Samm Blake Photographer - Blog - Fine Art Documentary Wedding Potraiture Photographer, Perth, Western Australia

You may remember Karina and Wysun from a few weeks back when I did their engagement session with their beautiful Dalmatian at the beach. Well these two got married last weekend, and had a beautiful ceremony at UWA. Here are just a few sneek peeks :)

The beautiful Karina - her mum made her dress, it was so stunning!

We did the photo session at UWA after the ceremony.

Love this one of Karina :)

More coming later!

Yesterday I did a awesome shoot of fellow photographer Lara Beck and her family. These kids were too cool ;) More to come later!

Some BIG projects are in the works! I have not posted in the last few days because I have been working on some very exciting new projects! Im currently working on setting up a new side business with my partner, we will be launching in Spring but hopefully have a website up in the next couple of weeks. All my existing clients will be the first to know :)

I’m off to San Francisco in two weeks time! I am heading over to do a photography workshop with Jesh de Rox and Jose Villa. I really connect with these guys work. Everyone who has been to Jesh’s workshop has said it has changed their life completely. I am started to get really excited to go!!! eee!! :)

I am a big fan of letterpress, does anybody know of any good stores in San Fran were I can buy me some letterpress prettiness? or any awesome paper stores? or anything you think I may enjoy seeing/buying while I am in San Francisco?

Yesterday I received my iPhone. I am such a gadget freak :) It is completely worth getting, everything about it is awesome and all the apps are really cool. So if you have been thinking about getting the iphone, stop thinking and just get it :) Did you know you can drink a virtual beer from it? :) The thing I like best about the iphone is that it is going to get my life organized. My laptop is my constant companion because I always need to be able to check my email, now my iPhone can do that for me and as I have so many appointments each week, being able to sync my calendar is absolutely awesome (my nokia n95 was capable of this but not very well). I am really looking forward to MobileMe launching.

I will hopefully have one of my projects ready to launch next week. I have been working hard on it all week and cannot wait until everyone can see!

Happy Friday everyone :)

Richard and Bec are my neighbors! They live in the building next door to my office in Fremantle. Their place was amazing and a perfect location to do a portrait session. This is one of many favorites from the day. More to come soon! :)

Early in the week I did a portrait shoot with a adorable little girl called Sage who turns one in a couple of weeks time. Sage’s mum, Amanda, wanted to capture photos to celebrate her birthday. It was a great time to do the shoot as she is a few weeks off walking and was so cute to watch trying to stand up on her own.

Jane from Queen of Theme did an absolutely fabulous job decorating Donna and Grant’s reception at the Kings Park Function Centre. I LOVE when extra furniture like couches are bought in for the night. I love photographing weddings at Fraser’s as there is so much room, so much natural light coming in through the windows and I love how the dance floor is raised and off to the side - perfect for my phoot booth! A big thanks must go to Jenn from The Original Wedding Company for keeping the day on track and being a fabulous wedding coordinator!

On Saturday I photographed Donna and Grant’s wedding. It was an absolutely amazing day! Here are just a few favorites from Donna getting ready at the Hyatt. More to come soon!

Last weekend I headed down to Denmark to photograph Claire and Peter for their engagement session. They got engaged in Denmark so the place holds a special place in their hearts. We first headed down to William Bay but it was pouring with rain so we headed back to the chalet and started the photos there. Peter proposed to Claire at these chalets so it was great to be able to incorporate this into the photos :)

We then headed back down to William Bay and the rain had cleared up, though it was nice a windy - my favorite for a portrait shoot. I honestly love taking photos when its really windy.

My absolute favorite for the day! There is something with wind in hair I find so lovely.

After finishing up at William Bay and Claire losing her shoe in the Southern Ocean we headed into town to do some by the old bridge.

Thanks Claire and Peter for getting me to come down, it was lots of fun and I had a great weekend :)

A worker having a midday nap on the Great Wall of China.

The book (which I posted the layout for about a fortnight ago) arrived early this week and it looks fabulous! This is going to be the guestbook for guests to sign at Donna and Grant’s wedding next weekend.

The front and back cover (it also comes with a dust jacket which looks exactly the same as the cover)

A few of my favorite layouts:

Im heading down to Albany this weekend, Claire and Peter who are getting married in December asked if I would like to come down to Denmark to do their portrait session, of course I said yes! I am very excited to be able to do a portrait session in my old stomping ground! :)

Have a fantastic weekend everyone :)

xox

Another shot from the very awesome shoot I did with the very beautiful Katy last month. I love this one.

A few years back, Absolut Vodka approached me to be part of an artist project they were working on. They commissioned me to take 3 photographs taken at 3 different times of the day depicting life in Perth. The shot above was taken late at night in my friends backyard doing some crazy fire twirling (and fire breathing!!). These images then went on exhibition in Sydney and Melbourne. I will post the other two images soon! xox

I spent 4 weeks in India part of my backpacking adventure in 2006. I really want to go back.

Needing some inspiration for something completely cool and unique to do at your wedding? Head over to these websites for some inspiration. I can spend hours and hours on these sites :)

Ritzy Bee - One of the latest posts have lots of ideas for summer weddings! Ice cream at weddings! Picnics! Short dresses! ahh! So many cool ideas

Polka Dot Bride - This blog is Australian, so lots of ideas here for Aussie weddings.

Snippet and Ink - lots of inspiration boards

Style Me Pretty - One of my favorites! Love the inspiration boards on here too!

A favorite from Fleur and Matt’s wedding in March.

Ive started to update my website with this wedding seasons photographs, out with the old and in with the new! Its a pretty time consuming process so it will take a few weeks or more. Today I added a new gallery called ‘photobooth lovin’ - as you can probably guess it features photobooth photos, which is a cool thing Ive started to do at weddings. Head over to www.sammblake.com to check it out :)

If you are interested in doing something like this at your wedding and we have not discussed it yet, give me a call or email so I can fill you in on the details :)

Happy thursday :)

10 days of blogging! Ive decided to carry on for a month so I tick off #2 in my 101 list. Have you ever wondered what my 101 is all about at the top of this blog? Well its 101 things I want to achieve in 1001 days. Some of the things are a bit unachievable in 1001 days (like having 3 kids! I do not even plan on having one by then), so its more of a long term list to keep me inspired and remind me of my goals. This year has been a little slow on being able to tick off items, only two, though two very good ones! To win an award and to be debt free! Those items were in my top ten so not too bad.

Some items from the list I am trying to check off:

#2 To update my blog everyday for a month : Only 20 days to go!

#5 Buy my own house and then spend time making it into exactly what I want: February 2009 is hopefully the month!

#7  Make a photo book of my travel photography: This is one of my winter projects.

9#  Get a dog : this goes along with #5

11#  To travel to Japan again : I am planning on going to Japan sometime next year. I went there when I was 12 on a student exchange. I cant wait to go back.

44#  To travel to another country by myself : 6 weeks until I leave for the USA!! yippie!

46# To take my parents out for dinner at a really nice restaurant : I shouted my whole family dinner after we finishing up at the bridal fair in March. My parents and sisters helped me so much so it was a little thank you. Though Mum and Dad I plan on taking you to a nicer place soon :)

61# To live my life caffeine free : Okay this is the big one! If you know me well, you know I love my coke zero. This is officially my first day… im going through serious withdrawals. I am sleepy and have no energy. If you see me with a coke zero in the future, please tell me off :)

63# To travel to the USA for WPPI : Im going in February 2009!

77# To inspire someone to become a photographer : Someone emailed me a few months ago telling me I can check this off :)

86# Befriend an enemy : I dont really have enemies but a crazy neighbor and I are now friendly again!

101# Become a vegan : From about September 2007 until March 2008 I became vegetarian. I tried to become a vegan but my work lifestyle even made being a vegetarian too hard. Something I want to try again in the future.

I’ve been reading a lot lately, almost a book a week, all business related, mostly finance, marketing and investing. I am indeed learning a lot! :) I am looking at buying a house in the next 6 months and so trying to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can. I wake up every morning at about 6am and read for about an hour or so, its amazing how much energy I have these days! I generally like my sleep, but not so much at the moment, I prefer to read.

Last week I finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This book was great to read and very insightful, I highly recommend it!

I am currently reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi I am almost finished (this book is also highly recommended) and wondering what book should I read next? any recommendations?

Back up from Albany! This is an old photo taken a few years back but Albany was very similar to this yesterday!

King George Sound, Western Australia

One of the best things I like about weddings is the flowers. I love flowers and dont think we appreciate their beauty enough. Being in the most isolated city in the world we are pretty limited to what flowers we do get especially in so in the different seasons, but over the past wedding season I have been able to photograph some totally beautiful bouquets. Flowers always seem like a waste of money when your doing your wedding budget but they add so much atmosphere to the day. Here are a few of my favorites!

The pink flowers below were a bridesmaids at Monique and Oliver’s wedding in February. The flowers in the vase was taken at Merrin and Les’s wedding in April - this was taken at the house where Merrin was getting ready.

Shannon and Neils released butterflies during the ceremony in honor of Shannon’s father. It was a very beautiful moment to be able to photograph for them, the butterflies stayed throughout the ceremony which was very sweet. The one of the left stayed on Shannon’s dress throughout the ceremony and the photo of the right is a butterfly in one of the bridesmaids bouquets during the signing.

Monique’s bouquet:

The photo on the left was taken at Michaelia and Alwins wedding last year, i love the colours in this photo! The photo on the right was taken at Catie and Lindsays wedding in December. Each guest had one of these at their table setting.

Bouquet from Krish and Pauls March wedding. Table decoration from Megan and Craig’s January wedding.

Bouquet on the left from Catie and Linday’s December wedding. Bouquet on the right was taken in May at Katy and Evans wedding.

Last night I had a fabulous time at Kirstens Freaky Friday birthday party down in Albany (still down here until Sunday night). Mick went as the Hulk and I decided to go as Shrek and coated my face in green eye shadow! Heres a few photos of the festivities:

Michael and I. A match made in heaven - the hulk and shrek! haha

Arlene and myself. I think Arls went as a goth.

Kirsten and Backwards Man aka Chris:

Myself and Michael - it looks like I am about to spill my drink all over him! I think it was empty though!

Receiving a kiss from the birthday girl!