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I’m so excited to share this unique Hindu / Catholic wedding with you! I was lucky enough to tag along with Catherine Cattanach to second shoot this amazing event. You can see her blog post here. The role of the second shooter is part lens-fetcher, part crowd-watcher (and main photographer dodger!) but I got to start the day with the Ashwin and his family at City Life Apartments to photograph the “groom’s getting ready”. Despite being slightly befuddled as to what to do photo-wise with a lack of ties, buttons and cufflinks (“um, lets photograph you putting on your shoes…”), I enjoyed starting the day under my own steam in a bubbling-with-excitement environment (not to mention one super cute nephew).
Shortly after, we headed down to the Wellington Rowing Club to make sure everything was looking ship-shape and to nervously (me, Ashwin was fine) await the brides arrival.
The ceremony was half Hindu and half Catholic and, in a word, fascinating! Rice was thrown, fire appeared, toes were touched, rings were exchanged, babies lined the aisles. A photographer’s dream!
As the bride and groom left to change into their Western dress, and to have their couple portraits taken by Catherine, I hung back at the Boat Shed to photograph their guests.
I also got a look in at the exquisitely put together dining room by Charlotte Wood Events not to mention the gorgeous cake! Nom!
Catherine was laughing at me when it came to the speeches, I can’t help clapping! But I managed to hold myself back long enough to photograph these guys doing the same…
And then came the dancing. If the desire to clap at speeches was overwhelming, there are no words to describe my inability to hold my hips still during the first few numbers. What can I say? I’ve got boogie in my soul!
So many thanks to the warm and accommodating families and friends, the bride and groom, and to Catherine for having me come along to this beautiful (and super fun!) wedding. I look forward to showing you, my dear blog reader (if you’re really out there?), the next installment of the Catherine + Anna adventures after we photograph a uniquely Greek wedding this weekend!
That my Mum and my Nana. Pretty much the two best birds I know. Mum’s busy talking as usual, and wearing the brooch I bought her. I didn’t realise how similar they look.
I’ve got into a bad habit lately of dragging my camera around with me but not actually taking photos with it. I blame the weather. But I’m so glad I got these today. Two tiny moments, that are so precious because they were sealed in pixels forever. That’s my favourite thing about photography. I picked up my camera, I didn’t bother to adjust my settings, or frame up properly, but I made something precious.
At uni we used to talk a lot about whether photographs record or create memories. I always thought that as a photographer I was primarily creating memories, which is why I find is so important to make sure they photography part doesn’t overwhelm the living part. But looking at these, they are so full of other memories aside from just the great family lunch we ate this afternoon. From Nana’s necklace, to her new glasses, Mum’s haircut and the picture on the wall behind them – heck even the colour of the wall – down to the way they look at each other and the way they’re looking at me – these are all tiny elements of my familiar life. Its all there. Captured. A time capsule. I could stare at these frozen moments for hours, for a lifetime. They are so precious.
And this is a chicken
(also precious)
This image won ‘Acceptance’ in the North Shore Salon Photography Competition 2012, Open Digital Monochrome category. Titled “Grandpa and the Matriarch”. This was the first photography competition I ever entered, it is a high profile national competition, so I was thrilled to win an award. The acceptance title is awarded to the top approximately 20% of competitors in a category, and represents a great achievement.
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