick by Emma Hughes!
I nearly fell over!

Just thought you’d like to know how amazed people are with your photography – worldwide!
Have a great day!
Pepita

Lovely.

And since a post is not really the same without a photo, here is a studio portrait I shot recently of my dear friend Selina Tusitala Marsh…

Selina is an exceptionally talented poet, whose live performances are just amazing; evocative, emotive and downright moving.  She was wonderful to photograph.  This portrait is part of a group exhibition from the Waiheke Photography Collective which opens at Toi Gallery on Waiheke Island this coming Friday at 6pm… all welcome.

Congrats to Trinity, the gorgeous and fun winner of our Waiheke Island School Fair giveaway this year.  Her mum opted to go for one of my ‘Rockstars’ shoots and I am so pleased she did because Trin is a natural Rockstar!

Schools out!  Happy Holidays to all the school kids out there and good luck to all the parents… remember, rockstar shoots are a GREAT school holiday activity and a fun way to capture your little darlings youthful enthusiasm.

Just did a catalog shoot for new clothing label Bubble and Squeak; stunning clothes, gorgeous models and lots of fun…

Extra thanks to the cutest little girls on Waiheke Island – Gracie, Georgia, Piera and Lulu! What superstars!!
(The Bubble and Squeak website should be live next week if you want to check out their gorgeous collection…)

Wow, well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when they announced me as the winner of the NZIPP Iris Awards Wedding Album of the Year for 2010.  I was up against three other NZ photographers (Kate MacPherson, Sarah Beaufoy and Tony Carter) who are all spectacularly good and whose work I LOVE to pieces so it was such an honour and a wonderful surprise to hear them call my name.

Don’t mind that other little award in front of me, it belongs to the poor cropped out soul to my right who is the lovely Blair Quax, this years’ Wedding Photographer of the Year. Sorry about the whole cropping you out of the picture Blair…

As well as this accolade I received another Bar to my Masters (which means that I have received at least 10 points on the judging system since I was appointed the ‘Master of Photography’ distinction – each gold is worth 3 points, silvers 2 and bronzes 1 and each additional 10 points gives you another bar).  I also was awarded 1 Silver with distinction Award, 2 Silver Awards and 3 Bronze Awards!  A very good year and I am pretty happy with the results.  Here are the successful prints…

NZIPP Silver Award, with Distinction - Portrait Category

NZIPP Silver Award - Portrait Category

The photo above is of my lovely little boy Joe – what a little darling to let his mummy give him a mohawk!
And this shot below received a bronze and is a pregnancy photo of wonderful Waiheke physiotherapist-extraordinaire Ingrid, who very graciously climbed a bit of the way up a cliff face for me. (Thanks Ingrid!)

The photo above is of Onetangi Beach bride Toni hugging her mum as she walks down the aisle, petals all a swirling… LOVE this shot!  You can see Toni’s wedding HERE.

This shot below received a bronze in the wedding category and was from the wedding of Bec and Scott.  One of the judges scored it at 92 which is a GOLD but unfortunately the other 4 judges obviously didn’t feel the same way!  Stinko.  Bec’s wedding post is HERE

And lastly, a couple of my favourite layouts from the Wedding Album of the Year entry which were taken from the completely gorgeous wedding of Samantha and Graham at Delamore Lodge here on Waiheke Island – link to their blog post HERE.
I will try and upload a slideshow of the album in a few days time…

Thanks so very very much to all my fabulous brides who were happy to let me use their photos in this competition – You are all STUNNING!!  The Wedding Album of the Year category is sponsored by New Zealand Bride and Groom Magazine so thanks very much to them also for the support.
xx

I recently did some promo shots for the Waiheke Island Burlesque Festival which is coming to Waiheke this Labour Weekend, 22nd-24th October, 2010.  My models were the gorgeous organisers of the festival, Willow Roundtree and Bianca Sanders.  Hair and make up was created by wonderful Waiheke make up artist Hannah Bylo…

There are more to see on my Facebook page so head on over, fan me and take a look – HERE

This year’s Kodak Gold Awards received over 800 entries so I was delighted to receive 2 Golds and 2 Silvers for my work this year. The two golds were both for wedding work – one Gold Award for a print and one Gold Award for a wedding album and the Silvers were for portrait photos – one from a “Bellies” session and one from the “Babes” session of the same lovely family! How cool is that!?