Marianne Fowler Photography

Sunday, 30 November 2014

Kym and Kimmy

Kym and Kimmy are a special couple. First of all, they have pretty much the same name which is cool. But more importantly, they are the most in love perfect couple ever. Kimmy is the sweetest, kindest girl and Kym is the most romantic guy I know (sorry Julian haha). They are smitten with each other. The crazy weather on their wedding day showed what easy going people they are. It started out as a 40 degree Celsius day, sun blaring down, seriously so hot and muggy. The ceremony started in the sun then the clouds started to come over. Luckily the ceremony finished and all the guests had made their way to the verandah for drinks and nibblies. Just as we left to go for photos, it started to rain so we ran for cover. The rain stopped pretty quickly so we thought we'd give it another go and head up along the buildings so there would always be cover near by if we need to make a run for it. It was so lucky we made this decision because just as we got to the spot by the water where there was a bushfire in the background, all of a sudden it was like a cyclone hit! Debris was blowing all over the place and hitting our skin painfully. And then...the rain. We ran and ran. At first it was funny but then it just got a little bit too crazy. I snapped a shot of the water and boats blowing in the wind after I jumped up a wall to a verandah. I put my camera gear away. It was already soaked but thank goodness for weather sealing! By this stage, the bridal party had ran ahead so we wandered around looking for them for a ages! They ended up in one of the guests hotel rooms. The torrential downpour and crazy wind didn't last long, maybe ten minutes. There wasn't any more rain after that but we had to try to shoot through the smoke from the fire which blew right over to us in the wind. Kym and Kimmy and their bridal party weren't phased at all and we took a great triumphant "We made it!" photo in the spot where we initially tried to go. We spent more time getting photos and then went in to the reception. As the sun stared to go down, a rainbow appeared right behind Kym and Kimmy out the window they were sitting in front of. To me this symbolised that no matter what they go through in life, they will make it through together better than ever.

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Recent Adventures

I haven't posted in ages! I'm so bad at keeping up with blogging! Anyway, I thought I would do up a post with some recent snaps from two recent weekends away. I took a bunch of film photos both weekends but I am yet to finish the last roll and take them to be developed!

The most recent was a trip to The Blue Mountains. My husband took me there for my 24th birthday with the intention of going antique shopping. That we did! And a LOT of it because the weather was horrible! We were supposed to have a picnic lunch on the Saturday but it ended up being us sitting in the car while it hailed! At least we had delicious gourmet sandwiches, muffins and the free locally made apple cider the nice guy in the cafe gave us! I made the lucky decision to go to Echo Point and check out the Three Sisters the afternoon we arrived. That was the only time it wasn't raining and extremely foggy! We ended up wandering around the paths a bit and I took some self portraits and got Julian to take some of me seeing as I hadn't had any recent ones of myself and I needed some non-wedding portraits of someone to experiment with some awesome new Lightroom presets I got, made by my favourite photographer, Julia Trotti. We also saw a funny sight which was four Nuns...sisters at the Three Sisters! Unfortunately they weren't in a spot where I could get both types of sisters in the one shot but still amusing none the less! Lots of other tourists thought so too, some even asking for a photo with the Nuns! I won't even go into all the antique and vintage things I bought but it was a lot! I am obsessed!

A few weeks earlier, I caught the train up to Coffs Harbour to see Julian as he'd been away for work for ages and I missed him! The only full day we had to explore before I had to go back home, was the Saturday so I decided I wanted to go up to Dorrigo in the mountains and explore the rainforest. Our friend and one of our awesome groomsmen at our wedding, Jesse, lives at Bonville so we stayed at his house and he was very hospitable and it was fun hanging out with him and Julian. We played this weird but fun board game that I can't remember the name of but I won! It was about interpreting images and trying to trick the other players so naturally, I was good at that! And Jesse tried to teach me Blackbird by the Beatles (the song I chose to have when I walked down the isle at our wedding!) on guitar...I can only play the intro haha! So on Saturday, we stopped at Bellingen for a delicious breakfast and a little wander around looking in some vintage shops where I got a cool leather bag and a crochet to amongst other stuff. Then we headed up to Dorrigo, going past the gorgeous river and the place where Jesse proposed to his wife who unfortunately was away on a hens weekend and couldn't join us. At the rainforest, we walked a few kilometers (with me taking too many photo stops on the way, as usual) to a waterfall that you can walk behind which was pretty cool. I'd been to the same rainforest ten years ago but only got probably a hundred metres down the path when I found a leech on my leg and freaked out, running the whole way back and sitting near the gift shop until my family returned! This time there were no leeches as it hadn't rained for a long time so it was quite dry. Even if there was though, I wouldn't have freaked out the way I did at fourteen! Then on the way back, we stopped at a lookout that I also went to when I was fourteen and took some photos of us together. It was really cool getting to go back there. It was one of the most memorable family holidays from when I was young. I must always have been a mountain girl at heart! That night, Julian and I went to a nice Italian restaurant.Not the typical Spaghetti and Pizza kind of one. I has a duck dish and Julian had the most succulent, perfectly cooked steak I've tried in ages! For dessert, I had self saucjing chocolate pudding! THE most delicious pudding I think I have ever had! Julian found it entertaining to watch me eatit and react with lotts of OH MY GOD's and MMMMMMs! Then the next morning I had to get back on the train to go home which sucked but besides that, it was a great weekend!