Documentary wedding photography means we photograph your day the way it actually goes, not a version of it we've staged. Two of us, from the quiet hour before the ceremony to the last song, across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, Port Stephens and the Central Coast.
Most of a wedding happens between the parts on the run sheet. Your dad reading the speech one more time in the car park. The flower girl asleep under a table by nine. We spend the day watching for those, and we stay far enough back that nobody performs for us.
That doesn't mean we disappear. There are three times in the day when we step in and take charge, and we tell you exactly when they are so nothing is a surprise.
Fifteen minutes straight after the ceremony, while everyone is still in one place. You write the list, a loud cousin reads it out, we work through it fast. No group takes longer than a minute.
Away from the crowd, somewhere we've already scouted. We'll suggest where to walk and what to talk about, then mostly keep quiet. You'll be back before the canapes have gone round twice.
Only if the light is worth it. We'll check the sun times for your date and venue weeks ahead, and slip you out between courses so nobody misses a speech.
Everything else is yours to enjoy. If you want to see what the finished pictures look like, the portfolio lays out frames from a range of weddings, and any of them opens full size in colour.
We arrive while the room is still half dressed. Rings, letters, a hand on a shoulder: the small things nobody will remember to look at later.
If you want one, it happens somewhere quiet, just the two of you and us at a distance. If you'd rather wait for the aisle, we're there for that instead.
The minute you start walking is the quietest of the day. One of us is at the front, facing you; the other is behind your guests, catching their faces as you pass.
Family photos run off a list you've written, so they take a quarter of an hour. Then we take the two of you for twenty minutes, and you're back at your party.
A doorway, a stairwell, a back lane behind the venue. We walk every venue before your day, so we know where the light falls at half past five.
Ten minutes, away from the speeches. In the Hunter the sun drops behind the Brokenback Range; on the coast it goes down behind you, so we turn you round.
After the sun has gone, the windows hold their light for another twenty minutes. We stand you against one and let everything else go black.
We stay until the last thing you've told us matters: the sparkler exit, the last song, the car pulling away. Then the roll is done.
We don't print prices here, because a ten-hour day at a Pokolbin vineyard and a five-hour city wedding are very different jobs. Tell us your date and we'll send both collections with everything listed, so you can compare them side by side.
Both can add a printed album, made after you've chosen the frames from your gallery. Planning something smaller, just the two of you and a celebrant? That's an elopement, and it's planned differently: shorter, more flexible on the day of the week, and often somewhere a reception could never go.
Our studio is in Cooks Hill, ten minutes from Newcastle's beaches and forty-five from the Hunter's vineyards, so most weddings we shoot are in one of four places. Each has its own light, and we plan around it.
Harbour and ocean light, the baths, the sandstone of the East End. Afternoon wind off the water most of summer: we plan for veils that won't sit still.
Vineyard weddings from Pokolbin to Lovedale and the river towns of Maitland and Morpeth. Long golden evenings, hot afternoons, and shade we've already found.
Nelson Bay and the bays around it, where the sun sets over the water. Sand, wind and salt spray, so we carry a second set of everything.
Terrigal to The Entrance: headlands, rock platforms and blue hour over the ocean. About an hour down the motorway from us.
On a full day, always. One of us stays with each of you through the morning, then we split for the ceremony: one at the front facing you, one at the back with your guests. A single photographer can only ever stand in one spot when you say your vows, and that's the moment you'll look at most. On a half day it's one of us, and we tell you plainly which frames that means we'll miss.
We walk your venue before the day and pick two indoor spots and one covered outdoor one, so a wet afternoon has a plan before anyone's looked at the forecast. Overcast light is kind to skin, and a clear umbrella in a downpour makes some of the best frames we take. The only thing we won't do is stand you in a storm to get a shot; lightning stops the portraits, not the day.
Only for the family photos, where a bit of direction saves everyone time. The rest of the day we give you something to do instead of a pose: walk to the end of the jetty and back, tell each other one thing about this morning. You stop thinking about the camera within a few minutes, and that's the point. Nobody needs to know their good side.
Please do, for the family groups. Write the groupings with names (Mum, Dad and Nan, then add the cousins) and give the list to someone loud who knows everyone, so they can round people up. For the rest of the day a shot list tends to work against you: we'd be ticking boxes while the real moment happens behind us. Tell us what matters instead, and we'll be there for it.
You get every frame worth keeping, edited by hand, usually 600 to 900 from a full day. We leave out the blinks, the doubles and the forty near-identical frames of the ring exchange where only one has both your faces right. We don't hand over raw files: they're unfinished negatives, and a gallery made from them wouldn't look like the work you booked us for.
Yes, please, and at the same time as your guests rather than after. Speeches usually start during mains, so if we eat later we miss them. Most venues in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley offer a supplier meal; tell your coordinator there are two of us. We'll sit somewhere we can see the room and be on our feet the moment a microphone comes out.
Send us your date and venue. We'll tell you if we're free and send both collections, with every inclusion listed.
Newcastle ▸ Hunter Valley ▸ Port Stephens ▸ Central Coast
