Auckland Botanic Gardens Engagement Session - Spring Cherry Blossom {Waikato wedding photographer} sneak peek

I'm so excited to share with you an engagement session sneak peek with Megan & Daniel; photo shoot took place in Auckland Botanic Gardens, right at the spring season cherry blossom tree. It was a great pleasure for me, Waikato wedding photographer to take some unique, natural, candid and emotional photos for this gorgeous couple.

We met with bride and groom at the Botanic Gardens right before the sunset and walked around and talk about their engagement and upcoming wedding. It was a great experience and photos turned just amazing. Can't wait to move through their entire session's gallery! More pictures are coming soon on our Blog.

Congratulations on your engagement, Megan & Daniel!

Enjoy this sneak peek highlights!

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Engagement photos in New Zealand published in Reverie Gallery {Auckland wedding photographer}

Excited to share with you amazing news - Megan & Chris's engagement photos just ben published in Reverie Gallery, one of the prestigious international magazine-blog.

I loved their amazing couples session and glad to see their images goes live in wedding photography publication. Their session was so beautiful and full of romantic moments in Hamilton Gardens, New Zealand (not far from Auckland, NZ).

Im so excited about their upcoming wedding in February in Gisborne {New Zealand}.

Enjoy this publication - "Engagement photos in New Zealand"

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Piha Beach couples photo shoot {Auckland wedding-engagement photographer NZ} Trelise and Alan

We had such a great time together with Trelise & Alan {our engagement photo shoot giveaway winners from Auckland Weddings} on Piha Beach {NZ}, their wedding coming up next year around Christmas time, so excited for this amazing couple!

I just loved this atmosphere on the beach - rocks, waves, sand, sunset! We had so much beautiful, romantic and emotional moments with this fun loving couple. Amazed by their love and energy!

Trelise told a story of the proposal, so beautiful and romantic!:

"Alan proposed on our 1 year anniversary in Santorini, Greece in June 2016. We had woken up early to watch the sunrise, so the paths were empty except for us. It was beautifully quiet, a lovely warm temperature, and just such a beautiful moment. We were at a view point on the island, looking out towards all the white houses and blue roofs, with the sun rising behind them, and we had a blue domed house right next to us (which we now refer to as "Our Dome"). Alan got down on one knee, on a cobbled path, and had to wait a few moments for an answer from me as I thought I was still asleep and dreaming!! A beautiful stray dog was the only witness to our special moment. We then had a champagne breakfast at our Cave, and spent the rest of the day out on a catamaran exploring Santorini and swimming in the bluest of blue oceans." Amazing dreamy moment!

I love every single moment of our session, there was freezing, windy,cloudy and sunny. We are survived the weather conditions! :) 

Enjoy this video and gallery!

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Kumeu farm engagement session {Auckland NZ wedding-couples photographer} Hana and Aidan

Beautiful engagement session and great time with Hana & Aidan on their farm in Kumeu, Auckland NZ (there was just enough time before pure rain started, so much positive emotions though!).

Hana telling a story of their relationship: 

We met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. I needed a date for my Uncle's wedding on Waiheke island and Aidan put his hand up to take me. 3 years on and we've gotten engaged :)

Excited about their wedding up north in Russell, not long to go now! Im so excited to be their wedding photographer and appreciate couple share with me so special moments!

Enjoy this video with best photographs from photo shoot and special gallery!

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Hamilton Gardens engagement photo shoot {New Zealand wedding - couple photographer} Megan and Chris

We had amazing time in Hamilton Gardens {New Zealand} with Megan & Chris, such a beautiful and romantic couple. Im really excited about their upcoming wedding in Gisborne next year, such a honour to be their wedding photographer, especially after knowing this couple and spent with them more time! This engagement photo shoot definitely helps us better know each other, understand how we are roll and feel more relaxed on the wedding day and get more natural photographs. I love to spend more time with my awesome wedding clients!

This couple have amazing story as they met each in High School and over 10 years together! What a long happy time! Their love became even stronger.

We met at Saturday evening in Hamilton Gardens {its been close to rainy weather but luckily we managed to finish our session just before pure rain starts. There was some spacial atmosphere. Love is all  around!

Enjoy this video and gallery!

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How He Asked by The Knot - engagement photos publication {Auckland wedding photographer}

Its a great news to find out that our engagement photos from Ellise & Wasim's session on Muriwai Beach been featured in How He Asked by The Knot. Its a great pleasure to see this publication with beautiful couples story about their first meeting, proposal and relationship.

Its a big honour when such a big publisher decided to accept your engagement or wedding submission, such a great honour for every photographer. 

Im actually working on Ellise & Wasim wedding gallery {their wedding happened just couple of weeks ago in Markovina Vineyard Estate, Auckland, it was amazing day with special atmosphere and bride + groom loos so stunning! Stay tuned, pictured coming soon in our Blog. :)

Enjoy this publication and let me know if you have any questions!

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Fun couples photo shoot {Auckland wedding-engagement photographer}

What a positive, full of fun and laughing, photo shoot I had last weekend in Auckland. Kylie & Warwick just amazing couple.

Guys met each other 2 months ago and feel strong connection. It was first their pictures together.

I love to shoot these special for couple moments with relaxable atmosphere, fun and joy. It's a treasure to see their raw emotions and feelings!

Enjoy my new couples-engagement photo gallery!

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Wedding Location {Auckland-Waikato-Bay of Plenty NZ couples | engagement photographer}

Its really important to choose a right place to your big wedding day. Each location should have a special meaning to the you and made makes celebration moments unforgettable.

It's a lot of different options in Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty areas, indoors and outdoors (could be handy to do a rain check and have a back up plan ;)

Traditional wedding ceremonies are held in a church / registry office / hotel. I always enjoy to hear stories that couple choose the church where their parents been married. Its such treasured connection between generations, what great family traditions.

Outdoor locations had a lot of variety, especially in New Zealand: beach, domain, winery, gardens,  farm, park, bush, golf course, resort etc. So many different options! Summer is almost all the year around with high plus temperature so its really tempting to organise picturesque ceremony/reception in the beautiful nature side. I just love to capture these natural light beautiful moments.

Other option what I often see with small family weddings - ceremony and reception at parents house with BBQ in the garden area. Thats so sweet memories as well.

So what type of wedding location close to you, where you want to celebrate your engagement and have fun with close to you people / family? It's all up to you! I'm happy to capture for you all these special moments with relax, natural style. I love to show raw emotions and connection!

Contact me with any questions!

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Intimate photography - couples moments {Auckland-Hamilton wedding | engagement photographer}

Intimate couples moments are one of the most important and special at wedding day (and engagement session as well). Each couple is so different and have own special wedding schedule and ideas in place, but still very important to have at least half an hour during this hectic time to have quiet romantic moments and get stunning photographs.

These pictures will be one of the most treasured ones and these moments along away from the guest will give you some ability to rest and relax.

Thats why I always recommend to include an intimate session | location shoot in the schedule and do my best to have enjoyable and relaxable time together.

There could be different options to incorporate these moments in your wedding day: first thing in morning after getting ready (its often goes with first look), between ceremony and reception, during the reception (have some moments away from the guests and get stunning light at sunset).

I also love to do bridal session (pre-wedding photo shoot) or post-wedding photo shoot, which allows to choose different location (be really far from the wedding location and have different atmosphere). No on elicited in time, so no hurry! Everyone feel relaxed :) Also its gives the ability for brides trash the dress (lay on the sand, move in the water, what can be big fun!).

For example, one of my recent weddings with Daria & Dmitry been in Auckland city (Russian Orthodox church and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron), so there was no option for incorporate outdoor photo shoot on the nature, so we organised beach post-wedding session 2 weeks after their wedding. Pictures turned just amazing!

Sometimes location just perfect for natural shots. My last weekend wedding been at South Auckland Formosa Golf Resort. It was so great to have a ride around golf course located next to the seaside with amazing views.

It is so important to do an intimate session in this stunning picturesque views!

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Kariotahi Beach Castaways | Auckland wedding photographer

What an amazing post wedding session I had with my wedding clients at Kariotahi beach near Castaways (Waiuku, Auckland).

This couple is just amazing, they were married just two weeks ago and I had the honour to take their pictures at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Russian Orthodox Church, Auckland. You can check their wedding gallery and look at their amazing video.

Weather was really good for us: it was rainy just couple a minutes before the session, but when couple arrived to the beach the sun come out. What a lucky day! :)

We had a lot of fun and positive emotions, enjoyed beauty of the wild west coast nature, hills, rocks, sand, ocean. It was really windy on the top of the hill, but it made a special atmosphere for pictures. 

Later we moved down to the ocean just before the sunset, when sky was so beautiful. It was really important to walk in the water and feel all power of the nature. Need to mentioned I been walking with 2 cameras, light stand with flash holding in one hand and taking picture with another one (at some point big wave come to us and we had feeling like we in the middle of the ocean, it was really tricky to move back to the safe place, waves been really powerful). 

Lucky all goes good way and we even manage to catch last light laying on the sand near the water. Good wedding been in the past, so we no need be worries about wedding dress cleanness or good condition for groom's suit, so we had a lot of fun, and can make its all dirty for our shots :)

We need change of clothes afterwards and hot cup of tea to unfreeze, but it was totally worth it, so much positive emotions and such stunning pictures!

Enjoy this gallery!

Talk to you soon!

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Engagement-Couples Photo Shoot | Auckland wedding photographer

Engagement and couples photography is one of the special genre of portrait photography with mix of lifestyle moments.

Its all about showing the connection, emotions and relationships. Sounds easy, but its not :) Of course some couples easy going, not shy at all to show to all world about their love. But what I found, a lot times successful photo shoots could be archived only when you pay attention to details, ask questions, understand couples character, interests, what they love to do together and apply this knowledge to create a perfect relax atmosphere at photo session. Its really short time, just 1-2 hours, which we need to use to create a little love story, from moments of starting love to really tender and strong feelings.

We can talk (and I love to talk a lot, ha-ha), make a jokes, dance, play around, have posed and unposed moments.

What helps a lot is a find real moments, leave couple along for some time and just watch their quiet moments, which show a lot how they connect to each other, how they speak and relax.

Everyone loves to have down time :)

Also good use of space (shooting in all possible points - shade, open sun, sampled light etc.), and different angles (shoot from the top, eye level, down, side, back, close, far etc.) helps to create unique images and gives more opportunities to make variety of shots what best suits this couple.

I love to hear all these special love stories, how you meet each other, who doing cooking, who is bossy etc. Ha-ha! Sometimes answers vary, but it always helps me to full in love with the couple and even become good friends, then we meet again at exciting special wedding day.

If you have the opportunity to have an engagement shoot before the wedding with your photographer, its helps a lot on your wedding day, believe me. Its makes it all more relaxable, enjoyable and everyone knows how we all roll :)

I also found couple in long relationships really treasure our sessions, its like special psychology session for renew / refresh their relationship. Im so happy to help with it.

Have a look at my last engagement | couples sessions. I just love all these moments:

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