Portraits

This week I have been photographing some of the up and coming fashion designers who are in their final year of studying fashion at Tafe. This is one of my favorites from the shoot :)

Belinda + Gavin – Engagement Shoot

Belinda and Gavin are getting married in about 11 weeks time. We meet up the other day for the engagement session. I had never really taken photos in and around northbridge before so we decided to head there for some nice grungy walls, just the way I like it :) Belinda and Gavin were my first clients to photograph since I have been back from the workshop in the USA, I got to try lots of things out on them, I am sure they thought I was a little strange at times, hehe :) Will post more next week!

Penny and Ben – Wedding

Penny and Ben were married in late July just before I headed off to the USA, finally home and have the photos from their beautiful day to share :)

They got married at the chapel at St Hilda’s in Mosman Park. After the ceremony we headed to UWA and Kings Park for photos before heading to Frasers for the reception. Getting married in the middle of winter is always a bit risky with the weather, but these guys were so lucky with the weather, it was a beautiful sunny day. I would highly recommend getting married in winter in Perth!

I absolutely loved Penny’s dress – it was from Samantha Wynne in Subiaco. When I first arrived at Penny’s house and saw the dress hanging up, I got extra excited cause I knew all the photos in the pine forest were going to look so beautiful :)

Penny and Ben, your wedding was awesome! We had so much fun spending the day with you guys!

xoxo

Email Down

The sammblake.com domain is having a little shuffle around this morning and the site will be down, including my email – if you need to get in contact with me, please use the “mail at sammblakefineart dot com”. Otherwise fill out the inquiry form on my websites at http://www.sammblakeweddings.com

Hope you all have a happy Monday :)

San Francisco – Day 8

Monday was a beautiful day. In the morning I hired a bike and cycled around San Francisco and also rode across the Golden Gate bridge. The weather was lovely, I ate a picnic lunch on the foreshore in Sausalito, then caught the ferry back to San Francisco, to discover I should have probably worn sunscreen cause I looked like a lobster (still do, heh).  In the evening I went to see David Jay and Jasmine Star on their Free to Succeed tour, they are traveling around the USA teaching photographers how to have more freedom in their lives. It was really great to meet Jasmine Star, she is really a lovely person, very friendly and sweet. I learnt a ton at the seminar, many new things I will be introducing to my business over the coming months. Learning from Jesh and Jose last week, and DJ and Jasmine this week, my head is exploding with ideas! This trip is honestly the best investment I have made towards my business. I can’t wait to get back into the studio to start putting all the things I have learnt into practice :)

San Francisco – Day 7. Portrait Session. Manus + Annette = Julia

Today I had the pleasure in photographing a sweet little family portrait session right in the middle of San Francisco! I meet Manus earlier in the week as he was also in the workshop I have come to San Francisco for. Manus and I had been exchanging emails a few weeks prior to me arriving, it was great to know someone when I first arrived :) I meet his beautiful wife Annette and gorgeous little girl, Julia, at the welcome dinner as well and I have had a great time getting to know them all week. Here are a few favorites from the session:

Manus and Annette, its been great getting to know you and thanks for lunch! I sure our paths will cross again :)

note: these images were edited on my laptop, so the colors/darkness/lightness are more than likely not ideal.

San Francisco – Day 6

Today has been an amazing day. A day that I never thought would happen. Today, I had the honor of photographing alongside Jose Villa at his 08-08-08 wedding. Jose was named in the Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the world this year! It has been a completely amazing experience, it was great to see how Jose creates his art. His work is truly beautiful. Thank you Jose for the kindness you have shown me, you do not know how much this means to me :) The two above are a few favorites I took today. More coming later :)

San Francisco – Day Five

Today was the last day of the workshop, after three days of intense emotional learning, I can say I am so truly thankful for coming on this journey to the USA. I know the people I have meet in this workshop, will be apart of my future journeys in life and our paths will definitely cross again, multiple times. A bunch of strangers at the beginning of the week, it’s amazing that through our love for photography, it is possible for us all to connect so quickly and in such a unique way. Photography is so much more than just a click of a button. This is something I will be exploring on many deeper levels on the coming days, weeks, months and years.

Tomorrow something truly amazing is happening. I am doing something I never thought would ever be possible. More on this after tomorrow has been :)

The journey of being.

Today I feel more alive then I have in a very long time. The last time I really remember this feeling was about two years ago. I was in the middle of the Rajasthan desert in India, our car had broken down and as I stood on the side of the road, with wind blowing through my hair and sand in my eyes, I remember feeling the way I do today. Today I came to understand the fascination I have with wind blowing in peoples hair in my work, it takes me back to the last time I felt alive.

.. The last 24 hours has been a complete life changing experience. I cannot even begin to describe the journey I have just began but I know my life is going to be dramatically different from here on.

Today I started the Life (as an artform) workshop in San Francisco. I have traveled to the other side of the world to be part of this, all on my own, not knowing a single soul here. Last night, I laid wide awake in my hotel room bed at 4am completely jet lagged but completely excited about the workshop starting in the morning, I could not sleep as much as I tried to, I sat in bed scrawling down the millions of thoughts going through my mind. I started writing down ideas about my journey of being, I had actually called it something different, but as Jesh began discussing that ‘life’ is the journey of ‘being’, I knew instantly when he begin discussing this, that last night I was just beginning to scratch the surface of something truly life changing.

San Francisco – Day Two

Woke up very late today, 11:00am, eeek! Although I am just probably getting over the jetlag, its weird because I am normally a early riser. I have been sleeping with the curtains wide open, its pretty awesome to wake up to a view like that each morning. Well since it was a late start to the day, and the workshop dinner is tonight and my legs are hurting a lot from yesterday, so I caught the trolley tram thing into Chinatown, and decided to head back downtown to the shopping area for a few hours this afternoon. Only bought a new pair of sunnies from Urban Outfitters. I was so excited to be able to go back into Urban Outfitters since they were my favorites when I was living in London, though nothing today took may fancy! I did find one really cool top but didnt have my size. One thing I must say is that I do love the American sizes. Size 10 in Australia is a size 8 here. Yes I do like that a lot. haha.

Another thing I must mention, is although Australia and the United States are very similar in so many ways, the food is really different. I went to a food court today and everything was so strangely different which I didnt expect it to be? The Japanese was different, so was the Mexican and the Chinese. I am having sushi withdrawals – I cant seem to find chicken sushi anywhere? Does it not exist here?

45 minutes until I am meeting up with Jesh and the workshop gang for dinner! Eee! :)

San Francisco – Day One

Today was spent walking around San Francisco, I worked out I must have walked at least 15kms (9.3 miles) today – my feet hurt like hell at the end of it, especially because I was wearing my havaianas. So one of the first touristy things I checked out was the “Crookedest Street” Lombard Street – the zigzag street featured in movies all the time. I then headed down to the Fishermans Wharf to check out the Submarine (a close family friend was rescued in WWII by this submarine), though Im going back later in the week to have a proper look. While down at the wharf I found a old photobooth! Something I was hoping to find on my journey in the USA :)

Later I checked out some shops at Union Square, wondered through Chinatown, got lunch at a sweet little Italian bakery in North Beach and then slowly wondered back to the hotel, thinking it would have been about 5pm, finding out it was 7:30pm when I got back to the hotel – forgot about daylight savings!

Not sure what tomorrow will have in store, might check out Alamo Square (the houses featured in the Full House intro), Haight Ashbury and the Golden Gate Bridge. Im going to hire a bike at the end of the week so I can ride over the Golden Gate bridge :)

Arrived in San Francisco

Arrived a few hours ago in San Francisco. I slept most of the way over. My backpacker days taught me to sleep anywhere, through whatever noise, in whatever condition and whatever position. Its an awesome skill to have! I think I slept about 8 hours straight on the flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco. Only problem now is that it’s 1am and I am wide awake. Just took the above photos out my hotel window. I think its look east, though I am a little disoriented so who knows! Cant wait to start exploring in the morning :)

Im off!

After months of thinking about this, I am finally getting on a plane to San Francisco to be part of Life (as an artform) photography workshop by Jesh de Rox with Jose Villa as guest speaker. I absolutely adore both these guys work, I have been wanting to go to this workshop for a long time but could never go because my calendar is always jammed packed. A few months ago, Jesh announced the San Francisco workshop for August, and as soon as I saw it I knew I was going. So here I am (bags still not packed I might add), but soon be in the air flying to the USA. As luck would have it, David Jay and Jasmine Star, are going to be in San Francisco while I am there as part of their Free to Succeed tour around the states, so I am booked in for that too!

So to all my clients, I am now out of the office until the 25th August. The best way to contact me while I am away is by email – mail at sammblake dot com or using the contact form on my websites, or leaving a comment on the blog! If it’s absolutely urgent, please text message (+61412848820) and I will call you when I can. I will be checking my email daily so that is the best way to get in contact with me.

Thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes yesterday and feedback for my new websites, you guys totally made my day! :)

I will be blogging my adventures while I am away so check back here in the next few days! :)

xoxox