Archive for February, 2007
Well, at last we are home again! We missed you all but are seriously considering hopping back on a plane to a warmer climate. Our trip was specifically and strategically planned to miss a month of typical Vancouver winter and we’ve come home to shoveling snow again. It’s dejavu!
We had a wonderful time in Australia and met some amazing and wonderful people along the way. All of whom we look forward to seeing again next year! If you haven’t already, scroll along and experience Australia from the camera lens.
A large portion of our trip was spent visitng photographers and their studios and spending quality time learning from the best. Through our experiences and interactions with the Aussies, we are inspired to create the studio that we have long envisioned. We have uncovered a mountain of relevant and actionable insights into wedding and portrait photography that will help propel our studio in a new direction.
With the mass amounts of information, workshop material and tonnes of fresh ideas you can look forward to experiencing some of the exciting changes we plan to make to our studio over the next year. So stay tuned!
February 28th, 2007
And so we arrive in Brisbane having completed our workshop with Yervant and Anie.
We were up late Saturday night, meaning we weren’t too enthused about catching an early Sunday morning flight to Brisbane. The reason for our 8am flight was so that we could arrive in Brisbane in time to catch the last two days of the annual Hair of the Dog conference. This is a photography conference put on by the Queensland AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photography).
We met some more photographers, sat in a few seminars, wrote some notes, and passed on the unlabeled sandwhiches (but did eat the cookies).
Aside from a wonderment that we would travel to Australia and spend 6 straight days in workshops and conferences, you’re wondering what a “hair of the dog” is? According to this wikipedia entry, it refers to “an expression predominantly used to refer to ingestion of alcohol as treatment for a hangover”. Like we said earlier, those Aussie’s have a great sense of humour.
After the conference, that left us three days in Brisbane to see the sights. As our trip was winding down, the camera was tucked away more than it had been during the previous part of the trip, but we still managed to take a few shots….
Now, one thing you hear repeatedly in Australia is how hot and humid Brisbane is. People move out of Brisbane to escape the heat. People move into Brisbane to bask in the heat. What we experienced was a mild amount of humidity and high 20’s temperature. Certainly not the 40 degree melting rubber temperate that people outside of Brisbane warned us to expect. Apparently Brisbane is experiencing a mild summer, and we are grateful. Well mostly….
On Thursday we set out for the beach, heading north up the Sunshine Coast to Noosa, a popular Australian vacation spot. Can you guess what happened? Go ahead, take a guess.
These shots below should tell the story…
A view out the car window at Noosa
A break in the rain allowed us to actually venture onto the beach
I guess surfers don’t care if it rains or not - either way they get wet.
A shot of downtown at night
A popular brand of beer brewed in Brisbane - we have no idea if it is any good or not
Here’s a couple shots near downtown Brisbane. Don’t know anything about the building or the bridge, but they looked interesting
And finally our host during our stay, master photographer Jason Starr. He and his wife Sal kindly put up with us for our last week in Australia. This is an ‘interpretive’ shot of Jason, taken with a special lens that distorts the image a little.
A big thank you to everyone we met in Australia who helped give us a fantastic trip and lots of memories (and pictures).
Next stop…… home (whew)…
February 27th, 2007
One of our primary purposes for travelling to Australia was to attend a 4 day workshop hosted by Yervant and his wife Anie. Yervant is a ridiculously good wedding photographer, with Anie being the brains behind the organization. We covered everything: sales, marketing, production techniques, editing, photoshop, albums, ….
Being a photography workshop, the main highlights were a walk about town with Yervant and a past bride and grown - watching him set-up shots as he explained his thinking and methodology, and the following day us students setting out to photograph three past brides who were gracious enough to volunteer for a few hours.
We’ve included some of our favourite images below. It’s hard to narrow them down to just a few as the beautiful brides and the wonderful shooting locations make for great images.
For the next bride, this is her original wedding dress (I think she got married in November). Lots of Yervant’s brides wear these stylized or couture dresses. We loved this retro 20’s look.
We’d like to publicly thank Yervant and Anie for hosting the workshop during the busy wedding season in Melbourne. We had a great experience, learned lots, appreciated everything they shared with us, and are looking forward to implement many of the suggestions offered not only by them but also the other photographers we had a chance to visit during our Australia 2007 tour. Stay tuned for exciting changes to our business….
And a special shout-out to Wil and Reg of Saxon Cole Photography, a husband/wife team out of Sydney that also attended the workshop. We got to know them quite well as we Canadians gave them a tour of Melbourne (an extended tour as it turns out, as we jumped on the wrong Tram not once, but twice…. Jeff claims the Trams were mis-numbered and not following the map).
Here’s pretty much the worst picture I think the 4 of us have ever had taken. It’s at 6:30 am Sunday morning at the Melbourne airport just before they head back to Sydney and we jump up to Brisbane. All of us on very little sleep from a week-long workshop plus we didn’t get to our hotel room until 1:30am the previous night. We’ll see you guys next year. 
Last stop… Brisbane
February 24th, 2007
And again we find ourselves in Melbourne, definitely one of our favourite cities in the world.
We caught an early flight from Hobart to Melbourne. A real early flight - it left at 6am - landed at 7am and we were back in our original hotel room from our first day in Melbourne by 8am.
We spent the day wondering around downtown (what they call the CBD - Central Business District). And talk about a small world. One of Tanya’s best friends, Jen, from high school is a forest fire fighter and has been on loan to Australia to help with some larger fires here. Our time in Melbourne happened to coincide with a few days that she had here before returning to Canada (Salmon Arm actually).
So we went to a Japanese restaurant called the Chocolate Buddha to meet her and her group for drinks. We managed to snap some more night shots.
Tuesday was spent at the beach and wandering through St. Kilda’s south of Melbourne.
The big reason for heading over here was to attending a workshop and that began Tuesday night. We’ll post some images that we took as part of the workshop later. For now though we’ll include some shots from the bay that we took on Thursday night (a little boat cruise for us attendees)
Spend all that money and you pick the colour orange… hmmm…. At one point a silver one pulled up right beside it. Oh yes, let’s not forget the Ferrari parked behind it as well
An ‘illustrative’ picture of a tram about to run me over
Southern Cross train station - on the west side of the CBD. Again, some very modern architecture in Melbourne
Night shot taken from near the entrance to the Chocolate Buddha showing the Flinders Street Station.
The Federation Square courtyard and a lone Vespa, waiting for its driver…
Tanya and Jen
A view of the city with the Telstra dome
Passing under the bridge from the previous shot. No idea what the bridge is.
Another shot of the city
An evening shot looking back west - the previous images where north or northwest.
February 22nd, 2007
Hobart Tasmania (aka “Down unda, down unda”). Population 126,000. We arrived on Wednesday evening and were met at the airport by Tero Sade - one of Australia’s premier portrait photographers (oops, we mean THE premier portrait photographer ). We are fortunate enough to be staying with Tero and his family at their home which sits atop a hillside about 20 minutes outside of the city of Hobart.
Tasmania is separated by the Mainland by 240 km of water known as Bass Strait. It is known for its majestic photographic landscapes. At first glance the terrain looks much like that of Vancouver but with more rolling hills. It was mostly sunny with clouds moving about making it a bit of a toss up whether you wore pants or shorts.
We visited Mount Wellington, which is a favourite excursion of the locals. The mountain rises 1270 metres (around 4000 feet) above Hobart’s harbour and the Derwent River. Because it is within 20 minutes of the city it is easy to get to but be prepared for the winding road which stretches 21 kms. The trek itself reminded me much of the Road to Hana in Maui - those of you who have survived that trek would understand. The drive to the summit provided majectic views and photographic opportunities including temperate rain forest, sub-alpine flora and glacial rock. All I can say is the lighting there was unbelieveable!
On our last full day on the island we drove down to visit Port Arthur with Tero’s son acting as our tour guide. Port Arthur is a national historic site, having been Australia’s largest prison (penal colony). Though thriving in the mid 1800’s, it now stands as a series of ruins and restored buildings, which of course makes for great photography.
The rest of the time it was relaxing on the homestead with our bellies full of “shrimp on the barbi” (well, not exactly as we don’t like shrimp but you get the idea)
“God Rays” near Tero’s home in the valley (just outside of Hobart)
More rays from the big man
A view from the top, Mt. Wellington (I think this is Hobart). The clouds are just a few feet above us.
Um, our professional portrait taken by a master
Cool shot of Jeff taking an photo of something or other
It’s kind-of a foreign landscape up there, kinda Moon-ish or Mars-ish. This was as the “fog” was rolling in. We lucked out by getting there before it got socked in.
Another vista from near the top, showing some wind-swept trees
Tero’s backyard. It’s a tough life out there, having to wake up every morning to fresh air and the cherry orchard next door.
One of the two horses on his property, taken just before we had to clean the lens.
The road to Port Arthur has its share of majestic cliffs. This was taken near an area known as the ‘blowhole’. It wasn’t blowing too hard this day - so we’ll show you images of cliffs instead.
Another view of the coastline further down the road
An image of the penitentiary at Port Arthur. Not much left but a brick shell now but it housed 480 prisoners in its hay-day. This shot was taken from the bay while on a quick loop around to get a closer look at the “Isle of the Dead” (it’s where the prisoners were buried when they died).
A shot of the hospital (burnt in two seperate fires)
The church (destroyed in an 1884 fire) just visible through a grove of trees
The eluive Tasmanian Tero - rarely photographed as it is usually found behind a camera
Next destination - back to Melbourne….
February 19th, 2007
More of our 4 days in Sydney. Here are some of our favourite shots of Sydney at night (pretty much mostly in and around the main harbour).
We were lucky enough to capture an almost full moon (bright orange) rising over the Opera House
February 10th, 2007
So one of our day trips in Sydney was to the Taronga Zoo. We embarked on a ferry ride to the zoo from Manly Wharf which took us to the docks at Circular Quay located in the heart of Sydney close to the Sydney Opera House. From there we took another ferry to the Zoo which is located in Mosman.
As we found out, the best time to visit the zoo is in the morning when the animals are most active or around feeding times. We arrived in the late afternoon and on a hot day so many of the animals were napping.
Some of the most entertaining on our visit were the Orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus). Taronga Zoo has four Orang-utans; males Jantan and Kluet and females Judy and Willow. When we visited, they were hiding/playing under potato sacs to shield themselves from the hot sun.
One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to visit the Zoo was to see the Koalas up close. Taronga is currently home to 14 koalas and visitors can have a close encounter with the famous Australian icon every day. Unfortunately, we arrived at the Zoo just 15 minutes after the “close encounter” opportunity and instead had to settle for photographing them at distance.
My favourite to photograph were the Giraffes. Giraffes are born to enjoy the view and Taronga’s have the best view in Sydney; they overlook the Sydney Harbour and the Opera House! We saw4 Giraffes on our visit: ‘Hope’ (the oldest of the group) followed by ‘Niota’ and ‘Charity’ (the only male) - and ‘Andara’.
One of my favourite images from the trip was actually of Jeff and not the zoo animals (although some would say that Jeff exudes behavior of a different primate….)
The Chimpanzee habitat had Mirrors so that its visitors could mimick chimpanzee facial expressions (or is it that chimps mimics human expressions???).
A few more creatures…
Crikey…
A Fairy Penguin - just chill’n and relax’n
Not a “Tiger Shark”, but just a Tiger
The obvious title for this one: “Monkeying around”. Runner up: “Down Under Monkey”
February 9th, 2007
Next stop - Sydney…
First off, Sydney is a bloody huge city. There are something like 5 million people here. And the main business area (referred to as the Central Business District or CBD) easily dwarfs Vancouver.
Sydney is about a 1.5 hour flight from Melbourne - so it was a nice quick flight. Our flight left at 10:15am but we arrived unusually late to the airport at 9:45am. Sweated it a little bit, but we managed to catch the flight and were one of the last to board.
Sydney is afflicted with the same condition as Vancouver though - onewayitis. Driving around downtown especially is a two person job - one person to drive and the other to consult the map and yell at the driver for looking at the pretty girls and missing the street. Of course the diver is busy cursing because the street signs aren’t exactly easy to find. But we’re proud to report that though we missed a few turns, we were never lost and never once had to ask for help. Still, virtually everyone said we were brave to drive at all.
A few tidbits we take away with us:
- Way too much for a tourist to do here. We had 4 days in Sydney and figure another 3 or 4 would have got us close to visiting and doing all the things on our list.
- It’s a big city. Really big.
- Lots of beaches with really nice sand and beautiful bodies (of water )
- It’s more hilly and more lush than we expected. One can see the parallels between Sydney, Vancouver, and San Francisco. Definitely more humid than SF or Van, but it wasn’t bad.
- Parking is difficult to find and beyond ridiculous in price. To park near the Opera House was $9 for 0-30 minutes. To park for 5 hours was something like $45.
- Why is parking expensive? To discourage driving. During rush hour, there is a lot of traffic. Yup - traffic is a problem here as well - we found out as it took us two hours to get to the airport.
- We’d like to thank Barb and Jim Kent for hosting us at their house and for taking us on a driving tour of the south coast on our last day. A nice relaxing way to end this leg of the trip.
Main tourist area in Sydney - the “Circular Quay” between the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge
Couple of aboriginal’s playing for the crowd. Note the coffee on the right.
Next to the Circular Quay is an area called “The Rocks”. This is a view north with the bridge in the background.
The opera house with cafe tents in the foreground
The mandatory self portrait shot that all tourists have to take, including professional photographers
Looking north at the opera house with the Harbour Bridge to the left
Another view of the opera house, this time looking south from a ferry taking us to the zoo (that’s not a metaphor, we really went to the zoo - pictures to follow)
Downtown in the background (the opera house is hidden to the right of the image.
The world famous Bondi beach. It’s a lot quieter during the week day - but apparently jam packed on weekends.
The north end of Bondi beach, with a little pool for the kiddies and probably multi-million dollar condos right on the bluff.
A couple of crazy locals trying to cool off in the heat by standing in the way of waves crashing into the cliff. We assume they are still alive.
Lifeguard putting out the Bluebottle warnings on the main beach in Manly (north end of Sydney). Lots of people getting stung this day, with the beach littered with dead little blue jellyfish kinda things. Lovely.
A view looking south down the Australian coast. Taken on our last day during a trip south of Sydney
More of Sydney still to come….
February 9th, 2007
As I write this we are on a plane travelling from Melbourne to Sydney for the next leg of our journey. We thought we would post some images from a few of the highlights we experienced in Melbourne and share a few words about our stay here.
Melbourne is here and is the southern-most big city on the main island (excluding Tasmania). It’s climate is pretty temperate, and somewhat similar to Vancouver. It is refered to as the “cultural and sporting capital of Australia”
In 2006, Melbourne place 2nd to Vancouver in an international ranking of Best Cities to live in.
Some observations about Melbourne from our Canadian Tourist point of view:
- It is a very tourist friendly city and easy to get around - there is a great tram system
- There are so many fabulous cafes everywhere you look alot of great places to have a coffee
- The culture is very diverse
- You cannot find a cab on Friday and Saturday night (you also can’t find an empty seat at a tappa bar or lounge)
- This city is so amazing to photograph both day or night
- The alleys are not at all like Vancouver - here they are safe and ripe with life: swanky shops, cafes and galleries and some are lined with graffiti and super talented street performers.
- Lots of flies when you run along the Yarra river 
A selection of some favourite images we’ve taken:
The Yarra river (and our running path)
The tram system is great. (taken near Federation Square)
Looking across the Yarra river north to the central business district
55 stories high in the Rialto tower - a view east (with the Yarra river on the right)
The full moon rising near one of the business towers
Flinder St Train station at night (near Federation Square)
St. Patrick’s cathedral (again across from Federation Square)
Street performers in one of those awesome alleyways we mentioned
Australian’s have a good sense of humour….
Stay tuned - next stop - Sydney
February 6th, 2007
Guess where we are? Need a hint?
For the next 3 weeks we are traveling the vast plains of Australia, visiting cities, characters, and coffee shops. The purpose behind the trip is to visit some other photographers and we’ll be attending a workshop session by one of the best wedding photographers in the world.
We’ll be checking email whenever we can snag a connection in the outback. (which means we’ll do our best to respond - but it might take a couple of days)
One thing we don’t have is a picture of our stack of luggage. We aren’t light worldly travelers to begin with, but tack on to that two laptops and a full complement of camera gear and you end up with a couple of Canadian refuges who look like they are fleeing the chaos of Vancouver winter with all our worldly possessions in tow. I think the only thing we didn’t bring with us are the cats.
THE FLIGHT
Our flight from Vancouver to LA was quick. The flight from LA to Melbourne was sloooowwww and very uneventful. And by uneventful, we mean:
This is a picture of Jeff’s video-on-demand screen, which wouldn’t show any video when he demanded it. And this is where as wives we compromise for the happiness of our husbands… we swapped seats so that Jeff could watch movies and I slept and then we switched. I am keeping positive vibes that on the way home Jeff will have his own working screen. (Jeff: “Stupid Qantas!”)
Stay tuned for scenes from Melbourne.
Tanya
February 6th, 2007