Photography FAQ’s

I spend a lot of the day photographing as it happens, with the goal of capturing the natural spirit and interactions of you as a couple, your wedding party and loved ones. For the more intimate shots, I will begin by staying farther away to help you feel comfortable with the presence of the camera, and then gradually move closer as your confidence increases. I'll make sure you're in the right light and give you prompts to create the kinds of photos you see in my portfolio. This often includes making silly jokes and demonstrating average dancing, but most importantly, I aim to make the experience as fun and relaxed as possible.

Even though I have been a part of over 800 weddings over the years, there will be times where I haven’t been to your venue. Before the day I will look up on the internet what to expect, but I don’t go into a wedding with any preconceived ideas, as I want make the moments yours, not copied from the venue website. No matter the location, I can make it work….I find light before location and make it more about your connection than the venue. I am also prepared for absolutely any lighting condition, by having on standby an armoury of lights. Site visits are available on request in metro Melbourne, I often tie this into your wedding day planning meeting 4-5 weeks from your wedding day (pending seasonality).

I found for most weddings over the years, the added value of a second photographer has diminished as I can normally cover every aspect of the day effectively on my own. In cases where they are of value is when the guest list is greater than roughly 150 people, where covering one of the getting ready aspects of the day is not practically possible or if your ceremony venue might have limited movement allowed or is difficult to move around in or large in size. I do however use an assistant in some cases. Not only do they allow me to concentrate on my job better, they also can assist you and your wedding party with whatever you need.

Absolutely, I live for it. I have seen weddings all over Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Thailand and France. I will photograph anywhere in the world if I can get there via transport, pending border rules and Visa restrictions. I offer all inclusive packages to Europe, West Canada, Perth, Gold Coast and Brisbane as the transport and accommodation costs can be reasonably predictable. Outside of that, all travels fees are charged at cost and added to your invoice. Any weddings outside of greater Melbourne are subject to a small travel fee. POA.

The number of photos can vary depending on coverage time booked and the order of events. On average 500-700 over 8 hours is typically delivered or 60-100 photos per hour of coverage. Your photos are sent electronically in a professionally hosted gallery with the ability to do slideshows, save favourite lists, share with guests and even order prints, albums and mounts directly to your door. You can download them in both high resolution (approx 6000pixels long) or sized for web (2048pixels long), individually or all at once. They are ready to print yourself and is live for at least 1 year after delivery. Delivery time varies from 4 to 6 weeks depending on the seasonality of weddings. Sometimes you might get them in two, it really depends on the seasonal workload.

In order to lock in your exclusive date, I require 30% of your total fee to hold it within 7 days from contract signing. This can be transferable to other services or dates if your wedding is postponed or cancelled beyond your control. This can be expanded upon in an email or on your consultation call. The balance is to be paid one month out from the wedding. All print and album purchases made through your gallery can be paid via direct deposit, credit/debit card, AfterPay or PayPal.

Yes I do, I have a fee and interest free service called GoCardless. Just a 30 second sign up and it is set and forget. This service is available to packages valued above $2500 and a minimum of a 6 month term. They make their money by taking a small percentage from each transaction, much like a merchant fee on credit cards or PayPal. As a default you can also pay via Stripe Credit Card to utilise the payment terms set by your creditor.

It starts at capture, my cameras have two memory card slots that write simultaneously for redundancy and are carefully transported home for backup. The same day they are copied to a hard drive system that mirrors itself twice and then uploaded to a secure cloud server for remote backup in the cloud. Once the job is complete, they are archived on another mirrored hard drive array and synced to the cloud. The RAW files are periodically destroyed to recover space, but the JPEGs are kept forever. For your safekeeping the safest and longest lasting archive is a printed album.

All photos you receive in the gallery have been individually edited with care to provide the best possible print ready file possible. Years of experience with printers and file handling ensure the utmost care has been taken for a quality output, but I cannot control the quality if printed by a third party outside of my providers. I cannot undertake re-edits as the editing recipe I deliver has been used for some time and represents my brand. I rarely use Photoshop unless I had a certain vision in mind or to prep a file for a large print/album spread. Light retouching is applied to close up hero shots where quality is paramount. Your final gallery is all that can be delivered as rejects are taken out for technical flaws or being duplicates. RAW files are a proprietary format that often cannot be viewed or shared, are larger to archive. I liken it to handing you the ingredients of a cake and say, bake it yourself, but with no recipe. You can buy the files on a hard drive for a fee if required.

I endeavour to make our transaction fair and inline with consumer law. When it comes to straight up cancellations, I will keep the initial 30% booking fee to cover the costs associated with booking an exclusive date, the cost of staff and the admin incurred. Postponements can be made at no cost within 12 months of the original booking date, after that or for a second time a 5% fee is applied.

As long as I have been operating, this has never happened, but I’ve had to step into the shoes of people that it has. I am lucky to have not only an in-house team of creatives to back me up, I am also the admin of a 450 strong network of photographers and videographers based in Melbourne, so a suitable replacement will be found. You will never be left at the altar without a photographer.

Pretty much all competitions are run by businesses to give out awards for prizes or bragging rights based on a paid to submit basis. Some are even based on advertising spend with either a directory, magazine or industry body with in most cases a very narrow field of competition. I don’t need awards to show that I have skill with a camera and provide the highest level of service. My folio and testimonials speak to that.