The dome through the elms
We started Echo and Ethan’s session in Carlton Gardens, with the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building rising behind the trees. The first frame was wide: the two of them small on the lawn, her long white gown pooled on the grass and the whole facade behind them. Then Ethan dipped Echo for a kiss under the branches. Spring light through big old trees is soft and full of texture, so we kept them in the dappled shade and let the sunlit lawn glow behind. Along the avenue of plane trees they walked hand in hand while we stepped back.
Fig roots and lamp posts
Under a huge spreading fig by the pond, Echo stood among the roots while we shot from low on the path, so the canopy framed her from above. Then we moved to the building itself. The tall cream walls and the old iron lamp posts make a lovely, simple backdrop, and Ethan stood beside one with his hands in his pockets looking very relaxed. Close in, we lifted Echo’s lace veil across the frame so her face sat inside a soft white haze. Shooting through fabric like that is an easy way to make a portrait feel dreamy.
Skyline from the marina
Then Echo changed into a silver beaded gown and we drove to St Kilda. On the pontoon, the two of them walked hand in hand with the whole Melbourne skyline across the water behind them, and we used a longer lens to pull the towers in close. A white railed walkway gave us a strong line to lead to them. Down by the moored yachts, we turned them so the sun sat behind, and the water broke into hundreds of little sparkles. Backlight on water is one of our favourite tricks: it turns a plain bay into glitter.
A lift by the river
At Docklands and the South Wharf promenade the mood went sleek and modern. Echo leant on Ethan’s shoulder on a bench by the water, then we found a white shaded walkway above the marina. On a footbridge with the glass towers behind, Ethan lifted Echo clean off the ground and she kissed him on the way down, laughing. Under a concrete overpass, the shade gave us a quieter, moodier light, and a black and white frame of Ethan in sunglasses became one of our favourites of the day. Mixing open sun and deep shade keeps a session varied.
Inside the Webb Bridge
The Webb Bridge was our last Melbourne stop. Its white woven steel tunnel curls across the Yarra, and from the inside it makes a frame within a frame. We stood Echo and Ethan in the gap between the ribs with the river and the city towers behind, then went wide from the other end so the shadows of the steel spread across the walkway towards them. Mid-afternoon sun is usually hard work, but structures like this break it into patterns. It was the perfect way to close the formal half of the session before the drive south.
Denim and painted bollards
In Geelong, Echo and Ethan swapped the gown and suit for denim jackets and jeans, which changed the energy completely. Our first stop on the waterfront was a group of the Baywalk Bollards, painted timber figures in red coats and white helmets standing on the grass under the pines. Echo and Ethan stood in the middle of them like they belonged to the squad, and then we pulled right back so the row of red uniforms framed them. Cunningham Pier pre-wedding photos are this kind of fun: relaxed, local and a little bit playful.
Palms and a jump on the sand
We walked them along the sand with yacht masts on the horizon, Ethan’s arm around Echo’s shoulders, then under a row of tall palms on the foreshore, where we went very wide so the trees towered over two tiny figures by the water. The evening cloud had turned the light soft and blue. Moored yachts sat out on the bay while they hugged at the water’s edge, and then they took a run and jumped together, arms out. We finished after dark at the end of the waterfront, with the pier pavilion and its towers glowing behind them.
