Mike and Amy's Blog

As many of you that follow Mike and I on facebook already know we have taken 6 weeks leave from our wedding photography and headed over to East Africa! We have been looking forward to this trip all year! We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday afternoon.

We have spent the last three days in Nairobi and will head on Safari on Sunday morning. We have booked to do two different tours. The first is an Intrepid tour which takes in the Rift Valley, Lake Victoria, Serengeti National Park and Mount Killimanjaro… Yes Mike and I are going to Attempt the hike up Mount Killimanjaro. I will blog about our second tour later.

There is not much for tourist to do in Nairobi, we did however visit the Giraffe Centre. The Giraffe Centre is basically a breeding centre run by the African Fun for endangered Wildlife. I didn’t know this… but there are three types of giraffe. There are the reticulated and Masai giraffes which are the ones we will see on safari. There are also the Rothschild giraffe which is an endangered species due to severe habitat loss in Western Kenya. The Giraffe Centre is a breeding ground for this giraffe. In 1979 when the centre was just starting out there was an estimate of 130 Rothschild giraffes in the wild. There are now estimated to be more than 300 in the wild. The mission statement for the centre is to create awareness and provide environmental education aimed at encouraging visitors to appreciate and conserve Kenya’s biodiversity.

Mike and I had a great time at the centre. We were able to view the giraffes, hand-feed, hug them and even get a kiss….. I was a little grossed out this at first until I learnt that the giraffes saliva is in fact an antiseptic. Our hands felt so clean after the food being licked off. There was also an interesting nature walk across the road through the Gogo River bird Sanctuary.

We also visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The wildlife trust can be found occupying a plot in the Nairobi National Park. The Wildlife Trust is aimed at raising orphaned black rhinos and elephants into the wild. The trust is also opened once a day between the hours of 11am and 12pm and is a nonprofit trust. Upon arrival you are taken down to a viewing area. After a short while the baby elephants are brought out. They are separated into two groups for the viewing The first are out for the first half and hour and the second for the remaining time. The baby elephants are bottle-feed and then are allowed to play with the other elephants for the remaining time. The elephants are bottle feed every three hours. They are feed on a human formula which is imported from England. For the rest of the day the elephants are let roam round the national park and then are brought in at night as they are too young to join a herd of elephants. The elephants are kept at the centre for up to 10 years before they will be ready to release back into the wild.

Mike and I are having a great time. We will be  posting more about our adventures next week. If you would like to contact Mike and I the best way is via email which we are checking as often as we can.

Amy x

Well it’s certainly been a big year at Mike and Amy photographers. We have shared weddings days with 57 brides and grooms, and launch Amy Marie Photographer which will look after all our family, maternity and newborn shoots. We have photographed many bumps and bubs and gorgeous families. It’s certainly been a year to celebrate! May marked 12 months since Mike and Amy came to life! December will mark the 5th wedding anniversary for Mike and I and to celebrate we are heading off to Africa. To end our wedding session for the year we spent the day with Shannon and Ryan on Saturday. What a great day it was! Despite the heat and bright sunlight we were able to capture some gorgeous images of this very cute couple.

You may remember Shannon and Ryan from an earlier Engagement Shoot entry….. their wedding day finally came, after all that counting down. LOL As the boys had to be out of their room in the apartment early we meet the boys in the main street of Sawtell! The boys were great, we had a lot of fun with them.

We headed over to the girls to capture the happenings of Shannon preparing for their big day. Shannon looked gorgeous and so did her bridesmaids. Erin did well in the heat… She only has a matter of weeks until her little first little one arrived!! At about 2.10pm we headed into Coffs Harbour, out to Paradise Palms for a 2.30pm ceremony start! It was so cute to watch Shannon and Ryan’s little boy Noah waiting for his Mum to arrive!! After the ceremony we meet both families and did some images outside the chapel before heading to our shoot!

My favorite location for the shoot on Saturday was the Golf Course out at Sawtell…. it was just awesome. We got some really cute images of the bridal party but also some images of Shannon and Ryan together.

Their reception was held at the Sawtell Golf Club. DJ Marcus was responsible for the entertainment for the night!! He did a great job as usually even letting little Noah have a go!! Very funny indeed.

A big thanks to all in the bridal party and a big congratulations to Shannon and Ryan. Looking forward to giving your images back before we go!!

Amy xx

Last week I spent Monday afternoon with Leonie and Dalen’s little family doing some family portraits in preparation for the wedding on Friday of last week. It was a really fun afternoon and the kidies were so well-behaved. It was a real pleasure. Some of the photos have been shared on the Amy Marie Facebook page. Friday soon come around for Leonie and Dalen to be married at the beautiful Bonville Golf Resort.

I started the day with Dalen and his grooms at his house. We got a few preparation photos before headed outside for some posed images. After the preparation photos with the boy I than headed over to the girls. Leonie and her girls looked gorgeous. Leonie’s dress looked just like a princesses dress. Destiny and all the bridesmaids were stunning. Destiny tells me that she wanted a dress like mummy’s – so cute. Since the family photos on Monday Leonie darken her hair…. I loved it!! YOu looked beautiful!

Leonie and her bridesmaids than headed out in the stretch limo to the Golf Resort. Betsy White did such a beautiful ceremony. Destiny, Leonie and Dalen’s little girl was just so adorable as she walked down the aisle and then posed for photos at the end and hugged her grandmother! Declan, Leonie and Dalen’s little boy was so well behaved! The ceremony was held on the lawn terrace … where the bridal expo is held each year! It’s a gorgeous place. – The whole of the Bonville Resort is. The ceremony was simply, relaxed and personal to the couple! I loved the colours of the bridesmaid dress and Leonie’s flowers were just beautiful. – You guys did a great job putting it all together.

After the ceremony we than did a few family photos and then started our shoot.  David Fuller took video footage of their big day. We had some photos on the lawn and then headed to Sawtell Beach for a few snaps there before returning back to the resort to have the car photos and a few in the back paddock.

Thanks for sharing your wedding with us and we hope that you have a great time in Thailand.

Amy x

Recently Mike and I caught up with Sharon and Shannon at Aanuka Beach resort. Sharon and Shannon’s wedding is next September so they made the journey across to Coffs Harbour from Tamowoth to have their engagement photos taken.  We did most of the images on the beach at Aanuka and a few around their gorgeous gardens!

I was a little concerned about the weather as it seemed that it was going to storm the evening of their shoot… but the weather held off for just enough time!! Sharon you looked gorgeous! Kelli T did Sharon hair and makeup! 🙂

Thanks for a great shoot guys and we look forward to your wedding next year!! 🙂 Here are just a few images from your shoot 🙂

Amy xx

Recently we caught up with Phoebe and Charles for their engagement session. It was rather funny that as soon as our shoot was about to start a storm came over… there was thunder and lightening but thankfully not much rain LOL!!- You have to have a sense of humor about these things…. they happen so often in Coffs Harbour.

We started the shoot down the Jetty as it’s often a good place to meet. We than headed to a few other locations around town. Charles and Phoebe are such a gorgeous couple… it was a real pleasure to spend the time with them during the shoot!!

Phoebe and Charles had their engagement party a week or so after their session. We hope you guys had a great time!!

Amy xx