Chase This Light

2020. What a year.

Five million other Melbournians and I have been under some kind of lockdown since March now. As I type this very text here, weddings are still not even legally allowed to happen in Melbourne, not even with the minimum of 5 people. For the first time in Australian history, weddings are against the law—what a sentence.

Whilst us Melbournians are still living amongst some pretty strict (but crucial) lockdown measures; we’re starting to see the other parts of Australia, ramp back up with weddings again.

So for this episode, I thought, why not have a little chat with a few wedding colleagues in different states, and ask how weddings have been recently. Are they the same as they always were? Or are they now unfamiliar and weird events?

Huge thanks to my special guests Thom Stewart from NSW, Tyler Brown from WA, and Josh Withers from QLD for joining me on this episode.

A fellow wedding photographer of mine, albeit 2,000km away from me - is Morgan Roberts.

I honestly consider Morgan one of, if not the best, true photo-journalistic wedding photographers in Australia. His ability to capture real moments, with so much emotion and such raw, honest expression, truly blows my mind.

I love the conversation we have on this episode, as instead of just talking ‘wedding photography’ in a broad sense. We really just delve deep into only a couple of topics.

A theme I’d love to continue more as I have more wedding photographers on this Podcast.

Michelle is considered one of the most revered music photographers in Australia. Capturing mind blowingly creative portraits of musicians, for all kinds of mediums such as album artwork, magazines, online etc.

We take a change of pace in this episode from the usual ‘wedding transmission’ and chat about how she got into music photography, and how she also manages to make a successful living from that.

And we have an awesome chat about how she has channeled all her anxious energy from the Coronavirus, into something really new and positive.

Jeremy Bell is a celebrant from Newcastle going under the business name of ‘That Altar Guy’.

We chat unplugged ceremonies, obscure Simpsons references and I get on my high horse about wedding vows.

We talk about what Jeremy is ultra passionate about when writing & delivering ceremonies. And what can make great wedding photographs during a wedding ceremony. Oh, and you’ll find out what ends up happening to aunties who bring iPads to weddings.

A powerhouse of a businesswoman, running multiple successful businesses within the wedding industry, is Sharne Perrett. In this episode we focus mainly on her business, ‘Valley Loves’ - a unique wedding fair in The Yarra Valley, that she built from the ground up and it has continued to go from strength to strength.

We talk about the conception of the fair, its history and the exciting future she has planned for it.

Glen is a wedding photographer from Melbourne who actually fell into photographing weddings, exactly the same way I did - via playing in bands, and then photographing bands.

Glen didn’t have as many weddings under the belt as he would have liked; until he turned to social media advertising. We discuss the nuts and bolts of Facebook and Instagram ads, and how Glen has grown his business exponentially since starting these ads.

In this episode I chat with 'Glen with One N' from Directors Edge, who is wedding filmmaker from The Yarra Valley, creating beautiful, narrative, story driven wedding films.

We speak about how Glen got into wedding filmmaking and also the importance of the photographer & the videographer working together on a wedding day.  How fantastic community over competition in our industry is, the experience of delivering a wedding film and shooting weddings in the USA vs Australia.

And most importantly, the ideal amount of marshmallows per hot chocolate.

This is a great episode for couples who are planning their wedding to check out. Jake & I have a super candid chat, from one wedding photographer to another, about how couples can get the most of their wedding photography, whilst also making the most out of the biggest party they’ll ever throw, at the same time.

We go into what creates an awesome vibe on a wedding day & what can also be a bit of a stick in the mud.  

Plus when your wedding business gets prank called by a radio station. 

The second episode of my Podcast, and my first 'interview' episode. I chat with industry leader and wedding celebrant, Josh Withers. Amongst many other things, we spend time talking about the current situation with COVID-19 and it’s huge impact on the industry. We chat about how wedding businesses are going to need to adapt & what we can do moving forward.

An intro into what you can expect from the 'Chase this Light' podcast, a little about me and what I've got planned for this adventure.