Every year, during the off-season, I spend a lot of time hunting out locations that I can use for the coming seasons weddings.

For instance, after the Awards in Wellington this year, I will be stopping off at New Plymouth, Taupo, and Rotorua to search out locations for weddings I have there. Usually I spend about 3-4 hours reccying each wedding, looking for wet weather photography locations as well as best case scenario locations. I like to be extremely well prepared for whatever the day might throw at us.

For the weddings I have in the South Island and overseas, I get there the day before and do the reccy, then come up with the shot ideas that night before the wedding the next day.

For me, continually looking for the next awesome shot, is part of my business model. I don't want to be using the same spots and just putting different couples into them. Because I shoot quite a few weddings in Auckland every year, I am always on the look-out when I am driving around the city. But nothing beats getting out on the streets on foot.

Which is precisely what I did yesterday...

A good friend and fellow photographer, Gary Hewlett (dodgy wedding and portrait photographer), joined me for a wander around the cbd.

We found lots of new photography locations. Some that I am really excited about.

Here are a couple that I have done a little work on:

 

You can imagine a bride and groom in these can't you?

It is so cool finding a location, forming an idea for a image, shooting it, and then turning it into a fantastic wedding photo that a couple will love and enjoy for years to come.

Cheers

Steve Sharp

www.shots.co.nz

 

Very exciting stuff! After a painful week of figuring out how to load all my info and photos, I finally cracked it.

I am looking forward to this new approach, keeping clients and friends informed about the goings on with Shots Photography.

The next few months are going to be very taxing. The annual Epson/Iris Awards are coming up and I hope to be entering the maximum 10 prints allowed.

I have 4 of my favourites from this past wedding season ready to go for the Wedding Category. (Only 4 prints per category are allowed.) That was the easy bit. The hard bit is figuring out what to photograph for the other 6 entries.

Here is one of my favourite entries from last year.

 

This was from Kushla & Chris' wedding at The Estate on Waiheke on the 2nd of Feb 08. From memory it got an 83.

The thing about the awards... You never know how an image will do. There is an emotional attachment on the photographer's and the clients' behalf but there is none of that from the judges...

I will keep you informed through this blog of my success (or not) at his years awards...

They are being held in Wellington from August 20th-25th 2009.

Cheers

Steve

www.shots.co.nz