Ok, this was a wedding I was looking forward to. Skye and Matt, the Bride and Groom, assigned me a challenge for their wedding day. This blog post tells the story of Skye and Matt’s Canberra wedding at University House ANU.
I was in the town of Lithgow to the west of the Blue Mountains, when Skye gave me a call. Skye and Matt had planned their wedding in Canberra at the Australian National University. University House, ANU, is significant to Skye because her parents had a long history with academia, and ANU was a large part of their lives for several years. Skye and Matt’s wedding would be held in buildings with prominent architectural brilliance, and so challenged me to include the architecture of the buildings in their wedding photos.
I spent the weekend down in Canberra. I spent a few hours scoping locations for their bridal portraits at an earlier visit that year, and after discussing some ideas with Matt and Skye, we decided on taking wedding photos at some striking buildings, including the John Cutin School of Medical Research – a contemporary glass structure featuring large upwards-fanning fins; and also The Shine Dome – a large but flat grey structure with repeating archways that is the Australian Academy of Science.
Skye and Matt got ready at University House before having a first look along the corridors outside of the Library and Common Room. Their ceremony was in the courtyard on the grass under large trees, where we also took some family portraits after their ceremony. Their lunchtime reception was held in the Great Hall of University House. The interiors of University House are really lovely. The Great Hall is opulent and vast, and the ceilings are dramatically decorated. The large windows gave great light and cast some interesting shadows over feature walls.
After the reception, we drove around to a few of the above-mentioned buildings to capture some portraits with architecture in mind, before heading to The National Gallery of Australia. The NGA front courtyard is home to a James Turrel sculpture exhibition called ‘Within Without 2010’, where a “skyspace” shapes the daylight inside a really interesting water-featured square pyramid. The internal geometry, reflections and lighting conditions inside the skyspace are really striking. James Turrel, in his exhibition, uses the available light as his creative medium and shapes the way his viewers perceive the sky above the sculpture. The conditions inside create a really exciting backdrop for powerful imagery and for me was the highlight of this Canberra wedding. I highly recommend that you visit this location if you can for your own wedding!
Skye and Matt had a number of guests travelling into Canberra for their wedding, so they decided to invite friends to kick-on at Ovolo Nishi. Skye and Matt’s Canberra wedding at University House was a great day. I had a blast incorporating interesting architectural elements into their imagery and would be totally keen to do it all again tomorrow! For further information about wedding photography in Canberra, feel free to drop me a link via this page.
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