First impressions count and my first French encounters have all been delightful. The helpful lady where I picked up the hire car at Charles De Gaulle Airport, the chirpy young man in the service station where I ate a large plate of Ratatouille, creamed spinach and cauliflower for the price of a small one – and the lovely couple who invited me in to stay at their place when I stopped to ask for info on nearby chambres d’hotes, all made my arrival in France very special.

The whole event is very special as the bride-to-be-tomorrow found me on the Internet, while I was in Australia doing a wedding there, and she herself happens to be an Australian getting married in France to a Scottish husband, so I have travelled from Yorkshire to share their day at this Chateau.

Sikhs are very exuberant and friendly people, with a zest for life and dancing all night at their 3 day wedding celebrations. Add to that a French Bridegroom and a multicultural marriage with a Sikh bride who has absorbed much of the European culture of her UK upbringing, with guests arriving from all around the world – from USA, Canada and France, in particular – and its bound to be a wedding with a difference! From the wedding photographer it demands a non-stop smile, and whirlwind eye, who easily gets caught up in the excitement and drama of the days – and nights.

Nina & Alexis met in Sri Lanka when doing voluntary work after the fateful Tsunami of 30 Dec 2004. They share the same generous view of humanity, as does Alexis French mother & sister, who were living out there too.

The wedding started with a Civil marriage ceremony at Hothorpe Hotel in Leicester. Two days earlier I had been in Australia, so the sudden plunge into late British Winter was expected to make us all suffer, but as it happened the cold was overcome by the brilliant sunshine and unreal blue skies!

The Sikh wedding celebrations started the following evening at Stage Hotel in Leicester, where traditional Jug lanterns were carried in turn by many of the bride’s key family members – even the French bridegroom’s Mother Agnes, enjoyed a turn – to announce the forthcoming Sikh wedding celebrations to the “Village” (in this case it was just the invited guests…)

See More Asian wedding photos on Reel Life Photos website

Well, my stay in Australia is nearly over. Lisa and Andy have their wedding pictures, and I have feasted my eyes on the most amazing trees and plants as well as been fortunate enough to have met with loads of wonderful people on my first ever visit to Australia. I will add more blogs later showing snippets of my eye-feasts but though it more important to share some of their wedding photos here.

If you are getting married abroad  – in Australia or anywhere in the world – Elaine travels oversees for lovely people’s weddings, unusual wedding photography and video, so get in touch via our site or call Elaine on +447990867058

I was supposed to cover around 300 kilometres a day in order to get to the Barossa Valley in South Australia in good time to meet up with the bride and groom the evening before their wedding, but by the 4th day of travel since leaving Melbourne, I was only 300km in total from my starting point, with another 700km still to go!  Still it was impossible to miss out on so many beautiful sights on the Great Ocean Road, and the peaceful Aire Valley Guest house above a rain-forest – the Otway National Park – offered an oasis of calm in which to deal with the backlog of wedding enquiry emails.  It was also impossible not to go mad with my camera round Anabelle and Martin’s house/guest house, a sprawling wooden single story house with an all round veranda, surrounded by trees of all kinds, grapefruit, lemon, and the ubiquitous Eucalyptus.

 I don’t know what this tree is called but maybe someone reading this can tell me…  It struck me as soon as I approached the Guest House after dusk during my travels.  Anabele and Martin nearly passed me on to another Guest house, as it was their night off and they were to be away early the next morning for a trip out with their 3 beautiful  children, but I was lucky!  They trusted me to let myself out the next day, and even personally autographed a children’s book for Levana (my granddaughter) that Annabel had written. They are a wonderful couple who moved here from the UK 4 years ago.  They even provide handmade soap in the ensuite bathroom – just perfect for a honeymoon couple – paradise on earth!

The Guest entrance.

Its a week now since I first set foot on Ozzie soil, but have been out taking pics every single day so am working flat out just to get them all online!  The crows are talking loadly over head, as I sit in a quiet suburb of Melbourne  – Aspendale – where where my niece and her parents have kindly welcomed me into their home for a few weeks.

The sky is a perfect blue, the sun pleasantly warm overhead, but the evenings are chilly like England. The hardy grass lawn beneath my feet and super-tidy neighbourhood is peacefully suburban – except for the neighbour mowing his patch of grass with an industrial noise-machine!

Socrates, is cooking Octopus outside on a lttle camping stove.  Just had a taste too – mmmm!

Just eaten the results of Greek chef’s cooking!

and finished off with fresh ripe figs from the tree in the garden

Out of approx 1000 images shot so far here in Australia, its hard to know which ones to show you first.  They’re all online in the “travel pictures worldwide destinations” section of our galleries, or via this link below…  

 http://www.reellifephotos.silkstream.org/online/index.php?category=Travel+pictures+world+wide+destinations

Two things strike me in this area:  the rows of individually designed mail boxes and the diversity of trees, from Eucalyptus, to Tea Tree, She Oaks, Banksias and many my limited botanical knowledge fails to identify.  If anyone who know more specific names reads this please forgive my ignorance in advance!

Aussie trees in and around Edithvale Wetlands in Aspendale: Eucalyptus – so many varieties I cannot be more specific!  I just take photos…

Hong Kong seems to be two worlds: one of ultra modern continuous shopping malls, and one of ancient traditions and culture. 

 The visual excitement of landing in Hong Kong is almost too much, but I’m sad as my camera kit is somewhere on another plane so I miss capturing the sweep of the bay as the Hong Kong Express swings round to reveal its beauty.  Enormous skyscrapers shoot upwards like credit cards on their side, slim and impossibley balanced.  Gradually the open sea gives way to continuous monoliths of mankind’s crowded acievements – skyliving to the extreme, an explosion of upwards space enclosed and encaged.

I ask directions to ther nearest camera shop, and follow a trail that eventually leads to a pro hire shop on the 11th floor of Lumar Street off 89 Lockard Road  Wai Chai, and an EOS 20D instead of my two 5D  Canons  but am so happy I can at least capture something of these few brief hours in Hong Kong before flying to off to Australia to cover Lisa and Andy’s wedding in Jacob’s Creek Retreat on 15 March.

  Not wishing to use this blog as a “me” space, but rather as a means of communicating a personal vision through the eyes of a camera, I hesitate to make grand announcements, but as we are keen to cover weddings in any part of the world with brides and grooms who have depth and a caring attitude to the people they meet in life, then I suppose it won’t hurt to share my excitement with the world!

I hope to upload snippets from the visit to Australia but may not be as quick as usual in responding to emails or phone calls, as your day will be my night!  Am stepping out into the unknown – for me anyway – but a beautiful couple in Jacob’s Creek (near Adelaide) have entrusted me with their wedding photos on 15 March,  so  two nights on a huge huge plane is a small price to pay for the experience!  I do get a day walking round Hong Kong between flights so my eyes will be flitting from one peak of excitement to another! 

We also have my first ever wedding in Ireland booked for the end of June –  a Catholic ceremony followed by a traditional Hindu wedding –  and yesterday had an enquiry from a lovely couple for their wedding in Ice Hotel in Jukklasjarvi,  Sweden, where I covered Colin and Sarah’s wedding about the same time last year too. 

Got a lot of work to do before I go though…

 xx Elaine

Well, we’re back from Jacki & Darren’s wedding at the Inn on the Lake in Ullswater, Cumbria.  I’m still working on those images in RAW, tweaking and converting them stage by stage, but in the meantime here are a few showing the beautiful surrounding landcapes on the foothills of Helvellyn. 

  This one shows Julie, my second photographer on a dramatic mini mountain.

 I’d have like to have climbed all the way up ,  as I did a few months ago with my daughter Saskia when she introduced me to Striding Edge, but these should give you the picture.

If you are a bit sceptical about the colours shown here, I see the world through an artist’s eye so try to convey my vision to you, as I would have painted it had I got the time, but using simple image editing software to bring out the existing tones and hues.

The Reel Life Photos team (on the photographic side) is just back from London where we have been attending the SWPP  (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) Annual Convention, leaving Jorge to hold the fort in Yorkshire.  Now I just have to catch up with booking letters and getting photos printed and others online before we head off this weekend (26 January 2008) to a wedding at the Inn on the Lake in Ullswater, Cumbria (The Lake District).

xx Elaine 

Continuing the theme of outdoor photos at night we spent New Year’s Eve with friends in Dorking (near Gatwick).  Jackie and Dave had deliberately left these Artichokes to flower and seed.  They look extra amazing by the light of their New Year’s Eve bonfire!

French Chef watching the bonfire.

                                                                                         Behind the smoky bonfire.

The bonfire catches hold as the former rabbit hutch leaps into life, feeding flames and lighting up our faces.

Competition from Claire!

Picture of Reel Life Photos wedding photographer, Elaine – by Claire! (with my camera though, and after a bit of tuition…)

Jackie’s boots at the end of the night…