As challenged by Samantha Armytage from Sunrise, we are headed to the hot red sands of Uluru on December 23rd. Our first day, we have two shots planned straight away. Tamma greets us at our hotel the Sails in the Desert and gives me a coveted gift- her me her flat iron to tame my mane! We have a rendezvous with local dancers at 3:30 before their 4 pm performance. The guys teach me the emu dance. Unlike the graceful bird, I am awkward at best but have fun and repeat the dance three time for Jeff to get a good photo. After a short break we are headed out early to take some photos at the Sounds of Silence which we will enjoy after a bit of work. The weather is troublesome, the wind whipping wildly and dark clouds closing in on us from every direction. We pop a quick shot of me receiving a glass of champagne as the guests do upon arrival. We planned to shoot me eating an assortment of delectable canapés. I get just one mouthful of delicious smoked crocodile on cucumber which makes my stomach growl for more, but with rain on […]
I am relieved that our next shoot is at the Cairns Tropical Zoo. They have been enthusiastic since our first email reaching out to them and I love animals (all except the arachnids that is). We picked them over a larger Sydney zoo simply because you can’t do a Koala Cuddle anywhere but Queensland. To our surprise we found an amazing gem just 20 minutes north of Cairns. They are a highly interactive zoo with many options to get up close to the animals. They have immaculately kept grounds and enclosures and even offer a wedding chapel for nuptials and blessings. While they feature all the Australian regulars they also house many exotic animals from Asia and beyond. Visitors can cuddle a koala, hold a boa constrictor, and hand feed tame kangaroos. I have agreed to work with birds, wombats and a komodo dragon but it’s the koala cuddle that has me so excited. We are given a warm welcome and introduced to Venetia who will guide us through our shoots at the zoo. It is hot, humid and sticky so I am thrilled to hear that the wedding chapel has air conditioning. We head out the chapel to […]
This next photo shoot should not be on the table. I vetoed bungy jumping in New Zealand several years ago. When Adam (our dive guide from Passions) excitedly suggested it on the boat, Jeff was not there and I joked that he dare not bring it to his attention. We did not know that there was a first class bungy operation just 30 minutes from Cairns. AJ Hackett built a 50 meter Bungy tower 25 years ago and added the 45 meter Minjin Swing (the world’s fastest Jungle swing) a few years later. They have a well-earned reputation for safety and heart pumping thrills. The moment Jeff returns to the table Adam not only mentions the bungy but offers us a free pass. I try to politely decline but he insists that he has a stack of them so why not? I agree to consider it but I am so preoccupied with the dive, I can’t think about it. When Adam appears at our hotel the next day with the voucher, I now have a problem – bungy is back on the table. I have agreed to go and look at the tower. As a backup, there is the […]
Diving on the Great Barrier Reef has been on my bucket list for a very long time. As the fates would have it our dive is scheduled for our very first day in Australia. We had planned to meet with our dive guide on Thursday afternoon to carefully plan our excursion for the underwater photo shoot. Missing our flight from Brisbane to Cairns we arrive later than planned and have to move our meeting to early the next morning. Arriving to the hotel in Cairns fully disoriented, we unpack, eat and pass out. In the morning I feel half dead and dehydrated. I don’t even know what day it is until I see a newspaper, we left on Tuesday and its Thursday! We scramble out the door to take the twenty minute brisk walk to get to the pier by 7 am to rendezvous with Adam. I am immediately struck by his kind, friendly personality and excited to work with him. I am also struck by the business, Passions of Paradise, as a first class operation. The boat is pristine, the staff are professional with a safety first mentally while making sure to have some playful fun. […]
It is a well-known fact that I am smitten with all things Aussie. I have watched most Paul Hogan movies including the famous Crocodile Dundee in which Linda Kozlowski makes one very revealing red dress quite famous on screen. The dress is bright red with one side revealing a lot of flesh from the bare shoulder down to the knee on the right side. A series of large cut out circles are tied together with a thin sash, making a pretty pattern and exposing a lot of skin. It narrowly covers the chest and rear. Mark Kalan, a professional photographer, acquired the dress at auction with the seed idea for a project called “The Red Dress Project.” His goal is to photograph as many women as possible in the famous red dress. You can’t imagine my shock when he reached out to Jeff to ask if I might be willing to model the dress for him. I was beyond flattered that he thought me photo worthy. Not to besmirch my husband’s good taste but he is my husband and legally required to say I look good. I agreed without hesitation much to my husband’s pleasant surprise, since I do not […]
We are going down under and couldn’t be more excited. Having been a guest on the Sunrise show in Australia twice via satellite, we couldn’t let Sunrise host Samantha Armatage’s challenge to put our versatile wedding dress against the sands of Uluru. Our trip took an unbelievable amount of planning as we have our most aggressive schedule of shoots to date. They required a lot of help from locals and we’d like to both thank them in advance as well as give you a preview of what to expect. Under Water in the Barrier Reef After a difficult start trying to find a diving company to work with, it’s not like you can just show up with a wedding dress and expect understanding and cooperation with what we are trying to achieve, our inquiry was finally replied to when we reached out to Passions of Paradise. They totally got what we wanted to accomplish and agreed to help us above and more importantly below the water. Their marketing guy is going to dive with us and help us underwater.We are also going to attempt to shoot without Jennifer wearing a scuba tank. With Passions help and an amazing product […]
Anyone whose been following our project for some time will notice that what we’ve been up to is a complete rewrite of our site to correspond with the launch of Jennifer’s memoir, When it Clicks, and our new photo book by the same name. We are hoping the new site will be more engaging with larger images and a more interactive blogging format. Please feel free to give us any further suggestions!
