Byron Bay Wedding Photography
Living the Dream
Staging a wedding is no mean feat even for someone who practices Byron Bay Wedding Photography. No wonder Elopements are so popular these days. It is like putting your love story on show. For me it was a situation where I needed people around me that I felt totally at ease with. People that I could be open with. Be sure you feel completely comfortable and most of all you don’t feel judged by your Photographer. That way you can be openly expressive and this will pay off big time when you see your photos.
For years my personal preference was shooting landscapes, seascapes and surfing. I eventually realised that I wanted to photograph people but didn’t have a lot of confidence. I then found myself shooting a few Byron Bay weddings to get some images for my wife’s website. This was an epiphany. Everyone was totally expecting the lens to aim their way and the confidence issue dissolve. I was hooked. Over night weddings took first place on my list of to do’s. And what could be more satisfying than covering weddings around the gorgeous Byron Bay.
Even Byron Bay weddings may seem ordered and carefully planned but they are fast paced for the photographer with no room for error. You can’t come back at a later date and re-shoot. The up-side is that the images move people. The photos will be on display to a large audience and have to be spot on. The sensory overload of emotions is canned forever.
If money was no object I would still be doing exactly what I’m doing now but surfing far-out places and skiing the best slopes on the planet. The best bit is that there is still plenty more Byron Bay weddings to come!
THE BYRON BAY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY VIBE IS KING
I could never understand what the significance of ‘Brownie’ was in the name Kodak Box Brownie. Weird name but it probably led me to love the black and white images. I especially remember some shots that I thought were pretty fantastic of the Franklin River in South Gippsland before the whispering willows were eradicated. Maybe my memory is slipping but I was about 8 years old and thought it odd that none of my siblings seemed all that mad on the photos. Actually, the results probably weren’t that impressive – I was just a little obsessed.
After I graduated from Uni I had to go to King Island to get work so needed a hobby to supplement what I thought would be too much spare time. I got my hands on Dad’s manual Hanimex. It was not well looked after which forced me to buy my own. My first TTL was a second hand Pentax 35 mm film camera. The spare time evaporated as photography took over and there was a regular succession of camera gear.
To fill in the nights I got myself some dark room equipment and started black and white developing and printing. My place looked like a laundry with all the prints pegged up on overhead lines.
YEARS LATER
when we set up a hawking business in SA and WA (8 tonne truck, kids doing school-of-the-air) I discovered the rich hues of Kodachrome. To keep the brain working whilst we dawdled around the dusty roads of outback Australia, I was ever on the hunt for that perfect sunset, those faces that could tell a story without words or the vivid landscapes enhanced by the clean parched air of the inland.
Photographic profits took a bold leap when I was lucky enough to crack a gig doing industrial photos in the oil industry in Bass Strait and North West Shelf. A far cry from Byron Bay Wedding Photography and the criteria was always focused on volume rather than creativity.
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”
“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.”
“Black and white are the colors of photography. They symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is subjected.”
BYRON BAY WEDDINGS
Gary Patterson Photography
