Simon Bills Blog - Adelaide Wedding Photographer

Tania and Josh - Wedding

2012-01-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

When the bride and groom tell you in their pre-wedding meeting that they'd like to get some photos lawn bowling and in a supermarket you know it's going to be a fun day. Oh, two more words - dog tuxedos.

After taking some time off between Christmas and New Year my 2012 wedding season got under way nice and early on just the 2nd day of the year. I headed out to scout some locations the day before to see what the light was doing at the time of day we'd be shooting and it's fair to say it was warm. At 5pm the mercury was still sitting at 41 degrees and there was no cool change in site. There was no way around it - this was going to be one hot wedding.

The guys were in good form when I arrived in the morning. With metal blaring on the speakers and everyone wearing shorts and singlets I was struck at how different things would be just a few hours later with a string quartet and three piece suits in the salubrious surrounds of Ayers House. There were some genuinely funny moments with the guys, from dressing the dogs in tuxes to rocking out on guitar hero. Good start to the day.

As the temperature soared I made my way to Tania's Mum's place where the girls were getting ready. By this stage the sun was giving us more than 40 degrees of heat and I was about to find out that things hadn't gone completely smoothly in the lead up to the day. On the eve of the wedding Tania's doctor had to make a house call to attend to a tummy bug - basically every bride's worst nightmare, particularly for such a super hot day. To make things even trickier Tania's wedding gown was stunning - but big. And heavy. Basically a perfect storm of factors to scupper a bride's big day, but in the end it didn't make a lick of difference, Tania soldiered on, looked amazing and the day was incredible.

One nice bit of planning meant that the ceremony was held indoors at Ayers House which was perfect, a stunning venue with excellent air conditioning! We headed to Adelaide Bowling Club for photos as well as hitting up some areas on the East side of the city. How many brides get a photo of them walking down the aisle...... of a supermarket? Not many.

Tania and Josh, thanks for being such a fun couple and for including me in your day, I hope you're loving London and Paris on your honeymoon, no danger of any 40 degree days there any time soon!

I'll be putting some more images up on my Facebook business page shortly so if you want to see these make sure you head on over and "like" the page!

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The Greatest Country On Earth

2011-12-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Any country where you can walk into your backyard and take these photos makes Australia officially* the greatest country on earth.

*not actually official.

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Claire & Dan {wedding}

2011-12-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

It's always exciting to watch your friends get married, and when you get to be the photographer things are even more fun (albeit a lot more hard work!).

Claire and Dan were rolling the dice on their location choice for the ceremony. Inclement weather would have meant a total venue relocation, a logistical nightmare on the day of a wedding, so with a week of rain and storms leading up to the day it's fair to say there were a few nervous moments in the lead up. When I arrived at Dan's place to take photos of the guys getting ready the Macbook Air was taking pride of place on the main table with a bunch of amateur meteorologists trying to make sense of the satellite images on the BOM website. Around mid day the decision was made - full steam ahead at the initial venue!

As luck would have it Claire and Dan's faith that everything would work out fine was totally justified and the November rain didn't fall that afternoon. And what an afternoon and evening it was, so much fun and laughter. The reception was held at the Norwood Town Hall which was a fantastic venue, so much space and a huge dance floor that looked like the boiler room at the Big Day Out by the end of the night.

Guys, thanks for involving me in your day, I had a blast. I hope you love the photos!

Big Jet Plane by Angus and Julia Stone on Grooveshark

Some fun shots from the photobooth, blackboard speech bubble courtesy www.blackboardbubbles.com

I'll be putting a few more shots up on my facebook business page shortly so if you're keen to see these feel free to head on over and "like" the page so you don't miss out!

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10 Reasons why Port Lincoln is Super Awesome

2011-12-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

I spent the weekend in Pt Lincoln, here are the top 10 reasons why it is super awesome.

10. Kangaroos
I love kangaroos. Any animal that propels itself by jumping alone is awesome in my books, and Port Lincoln has a lot of them.

9. Wine

We tried a few local drops and were very impressed. After doing a tasting at Boston Bay winery we decided to grab a cheese platter and a glass of cabernet and spend an hour taking in the views. Since spending time in a Ugandan village with no electricity and only the most basic food supplies I've been constantly reminded about just how lucky we are in Australia with the options available and the lifestyle we can lead. Something as simple as a glass of wine and a selection of cheeses and olives is such an amazing luxury that needs to be savoured.

8. Free Food

As we sat outside enjoying our wine, cheese and olives the guy who'd served us emerged from the building and started walking towards us. “We're having a staff party inside and we've got some left overs, do you want some King George whiting and salt and pepper squid?”. Hells yeah we do.

7. Seafood

It's safe to assume that any town starting with the name “port” probably has great seafood and Lincoln is no exception. In fact it's on the back of the seafood industry that Lincoln has the most millionaires per capita of any region in Australia. It tastes even better when it's free on the back a fat pokies payout (keep reading.....)

6. Lizards

When we went to Perth last year the first person I spotted at the airport was one of Perth's favourite sons in Luc Longley (at 7 ft 2 he was hard to miss). It was as though Tourism WA had arranged for him to be there just to remind everyone that Perth was capable of producing super humans who like winning NBA championships alongside Michael Jordan. The same thing happened when we arrived at Lincoln National Park – as we checked in and paid the park entrance fee there was a super cute sleepy lizard just milling around a big rock, as though he was saying “Welcome to the national park, I'm just one of the many awesome things you'll find here”.

The following daywe were driving on a dirt road when I spotted another sleepy, onlythis one was living dangerously and catching a few rays on the middleof the road. After a brief chat with Alice we decided we had to getthis little guy to safety so after reeling off a few photos we triedto coerce him away with the assistance of a stick (I played the I'mtaking photos, you do it card which only worked for so long).This was largely unsuccessful and he was becoming increasinglydistressed so I eventually manned up and picked him up with my barehands Steve Irwin style, I placed him in a paddock and when wereturned later that day he wasn't squashed on the road so I'm callingit a win.

5. Fancy Digs
We stayed at Tanonga Luxury Eco Lodges and it was incredible. With only 2 lodges on the property located over a 1km apart this was the epitome of secluded luxury. Our lodge was on the top of a hill and as the sun was rising or setting the views from every room in the house were breathtaking. There's no better way to spend an evening than spotting kangaroos with binoculars and sipping shiraz to the tune of flocks of galahs as the sun goes down.

4. Friendly Locals
Apart from being on the receiving end of 2 or 3 tailgating incidents the locals were all super friendly, from the tourist information girl to the guy at the surf shop who sold me a pair of shorts everyone we came in to contact with went out of their way to be great.

3. Bottle Shop Freebies
We popped into Lincoln Cellars to procure a bottle of local red. My cousin Scott used to live in Lincoln and recommended Boston Bay wines so that's what we were looking for. After a bit of a chat with the guy behind the counter he led us to the Boston Bay reds and we picked up a bottle of their 2008 shiraz which was lovely. As we were paying we noticed they were having a promotion which involved free pint glasses with the purchase of Magners. I commented to Alice about how cool the glasses looked and the guy asked if we wanted some, no purchase required! We followed him out the back to grab 4 super sweet glasses and when we returned to the counter the other guy working there had sourced an ice bucket as another freebie. Before we'd finished thanking them for this one the first guy had procured us a couple of terry towelling West End hats and some classy bright red Stollie sunnies (coming soon to a photobooth near you). Where else in the world can you buy a bottle of wine and walk away with handfuls of awesome apparel? (as a footnote I've just had a drink from one of the glasses, I think they might be factory 2nds or something as the glass isn't flat on the bottom and it looks like you're going to drink shards of glass as you approach the end of the glass. Still though, they're awesome).

2. Loosest poker machines in Australia!!
When I was a child, 16 perhaps, I went to dinner with my family at the Buckingham Arms which did an all you can eat buffet which included a ice cream machine and a donut maker. Needless to say this instantly become my favourite place to eat. Anyway, one time after dinner my parents took me into the poker lounge and as a family we put $1 into a poker machine. After a few minutes that $1 had doubled to $2 and we walked away a lazy $1 richer, my head was spinning about the possibilities of making fast cash. (I'm not sure why we played the pokies that night, maybe they'd just been introduced into pubs or something? Either way my parents were actually extremely responsible on the whole so don't go judging them!).

Since that day 17years ago I've probably played the pokies maybe half a dozen times,and certainly not in the last 5 years, but after a sumptuous seafoodfeast and a bottle of tasty local Riesling my girlfriend suggested wegive them a whirl for a laugh. We had a lengthy discussion about ourplan of attack, and exactly when we'd walk away. The plan was tospend $5 each and when that ran out we would spend no more. When itcame to how much we had to win before we left the machines Alicedecided that if she could turn her $5 in to $6 that would be a great result and she would walk away with her head held high and a shiny $1coin to show for it. I like to live on the wild side so I decided $25would be a more suitable target and that I would beprepared to gamble relentlessly until I got there (oruntil my initial $5 ran out – I'm not that wild).

As luck would haveit I put my $5 into a machine and on the third or forth press of thebutton my machine started ringing and lit up, and mycredits started to go north. $5, $10, $20 wow, this is great, will itever stop? $30, $50, holy crap, it's still going, this is great, $70,$90 onwards and upwards! Eventually it stopped at $103 and I wasdone. I cashed out and collected 103 shiny $1 coins from the machinebefore taking it to the cashier and exchanging it for a crisp $100note and shrapnel (when you're a high roller like me you considerdollar coins shrapnel).

1. You can you go swimming with Sea Lions!!

That's right, the Lions of the ocean are prepared to share their waves with you and welcome you into their bay. Having recently seen actual lions fighting with hyenas and generally being the bad asses of Africa I think Sea Lions should change their name to Sea Puppy Dogs. These little guys are just like playful puppies, as our boat arrived they excitedly got up from their afternoon nap on the beach and headed out to greet us. As we entered the water they swam up to us and just checked things out, the more playful I was the more playful they were – after swimming around with one little guy for a few minutes we'd built up a bond so I stuck my fist out and he tentatively came up and gave it a little kiss. Too cute!

Now these arestill wild animals, they don't get any food from the tourist boats,they're just inquisitive, playful animals who are interested in life.If I could have snuck one into my suitcase I would have.

As far as weekend getaways go youreally can't go past Lincoln, it's easy to jump on the 8am Saturdayflight and get 2 or 3 full days (depending on whether you can wanglethe Monday off work). Just another reason why SA is great.

I've got a couple of awesome weddings to blog soon so stay tuned, it won't be another month between posts!

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Bec & Adrian {Riverland wedding}

2011-11-17T20:27:00.001-08:00

Travel and photography are two of the big passions in my life, so whenever I get a chance to shoot a wedding outside Adelaide I jump at the chance. When Bec got in touch about her wedding in the Riverland I started to get excited - sure, it's only 3 hours drive away, but the pace of life and the characters you encounter are undeniably country.

One of the many awesome aspects of the day was that the girls got ready on a houseboat! How cool is that? They backed that up with a ceremony at the stunning Ruston's Roses before we headed off in search of some cool photos. It was a scorcher of a day but that didn't slow these guys down at all, and when they agreed to some bouncy castle photos at the caravan park I knew it was going to be a fun afternoon.

After a whirlwind tour of the Murray, the golf course and a random boardwalk it was time to hit up the Renmark Club for the reception, and what better way to make an entrance than on the back of a speedboat (Adrian would have skied it in a heartbeat if he'd been allowed!).

Guys, thanks so much for such a fun, relaxed wedding, I hope you love the photos!

Ben Harper - Diamonds On The Inside by Various Artists on Grooveshark

You'll have to ask one of the groomsmen what was going on behind me in this photo to get these expressions!

Now this is how you do it when 2 people want photos of the same thing. Efficiency at its finest.

Bride's got hops.

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Weekends Are Awesome

2011-11-15T17:26:00.001-08:00

Since going full time with photography the structure of my life has been turned upside down. Previously I'd sit in an office Monday to Friday counting down the seconds until 5pm Friday, then when Sunday night rolled around I'd go into lockdown mode, maybe iron a few shirts and lament the fact I'd be spending the next 5 days crunching numbers in an office.

Friday nights are the new Sundays, but in a good way. If I'm shooting a wedding the following Saturday I'm in lock down mode, but rather than lamenting my predicament it's more of a nervous excitement about the day to come and frantically checking and rechecking all my equipment to make sure I've got everything and it all works. I'm still sitting in front of a computer for a fair chunk of Monday to Friday editing photos and taking care of admin (I can't believe how much admin is involved in this gig!) but for the most part it really doesn't feel like work, especially when you're still wearing your pyjamas in the afternoon. The downside to the new regime is that I don't really get weekends any more. If I shoot a wedding on a Saturday I'll probably take most of Sunday off but come Monday morning it's back to work. I've thought about taking a day off during the week, but it's hard to justify when there's always things to be done.

When a weekend comes with no weddings it's really time to get out and do things. The last place I want to be is at home and as luck would have it South Australia is a super awesome corner of the earth will millions of weekend getaway options. Over the last couple of months I've managed a trip to the Riverland, a weekend riding the Reisling Trail in Clare and a trip to Yorke's, and in a month's time it'll be a trip over to Pt Lincoln in search of Olympic gold medallist and Lincoln local Dean Lukin.

I take my camera with me on these jaunts, but photography's really the last thing on my mind and I certainly don't go crazy with it (but if there's some kangaroos in a vineyard, a sweet bearded dragon on a driveway or a couple of pelicans at the beach it would be a shame not to snap a few frames to remember them by).

Bearded Dragon


Crab Foot.

See you next month Lincoln - can't wait!

PS - I'll be blogging the wedding of Bec and Adrian later this week so stay tuned!

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Bec and Adrian {Wedding Preview}

2011-11-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

On Friday night I headed down to the Riverland in anticipation of Saturday's wedding between Bec and Adrian. The forecast was predicting heat, and Saturday delivered in spades with the mercury rising to almost 37 in Renmark. Here's a quick sneak preview of what the guys do before a wedding compared to the girls.

And here's one of the beautiful couple taking some time out in a shaded car.

I'll be blogging the full wedding shortly, if you want to be notified when it's up make sure you head over to facebook and "like" my business page.

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Jess & Mark {Wedding}

2011-11-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

Jess and Mark are two of the most organised people you're likely to come across, a wedding photographer's dream in fact. The day was meticulously planned, down the minute, so when Jess arrived at the church to the news that the organist was no where to be found there were a few nervous moments. The arrival time was spot on (naturally), but this unforeseen spanner in the works would surely throw everything out of whack.

Or would it?

During this time of panic, of frantic searching for phone numbers and alternative options, Jess was simply sitting in the back of the wedding car without a care in the world. Everything was going to be fine. The day was planned to factor in unforeseen events (naturally) and she knew that in the whole scheme of the things the song you walk down the aisle to doesn't matter.

My favourite photo from the day is from this moment of despair. A bride who knows that in just a few moments she'll be walking down the aisle to the man of her dreams with or without an organist.

And here's a selection of photos from the rest of the day.
I like to enjoy photos with music, if you do too then click below.

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Melbourne Cup Par-Tay

2011-10-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

We threw a pretty big office party for our first Melbourne Cup together this year. As luck would have it I managed to win the sweep!

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BIRD NERD!

2011-10-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Does anyone on the internet know the protocol between photographing something and subsequently blogging it? Anyone? No? Good. In that case I'm going to resume my series of Africa blogs which are rapidly becoming a distant memory.

When you think of African wildlife you think of lions, elephants, leopards, hippos, giraffes, rhinos and a bunch of other big impressive animals (well, at least that's what I thought about African wildlife). My experience was that the wildlife included all those awesome animals I'm dreamed about, but also included a few dark horses in the form of incredible birds (not literally dark horses - I suppose you could call a zebra a light and dark horse but that would be confusing).

When it comes to birds I'm not that interested in learning what it is I'm looking at, I'm more in the category of seeing something and saying "Wow! Look at that bird, it looks awesome" and then driving off to find some lions.

Anyway, over the course of a few weeks I managed to get some shots of a wide variety of birds which I present to you now. Enjoy!

Here's a video I took of vultures devouring a wildebeest carcass, there are also some storks getting involved. Yeah, that's right, STORKS. The animals entrusted to deliver new born babies into the world like to eat dead animals, surely not the most trustworthy couriers?

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The Lane Vineyard Wedding - M & K

2011-10-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick sneak peek of a recent wedding I shot at the stunning Lane Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills. The weather had been horrendous all week and the relentless rain caused a last minute change of location for the ceremony, I was fearful that an area I'd scouted for photos 2 weeks earlier would be rendered unusable on account of the muddy conditions. Fortunately I had the type of bride who wasn't afraid to trek through wet long grass for the sake of a good photo and everything worked out great, the sun came out at the right time and we didn't get bogged driving back to the restaurant!

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Wedding: Ali and Andrew

2011-10-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

What better way to celebrate the first day of daylight savings than a stunning outdoor wedding late in the afternoon taking full advantage of the extra hour of light? Ali and Andrew chose to have their ceremony and reception at the gorgeous Howard Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills and after a week of heavy rain the skies cleared on the day producing perfect weather for a stunning wedding.

The day was everything a wedding should be - relaxed, funny, tender, beautiful and full of love. When I arrived at Andrew's place to get some shots of the guys getting ready there was already a BBQ up and running and everyone was kicking the soccer ball around. No stressing here! The girls were equally organised and relaxed and by the time the ceremony began it had already been an exellent day!

The ceremony was held on some lawn under the shade of a tree, and after we'd taken care of the photos it was time for the party to begin. Ali's brothers Ben and Gavin took the art of MCing a wedding to a new level and the food and staff at Howards were amazing. As expected the dancefloor was literally on fire (not literally) by the end of the night and the boquet and garter tosses capped things of nicely.

I'll be adding some more photos from the wedding to my facebook business page shortly so if you want to see them as soon as they're out there make sure you head on over and "like" the page!

Ali and Andrew, thank you so much for inviting me to be part of your day, I wish you every happiness and hope you love the photos!

As mentioned above I'll be adding a bunch more photos from this wedding to my facebook business page shortly so make sure you head on over and "like" the page so you'll be the first to know once they're up!

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How to make a photo

2011-09-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try something a bit different with the blog this time round and focus on one specific photo, in particular how I shot and processed it. There are still plenty of Africa blogs to come (I haven't even touched 2 weeks of amazing safaris) but there's still the daunting task of facing thousands of photos and selecting those that are blog worthy - this way I only need to select one photo and I'm done!

I think there's this perception that great photos just happen, that the photographer happened to be in the right place at the right time and everything just fell into place. This is certainly the case with some photos, but the vast majority of great photos have a lot of thought put into them to allow the photographer to capture that brief moment. (For the record I'm not claiming this is a great photo, but it is one that I really like and am proud of).

The photo I'll be talking about today is this one.

And here's how it looked straight out of the camera.

It would be easy to blog about the post processing I did to make the final version, and I'll cover that briefly below, but in this case that's the boring part. The interesting bit (at least I think it's interesting!) is the lead up, the failed attempts and the joy at finally getting what I was after.

We spent 2 weeks volunteering in a tiny village called Bigodi in Uganda. There wasn't much to the place, a small main street with a few bars (you'd better like your beer warm though as there was no electricity in town), a shop that charged your mobile phone using solar panels, a couple of schools and an oval. The oval was at the top of a hill and we were told that the locals played soccer there each evening before the sun went down. As soon as I saw the oval I knew it would make a great photo, the sunsets were generally pretty nice and the location on the top of the hill meant it would be possible to get clean silhouettes.

A day or two after hatching this photo idea we headed down to the oval to see what was shaking. We were a bit early so we joined some of the local kids kicking round a bunch of plastic bags taped together to form a crude football and waited for the big boys to arrive. (Side note: probably my favourite part of volunteering was being able to hang out with the locals and play soccer or throw a netball round with the local kids. If we approached a group of 8 year old kids in Australia and started joining in with their games there's every chance someone would call the police - at the very least their parents would immediately come and take them away and warn them not to talk to strangers. It's a sad indictment on society when adults and kids can't interact without the adults being suspected pedophiles (side-side note: I never expected to use the word "pedophile" on the blog when I started out 3 years ago!)). Once the proper game got underway it was time to go work and to capture the shot I had seen in my head.

I figured out right away that to get a clean silhouette that didn't start at the player's waist I would need to lie prone on the ground, it's amazing how much difference moving the camera a few feet lower can make. I set the camera to Manual exposure and metered off the sky. As the sun was setting the light decreased so I had to change the exposure several times, I was usually a bit late so most of the photos were a bit underexposed but as I was shooting in RAW it was easily fixed in post. The settings for the winning shot were:

Focal Length: 70mm (using 70-200 lens)
ISO: 1000
Aperture: f/2.8
Speed: 1/500

The most important thing was to have a fast enough shutter speed to properly freeze the action. I could probably have gone a little slower than 1/500 but I didn't want to risk it, that's something you can't fix in post. This shot probably wouldn't have been possible with a slower lens as it would have meant slower shutter speed (risk of motion blur) or unacceptable noise (this was shot on a 40D which isn't great above ISO 1000). It's true that you don't need great equipment to make great photos, but in certain instances you actually do.

So once everything was set I went to work following the action and trying to get a good shot. It was slightly tricky getting the focus right as I didn't have much margin for error shooting at f/2.8 but I did the best I could using the pre-focus button on the back of the camera. I'd like to say that I just kicked the winning goal straight away but I didn't. It took a long time and a lot of bad photos before getting it right. Here's some of the ones you won't see in a photo competition any time soon.

When it was all said and done I really didn't know if I had anything usable. It wasn't until I got back to the house and looked through that I discovered one that might be a winner. It was underexposed, crooked and there was a distracting guy on the far right, but all those things could be fixed in post.

The editing was pretty straight forward, I used Lightroom to straighten the image, crop the guy out on the right edge of the frame, lighten the photo, boost a few things like sharpness and contrast and apply some noise reduction. It took less than a minute.

I experimented with a few other Lightroom presets, the options are virtually limitless and depending on how comfortable with totally changing a photo you can come up with some looks.

After all that I wrote a blog on it.

If you liked this let me know in the comments below or on the link you followed from Facebook or Twitter - if I get 10 comments I'll do another one next week!

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98% Human

2011-09-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Just imagine it's a cold winter's night and you decide to head down to AAMI stadium to watch Port Power take on another lowly side (presumably because you got free tickets). As the match kicks off there's a lot of empty seats in the ground, in fact you've never seen so few people at an AFL game. When they announce the crowd number it comes in at a paltry 14,000.

Now imagine that after the game finishes pretty much everyone goes straight home. 95% of this already small crowd has made their way back to their cars and there's just you and the remaining 5% scattered around the oval, unable to move after the game.

Now imagine that at that very moment there's a nuclear holocaust and for whatever reason the entire human race is destroyed - apart from that people remaining in the ground (I don't know why, maybe there was a lot of asbestos in the stadium that somehow protected the fans?).

700 people left on the entire planet.

It's hard to imagine a species which numbers only 700 but this is exactly the case with the critically endangered Mountain Gorillas, and we were fortunate enough to see a family of about 15 of them, or 2% of the their global population. They are only found in a tiny corner of the planet, in a mountain range which borders Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and if you want to see them you need to organise a permit in advance and go with a guided group. We initially tried to see them in Rwanda but permits were impossible to come by (we'd left our run a bit late) so we ended up heading to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (most awesome forest name ever?) in Uganda to begin our search.

The thing with tracking Mountain Gorillas is that you never know how long you'll be walking for, I spoke to people who found them 15 minutes after setting out, I also spoke to a 60 year old Australian man who hiked for 12 hours and 20km on his quest so it really is luck of the draw. Fortunately luck was on our side and after about 2.5 hours of searching we found what we were looking for - it was the perfect amount of anticipation and made us feel like we'd earned it, but it wasn't ridiculous (although we did have a girl break down in tears in our group after about 2 hours, the terrain was impossibly steep and slippery and she felt she couldn't go on. Obviously she did and it was all worth it).

Once the gorillas are located you have to leave your bags and everything behind and are permitted just one camera and nothing more. (For the photo nerds I took my 5D2 and 70-200 which was perfect). You get one hour with the animals, not more and not less and as expected the time absolutely flew. For basically the entire hour the gorillas were eating and in fairly dense surrounds so it was difficult to get good full body photos. They were never in the open. There was a super cute baby who did some climbing for us, and we could see everything really well, but photographically there were too many branches in the way of most photos for them to work well. Having said that there were some nice natural frames to work with so you have to take the good with the bad. My biggest disappointment was that we didn't get to see (or hear) any chest thumping like in this video but I'll get over it.

Some cute local kids.

We had 2 security guards escort us, one at the front, one at the back. We were told it was to protect us from any rogue Silverbacks (they would fire into the air) but I'm pretty sure it's because we were only a few km from the Congo border and they were protecting us from kidnapping.

It was a truly amazing exerience getting so close to these massve relatives of ours (they share 98% of our DNA). At one stage a large male walked so close I couldn't focus my camera, my first instinct was to run as fast as I could but I soon regained composure and returned to being cool like the Fonz.

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Is "Zanzibar" the coolest name for an island in the world? Yes.

2011-09-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

As we boarded the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam we made a point of sitting outside to enable an easy escape should the worst occur. Just 7 days later the worst did occur on a ferry leaving Zanzibar and 200 lives were lost. Tragedies like this are a good reminder of our own mortality, and I can only imagine how this will impact the island - I suspect it will take a long time for the magic to return.

Zanzibar is famous for a few things and it's their beaches and spices you'll find in the tourist brochures (they're known as the spice islands), but the capital city of Stone Town is a gem of a place like nowhere I've been before. It's kind of like merging Barbados, Cairo, Bombay, Europe, Nairobi and the Awesome Door Warehouse. It's an island so it's got that island vibe to it (Barbados) but the predominant religion is Islam which gives it a middle eastern feel (Cairo), there's a strong Indian flavor which is seen in much of the cuisine (Bombay) and the narrow winding alleys reminded me of a run down European village. But it's still Africa and that underpins everything about the place. Also, there are loads of awesome doors.

We had 4 nights in total in Stone Town and 3 nights on Chumbe Island, an impossibly beautiful little island surrounded by one of the planet's finest coral reefs. If anyone was a gamer in the 90's there's a pretty good chance you played Myst (I got this for my iPhone a few years back FYI and it was still AWESOME!) - anyway, Chumbe Island is just like the island on Myst, lush green, small enough to walk around, lighthouse, rocket ship..... Ok, so there's no rocket, but the rest was spot on. There are only 7 bungalows on the island so the capacity is just 14 guests at any one time, and the whole inland is eco friendly and totally self sufficient (apart from some food) with solar power and a brilliant rainwater management system meaning environmental impact is minimised.

I'll do a special blog about the Spice Tour which was informative and unintentionally hilarious but I'm keen to get this one out now so you all can wind down on Friday afternoon while you're supposed to be working!

Still plenty more Africa blogs to come so stay tuned. Also, wedding season kicks off in a few weeks so you'll get some variety soon enough!

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

Worlds Apart - life in a Masai village

2011-09-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the thing. When you see friends' travel photos, or pictures in tourism brochures, or documentaries on TV about remote tribes living off the land in third world countries it's hard to believe that they actually exist. I mean, in 2011 are there actually more than a handful of people who live in mud huts? And those Masai warriors with the colourful clothing and elaborate jewellery, they're just for tourists right? They don't actually wear that stuff when rich Westerners aren't throwing money in their direction for a photo are they?

Well, after spending a couple of weeks travelling through Tanzania and Kenya I can confirm that the Masai people are everywhere, they do dress in traditional garments complete with the crazy piercings and jewellery and they do live a nomadic life which revolves around cattle. Also, they live in huts constructed of mud and cow dung.

When we touched down in Arusha we tasted our first slice of comfort in several weeks. Arusha is Tanzania's third largest city with a population on par with Adelaide, it is also the gateway to Tanzania's main national parks (Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti etc) and is reasonably developed by African standards. What struck me as odd was that in this almost cosmopolitan cityscape there were relatively large numbers of traditionally dressed Masai walking the streets. There's something unusual about driving past a bus stop with a Masai warrior among the half dozen people waiting for the bus to arrive.

A common issue in Africa is human / wildlife conflict, and as the name suggests it occurs when the needs of humans and the needs of animals converge on the same bit of land. For instance the Wildlife Authority get mad at the local farmers if they kill an elephant that's eating their crops, but from the farmers' perspective the elephant is a massive problem that destroys much of their food leaving them unable to feed their family. The same applies with the Masai and the land they use for their cattle to graze (as well as some farming), fortunately a solution has been found in some areas in the form of tourism. The Porini camps we stayed at in Kenya are tented campsites located on Masai conservancies, basically the Masai people are paid rent on their land in exchange for them not farming or grazing there which results in large numbers of wild animals and an amazing tourism experience. The conservancies are not in the national parks but they essentially share a border with them and as there are no fences the wildlife experience is just as good (if not better), and there are no other cars ruining the experience.

The Porini camps also work closely with the Masai community and provide employment for many of the tribe within the campsites in the form of guides, chefs and support staff. It's a symbiotic relationship that benefits everyone, including the wildlife and the environment. It's probably better explained in this video actually.

As part of our time at the Porini camp we were able to visit the local Masai village. It would be easy to be sceptical about the whole thing if we didn't get hopelessly lost on the drive to camp several days earlier and see loads of identical villages and communities scattered across the landscape in extremely remote areas totally untouched by tourism. These people still live like this, they dress like this, they make fire by rubbing sticks together, they get their 8 year old children to be shepherds (starting with a small herd of goats and working their way up to large herds of cattle once they've shown they can be trusted) and they have multiple wives. Going into their village was a fascinating insight into how other humans live on planet earth, and as I sit here at my computer (with 2 screens no less) having had a hot shower this morning by simply turning a faucet, a hot cup of tea by flicking a switch on the kettle and a tasty bowl of cereal with fresh ice cold milk by just popping down to the local shop yesterday I'm reminded at just how incredibly easy life is for those of us in the developed world and how much work our forefathers have done to put into place all the systems that make life so easy.

The pretend spear throwing is pretty cheesy but I still like this shot.

The Masai recycle old tyres to use as shoes. It's ridiculous how much stuff is wasted in Australia when you see things reused and recycled in every possible fashion in other countries round the world.

Hello ladies - the ability to jump high is seen as a very attractive trait to the ladies of the tribe and helps you establish yourself as a man. As someone who's played basketball their whole life and could barely touch the ring at their peak it's lucky I don't live in a society where you need mad hops to get the girls as I'd be a very lonely man.

I've still got so many photos to go through and so many blogs to write so make sure you keep checking in over the coming weeks. Wedding season kicks off soon too so if you're lucky you might just see a few weddings blogged as well to keep things interesting (and to keep the good people enforcing the Trade Descriptions Act off my back for misrepresenting this wedding photography blog)!

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

School Photos

2011-08-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about falling into an unexpected teaching position at a Ugandan primary school. I finished that email with a promise that my next blog would be about a project we undertook that the kids absolutely loved and would remember for the rest of their lives. I then proceeded to write my next blog about fixing up a rickety old board walk at the wetlands - well, believe it or not my amateur handyman skills were not what I was referring to in the earlier email, and if I'm not much mistaken our work there has probably been forgotten already.

Here's the story of the project that made kids smile.

After teaching kids how to draw an equilateral triangle with nothing but a compass and a ruler I realised that me teaching the curriculum wasn't helping anyone, I'm no teacher and the language barrier meant the kids really weren't learning anything. I thought about where my strengths lay and what I could contribute that would be unique when an idea struck me like the sting of a jellyfish (I got stung by a jellyfish today FYI) - SCHOOL PHOTOS! I'd attended a local wedding a few days earlier and there were only 5 camera there out of 500+ guests so it was a safe bet that few (if any) of the kids had access to a camera at home. Further, it was highly likely that many of these kids would not have a single photograph of themselves. Coming from a culture where photos are seemingly endless and backed up and distributed freely online (I read recently Facebook has 150 million photos uploaded every day) it's easy to forget that for some people a single photograph can be an extremely important possession.

To this end I decided to expand my job description to "school photographer". I had a chat with the headmaster Sunday John (side note: they've got some awesome names in Uganda, we came across Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Brave, Innocent, Silver and God) and we got the show on the road. We took it one year level at a time, beginning with the entire class before taking individual shots of each child, once we'd been through all the year levels it was time to round the whole school up and get them all together.

That weekend we headed into Fort Portal to find somewhere to print the files. Under normal circumstances Fort Portal would be a largely forgettable small town with few redeeming features, but after a week of no electricity, running water or imported food it felt like we'd arrived at NEW YORK CITY!! Oh the fun we had, first stop was a packet of pringles, this was washed down by an ice cold beer and an Italian style pizza - yes sir, I was living large! We managed to find somewhere to develop the photos and returned home to Bigodi later that day with around 150 individual portraits, 150 class photos (spread over 6 classes) and 3 large whole school photos.

I don't know who was more excited when Monday rolled around, me or the kids! I spend Sunday trying to arrange the photos into class groups which sounded like a good idea at the time but was actually borderline impossible when push came to shove. I got about as close as I was going to get and was stoked to find that all the kids got their photos and nothing was lost along the way.

Students and teachers alike were stoked to receive their photos and it felt good to give back to this community that had made us feel so welcome.

Location:Bigodi progressive primary school

Please Hammer, don't hurt

2011-08-12T22:15:00.001-07:00

After a false start in the classroom teaching year 5s how to draw draw an equilateral triangle with only a compass and a ruler we had a chat with the volunteer coordinator about doing something that even vaguely matched the description we'd been given before the placement began.

The area is renown for it's primates, and by Ugandan standards a massive amount of money is poured back into the community through primate tourism. In particular the Bigodi wetlands walk and accompanying women's craft sales fully supports the local primary and high school as well as various other community initiatives. We went on the wetlands walk several times and noticed much of the board walk was in need of some repair and maintenance, so along with 2 Canadian volunteers we set ourselves the task of making this a less treacherous form of tourism.

We were allocated a couple of Ugandans to help us out, because, to be honest, all 4 of us are office workers and despite our best intentions we needed a bit of grunt from time to time. Over the next three days we hammered nails into planks under the hot African sun until our hands were blistered and our bodies were aching (I took a photo of my blistered hands but it actually looked pretty lame so don't expect to see it on the blog any time soon!)

The upside (and downside, depending on exhaustion levels) of working in the wetlands was the 30 minute walk to our worksite. The morning walk there was always great, energy levels were high with monkey and blue turaco sightings plentiful. The walk back for lunch was another matter, the sun was at it's fiercest and after a morning of manual labour this was an unwelcome bridge that stood between my stomach and some banana mash and chapati.

Here's a few shots of what we achieved along with some cool monkey shots from our little corner of the planet.

SORRY ABOUT THE PIXELATED IMAGES - IF YOU CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES THEY WILL LOOK MUCH BETTER. UNACCEPTABLE, BUT IT'S THE BEST I CAN DO ON THE iPAD. SORRY.

Before

Location:Bigodi Wetlands

The unlikely teacher

2011-08-12T12:49:00.001-07:00

We searched long and hard for volunteering opportunities in Africa. After weighing up the pros and cons of dozens of placements we settled on one based around chimpanzee protection and improving the corresponding primate tourism. We had just 2 short weeks to achieve our goals, so it's fair to say that we were a little bemused when taken to the local primary school on our first day and told we would be spending every day for the next two weeks there.

What was even more shocking was that it became apparent pretty quickly that we were not there to help out with struggling students, or to lead fun activities on the environment or give the teachers a break while we lead PE - no, we were there to teach the curriculum whether we liked it or not. First cab of the rank was the P4 class (primary 4), I was introduced and after exchanging pleasantries the teacher suggested I take a lesson on plants. For the record, I know virtually nothing about plants so after some awkward negotiations in front of the class we agreed I would teach the about animals. Again, I'm no zoologist, but when it comes to 10 year olds if you stick with what you know you'll probably be alright. Minutes later the teacher heads off to the staff room and I'm left alone with a sea of 46 Ugandan eyes staring up at me attempting to understand a white foreigner with a funny accent speaking a language they have only a basic understanding of.

With a stick of chalk my only prop I managed get the kids to shout out names of animals one might find in Uganda followed by a list of animals that come from the land down under. I gave a pop quiz at the end of the lesson and spent my first recess break marking. It wasn't quite the monkey survey I had anticipated but things only got more interesting as the day progressed...

The P5 class was next, and again, 5 minutes after walking in the room the teacher decided it would be a nice time to nip out and I was at the blackboard with a giant novelty compass which held chalk teaching then kids how to draw an equilateral triangle with nothing but a compass and a ruler.

Later than day we spoke with the volunteer coordinator and came up with a different approach that would make better use of our strengths and also be more closely aligned with the primate conservation we signed up for. We initiated a photography related project which I'll speak more about in my next blog and also undertook some vital boardwalk maintenance that had been neglected for too long. We continued to spend some time at the school each day interacting with the kids, but in a more social capacity such as taking a PE class or playing some soccer or netty (which we loved almost as much as the kids did).

I'll leave you with some photos of the school and the kids, stay tuned for the next instalment which will detail the project we undertook that the kids will remember for the rest of their lives...

SORRY ABOUT THE PIXELATED IMAGES - IF YOU CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES THEY WILL LOOK MUCH BETTER. UNACCEPTABLE, BUT IT'S THE BEST I CAN DO ON THE iPAD. SORRY. Photographers - avoid the Blogpress app - they sabotage the look of your blog for their own marketing purposes on a paid app.

Location:Bigodi Progressive Primary School

Simon Bills: Ugandan Wedding Photographer

2011-08-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Fort Portal after a typical Ugandan commute. The bus was supposed to leave Kabale at 6pm but didn't get going until closer to 7, and after being promised a 3am arrival time we were pleasantly surprised when the bus pulled in at half past midnight. If I'm learning anything about Africa on this trip it's that you'll eventually get where you want to go, and things do essentially get done, it's just not worth setting any time expectations as they're untilmately fruitless.

The bus ride was unlike anything I'd experienced before, actually, that's not true, it was similar to a crowded London tube with people pressed against you the whole time mixed with the aroma of poor ventilation and body odor. The seat confisguration was 2 seats / aisle / 3 seats which was weird, and unlike a long haul bus ride in the first world the aisle was jam packed full of standing students and breast feeding mothers. I did a rough count and came up with around 120 men women and children taking the red eye north. Needless to say it was nice to stretch out in the king size bed later that night.

The following day we joined 7 fully grown Ugandan men in a Toyota Corolla (or the African equivalent) and took the 45 minute drive down what would be considered a 4WD track in Australia. 9 people in a midsize car seemed appropriate for an already unconventional country. We settled in to the homestay where we would be based for the next 2 weeks volunteering and got the chatting with Tinka, the guy who would tell us what to do. In accordance with the Ugandan methodology we didn't arrive to a tightly structured plan, and as we were trying to figure out what the weekend held in store he told of of plans for Sunday afternoon.

"You must to come to an old man wedding with me!" he said enthusiastically. Why the hell not? As a wedding phoptographer I always love seeing the different ways people choose to celebrate their marriage, and when the option is there to join a 65 year old Ugandan and 500 of his closest friends on the biggest day of his life then I'm going to take it!

Obviously things are different in Uganda, the fact people have mobile phones but no electricity in the town we're staying says a lot. It was says a lot that this "old man" has been with his wife for close to 40 years and their many children and grand children were in attendance at their wedding. How many Australian kids can boast that they were at the wedding of their biological grandparents? Not many I suspect. Of the 500 guests there were less than half a dozen with cameras, there was no official photographer and the videographer was cranking a beautiful retro VHS camera. I had my gear with me, and this guy was good enough to have me as a wedding guest so the least I could do was take a few photos. When I get home I'll print off a bunch and send them through as a belated wedding gift.

Let the good times roll!

A fish called Rwanda

2011-07-29T06:15:00.001-07:00

Imagine half the population of Australia squeezed into a country a quarter the size of Tasmania. This is what you get with Rwanda, a tiny land locked nation in the east of Africa. We decided to begin our African adventure here on account of the critically endangered mountain gorillas which can be found only here, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - we were also interested in learning more about Rwanda's recent history and seeing where it all went down.

Just say you have 200 Facebook friends, now imagine if 30 of them were brutally murdered in the next 3 months on account of their (largely arbitrary) race. This is the situation that took place in Rwanda (minus the Facebook part) in 1994 where roughly 1 million Tutsis were slaughtered by the Hutu majority, at the time the population of Rwanda was circa 7 million so 1 out of every 7 men women and children (and yes, it did include women and children) were killed.

17 years later the country has made a remarkable recovery and is actually very safe to visit (by African standards anyway!) and has a lot to offer tourists. Our first 2 nights were spent in the capital Kigali, a really interesting city built on a series of hills - no matter where you are you're either on a hill or in a valley so either way you've got views. There are also birds of prey constantly circling in the skies which is equal parts creepy and awesome. Here's a sunrise from the hotel room.

The Genocide Memorial is among the more harrowing tourist sites you'll find globally. A short walk from downtown is a mass burial site containing 250,000 bodies with a memorial detailing what happened before during and after Rwanda's darkest hour as well as some information on other genocides that have taken place around the world.

But it's not all doom and gloom, with plenty of help from the west (who dropped the ball pretty badly in 94) Rwanda has bounced back strong and Kigali in particular appears to be enjoying some prosperity if the weddings and clay tennis courts at our hotel are anything to go by!

I'll round things out with some photos from Musanze up north, we'd originally planned to see the gorillas up here but ended up only being able to secure permits for Uganda. I won't write anymore now as typing on the ipad is doing my head in, not sure when I'll have a chance to post more but stay tuned.....

PS - I did have the fish for dinner the other night so the blog title is LEGIT.

PPS - sorry about the horrendous pixelation of the images above, some technical issues from posting with an iPad that I don't have time to resolve!

Location:Rwanda

It began in Africa

2011-07-29T05:33:00.001-07:00

After 3 hours sleep and a 4am rise we finally made it to the airport on our way to Rwanda (via Sydney, Johannesburg, Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi - yes, we probably could have scheduled a more direct route but it's all part of the adventure).

The next 6 weeks will be epic, if all goes according to plan we'll be trekking with the mountain gorillas, volunteering in a community in Uganda, spending 2 weeks on safari in a Kenya and Tanzania (taking in Ngorongoro crater, Serengeti, Masai Mara and all sorts of other stuff) then Closing it out with a lazy beach week in Zanzibar and Chumbe Island (seriously, look it up!).

Unlike last year's trip to Borneo I'll be taking the full camera kit so I'm hoping to come back with a swag full of great images. I'll be making a limited number of prints available for purchase upon return so if you've got a wall that needs furnishing keep it in mind!

I've got no idea what Internet connection will be like over the next 6 weeks but I'll do my best to blog some images and crazy stories, I'm travelling sans laptop so all this blogging and photo editing will be done on the iPad which is new and exciting.

I'll sign off now as I'm onto my third serving of delicious Barossa red 30,000 feet above the earth somewhere between Sydney and Johannesburg and this inflight entertainment system isn't going to watch itself.

I promise the next blog will have some cool photos.

Location:Africa

Simon's soapbox and FREE IPADS!!

2011-06-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember around this time last year I decided to bolster the bank balance by entering a few photo competitions with a view to winning a truckload of COLD HARD CASH.

In fact, so confident was I of taking out first prize I went ahead and titled one of blog posts “How I made $20,000 in 24 hours”. To be honest, I also used this title as link bait to see how much traffic I could drive to the blog; for some reason it seems people are more interested in making fast cash than they are in seeing photos of our native flora and fauna (this time round I'm trying to find out if peopple are interested in free iPads). This ended up being my 2nd most popular non-wedding post of 2010 and garnered almost triple the hits of the very next post titled “Kangaroos, Plants and Whales” (which IMO is pretty damn exciting in it’s own right – come on people, Kangaroos AND whales?!?).

The competition I was taking part in was the Art of Nature, an initiative of the state government to get people to enjoy our state’s many and varied national parks. Before I took my first photo I knew realistically my chances of success were slim, photo competitions are always a bit of a crap shoot, and one that attracts thousands of entries is always going to be hard to win. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to get out of the house on a winter weekend, go for some bush walks, try to find some kangaroos, visit a National Park I’d not been to before. And I did all those things, I ended up visiting 3 Nationals Parks, from Waitpinga in the South, to a little park near the Barossa then all the way over to Innes on the Yorke Peninsula and it was fantastic. I was out there making photos and getting exercise when I otherwise would have been planted in front of the TV with a beer in one hand and packet of chips in the other.

Imagine my delight then when I checked my inbox this morning to find details of the 2011 Art of Nature Competition. The email was titled “2011 Art of Nature T-shirt Design Competition is now open” and my first thought was wow, they’re going all out this year, building excitement for the photo competition by preceding it with a T-shirt design competition. It wasn’t until I checked out the website that the penny dropped and my heart sunk. The T-Shirt design was the competition. No photos required.

How on earth is a T-shirt design going to get more people to visit National Parks? A photo competition requires the entrant to visit a park (or parks) in order to create their submission(s); they would often take family and friends along and make a day of it. By contrast a T-shirt design requires the entrant to sit in front of a computer for a few hours and not leave the house. Actually visiting a National Park would get in the way of their computer based T-shirt design. I just don’t get it. I also think it would have to be a pretty spectacular T-shirt to motivate people to get off the couch and get back to nature. The font would have to be exceptional. Photographs on the other hand instantly connect with people and motivate them to action. If I see a photo of a breathtakingly beautiful landscape that’s only an hour or two from my house then I might be motivated to go and find it one day – if I see someone wearing a T-shirt that says Art of Nature then I’m probably going to head to the shops for some chips and beer and put the couch on notice.

In case you missed it last year here’s a few photos that won’t be taken this time round.

PS – There are actually 3 ipads up for grabs in this T-shirt competition so my title wasn't totally misleading.

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

Wedding - Sandra and David

2011-06-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love most about shooting weddings is getting an insight into how different cultures celebrate the marriage of two people. When I met Sandra and David the bride-to-be warned me “this probably won’t be like the kind of wedding you normally shoot” which was all I needed to hear – I was all in!

They got married in a traditional ceremony at St Anthony’s Greek Orthodox church. The building itself sits innocuously in a Prospect back street and is largely uninspiring from the outside, but once you’re in the front door you realise just how ornate and beautiful the interior is. Vlad, the videographer summed it up perfectly when he described it as rich. And it wasn’t just the scenery that was rich, the ceremony itself was mostly sung rather than spoken and the placing of crowns on heads and rings on fingers was custom made for interesting photography.

We headed to the uni footbridge followed by the East End of the city for some photos before heading down the Grand for the reception. This part of the day is generally pretty flexible, photos are largely dependant on weather and light, so with the winter solstice just a few weeks away there wasn’t much light left by the time we made it to the Bay. As an almost last minute decision we decided to head to Mosely Square for a few quick photos before the darkness took hold. Good decision us.

The Greeks sure like to dance. Most weddings I shoot don’t normally start dancing will towards the end of the evening, but by the time speeches rolled around we’d already had at least 90 minutes of dance time! The Bridal Walz (followed by a packed dance floor) took place before the main course, then once energy reserves were fuelled there was an epic session of Greek dancing, capped off by a pretty special Zorba. Again, this was all a photographer’s delight.

Sandra and David, I hope you guys are loving your honeymoon in the States, I can’t wait to show you all the photos when you get back!

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

Wedding - Emily and Michael

2011-05-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing like the enthusiasm of youth. Within moments of arriving at Mike’s house on the morning of the wedding I knew this was going to be a super fun day, the banter between Mike and his 4 groomsmen was top shelf and I instantly felt like one of the gang (albeit the elder statesman of the group!) Fortunately we managed to get some photos outside before the rain arrived, at which time I moved on to Emily’s to document the butterflies and nervous energy of a bride getting ready for her wedding.

All wedding dresses are beautiful, but there was something extra special about Emily’s. Her grandmother hand made the dress while her mother spent countless hours taking care of the train and the other intricate details. She hand sewed dozens, if not hundreds of individual pearls and the result was incredible. By this stage the rain was coming down even harder, and things were looking grim for our proposed shoot after the ceremony. Taking outdoor photos of the girls before the ceremony was out of the question, but as always we took it as it came and rolled with the punches, as a wedding photographer sometimes that’s your only option.

The ceremony was capped off by Emily and Mike singing a duet (no mean feat in front of 400 guests!) so when it came time for the group and couple photos everyone was super relaxed and up for some fun. Fortunately the rain stayed away and we were able to take in a playground in Thorndon Park, a trip to the zoo AND a trip to the beach at sunset before heading to Sfera’s for the reception. (Quick sidenote on Sfera’s, beautiful venue, fantastic decorations, lights and a nice white ceiling for bouncing a flash – but the food was something else again. We started with an antipasto before moving on to a large pasta dish for main course. Or so I thought until they brought out the chicken for main! So much tasty food – a definite perk of the job!).

After dinner the party really kicked into gear, Emily’s sister Esther gave us a song, and the dance floor came alive after Emily and Mike warmed it up on their first dance. I’ve never felt so welcomed at a wedding where I didn’t know a sole before the day. Everyone I spoke with from the ushers, to the videographer, the MC to the wedding party were all incredibly warm and friendly. And Emily and Mike, thankyou so much for your thoughtful touches on the day and for making me feel more like a guest than a vendor, I hope you blow one of your wedding photos up HUGE and put it on the wall by your piano!

I'll be posting some more images to my facebook business page so make sure you head over and "like" me if you want to be the first to see these extra photos!

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

Wedding - Hong Yip and Stephen

2011-05-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

Stephen and his best man Robin met when they were 6 years old. As neighbours in Athelstone their friendship was based on riding bikes around the streets and the vacant block of land that is now a petrol station. 27 years later, at 7 in the morning, we returned to the streets of Athelstone to turn back the clock, only this time round the BMXs were replaced with mountain bikes, and the short shorts and ripped t-shirts of childhood were replaced with the stylish black suits of adulthood.

Today was the day Stephen was marrying Hong Yip. It was about remembering the past, and looking forward to the future.

In stark contrast to a couple of guys riding bikes round the suburbs, Hong Yip’s pre-wedding routine was somewhat more hectic. In the week leading up to the wedding she had 8 girls from Malaysia descend on her house, and when I arrived to shoot some photos the place was bubbling over with nervous giggles and general chaotic excitement. Some amateur baristas were preparing coffee in the kitchen while the royal wedding lead up was flickering in the corner providing a soundtrack to the morning; but with an 11am ceremony there wasn’t any time to waste.

It was decided by the British Royal Family that 11am on Friday the 29th of April 2011 was the best time possible to get married. Hong Yip and Stephen reached the same conclusion so an hour before midday she walked down the pathway to the rotunda in the Botanic Gardens to begin her wedding. The stunning Autumn weather provided the perfect backdrop to a beautiful, simple ceremony, and with the afternoon to ourselves the photos were about as stress free as it gets. An intimate reception at the Art Gallery followed where a traditional tea serving ceremony was observed, some touching speeches were delivered and an impressive first dance rounded out a beautiful day.

Hong Yip and Stephen, thanks for being so much fun photograph, for rolling around in the leaves for the sake of a photo, for walking all over the Botanic Gardens and for indulging me in my more experimental photo ideas! I hope you love these photos as much as I do.

I'll be posting some more images to my facebook business page so make sure you head over and "like" me if you want to be the first to see these extra photos!

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

In the cold cold night

2011-04-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing quite like falling asleep in a tent. Nothing but a thin layer of fabric separating you from the magic of the Australian bush; the kangaroos, emus, wombats, platypi, dingos and deadly spiders. Naught but a totally ineffective and stupidly thin piece of fancy plastic protecting you from the elements of rain, wind and bitterly cold air.

Yes sir, there is nothing quite like falling asleep in a tent. But there is something that comes close to waking up in a tent at 3am frozen to the core – waking up on the floor of one of those giant walk in fridges at the bottle shop and wondering what the hell you’re doing there and why you can’t feel your toes.

Weather can be cruel mistress. Easter 2010 I went camping with my girlfriend in the Flinders Rangers and it was HOT and WINDY. I was sweating real sweat during the day and sweating bullets by night as I frantically retied several guy ropes at 3am with the real fear that the entire tent would be blown away Wizard of Oz style. This year we headed to the Grampians in Victoria and were met with RAIN and FREEZING nights. This all sounds a bit melodramatic, and I guess it is, but it was pouring buckets for pretty much the duration of erecting the tent, and the nights got down to just a couple of degrees which isn’t particularly pleasant when you’re not in high end sleeping bags. The rain came and went over the next few days, and the final few days were absolutely perfect, but it’s fair to say a night in a Coonawarra Motel on the 5th night was very welcome.

We decided to tackle the Mt Difficult hike on Easter Sunday. I kid you not, it’s literally called Mt Difficult. 8.8km return, 465m vertical climb, plenty of rock hopping, rock scrambling and about a million steps. The guide suggested 4-5 hours return, we ended up taking closer to 6 and we really didn’t take too many breaks. This is the part where I’m supposed to say something like “It was really hard but I’m really glad I did it”, and I’m trying desperately to come up with something that doesn’t sound totally cheesy, but here it goes – it was really hard but I’m really glad I did it. Actually, I’ll take it one step further, it was totally awesome and I haven’t enjoyed a walk / hike / trek / climb that much since I climbed Ayers Rock as a child in the 80s (back when it was totally cool to climb it. And call it Ayers Rock).

Despite the aforementioned cold nights and rigorous physical activity I had an incredible Easter. I got my fix of Aussie wild life and even managed a fair bit of guilt free chocolate (nothing like smashing an easter bilby with some red wine on a camp chair after summiting Mt Difficult). I’m back to the real world now of unanswered emails and wedding preparation (I’ve got 2 on this weekend – I had to turn down Kate and Will as I was already booked) and it will likely take another big night’s sleep to catch up on the hours lost through midnight shivering but I’m declaring Easter 2011 BEST ANZAC DAY / EASTER LONG WEEKEND EVER.

(I’m also declaring this post best CAPS LOCK BLOG POST THIS YEAR)

Why would anyone want to camp beyond this point? The kangaroos are on THIS side!

It wouldn't be a country market without a redback in the books for sale (and a collection of venus fly traps)

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Wedding - Rebecca and Anthony

2011-04-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

When I shoot a wedding there’s normally a pretty big contrast between the respective houses where the bride and groom are getting ready. The guys’ place is generally pretty relaxed, just a few dudes kicking back and ironing shirts; whereas the bride’s house is a hotbed of hair and make-up, cars arriving, flowers being delivered, dresses being fitted, champagne being popped and all sorts of nervous and excitable emotions.

At least that’s what normally happens.

When I arrived at Anthony’s parent’s place on Saturday I was met by a scene of chaos. Anthony’s mum was dominating the front of the house – there were four sewing machines strewn about the room, with four seamstresses frantically making last minute alterations to wedding day garments in a scene that could only be described as a sweat shop. There were girls getting hair and make up done in the dining room, kids playing on the iPad on the couch, family members scattered about the house, an excitable dog holding court in the back yard and Anthony and his four groomsmen taking it all in their stride. An hour later when I left to head over to the bride’s place Anthony’s mum quietly said to me “It won’t be like this over at Bec’s house, they’ll be sipping champagne over there”.

And she was spot on.

Stepping into Bec’s parent’s house was like walking into a day spa, a picture of organisation and tranquillity. The girls were almost finished with their hair and make-up and the bubbles were just being poured. A coffee urn was quietly bubbling over, next to it a bowl of fancy chocolates, and another filled with cashew nuts. If you were looking for stress then you weren’t going to find it here. Bec’s dress was carefully laid out ready to be worn; too heavy to hang up it was draped over the couch and looking resplendent. I later learned that Anthony’s mum had hand made the dress in the months leading up to the wedding, along with the dresses for each of the four bridesmaids. Suddenly the sweatshop was starting to make sense.

When I returned to Australia at the end of 2009 I figured rain was going to be least of my worries as a wedding photographer, but for some reason it feel like every wedding I shoot has at least a few showers in the offing, and this was no different. Fortunately it rained when it didn’t matter and stayed dry when it had to. The ceremony at Rostrevor College was great, they’ve got a beautiful chapel there on stunning grounds, and the reception at Carrick Hill was something else again. I reckon I could shoot a dozen weddings there and come up with new and different photos every time.

As the evening wore on and the speeches grew near there was an excited buzz in the air, everyone was in fine form and the forecast for hilarity was high. The respective fathers of the bride and groom got the ball rolling, but when Anthony’s brother Tim took to the stand the reception officially become a party. You’d have to sit through a lot of speeches to find a more heart felt, entertaining, and down right hilarious speech than this, I got plenty of photos but I also missed plenty because I couldn’t hold the camera steady from laughing so hard. There was no doubt that the dance floor would be on fire to round the night out, a perfect finale to a perfect wedding.

I'll be posting some more photos from the wedding to my Facebook business page shortly so if you want to make sure you're first to know once they're up make sure you head on over and "like" my page.

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Austin and Andrew - Commitment Ceremony

2011-04-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Rain.

Not enough of it and it's bad for the farmers, too much and it's the same problem. The comparatively wet and cool 12 months we've just had might be causing all sorts of headaches for SA winemakers but the flipside is lush green lawns and super picturesque vines and rolling hills which are perfect for winery wedding photos. As a wine lover and wedding photographer I just don't how to feel about it all!

The week leading up to Austin and Andrew's ceremony was wet, but the forecast was for a dry Saturday. Fortunately the boffins at the bureau were correct and conditions were perfect for an outdoor ceremony at the stunning Woodstock Winery. To add to the charm of the day the guys hired a beautiful old 1939 Packard from Buicks of Adelaide as their car which was just perfect.

Like a conventional wedding it was a day filled with joy and love, a time for people to come together to celebrate two people in love and witness them devote their lives to each another. Austin and Andrew, I wish you every happiness and I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

If you're interested in seeing some more photos then head over to Austin and Andrew's personal website, I do this for each of my couples as part of my service.

Enjoy!

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Terrifying Garden Creatures

2011-03-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Avid readers of my blog will know that I don't particularly love spiders. Around this time last year I was fending off huntsmen and euthanising rebacks at my place in Firle, I've since moved to Athelstone and this past weekend saw me return to my redback slaughtering ways. After smiting two of these fearsome creatures I was faced with something even more terrifying than a spider.

It was a bug of some description.

Yeah, I know, a bug doesn't sound scary, but imagine if that bug was dragging around the corpse of a giant death-spider (it's a new breed I just invented) like some sort of morbid trophy.

Then imagine if that bug was a combination of striking orange and ink black that screamed I'M DEADLY SO WATCH YOUR BACK. Is that starting to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Yeah me too.

Also, it can fly.

Obviously a story like this is the stuff of make believe without photographic evidence, so without further delay I present the world's deadliest garden bug.

All scaremongering and fox-news style sensationalism aside, does anyone know what this actually is? I'm thinking perhaps a wasp? It flies like a wasp but it was BIG, certainly bigger than a conventional European wasp. Has anyone ever seen this before?

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Love and Basketball - Emma and Scott's Wedding

2011-02-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I had the pleasure of documenting the wedding day of Emma and Scott, a couple of basketball lovers who also love combi-vans. And each other.

As luck would have it Scott was actually my team mate on the first basketball team I ever played for - I was 9 years old and he was 7. If I'm not much mistaken I scored 4 points that season, and I'm pretty sure the guy who was 2 years younger than everyone out-pointed me, he was better than me then and things haven't changed since. In recent years he's also taken to coaching Emma's Uni SA team, I'm not sure how the dynamics work there but I can just imagine the car ride home if Scott decided to sub Emma off in the crunch for not hustling back on D!

As usual I took some shots of the boys mucking around and getting ready before heading to the bride's place to capture the transformation. Emma and Scott were both great, super laid back and up for any photo idea I threw at them, including a pretty treacherous rock summit at Glenelg. It was a great idea for a photo, and things were going great.... until the tide started coming in and the route back to shore was getting deeper by the second. I was forecasting a bridal tragedy but luckily Scott came to the rescue with his long legs and a timely piggy back and the crisis was averted.

With a dress code of "Formal with thongs" and a couple of combis as bridal cars this was always going to be a fun wedding, so without further ado I present Emma and Scott.

LOVE this shot!

The basketball girls

Tide is rising FAST

Thanks Emma and Scott for taking me on, I hope you're sipping cocktails by the pool on your honeymoon as I type this!

I'll be putting some more photos up on my Facebook business page shortly so if you want to have them posted to your wall the second they're up make sure you head on over and "like" my page.

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Wedding - Laura and Rob

2011-02-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

As Rob's giant hand engulfed mine to bid me farewell on Sunday night I felt that I'd been part of something special. The stunning day ran as perfectly as a wedding can, but less than 3 weeks earlier things weren't looking quite as promising.

Rob (a Canadian) met Laura (an Adelaidean) at a hostel in Budapest several years ago, and since then they've overcome the tyranny of distance and made Melbourne their home. Rob's parents and brother John flew in from Canada for the wedding, but to make the most of their time down under decided to head down several weeks earlier and spend some time holidaying with Laura and Rob. As many tourists do they decided the Great Barrier Reef would be a great place to visit, but it just so happened that their trip to Cairns happened to coincide with the most powerful tropical cyclone in the country's history - the category 5 Cyclone Yasi. Their dreams of a relaxing seafood feast overlooking the ocean were quickly replaced by the reality of dehydrated meals, rock hard floors and thousands of "roommates" of the refuge shelter. Welcome to Australia Mom and Dad!!

Fortunately Yasi didn't turn into Katrina and they were able to evacuate soon after it had passed and get on with finalising their wedding plans, but it's probably safe to assume there were a few nervous moments that night.

Laura's 89 year old grandfather made the trip all the way from the UK for the wedding. His presence really added a special touch to the day and his tears seeing his granddaughter getting married were priceless.

World's most terrifying koala sign?

Laura and Rob, it was an honour to cover your day, I wish you every happiness that life has to offer. Keep traveling.

I'll be putting some more photos up on my facebook business page later this week, if you head over and "like" me you'll get them beamed straight onto your wall the second they're up.

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Happy Days

2011-02-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

The year was 2007. I was in the lounge room of my Tabernacle St flat in London when I heard the noise. It was a noise that hard drives aren't supposed to make and the next thing I knew my computer wasn't recognising the device. I tried everything, I called in an expert, I scoured the interwebs but it was no use, my hard drive had crashed and I'd lost pretty much all my photos from 2004 to 2006, all my photos from 4 months in a Canadian ski resort, all my photos from 18 months in Edinburgh along with every trip I'd taken during that time (Ireland, Greece, Prague, Austria, France, Loch Lomond, Blackpool and Egypt in happier times). I learned an extremely valuable lesson that day and my back up system is pretty bullet proof these days, but I learned it the hard way.

I'm currently in the process of sorting out my office. A man learns a lot about himself when he's left to his own devices and what I've learned is that I have a propensity to do the important tasks but find every way imaginable to procrastinate on the those that are less pressing. For instance, 12 months ago I purchased a 224 disc DVD wallet with a view to downsizing the masses of CDs and DVDs I've got clogging up space, and for 12 months this DVD wallet remained unfilled while I lugged boxes of CD from house to house. Well last week I made a stand, the time had come to sort through all my discs, even those unlabeled burnt discs, and I'm glad I did.

In the long lost recesses of seldom opened CD cases I discovered a cache of discs which contained, you guessed it, back ups of all the lost photos from the great hard drive crash of 2007! I was ecstatic, over the next few days I had the perfect excuse to procrastinate the hell out of whatever it was I was meant to be doing and just flicked through thousands upon thousands of memories from my past. I also found a collection I put together in April 2004 which was my favourite 20 images from the last 12 months round the world trip.

So here we go, let's see what 3 mega-pixels of 2003 Pentax technology can produce!

Singapore by night.

Hong Kong by night.

Me diving into the clear blue water around Koh Phi Phi in Thailand.

Andy living large in Tokyo.

Barcelona Bocce.

Barcelona busker.

San Sebastian sunset.

Nun on a direct line to God in Rome.

Some kids playing street soccer in Rio.

Me being totally outclassed by my 8 year old sponsor child in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Cable car from Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio. Bond fans will recognise this one from Moonraker, if I'm not much mistaken Jaws took a bite out one of the cables which almost lead to James' demise. Almost.

Jesus. Times 2.

The most beautiful place on earth, Torres Del Paine National Park in Chille.

Machu Picchu sunrise, Peru.

The open road, Arizona, USA.

Zion National Park, Utah, USA.

Monument Valley, Utah, USA.

Me teaching Fernie Alpine Resort a lesson in snowboarding fundamentals (over the course of the season the mountain taught me plenty of lessons).

Waimea Bay yoga, Hawaii.

The more observant among you will notice that this top 20 list only contains 19 photos. I guess I was better at backing up files to disk in 2006 than I was at counting to 20.

Which one is your favourite?

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Sink or Swim

2011-02-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I made my debut on the stage that is Open Water Swim Racing. After winter basketball finished a few guys from my team, The Savoury Shapes, decided that we should keep getting together on a weekly basis to socialise and be active so the Savoury Shapes Swimming Club was created (actually, I think I kind of just created the name then). We'd get together on a Thursday night, bust out a few k's in the pool then go for beers and schnitzels to undo any of the health benefits gained in the preceding hour.

One day our spiritual leader, fitness fanatic and fastest swimmer Matt fired an email out proposing an open water swim, there were a few coming up but the biggest one was the Brighton Jetty Classic. Andy and I were sort of keen but hesitant for some reason, probably because we feared being beaten by 12 year old girls. As the day was approaching Matt sent another email, were we in or out? I didn't want to be a damp squib (or should that be damp squid is this instance?!?) so I put forth an "IN" vote. Andy obviously had to follow suit, but secretly he was hoping I'd be out.

As the date approached it became apparent that we were largely unprepared for the event. We'd not been swimming in the ocean even once and life was pretty hectic in the weeks leading up so our pool time was minimal (although I'm pretty sure Matt was secretly training behind our backs). We managed to get a couple of sessions in in the final week but it's fair to say we could have prepared a whole lot better.

In all of the build up there was a sort of unspoken rivalry between Andy and myself. We're extremely evenly matched in the pool, some days he'll come in slightly ahead, other days it's reversed - and we're both pretty competitive guys. He'd hardly seen the pool in the lead up so it's probably fair to say I had slightly better pool form pre-race, but he had the advantage of a few open water swims from his time the Cayman Islands whereas my ocean swimming was limited to body surfing and scuba diving.

We managed to arrive in plenty of time, scored the Hollywood park of the year, got registered and found our way down to the start of the race. Next thing I knew I was in the water, the starting siren had sounded and it was on like donkey kong. My first thoughts were this is great fun, way more interesting that a pool, and it was, however it was also a lot more difficult that a pool in that it was a windy day and the mini waves and currents were reasonably strong by Adelaide beach standards. Lap swimming allows you to focus on your technique and concentrate on how much effort you're putting into each lap, ocean swimming doesn't afford any such luxuries and my efforts were basically entirely spent trying to go in the right direction. The first half of the course was against the current and it felt like it went forever, I managed to swallow a couple of pretty big mouthfuls of water but apart from that I zig zagged my way along the coast without incident. The return leg wasn't really any easier, I was putting in the same amount of effort, it just went a lot faster.

As I approached the finish line I remembered the final beach sprint, a humiliating 100m dash in budgy smugglers with the whole world looking on. I lost track of Andy 2 seconds after the swim began but thought he might be lurking somewhere looking to snatch victory off me over the sand. As I emerged form the water I saw Matt at the water's edge shouting encouraging words. First thing I said was "Am I beating Andy?" to which replied "Yep, run it out!". I took this as meaning Andy was immediately behind me and I needed to give it my all or risk losing my position. I sprinted the sprint of a man who's not very good at sprinting and is totally exhausted from a big swim and crossed the line before almost passing out. For a few minutes I couldn't really stand, or speak, or drink water or anything. But at least I'd beaten Andy.

And that's when it happened.

To my horror I looked over to our entourage to discover Andy just standing there chatting with a towel around his waist. He wasn't puffed at all. His hair looked dry. He'd. Beaten. Me.

It actually didn't really bother me, I like the banter associated with being competitive as much as, if not more than, the competition itself. My main aim for the swim was to crack 35 minutes (it was a 1500m course) and not finish last in my category and I achieved both those goals. I was 37th out of 54 which I was chuffed with on debut, and my time of 33 minutes 44 was about what I was hoping for.

So here I was, feeling pretty good about myself, reading the names of the 17 men aged 30-39 who completed the course in a time slower than myself when everything came crashing down around me. I made the mistake of looking at the times of the junior swimmers. In particular the junior girls. Had I competed in the 12-13 year old girls race I would have been the 22nd competitor, and I would have finished....... 22nd. Ditto for the 14-15 year olds, dead last out of 17.

It just goes to show that no matter how good you are at something there's always someone better. And they're probably only 12 years old.

Because every blog is better with a photo here's one I took on my iPhone the other night from right outside my front door.

PS - As a side story the aforementioned fitness freak and swim guru Matt completed the course in 25 minutes which would have put him in the lower 50% of 12-13 year old girls. As we all enjoyed a hearty meal afterward I asked him jokingly whether he'd been for a run that morning. "Yeah, just a short one, only 7 or 8 k's". Andy finished almost 2 minutes ahead of me, but it was his birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY, your gift is me letting you win!

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Loxton and two smoking barrels

2011-02-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

It doesn't get more Australian than the country, so when Cam suggested getting a group together to head down the Riverland for Australia Day it wasn't hard to twist my arm. But why go just for the day? Why not make it 4 days? Good question Cam, mark me down for 4 days.

Our friends Tim and Margot live in Loxton, and you'd have to go a long way to find more accommodating hosts, they took in 7 guests in their small 2 bedroom unit and even slept at Margot's folk's place to make it as comfortable as possible! I was absolutely blown away at how high the water was, last time I was down here Australia was in the midst of the great drought, but recent rains have filled the Murray like I've never seen and gave the whole place the feeling of life rather than the arid desolate landscape I'm used to down there.

The trip included wine tasting, a trip to a micro brewery, frisbee tossing, BBQ eating and Murray swimming – pretty much the best things in life. It was also great to spend some quality time with Josh and Leona who are heading back to Germany shortly.

Good times with good people is really what life is all about.

As I said, the river was high

How beer is made. Pic on the right taken by Leona Stewart.

Pic on the right taken by the other S Bills, my cousin Scott.

I'll be shooting a wedding in the riverland later this year, already getting pumped for it! Can you think of a more Australian place to be on Australia Day?

I hope you've enjoyed my 5 posts in 5 days, I've now cleared by back log (or b'log if you will) of blogs and will probably return to my roughly weekly posting, but stay tuned as you never know when I'll just sneak one in, especially now I've got internet at home!

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As country as it gets

2011-02-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

When my girlfriend lived in Victor Harbor she always wanted to go to the Compass Cup, but fate stood in the way. This year nothing would stand in our way, not the Tour Down Under which we had to divert around, not the stifling heat of an Australian summer's day and not the fact that I was shooting some photos at Woodstock Winery later that afternoon. In fact the timing couldn't have been more perfect, Woodstock and Mt Compass are only 20 minutes away so I was going to be down that way anyway.

The Compass Cup is billed as “Australia's Only Cow Race” but racing cows is only the tip of the hay bale. It includes such events as the Ute Muster, Dung Fling, Tour Down Udder, Milk Loading Race, Rubber Boot Marathon and Milk Skull Off (which should probably be renamed “Milk Skull Off and Subsequent Milk Vomit Off”).

Unfortunately we weren't able to hang around for the main event, and we were both devastated to miss the dung flight by a few minutes, but the various milk races and rubber boot cycling themed events were a great laugh.

Word to the wise, if you're a bit squeamish you might want to skip photo 6.

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Two Weeks a Year

2011-02-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

There's a window of about 2 weeks each year in Adelaide where cyclists don't have to be ashamed of their shaved legs and lycra shorts, where they ride 2 abreast on the roads with impunity and where it's almost impossible to get a seat outside one of Adelaide's many cafes which become inundated with riders slurping down a post-ride cappuccino.

Of course I'm talking about the Tour Down Under.

When it rolled into town 12 months ago I was hyped, I'd been home from 7 years abroad for about a month and the prospect of Lance Armstrong cycling his way around little old Adelaide was ever so exciting. I managed to get some pretty decent shots of Lance last time round and it's probably fair to say my approach to getting photos this time round was a little more loose and lazy. I trundled down to the opening night round the East End pretty late and managed to see them whizzing past a handful of times before it was all over, I still managed to get some shots I was pretty happy with though.

My next encounter was 5 days later when they virtually rode past my front door. I think it's kind of an unwritten law that when an elite sport of any kind takes place within walking distance of your house and costs nothing to observe you have to go take a look. As it so happened this was the day the amateur cyclists had their ride which took off 4 or 5 hours before the pros, and one of those amateurs happened to be my brother Dave. I rolled out of bed at 6:15 and headed out to Gorge Rd to witness the procession, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting but in the sea of 8000 identically attired amateurs it dawned on me that spotting my brother might be rather difficult. Fortunately he made my job a whole lot easier when he decided to pull over to the side of the road for a “pitstop” not 15 metres from where I was standing. With my camera. You're not human if you don't take this chance to reel off a few photos, how often do you get the opportunity to pap your brother taking a leak in public while wearing lycra? Not often, and when you do it's kind of an unwritten law to post it on the internet.

We like to call him Shameless Dave - actually, I just made that up.

This was probably the best of a bad bunch of photos of the pros coming through, a combination of some guy standing right in my frame (I've cropped him out on the right) and attempting to use a flash but underestimating the speed they'd be coming through at led to disappointing results - can't win them all though and I learned plenty from my mistakes.

Huge kudos to all the amateurs, especially this last guy, 130k through hills is a long way and I know for a fact he made to the end as friends of mine at the finish line saw him cross. When the ad told me to see the real super heroes this is who I was looking for.

Illustration copyright Robin Eley

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Parrots are disgusting

2011-01-31T21:15:00.000-08:00

Right, let's do this thing, day 2 of my 5 posts in 5 days and I'm bang on track. On my 2nd day in KL I spent half a day pottering round the world's largest undercover bird sanctuary which was pretty different to anything I'd done before. Where I live in Adelaide backs onto Linear Park which is chock full of galahs and sulfur crested cockatoos. I love nothing more than seeing and hearing these guys go about their business on a late afternoon stroll so the prospect of hitting up a giant bird sanctuary with all my camera gear and no one to stop me spending as long as I liked on any given shot was pretty enticing.

I know it's kind of cheating getting pictures of birds in captivity but I don't care, how else are you going to get sweet shots of peacocks in full bloom?

Quite frankly I was appalled by the behavior of these parrots. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, I was just excited that so many parrots were in the one place for my photo, but soon enough it become apparent that they were engaging in a disgusting act of, well, you get the idea. For this reason the parrot win the award for "Malaysia's dodgiest bird".

Make sure you check back in tomorrow for another installment....

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Three days in Kuala Lumpur

2011-01-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

Roll up, roll up! What you're about to see will make your eyes bulge out of your head! That's right folks, over the next 5 days you will be getting not one, not two, not even four, but FIVE whole blog entries!

Due to a number of circumstances I've been taking plenty of photos lately but haven't had a chance to blog them - I guess the biggest circumstance is the lack of internet connection I talked about last week, but that should be sorted any day now. I'm not sure what order to do these posts in, I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I think I'll stick to good old chronological, you can't go wrong with that (I did consider going reverse chronological but decided the Internet wasn't ready for that just yet).

Q. What do you get if you cross a cute animal and an Asian city?
A. Koala Lumpur. Boom boom.

That's right, this is the sort of thing that goes on inside my head, it's alright for you, you can choose to stop reading at any time, I have to live with this relentless terrible pun generating engine 24/7 and when I was taking the bus from the airport in Kuala Lumpur I thought this was just about the funniest thing I'd thought of. The airport is about 75 minutes by bus from KL Central so it's a long way, I always love arriving in big cities with famous buildings by road, it reminds me of driving into New York City in 1998 and spotting the Empire State Building and Twin Towers was miles away on the horizon, there's a giddy thrill that goes along with spotting a well known landmark for the first time. The KL landmark on my agenda this was round was the Petronas Tower, a set of twin towers that were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004 standing at 452 metres. It turned out to be pretty tricky to actually get up in the towers when I attempted several days later so I put it all in the too hard basket.

I had 3 days in KL after shooting a wedding in Borneo and I basically spent my days pottering around being a tourist. I didn't venture too far off the beaten track but I managed to get a decent feel for place, although I felt like it was a city of a thousand hidden gems that you'd need a local to show you. Anyway, here's some impressions I got of the place.

Those crazy Malaysian pharmacies!

Sorry for photos are a bit smaller than usual, I promise they'll be bigger as the week goes on!

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21st Century Digital Boy

2011-01-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought in 1991, when Kurt Cobain was writing Nevermind and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were penning Blood Sugar Sex Magik, that in just 20 short years the planet would be so dependent on something that no one but a few uber-nerds had ever heard of?

I'm talking about the internet friends.

This omnipresent phenomenon is anywhere you can imagine, it's free in McDonalds, in our pockets, our refrigerators (actually, scratch that, the internet refrigerator never really took off did it?), our e-books, our work places and our homes. Well, that is unless your name is Simon Bills and a gypsy put a curse on you many years ago resulting in constant struggles to get a simple broadband connection up and running in your place of residence.

I moved in to a new place late last year and have been doing all I can to get connected. Different stories from different companies have me spinning in circles, each offering new and exciting reasons why I can't get online (too far from the server, no ports left, a pair gain system blocking the line, foxtel never installed cable in the area, wireless coverage doesn't extend to the area) – for the record I've moved 25 minutes from the CBD in a populous suburb, it's not like I'm in the sticks or anything. I feel like I'm closing in on a solution, and as annoying and painful as it is I'm kind of used to it now (this is my 3rd consecutive house spanning 2 countries I've had to jump through hoops).

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry if I've been late in replying to your emails, or updating my blog, or being social on the interwebs, I'm doing the best I can and when things are up and running I'll be a lot more accessible electronically. To make up for it I'll be doing 5 blogs in 5 days starting Monday next week so stay tuned, there's plenty of good stuff in the offing!

And because blogs are more fun with photos here's one to celebrate Australia day from the Compass Cup – it doesn't get more Australian than the country.

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Perks of the job

2011-01-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

There are good parts and bad parts of just about every job, including photography. My recent trip to Borneo had both of them, 18 hours in transit from Adelaide to Tawau was an example of a bad part (although to be fair the flights were pretty painless and I was impressed with budget carrier Air Asia), but having some time to myself on Kapalai resort and 3 carefree days in Kuala Lumpur post-wedding were examples of some good parts.

I wouldn't change it for the world.

Pretty comfortable digs.

4 dives on Sipadan on the morning of the wedding was nice.

They really should monitor their lizard population on Sipdan *cough cough*

I'll be blogging some diving and KL photos in the next week or so, stay tuned!

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Borneo Wedding - Vicky and Dean

2011-01-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

When I left the salubrious Kapalai resort in Borneo last year my thoughts were along the lines of that place was incredible, a truly once in a lifetime experience, little did I know that just four months later I'd be back to shoot a wedding!

Kapalai is kind of like a cross between Kevin Costner's Waterworld and the Great Gatsby; the luxurious resort stands on stilts on a sandbar which is underwater most of the time which gives the impression we're living on a post apocalyptic earth covered entirely by water (you know, apart from the other islands you can see, and the mainland off in the distance). I understand it began life as a military base of sorts, but now it exists mainly as a high end dive resort serving the world famous Sipadan island which no longer offers on-island accommodation.

Vicky and Dean eloped to Kapalai and when I met them they were about 9 days into an epic daily diving streak. This was different to most of my weddings in that there was just husband and wife plus one other couple, it was extremely intimate and my job was probably more hands on that usual due to there being no crowd to blend into! To this end it was extremely important that we got along well, and as expected when I met them on day 1 they were 2 of the most laid back, easy going people you're likely to come accross so the rest of the time was a blast.

Anyway, a little less conversation, a little more photo action.

I'm currently in Kuala Lumpur and will be flying home tonight, stay tuned for some more posts about KL and Kapalai over the next few weeks.

Also, I'll be putting up some more photo from this wedding on my Simon Bills Photography facebook page so if you want to be the first to see them when they get posted make sure you head on over and "like"me.

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

Calm before the storm

2011-01-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

What a lackluster month of blogging!! One post for the whole of December, just when I was getting some momentum and some regular visitors to the site. I blame the silly season, and also the fact I've recently moved into a house sans internet which will hopefully be rectified at some stage before 2012. Rest assured I've been out and about, taking photos and catching up with pretty much everyone in the entire world.

I'd love to write a decent blog today but I just don't have the time. Bright and early tomorrow morning I'll be boarding a plane to Borneo and kickstarting my career as a destination wedding photographer, there's plenty of stuff to finalise before 6:05am which I really need to crack on with now (you'll be pleased to know I found my passport after a nervous 20 minute search this morning; it was filed under "visas and passsport" in my filing cabinet - who knew I was that organised?)

I'll be back in a week with exotic photos to boot, but in the mean time here's a few shots from a recent camping trip to the Coorong and a Mexican Fiesta held January 2.

Happy New Year all y'all!

Perhaps my favourite shot of the year.

¡Hasta luego, hasta pronto!

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

Wedding - Jacqui and Matt

2010-12-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

The weather forecast 5 days before the wedding was looking promising. 24 degrees, some clouds, no rain. But as the day approached this optimistic outlook turned sour, and the dreaded R word reared its ugly head.

Rain at a wedding is never ideal, but for an outdoor ceremony with no plan B it becomes more than just an inconvenience. To be fair to Jacqui and Matt it’s generally a pretty safe bet scheduling an outdoor Adelaide wedding in December, in fact the entire monthly average rainfall fell in just 4 hours in the week leading up to the day so it’s fair to say Decembers are generally pretty dry. In the end the rain held off when it had to and didn’t properly set in until everyone was partying away under the marquee in the evening – we had to stop and start the photos a few times but it was really no big deal. Actually, the rain was probably overshadowed by the wind which did its best to sabotage things, but the thing that totally overshadowed the weather altogether was the love between Jacqui and Matt.

I’m not sure I’ve shot a wedding where I’ve come away with more photos of a bride absolutely BEAMING every time she looked at her man, as you’ll see below. These high school sweet hearts tied the knot 8 years into their relationship but they looked like a couple of love sick puppies who’d just fallen in love last week. (A highlight of the speeches was the father of the groom recounting how he discovered Matt had a girlfriend – from a maths teacher at parent-teacher interview night at Heathfield High!). It was a truly magic day for all involved, from the preparation jitters, to the horse drawn carriage, the scaling of barb wire fences for photos (HUGE kudos to Jacqui for risking life, limb and wedding dress) to the stunning vineyards surrounding the Birdwood property. It was an honour and pleasure to be involved with such beautiful people on a day like this, thanks Jacqui and Matt, I hope you’re getting better weather on your camping honeymoon that you had the week leading up to your wedding!

(As a side note Matt is a great photographer who is often my assistant / second shooter when I shoot weddings, so I was really under the pump to produce shots that would impress a discerning critic – I hope you like them Matt!)

I'll be putting some more photos on my facebook page shortly, if you're keen to check them out make sure you head over and “like” my page so they pop up in the newsfeed as soon as they're up!

So that's it for weddings in 2010 for me, but early 2011 I'll be jumping on a plane to a stunning resort in Borneo to kick off my 2011 wedding season with a massive bang - BRING IT ON!

PS - how many brides do you know who would be up for climbing over and back 3 fences (including a crazy barb wire number) in the name of a photo?

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

Wedding - Lynda and Jason

2010-11-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

We'd all been watching the weather all week. You'd think that arranging your outdoor wedding one week before summer in the driest state of the driest continent on earth would guarantee a rain free day, but weddings never go to plan and everyone was on tenterhooks..... although it certainly didn't feel like it when I turned up to Lynda's parent's place to take photos of the girls getting ready. And I'm pretty sure the boys were equally chilled at their pre-wedding BBQ. That's the thing with Lynda and Jase, they're about at unflappable as it comes and that's one of many reasons it was an absolute pleasure and honour to capture their amazing day.

To the weather's credit it did manage to stay dry for most of the day, and the light for photos was out of this world, the main problem as I saw it was that it decided to start raining about 10 minutes into the ceremony. But then it stopped. And then it resumed – but harder. Some guests scattered to find shelter, others erected umbrellas, others offered their umbrellas to the exposed bridal party and one particularly thoughtful champion even shadowed the photographer keeping him dry with a roaming umbrella (HUGE thanks Josh!). This had the potential to ruin the day, no one likes to be cold and wet, but due to the aforementioned unflappability of the couple and their equally resilient bridal party this was merely a blip on the radar, the show went on and all was soon forgotten.

The day was overflowing with highlights - croquet, cricket, slips catching, vineyards, freestanding carve-your-own ham on the bone, world class cuisine, mini chocolate “cake” tower and delicious drinks, but perhaps the biggest highlight was the speeches. The respective fathers of the bride and groom got the crowd warmed up with some hilarious and touching words before the bridesmaids took over with a brilliant quiz putting Lynda and Jase's knowledge of one another to the test with hilarious results. Rounding out the speeches was the best man, problem being Jase didn't have a “best man” as such, just 5 groomsmen, and in the confusion of the lead up no one had actually prepared anything...... or so they led us to believe. After a few minutes of genuinely convincing and pretty awkward “Umm, so, I haven't actually got anything prepared” the other men rolled in a giant flip chart and unleashed 15 minutes of tear watering, side splitting, laugh till your stomach muscles hurt comedy which rates top 5 globally in the history of great wedding speeches.

With so much joy and love in the air my job was easy. Thanks again Lynda and Jase for allowing me to be involved, it was an unforgettable day and I hope you guys are finding some more warmth in Thailand than we had Sunday night!

I'll be putting some more photos on my facebook page shortly, if you're keen to check them out make sure you head over and “like” my page so they pop up in the newsfeed as soon as they're up!

Father of the bride being groomed by his wife and daughter pre-wedding

Any house with sheep in the back yard is fine with me!

The rain had started and the girls were pretty exposed up there!

As I mentioned above, I'll be putting some more photos on my facebook page shortly, if you're keen to check them out make sure you head over and “like” my page so they pop up in the newsfeed as soon as they're up!

If you were at the wedding what was your highlight?

CONTACT SIMON - VIEW MY WEBSITE - FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

Prime time in Sydney

2010-11-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

I found myself in a camera store the other day and stumbled upon a new Canon camera sporting a 35x zoom. Yes, you read that right, a 35x zoom. A general rule with cameras and lenses is that the greater the zoom the poorer the quality, there are certain optical sacrifices that need to be made in order to accommodate the convenience of a zoom, to this end I’m totally fascinated to see how this camera goes with image quality, because for $550 this would be hard to beat for an amateur photographer not ready to step into the world of the SLR. Don’t worry, this is going somewhere...

On Friday night just passed I popped over to Sydney for a weekend. The best deals on flights are with budget carriers who charge extra for checked in luggage, so I decided to pack light and fit everything into a single bit of carry-on luggage. Usually my carry-on allowance is used up entirely (exceeded normally!) with camera equipment, but because space was at a premium and I had no desire to carry a heavy backpack round the streets of Sydney all weekend I packed super in the camera department. All I took was 1 camera (my Canon 5D mk 2) and a 50mm f/1.4 prime lens I borrowed off my mate Matt (I leant him my 70-200 for the weekend – I’m looking forward to seeing how he went with it!). Basically a prime lens is the opposite of a zoom, instead of having 35x zoom it has 0x zoom. If you want to zoom in you move your feet. The trade off for this lack of zoom is super sharp, bright images, great low light shooting and the ability to throw out the background into a creamy blur at the drop of a hat.

I experimented with another whacky technique as well, but before I get to that here’s a few samples of what I came up with.

I followed a link on Twitter last week to a blog post about Freelensing. I’d never heard of this before but in a nutshell what you do is to physically take your lens off the camera and manually hold it up to the body, experimenting with different angles and what not while taking photos. Sound vague? Well, you know about as much about it as I did before Saturday so why not go out and give it a crack? Here’s what I came up with, they’re probably not for everyone but I think I can safely call myself a transnational experimental visual artist who doesn’t play by society's rules from now on.

The shot on the left is freelensing. The shot on the right is an idea for a new show I'm pitching to channel 10.

I was pretty stoked with how the photos turned out and am wondering whether I should sell all my lenses and replace them with this $390 wonder lens, an iPad a new car! What do you think about the freelensing? Or shooting with no zoom? Hit or miss?

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Borneo - the lost photos

2010-11-03T01:57:00.000-07:00

I caught up with a good friend last night who I'd not seen in a while. He asked me how my trip was and I really didn't know what to say, at first I didn't know what he was talking about! I soon figured out he was talking about Borneo, you know, that place I got back from about 6 weeks ago. Anyway, instead of trying to remember stories I let the megapixels do the talking and gave him a slideshow instead, it was a pretty lazy option but we live in pretty lazy times, 20 years ago when you wanted to know something you had to look it up in an encyclopedia, now I just speak it into my phone and Google does the rest.

This reminded me that I haven't finished blogging Borneo, my grand plan of doing a weekly series to keep the readers enthralled was scuppered by a wedding, an engagement shoot and life in general. So, without further ado I present Borneo - The Lost Photos.

Accommodation at Niah National Park

On the way to Kapalai

Former oil rig converted into dive accommodation on the island of Mabul

Moonlight from the balcony

Kapalai resort

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