Author Archives: Milena Dekic

A trip around the US // Travel Photographer

February 23, 2018 3:13 pm 4 Comments

This post starts with a song because this song played at the most perfect moment of this trip. Please play it and enjoy.

A fiddle plays as the dusk falls, behind us the dust kicking up behind the car and in front the flat plains of Texas. The colours around swirl with warmth and glow like they’re being painted just for us. There is an amazing and deep peace in this moment, this moment is why we exist on this earth, a perfect mix of sound and wonder. We create such beauty, such moving art. Sometimes I wonder what we’re all arguing about when moments like this exist. This is how I define the divine. The moments that transcend the mundane and become perfect in their simplicity. Driving towards the artists oasis of Marfa at dusk. I may have cried. My heart full from the beauty and experiencing this moment with my love.

The previous week had already been the perfect storm of love, catching up with old friends for the wedding of two of my favourite people, Brit & Sam. They met through an online forum that a trusty cohort of my fellow wedding photographers had met on. Living on all different sides of the globe, we rarely get to see each other. Experiencing the love and joy of seeing everyone, combined with witnessing two of our friends get married, there were many happy tears on this trip. I took one camera, my Contax RX, one lens, a Zeiss 50mm f1.4 (for the camera nerds out there). Two film stocks, a Portra 160, and an Across 100 (full disclosure I ran out of film about halfway through and forgot to buy some before we left so some of this is shot on a random roll from Walmart – and a shoutout to Walmart having film even in their store in the middle of nowhere Texas).

Shooting film has been such a beautiful way to experience the joy of travel without thinking about the work, the photos, whether something’s absolutely perfect, should I take another shot just in case? Maybe someone blinked and I won’t have gotten it. Was it slightly crooked? Without thinking about all of those things, without dwelling on the image itself, but rather thinking about the experience. My goal, what I had wanted from this trip was a kind of photographic reset, to think about the trip that Nick and I were taking, seeing friends and just documenting the things we saw and the moments that struck me.

There’s a joy found in wandering, not having a plan and for the first time in 6 years, we traveled without one. These images are just a touch of our journey, from the mountains to the valleys, to the laundromats. I hope you enjoy them.

 

 

 

Vicky + Jeff // The Loved Up Sessions

January 25, 2017 4:57 pm 1 Comment

Gotta start the blog post with little BMO, oh, how I wish I could keep him! He made an appearance not only at Vicky & Jeff’s loved up session, but also at their wedding (which I seriously can’t wait to share). Vicky & Jeff are really thoughtful, sweet people who are absolutely full of joy. Their session reminded me so much of what I love about taking photos. When people let their guards down and show me who they really are, it really feeds my soul. I feel very fortunate they let us document such an awesome time of their lives.

Heather + James // Wollombi Farm Wedding

January 6, 2017 12:42 pm 3 Comments

One of Heather  & James’ first emails said they were getting married at Valleyfields Farm in an Olive Grove that they were putting some tents in, along the way there may have been mention of some bagpipers too… then fireworks… scotch, eightsome reel first dances, and really just as Heather & James kept revealing more details of their wedding, it was so evident that a lot of care and love had gone into reflecting their spirits and that of their families.

Did you know that you can tune bagpipes? I’d always assumed that bagpipes were like… recorders attached to a bag, like if you combined a recorder and an accordion in some sort of crazy science experiment. I had also, wrongly, assumed that the tuning of said bagpipes was done during the making process, I don’t know why I thought that, in retrospect it seems silly, but I found out that you can tune bagpipes! If you already knew this, please feel free to laugh at said silliness, but otherwise enjoy a new factoid for your day! But I can honestly say that I’ve never seen something as impressive as Heather, James, and their families being played into and out of the ceremony and reception by an armada of bagpipes (P.S. I just googled it and the collective known for a group of bagpipers is a Poverty of Pipers!).

Anywho, back to their wedding, one of the things that I loved so much about their entire day was just the collective sense of love, and that comes through not only in the nod to their Scottish heritage in the bagpipers, kilts, and scotch, but also in the care they took in putting together the favours for all their guests in the form of bookmarks with a favourite quote for each guest. I wish I could have photographed each and every one because they reflected Heather, James and their family and friends.

Thank you so much to Heather & James for having me along to document their insanely joy-filled day.

These are some of the fine people that contributed to making Heather & James’ day special:

Bride’s Dress: Karen Willis Holmes
Flowers: Kindred Floral
Bands: Half Nelson and Bagpipers
Ceremony & Reception Venue: Valleyfield in Wollombi
Catering: Matt Dillow from Twine
Chair & Tent Hire: Beavis Party