All the colours of Love
The golden hour is one of the best lighting times for photography, especially when it comes to romance and lifestyle portraits. This generally means I'm working mostly in the early morning hours on location or in the late afternoon/ early evening. It's safe to say, most people I work with would prefer the late morning to early evening time slot, but every once in awhile you get the daring adventure couple that is down to do a dawn mission. Here in Dunedin, the sun rises over the ocean and sets over the hills... One of my favourite places to watch the sunrise is in Long Beach, Dunedin. It's the perfect combination of lush beach, jagged rocks and cliffs, pine forests, sandy dunes, and beautiful natural sea caves. I used to live in this little suburb and loved the morning runs and walks with the dogs along the waters edge and meandering through the forest, listening to the beautiful sound of native bird song. It's truly a place that speaks to my soul and I relish in any opportunity to take photos here. So as luck would have it, a good friend of mine and local entrepreneur extraordinaire, Lisa of Studio Tula (studiotula.nz), got in touch with me to organise an outdoor photoshoot with her partner Jed. We brainstormed a bit and she loved the idea of adventuring out to Long Beach with a picnic setup, puppies, and the epic backdrops of the surrounding area. And off we went! One glorious and painfully early (slightly due to lack of sleep on all sides) Saturday morning we made the magic happen.
Lisa is a yoga and dance teacher, she works part time teaching yoga classes primarily in Hatha, Yin, and Restorative Yoga Styles, as well as chanting and meditation. The other half of her time she spends running her beautiful studio, Studio Tula, in Dunedin.
Jed is a sourdough baker, bagel maker & conceptual performance artist who is passionate about sign language, positive education and mindfulness. Together they love dancing, making delicious food, going on bike rides, learning new things, living a sustainable lifestyle and drinking whiskey while musing about different philosophies and the way of the mind & the world.
As we set up and waited patiently for the sun to grace us with it's presence, we watched the scene come to life and enjoyed the silly morning banter and laughter between us. Jed and Lisa are quite the inspiring couple in love. The way they look at each other and hold space for each other is something to be admired. I chatted with them as I followed them around the beach and creeped behind them in the dunes and bushes sneakily capturing snippets of love glances and tickles and laughter. My dogs even stole the show a few times and jumped in to say hello. They just can't help themselves sometimes, but they are dang cute, so I guess it works? Totally. The sunrise embraced us with glorious shades of purples and pinks, orange and yellow hues, and the blues and greens of the ocean made for a stunning combination of colours that complimented the style of Lisa and Jed's personalities. It was such a wonderful morning playing in the sand and capturing these two together in their element. Enjoy a few samples of our time together in this little photo story below. :) <3
