Event Photography

As a specialist portrait event photographer I spend much of my time attending and photographing the special milestones in peoples lives; in particular weddings and christenings. When people are planning these events hiring a professional photographer just seems to be the natural thing to do.

For some reason however this is not the case with other milestones such as significant birthdays or anniversaries. All too often people will spend a small fortune on catering, marquees, DJ's and decorations and give no thought what so ever into hiring a professional to come and photograph the occasion for them; preferring instead to leave capturing the memories of these events up to family members and guests with their pocket cameras and mobile phones.

Now call me biased if you like but that's just a little silly, especially when you can hire a professional for a few hours of photography for about the same cost, or perhaps even a little less, than the DJ. Take a quick look through the photo book attached to the bottom of this post and compare this with the photographs taken by your family and friends at your last party and I think you'll understand my point.

Kirra Beach - Coolangatta Queensland

Considered by locals and visitors alike to have one of the best and most diverse surf breaks on Queensland's Gold Coast Kirra Beach is located on the northern side of the Queensland and New South Wales border and is the type of place that those of us in Australia's more southern states dream about during the colder winter months.

I was at Kirra Beach recently and while the surf wasn't doing much at the time the sunrise was spectacular. The brilliant glow appeared first as a speck on the horizon and grew to bathe the whole beach in colour. Sometimes getting up early in the morning has it's rewards.

Liam Saville

Family Portraits - Lake Gillawarna

On Saturday 1 August 2009 we had the pleasure of being invited to photograph the Pfeiffer family at Lake Gillawarna in Georges Hall. This beautiful lake setting could have been purpose built for photography and we were able to capture some really fabulous shots.

Sarah I know you've been waiting a few days to see some of these so here is a bit of a sneak preview. I'll have all your photographs finished in the next few days and I'll let you know when they can be viewed on your online gallery.

Liam Saville

Caitlin in the Kitchen

As I often tell our clients one of the keys to capturing great kids photos is to ensure your subject has fun and enjoys the photography session.

The accompanying day in the life of photographs of Caitlin in the Kitchen are a great example of this. Of all the tasks around the house nothing gets kids as excited as helping out in the kitchen, and licking the spoon at the end just takes the cake (pardon the pun)!

These special times with your kids just don't last forever and they are a great opportunity to take some really beautiful natural portraits. I just love this type of photography, not only is it fun to do but the end result tells so much more of a story than your get with a forced wooden studio pose. I have no doubt that in years to come these wonderful portraits will mean so much to both Caitlin and her parents.

Liam Saville

PMA Australia 2009 Imaging Technology Show

The Photo Marketing Association International has joined forces with the Photo Imaging Council of Australia to promote a new show concept for the Asia-Pacific photo imaging industry. The first PMA Australia show was held in Melbourne in 2007 and then in Brisbane 2008.

The Southern Hemisphere's largest photographic imaging exhibition is an event not to be missed by photo dealers, photographers, graphic designers, signmakers, government officials, marketing executives and enthusiast photographers.

It will be held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour: June 26 - June 28, 2009.

Practical Parenting Magazine

We received an email yesterday from Practical Parenting Magazine informing us about their latest competition. They've told us they are looking for a "bundle of joy that's as cute as a button and has charisma to spare" and encouraged us to pass this message on to all our customers.

Entry is open to all Australian children from six months to four years old and the winning entry will be awarded $10,000 cash, a one year modeling contract and will be featured in the magazine.

Now at Seahorse Photographics we'd love nothing more than to have one of our customers win this with one of our fabulous shots used in the winning entry. So if your interested grab a copy of the entry form in this month's Practical Parenting and give us a call to book your child's photo shoot. Our natural and stylish portraits will be just perfect for your entry, and hey, even if you don't win you'll still have some really great shots to decorate your walls and to share with your family and friends.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Liam Saville

Taekwondo Grading

On the evening of Wednesday 8 April 2009 I attended and photographed my son's very first taekwondo grading exam. As I watched the exam I couldn't help be a little nervous for him and seeing him going through his basic techniques and first pattern brought back many memories of my own gradings. I could tell by watching him that he was a little overwhelmed by the situation but he performed really well and I have no doubt he did more than enough to earn his yellow belt.

When Joshua first took up the sport in about August last year I am fairly sure much of his excitement related to the fact that he knew that taekwondo was my sport however since then he has really grown to love his weekly training sessions and has made them his own. So much so that when his club recently had a “bring a friend night” he happily took me along in the role of a “friend” and “helped” me through the training for the night. It was really nice to train with him and it was clearly a buzz for him as well and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Anyway, congratulations Joshua you did your very best which is all any parent could ask for. Well Done.

Liam Saville