I honestly don’t know where to start with this wedding. It’s not enough talking just about the wedding itself, there’s so much more to it.
There’s a website that most photographers have used or are at least aware of called flickr. Shirley and I met on there about 6 years ago and we just seemed to respect each other’s work and personalities. She lived in the UK and was mainly a wedding photographer and I was always in Australia and had just photographed my first wedding. Whenever we uploaded new work to flickr, there would always be mutual appreciation and we’d comment and interact. The Internet is a pretty wonderful place for building these connections. But alas, we slowly fell out of touch. I stopped using flickr as much and we hadn’t spoken since 2008. However, in May, I received an unexpected message from Shirley starting with “It’s been a while…” She told me about what had been happening in her life, and the most exciting part was that she’d met a lovely Aussie boy called Warren, was moving to Australia and getting married. She also wanted to know was there any chance I would be interested in photographing it. My immediate though was, I don’t care where or when this is, I have to somehow do it. Thankfully, it was during the Aussie winter which is generally a quiet time for weddings and our schedules matched. Come 3 months later, Kristen and I are in Deniliquin, nearly 4 hours drive from Melbourne, on the edge of a river photographing for these two wonderful people in the beautiful winter sun. Life was pretty good.
But it got better. The photo I took of Shirley and Warren later in the evening with the Milky Way in the background went viral. It was all over the internet on countless websites, Facebook Pages, Tumblrs, Pinterests and newspapers around the world. The Daily Mail in the UK asked whether it was the “best wedding photo ever.” I was getting emails/messages from everywhere and my website was literally under attack from the web traffic. I felt as if the Universe had offered itself to me; firstly, it allowed me to photograph it in its glory and since then a bunch of other things have fallen into place as a result of that photo; I guess the stars were aligning. I guess when you’re a photographer that’s been at it full time for less than 6 months, it’s a pretty awesome feeling seeing your work out there like that. I’m not a superstitious or religious man at all so I know it takes a lot of hard work to be successful, but then again, without a little luck and good people believing in you, you’re nothing.
Shirley and Warren are exceptional people that appreciate the nature of the world and want to do something about it. I’m very much a fortunate person to have met them. We’ve shared in something pretty amazing already and it’s the kind of thing that means you’ll never fall out of touch ever again.
7 Comments
Superb work! Not just the famous image, but all of them!
WOW you truly have such a talent. What an eye for capturing special and celebratory moments with skill. You don’t miss a single detail and somehow piece it all together to tell an incredible story of the day. I feel like I was there!
I love this wedding! The mismatched chairs, retro plates, food, location and especially the wattle flowers. It is exactly the type of wedding I’d want for myself, even if I was cashed up, I’d still want this to be my wedding. Well done!
i saw this photo without knowing it was from a wedding i was meant to be at! i was accidentally in central america at the time… great shots, it’s a pleasure to live through it vicariously through your excellent work!
The fun and the colors that you have captured are absolutley stunning i love your work
cromulent, very cromulent!!
its nice to get a sense of how much of a celebration this wedding was – and you could tell it was a cracker with the pics taken after the actual wedding !! The pics tell the whole story – I loved looking at them all – well done Lucky, you are the BOM