A few weeks back, Rick & I headed out to shoot the last wedding for the month of June, that of Sam & Tiffany.
KFC was the order of the day for the girls, with the bridesmaids heading out to do a quick fast food run. That was ok with me, because I’m always stressing the importance of the bride having a big feed before she gets in that dress because it’s a long time to dinner, and I won’t have a cranky hungry bride! (Just be sure to share some with me so there’s not a cranky hungry photographer!!!!)
I think Tiffany was more excited than nervous about getting down to aisle to see Sam. The wedding was held at North Lakes Golf Club, and unlike the last time I visited this venue, I didn’t appear to get an allergic reaction!
After the ceremony, we headed out onto the golf course for some fun, frivolty, and playing with traffic!!
My current Facebook profile pic (and the closest thing I’ll probably ever get to being a bride!!)…
Last month I got off the plane from Hamilton Island, and headed straight over to one of my previous clients house, Vijay & Linda, to take photos of their gorgeous son Levi.
The little guy took it easy on me, and didn’t make it too difficult to photograph him. He has his Dad’s charm & sophistication, and his Mum’s good looks. How could I go wrong???…
Last month I had the enormous priviledge of travelling to Hamilton Island to photograph the 45th wedding anniversary celebrations of Kev & Kay. It’s hard for me to find the words to describe just how special it was for me to be there. Weddings are special, but this was even more special. They’ve spent 45 years together, have 3 children, and 6 grandchildren, and still look at eachother like they did when they first met.
The festivities were held at a private villa on the island, where Kev & Kay exchanged vows in front of their family. After some champagne and toasts, we headed out for some pictures of the family, before returning to the villa for some more drinks. I was then invited out to a beautiful dinner with the family at an island restaurant where a fantastic night was had by all.
Kev & Kay reminded me so much of my own parents, and I truly felt like a part of their family. Thankyou all for inviting me into your lives, and to share this truly special occasion with you. xxx
Last August I posted about the arrival of Amy Rose. On June 7 (same day as Milly), Amy turned one year old! Later in the month I caught up with Amy and her parents, Greg & Lee-anne, for some pictures.
I love this sequence! Lee-anne was blowing some bubbles and all Amy wanted to do was eat them!…
I’m not a spontaneous person by nature. In fact, I like to plan things meticulously, and like to be in control. So last week when a friend of mine invited me on a last minute trip down to the snow fields, I threw caution to the wind and off I went. I had purposely booked out the last two weekends in July for a bit of “me” time, and wanted to make the most of it!
So Friday afternoon I got on a plane and headed to Sydney (no, not to corrupt some pilgrims!!). At 4am Saturday morning (we had originally planned to leave at 2am!) we headed off for the long drive to Perisher Valley. This was the second time I’d seen snow, and I was still in awe! It was beautiful, and of course cold! I went to a beginners snowboarding lesson to try to learn the ropes, but there’s some saying about old dogs and new tricks that I think is particuarly appropriate!
Sunday was not as fruitful, with bad weather meaning it was raining, and we ended up calling it a day around 2pm, and getting back on the road early to Sydney and finally rolling in around 10pm after a few detours on the way. I landed back in Brisbane yesterday from what can only be described as a whirlwind couple of days. I was tired, but so very very glad that I went.
The view up at Blue Cow…
Grasshopper……
I tried to stay like this….
But most of the time ended up like this….
Snow Angels…
Video of me attempting to ride the tow rope up the hill….
On the way home we stopped off in our nations capital, and grabbed a quick tourist shot outside Parliament House before being harrassed by security…
Just when you thought Glenn & Christie couldn’t get anymore fabulouser, they went and signed up for a Day After/Trash The Dress session!! This totally earned them points in the coolness department!!
If 9am seemed early for Ben, Justine & I, then I can’t imagine how Glenn & Christie managed to pull up - and looking so damn good too!! We headed straight out to a rocky point that Justine had scoped out the previous afternoon, and Glenn & Christie slipped straight back into model mode. They were getting instructions yelled at them from both Ben & I, it was blowing an absolute gale, and on top of that it was FREEZING!!! For these guys, it was easy.
We then moved onto the shelter of a beach just up the road where it was time to get down and dirty and WET. It must have been freezing cold for both of them, but you wouldn’t know it to look at the photos. In fact, these make me want to find a bloke to go rolling around in the ocean with….
Before we headed out I made Ben come with me to what I call “The Big Prawn” to get the tourist snapshot…
If you expect people to get into awkward positions for you, you have to be prepared to show them how it’s done. (No jokes about my delightful tracksuit and pink crocs - you have to be comfortable on these shoots!!)…
Wow. Wow. Wow! I get these weddings that come along and blow my socks off every now and again, and Glenn & Christie’s day was one of them. Glenn & Christie live in the Blue Mountains, and decided to hold their wedding at Ballina. I enlisted the help of good friend and fellow photographer Ben Rugers of Infinity Studios to come down and second shoot with me. I don’t think we really knew what to expect when we went through the gates to Deux Belettes. But once we got up the driveway we could hardly contain our excitement. I immediately fell in love with the place. So much so that I’m trying to convince my own sister to get married here.
After pinching ourselves a couple of times, we headed on upstairs to see Christie and the girls. As the boys were also getting ready on site, we floated between upstairs and downstairs to take in all the action. The ceremony was held in the courtyard, and it truly felt like a little piece of the mediterranean right there on the NSW north coast! We then got to explore the romance and charm the grounds had to offer. Its such a beautiful, romantic location, and I urge anyone thinking of planning a destination wedding to check it out.
Glenn & Christie were an awesome couple who really gave us free reign to do whatever we wanted, resulting in some gorgeous photos!
Here’s some images Ben captured…
Ben & I…
With my couple…
And then with Ben…
If Ben & I go anywhere together, you can be assured of some outtakes. Ours started in the car on the way to Ballina, where we pulled over for an impromptude photo shoot….
My poor car…
Not my best angle, but I’ll take what I can get…
After the wedding we headed back to Ballina, where Ben’s wife came down to join us for a party on the floor of my motel room. But that’s a whole other set of photographs!
If you’ve been hanging out over on the official Toni Snell website (and let’s face it, no one does) then you may have noticed an updated splash page, and the addition of a section called “Client Proofs”…
I am slowly making the move to online proofing for my clients in an effort to streamline the album process with the focus on making album image selection easier, and hopefully quicker. Clients can now browse through their own password protected gallery, tagging their favourite images as they go, and then submit them to me with just a click of the mouse.
All weddings from June 1 will now be appearing on the proofing system, and couples will be emailed with their own password once the gallery is activated. If you have friends and family who want to check out your gallery, you will need to give them the password yourself. That’s just the rules.
Its been a long running joke that when my folks are away that if it weren’t for the kindness of strangers, I would go hungry. Not completely true, but pretty bloody close to it! I am constantly so blessed by the amazing clients that I have, that when my former bride Sam read that the olds were away, she took pity on me, and invited me over for dinner. Last week I dropped around where Sam, being the domestic goddess that she is, cooked up spaghetti bog and chocolate self saucing pudding. How lucky am I!!
We then settled in to watch Pamela Anderson on Big Brother (don’t lie, so did you!) and we practiced a little sauciness of our own…
I am very happy to say that I now do have my parents back home with me, which is a relief as there’s only so much Vegemite on toast a girl can eat. While they were in the UK they also had a visit with a former bride, Allison whose wedding Poo and I shot in February when she was out here on holiday.
This post must also come with a disclaimer. The “Toni Snell is a complete and utter showpony” disclaimer. I’ll admit that I love being in front of the camera just as much as I do being behind it. When one of my photographer friends suggested we all get together and shoot pictures of eachother for our Facebook profiles, I was there with bells on. Yesterday we hit up the Boardwalk Tavern at Hope Island for lunch, and then headed over to Sanctuary Cove for the photoshoot. I’ll have some more to share once I get down to editing, but for now, here’s a few that the amazing Deb Amsler took of me…
