The World Press Exhibition was also displayed in Wellington. I have seen the exhibition previous years in other places of the world and it’s always an eye opener.  I still think its sad that most awards are won with very graphic images of dead people from war zones and disasters rather that happy moments and scenes of survivors, but that’s just me.

Te Papa is always worth visiting and the Vogue in New Zealand Exhibition was interesting. Our little boy loved all the interactive discovery centers almost as much as the visit to the Zoo.

We had a family holiday at the end of June in Noosa which was great to spend time playing on the beach and in the pool with Lucas and just enjoy some summer.

I was planning to get straight into preparing for the upcoming Iris Awards but had a slight set back with a ruptured appendix and a long ambulance ride to Dunedin hospital in the snowy weather! Fortunately, no surgery required, but the reason it’s been a bit quiet on the blog and face book front, is that I had to spend a week in hospital ( extension of holiday) but I am back to full force now and feeling great!

Two days after I got home, I did another big Heli shoot with Alpine Helicopters for Minaret Station in a meter of snow, minus 7 to 10 at night with no door on the helicopter, it was a bit chilly up there. The most exciting thing was that we did the main shoot at 2 o’clock in the morning in the light of the full moon! It was definitely a new experience to fly helicopter at that time of night and the images came out amazing.

Heather Waraksa, from Brooklyn NY, is one of the top 10 wedding photographer in the world and is famous for her cinematic and fashion inspired images. She was recently in New Zealand and I spent a whole day with her last week. I got lots of new ideas and concepts to experience with couples for the next coming season.

The night ended in true NY style with cocktails in the company of great photographers.

It has been an amazing year, meeting 3 of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world was something i never thought would happen. David Beckstead  with his distinct style, Jerry Ghionis who makes every wedding glamourous and rock’n roll and Heather’s soft, beautiful and romantic images.

Here are a few images taken last week,  inspired by Heather Waraksa’s work

Graham flew me up on Mt Roy for my first heli wedding way back and since then we have shared many fun times in the air and on the ground. He was a keen photographer and at more than one wedding he picked up one of my cameras and snapped away:)

A great pilot and friend that will be greatly missed by us all, flying will never be the same without you

Here are some images from times spent flying with Graham

We got to be “behind the scenes” of his work and he showed and talked about how a certain image was created and what to look for to get those images.  We also had lots of time to ask question and spend one on one time with David and he helped me with some new personal ideas for my weddings.

I am back in Wanaka now and have just typed up my 8 pages of notes from the day and all I can say is that I loved the seminars and workshops.  I always try to evolve my photography and learn new things and whenever I get the chance to meet and learn from other top photographers I take it!

I’m proud to say that even though I have many award winning photos and am rated as one of the best photographers here, I came away from the day with pages of new ideas and can’t wait to try them out on my weddings this year…well next weekend, actually!