Happy

One year on we have done so much but feel we haven't even started.

We have a new and exciting design for the replacement of our old home and studio.

We are putting down the floor for our new office in town. It took us a long time to get to a point where this was possible but we are excited about what happens next.

Our empty section is being protected by a dinosaur.

A dinosaur at my side

So even though things have been difficult over the last year, we still have a dream. Its a new dream with a happy ending. The path might be difficult, but the outcome makes the journey worthwhile.

After promising so much to write more on my blog here is the beginning.

With a dinosaur at my side I am ready to address what the next year holds for me.

Look out for our new space in town.

And finally, a huge thanks to everybody who helped us through to the point where we can once again see the hope, happiness, and fun.

Johannes

This year I am a Canon EYEcon Mentor.  I feel honoured to have been asked, and excited about the opportunity of sharing our experience, knowledge, and philosophy, with the winner.

Two months ago our building was brought down under the jurisdiction of CERA.  What was meant to be a cathartic experience turned into a psychological disaster as halfway through the actual demolition Christchurch experienced yet another major Earthquake.  It was a huge blow as we stood there realising that the end was out of our hands.  We finally accepted that it was out of our control, and the process of recovery was going to take a long time.

We left town for a month.  We had a window, and a payment from insurance for the furniture we lost in the demolition.  For 30 days we escaped.  We returned energised and full of hope.

We have started making progress with our insurance.  We have sought out an architect, and the process of building a new castle has started.

Susie (our studio manager) has gone away for a few months.  We are excited for her travels and experiences.

We are back in business.  Our current home is an amazing place for photography.

We want people to know we are working hard to get through what will be a long and difficult, but worthwhile, time until our rebuild is completed.

We want more portraits, weddings, and commercial work.

This will get us through.

Thanks to everyone for their help and love.

Our best wishes

Johannes

PS Today I am thinking about things that tomorrow I will enjoy.

At Easter ... too long ago now ... we were in Wanaka for the wedding of Anna and David.

It was a great day with lots of beautiful skies and happy people. Anna looked amazing and Kevin polished up well too.

Enough chit chat! Some pics:

Anna and Kevin were married in Wanaka

There was wild dancing

The sculptures at Rippon winery made up for the absence of a church

The scenery still was no match for the bride

Anna

Their Autumn cake

Anna and Kevin

We are excited and looking forward to an intimate day with all of those people who put their hands up to come along.

The address is 230/232 Stirling Street in Perth.

Its not too late.

Hearts

Johannes

PS I am also doing a Leica Presentation on the Saturday with Camera Electronics.

Yesterday was  a sad day for both of us as we came a significant step closer to our building coming down. We received notification that the Historic Places Trust was getting sign-off on full demolition.

As probable as that always was, it shook us up to be told so by the people who were trying to save it.

We came back from a trip into the city to find an incredibly generous gift from a local resident, and then last night somebody gave us a very significant donation. Their timing was astounding. It was as if they knew.

We have had many generous heartfelt gifts, wishes, and help from so many amazing people. We don't know how to thank you all.

We cannot express enough, our thanks for everything that has taken away the harshness of the impact of the Earthquakes.

Thank you everybody.

Johannes Jo and Ida

We decided to work our way through the things that happened this year.

People have been very good in supporting us and many have asked how they can help.

'Come to our seminar!' is the answer.

We need help but we want to be able to give something back for it. So here it is

'The Disaster Relief Master Class - Everything we know for 300 bucks.'

The Disaster Relief Master Class

We want to do Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

We also wil be speaking in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin.

Dates to come after Easter

Come along and learn.

I'll put up some more information very soon.

Cheers

Jvk

A stranger came up to us the other day and said we weren't trying hard enough.

She was referring to 'saving the building'. I just wanted to cry. There are realities that we are facing which do not need the interference of the uninformed.

We have engaged the efforts of experts to tell us what is real. They are able to do it without attachment.

We love that the fate of our building matters to other people in our community but we want them to trust that we, through our insurance company, will do something that will be deserving of its location. We want it to be iconic, and we want it to belong in Lyttelton. The new Lyttelton!

This is real.

This was my office

This cracking belongs to a structural wall

The internal structural wall is failing in many places

and we can see a lot of daylight!!!

Another structural wall that is broken

This week somebody told us that they had heard that our building was being demolished on Monday.

Its news to us. I hope that's not true because we have a very busy day on Monday doing more important things like getting a lease on another place to live, and sorting out some furniture. There are meetings to go to, people to see, banks, and of course there will always be Ida.

Our new place is a total opposite to what we had. ....It has a garden and trees and fabulous outside areas for photography.

We are really looking forward to photographing people there.

We are looking forward to not being gypsies any more.

This earthquake has made us stronger and more resilient.

We are looking for people to photograph.

We are looking for Weddings and Engagements.

We are positively going to work our way through this.

To all of the friends and family that have helped out with kind words, gifts, donations, and loving, I just want to say a huge thanks for everything that you have done. We are very lucky to know you and call you friends.

Take care xxx

Johannes

PS since I wrote this there was another biggish earthquake. We went through again with the engineer and things are definitely getting ugly inside the building.

The dreams of a future get destroyed, and the life we had has suddenly changed.

No longer does the morning start with a cup of coffee and a paper down at the Lyttelton coffee Lounge. The Lyttelton Coffee Lounge is now a pile of rubble.

They came with tanks

No longer does it end with sitting in my office finishing off the work I hadn't done through the day because Ida (in a good way) was too much of a distraction.

Our home - Lyttelton Earthquake

Just in case you didn't notice the crack

Ida is our leveller. She makes us laugh, she makes us stop thinking about ourselves, she makes us look for a future that is happy, she makes us change her nappies and feed her.

Now we have a new future that is ours for the dreaming. We get to start a new set of dreams.

That is the key.

We want to work our way into a new life. People ask us for ways to help ... we have an account for donations. Pete Jones, a friend from school, made us face the reality that we need to overcome our pride and accept that people genuinely want to help. More importantly we want to work our way through this, we want album requests, portrait commissions and weddings so that we can channel our energies to growing and stop asking ourselves how are we going to get through it.

We also are planning a speaking tour around NZ and Australia for April/May. This is to keep us employed and give us a project to focus on. We are adamant that we can work our way through this and be stronger for it.

So with Ida keeping us level and the amazing support of friends, clients that we want to call friends, and a determination to get up when we get knocked down, we can overcome our losses and turn what we could easily call a nightmare into a dream.

We were lucky. There are many people who have lost family, homes and livelihoods. We have each other, our families, our friends, and a vision for a future. Our home and work place might be a big pile of rubble. but we still have a dream.

Thank you to everyone for your support.

If you feel that you need to send us money, we would feel most comfortable if we were able to thank you personally. Email us and we will send you details    e mail  jvk@inspire.net.nz

If you have work for us (even better), let us know and we will rise to the occasion.

If you are a photographer, come to our seminars and help us earn your money and respect.

Many many thanks from us.

Jo and Ida and Me

Earthquake in Lyttelton

It al started with a bunch of guys standing around an pointing high

They broke off loose bits of building

our building is broken

but we are safe thank goodness

I wanted no fuss.

I wanted good food and wine. Pegasus Bay winery was perfect.

... I escaped reasonably fuss free until this amazing cake came out ... and blew me away.

Mel makes amazing cakes

(Check out Ida's birthday duck)

Ida's cake by Mel

... but then there was my cake .... whoa!

Cake by Mel ... Design by Canon

Secretly I had wished for a new camera!!!

Unfortunately birthday protocol dictated that the cake should be shared.

The detailing was fabulous

I am lucky to have friends like Mel. Thanks Mel for the coolest cake!

It was a beautiful emotion-filled day celebrating the union of two amazing people.

Jo's blog has  great selection of images if you want to see more.

Actually there a lot of great images there for you to browse.

Gary and Sarah got married and had the most fun ever.

Christina and Ben's Wedding at Trents

Trents has always been a great place for photography.

Christina and Ben's Wedding at Trents

Christina and Ben's Wedding at Trents

Christina and Ben's Wedding at Trents

From Trents to a farm in Timaru.

From the day the wedding was announced Josephines' parents family and friends worked some amazing magic to turn the family home into a beautiful place for a wedding ... the weather Gods were on our side!

Wedding Photography in Timaru

Wedding Photography in Timaru

Wedding Photography in Timaru

Wedding Photography in Timaru

Josephine and Simon in Timaru

Wedding Photography in Timaru

Trough-henge in Timaru

Josephine

I love being a blogmeister but sometimes keeping up can get in the way of a good days work ...

So here are the weddings of Trupti and Alex, and Scott and Ruth.

Ruth and Scott in Christchurch

Ruth and Scott in Christchurch

Ruth and Scott in Christchurch

Ruth and Scott in Christchurch

Ruth

Ruth and Scott in Christchurch

And then a lovely wedding celebration at the fabulous Cossars

Alex and Trupti at Cossars

this photograph does little justice to the colour of Trupti's dress ... however this one does!!!

Hot Pink at Cossars

and ...

More Hot Pink at Cossars

Wedding at Cossars

Celeste and Peter were supposed to get married on a cliff overlooking the sea.
But it rained.
A lot.

That didn't stop them from being happy.

Celeste had a happy beauty

... all day

Did I mention the rain?

But the rain didn't matter because they had a cave

... and a bunch of their friends.

From a wedding in the rain to another wedding in the rain ... Last year had its fair share of wet days.

Theo and Brigitte were married by Brigitte's father. It was a very moving ceremony. Very powerful and lots of fun.

I love the series that this image comes from ... you can almost imagine the dream of one day having a fancy wedding already forming in the flowergirl's mind,

With bad weather comes some amazing opportunities

Brigitte

Theo

This connection. This feeling. This is what I crave in my images.

... a connection that is real

At weddings I am looking for the stuff of relationships ... but especially the happiness.

Then there was the wedding of Olivia and Mike ... it didn't rain for them.

in fact it was brutally hot.

It started with a dress for a wedding

These guys were trouble ... the good kind

The bridesmaids

... and put them together and you get some kind of wedding chaos

and again the happiness

Who would have thought it but we then had another sunny day for the wedding of Jacob and Sarah

It started out at Rangiora and ended up at The George Hotel in Christchurch.

I wasn't worried about the competition ... he was analog, not wearing a shirt, and inexperienced in spite of having a definite 'eye'

Sarah and her dad

... and sometimes at a wedding it just doesn't feel real

... but this certainly was as real as it gets

... and tender

.. and lots of friends

At the George this photograph begs to be taken

And then it was away to Tekapo for the wedding of Ciara and Emmet.

And it was very hot and very sunny.

There was a moment when the wedding could have gone horribly wrong.

As the cut cake was being returned to the guests by the caterer it slid off the plate and into the garden.

There was a deathly silence.

And then a beautiful Irish laugh came from the bride ... It was the funniest thing.

Go Ciara for your sense of humour.

With the kind permission of Earth and Sky we were able to photograph at the Mt John Observatory

Ciara and Emmet travelled by horse and carriage to the lake

Did I mention the Lupens as they rode from The Church of the Good Shepherd

Ciara

Ciara looked like a fashion model

... and then it was Christmas.