Laura and Ross’s wedding reception was held at the beautiful Tamarind House, just out of Avarua in Rarotonga.
The thing I love about photographing wedding receptions is the range of emotions that can bubble to the surface in such a short space of time. This reception felt like it had it all – a stunning fire show, complete with two of the wedding guests’ getting in on the action; laughter and tears during the speeches; spontaneous moments between Laura and Ross and of course, some wedding dance action.
The actual wedding was photographed by Junior Marsters of Nior Photography, while I photographed the wedding reception.
Congrats to Laura and Ross!
Thomas
All images © My Wedding Photographer Ltd | Thomas Pickard
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Nine words I love to hear from a bride and groom – “we want to do a trash the dress session”.
Elena and Michael uttered those words prior to their wedding and two days after they got hitched, we met up at the lagoon out the front of Royale Takitumu Villas. Our plan was to shoot in the lagoon, then get into the pool at the Takitumu Villas.
Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. Elena and Michael proved to be natural models in front of the lens and I’m sure they left feeling like they had come off a true photo shoot.
And if you are reading this and thinking of doing a Trash the Dress session, then feel free to hit me with an email at this link.
Thomas
All images © My Wedding Photographer Ltd | Thomas Pickard
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Okay, this may have been my first wedding shoot in the Cook Islands, but just let me say this: I love photographing weddings here! The variety of locations and the quality of the light can be just stunning.
Elena and Michael tied the knot on the beach at Royale Takitumu Resort, which is surely one of the nicest beaches on the island. After the first wedding dance, we cruised the west coast of Rarotonga, hitting up pre-scouted locations for some photography fun.
I purposely stopped at Wigmore’s Store on the west coast as I really wanted to get a shot of Elena with an ice cream, something she was more than happy to do. The fact she was wearing classic Rayban sunglasses was just an added bonus – I love it when things like that just happen.
We ended the afternoon at Black Rock, where we watched the sun melt like sorbet into the horizon. I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to end the day.
Big thanks to Elena and Michael for hiring me and being such great subjects in front of the camera!
Thomas.
All images © My Wedding Photographer Ltd | Thomas Pickard
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Late last year I was contacted by Squid Media, the design firm tasked with putting together the annual publication – Maldives Finder. Squid Media wanted me to produce an article on the Maldives as a wedding destination.
Given I called the Maldives home for two years (2006 and 2007) and have been involved with photographing destination weddings, I was more than happy to put pen to paper and produce the low down on getting married in the Maldives.
The article ran complete with photographs I took of Cathy and Matt’s wedding at the 5-star Dhoni Mighili Resort in beautiful Ari Atoll.
I was really happy with the final layout when I saw it. Nothing beats full bleed photos and I have always loved the shots Cathy, Matt and I did on the dhoni (sail boat), on their wedding day.
To top it all off, I also got the cover of the 2011 Maldives Finder with one of my most popular aerial shots of the Maldives. You can see the cover and read the back story at this link:
Thomas Pickard | RELOAD – Cover of Maldives Finder 2011.
Maldives "I Do" Published in Maldives Finder.
Tear sheet from Maldives Finder publication.
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Jenny and Justin’s wedding was a lot of fun. For starters it was on the tiny Koh Mak Island in the Gulf of Thailand. I took a regional flight from Bangkok to Trat, hopped a taxi to the coast and then caught a speed boat taxi with a number of the wedding guests’ to the island proper. From there it was another taxi ride to the resort itself.
By the time I arrived, I definitely felt like I had found a quiet little corner of Thailand. It was a good feeling.
The first day was pretty relaxed. I ran through the wedding day plan with Jenny and Justin; scouted some photo locations and later in the day, photographed the wedding rehearsal. As you can see from the photos below, the weather wasn’t that cooperative. We had quite a bit of rain on the first day and we all woke on the wedding day to constant drizzle.
At the set time of 1.00 pm, it was still raining, so the wedding was delayed. With only 20 people in attendance, it took about 2-minutes to pass the word around to everybody. Eventually the rain stopped and Jenny and Justin got hitched on a beach in Thailand, surrounded by family and friends.
Big thanks to Jenny and Justin for choosing me as their photographer. It was great meeting you both and photographing your wedding day!
Below is a selection of photos from the wedding. See more at this link:
Thailand | Wedding Day Stories – Jenny & Justin
View along beach. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Local transport. Koh Mak Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Wedding rehearsal. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Wedding rehearsal. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Mid-afternoon storm. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Rain drops. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Silhouettes. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Gecko, a common sight at night. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Resort bar. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Getting ready. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Wedding Day. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Wedding Day. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Wedding Day. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Cheers. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Jenny & Justin. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Reception. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
First dance. Koh Mak Island Thailand. © www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
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My name is Thomas Pickard and I work full time as a photographer, photographing destination weddings, travel locations for magazines and providing photos to businesses for marketing purposes.
If you wanted to find out more about me, you could Google ‘Thomas Pickard’. The first entry will be for some guy called Thomas J Pickard, born in the 1950′s. That guy, who just happens to be a former Director of the FBI, is not me. I am much younger for a start and I have a much cooler job. Be a photographer or be a spook? Come on, the choice is a no brainer.
If you keep looking down the search results page, you would find a couple of entries for me:
“Thomas Pickard Photography, commercial and editorial photographer based in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.”
“Thomas Pickard (thomaspickard) on Twitter”
“Thomas Pickard Photography on Facebook”
“Rarotonga Cook Islands Wedding Photography | My Wedding Photographer”
“My Wedding Photographer on Facebook”
Clearly I am hip to the Internet and I encourage you to learn more about what I photograph at any of the links above.
In terms of my wedding photography work, my company – My Wedding Photographer – is the best place to go and view my destination wedding photography work.
As for me, I retrained into photography in 2005 and began working as a freelance photographer in 2006. Despite my best efforts, I resisted wedding photography for a couple of years and for all the wrong reasons. I was fortunate to have a colleague who suggested I accompany him on some wedding shoots, which I eventually did. I learnt that photographing weddings was vastly different to my preconceived notions of wedding photography. More importantly, I learnt that I could photograph weddings in a style that suited the way I take photographs.
Since then, I have photographed intimate bride and groom weddings in the Maldives right through to extravagant four-day Indian weddings in Thailand.
Weddings are challenging and rewarding events to photograph. I love the visual variety that destination weddings provide and I love meeting new people and being chosen to document one of life’s most important days.
I will be posting regularly on this site and linking the posts to this Facebook page: My Wedding Photographer on Facebook.
And if you like my work and are looking for a wedding photographer, then drop me a line – I’d love to talk with you about your wedding day plans.
Thomas.
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