Don Barrington Photography | You May French Kiss The Bride

Dec 2013

After the best of 2013 weddings published this Monday, here’s our best of 2013 sessions! Based on what you seemed to have liked the most this year (and during the two first months the blog existed), this is basically a readers’ selection!
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Tuuli and Teet, and their session in Estonia with a cow.

Tuuli + Teet

Vanessa and Pedro, and this amazing black and white session in Rio de Janeiro.

Vanessa + Pedro

Magda and Marek, who took their clothes off to take a bath in freezing Iceland.

Magda + Marek

Cosmina and Adi, and their after-wedding pictures high up in the Romanian mountains.

Cosmina + Adi

Anja and Andrej, this super crazy couple that had one fun afternoon.

Anja + Andrej

Florestine and Silvain, and their engagement session at the Champs de Mars.

Florestine + Silvain

Those 5 girls, who had one fun and colorful bachelorette party.

Bachelorette Party

Monika and Kendra, and this pre-wedding styled shoot.

Monika + Kendra

Us! Because you seemed to like our bike session in Paris a lot.

Joana + Marcio

Stéphanie, and this trash the dress with fire photo session.

Stéphanie + Fire

Oct 2013

Stephanie + Fire

Trash the Dress with Fire

I don’t know if you remember the trash the dress with paint post I published here a few months ago? I told you it was part of a bigger project and that there was going to be more of this project to enjoy soon… well, here we are! To be honest, I initially contacted the photographer after seeing one of these shots (that are actually all super amazing), begging him to let me blog the whole thing. It turned out, it wasn’t available at that time, but I was able to get to know and blog other works of him in the meanwhile, and also discover the great person that’s behind the great photographer. Today is the day I can finally show you the full series of pictures I initially wanted to. If you’re interested, you can go have a look at the whole project here (and then like me, end up spending hours looking at all the photos that are up on his blog), but, you need to see this trash the dress with fire session here first, as even the photographer didn’t blog it yet! Photography by Don Barrington Photography, currently based in Australia and available worldwide. (Oh, and this goes without saying, but don’t do this at home, ok?)

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The word of the photographer.

I first met Stephanie through one of my good friends. The concept was simple, but took a bit of time. Not every bride knows how to fire spin, so first I needed to find a bride who could fire spin. Second I needed her to trash her dress as well. I was in luck. When I talked with Steph she had just married and wanted to trash her dress in some memorable way. When I told her my idea she could not wait to get started.

The shoot was broken up into two parts: water and fire. This was an accident. The first time we shot a squall of menacing clouds surrounded Newcastle and the waves bombarded the coastline, over and over. I captured a few amazingly big waves with Stephanie in front of them, but it was too wet to light her baton. We tried at another location, and she did manage to light one side, but just for a second. So we tried, again. A month later we were back to the same location, this time at night, with no wind or rain. It was perfect. She got her baton to light up, the mesmerizing spinning, spinning … the fire appeared like dragons, birds, swords, quickly transforming in shapes, forms, and spirits.

Aug 2013

Josh + Tonja

Engagement Shoot in an Abandoned Dredge, Blanket and Wine

I first published Don’s work two months ago, maybe you’ll remember his beautiful trash the dress session? This time he’s back with an engagement shoot. But what an engagement shoot! This is for all those couples out there, that don’t quite recognise themselves in retro flowery pastel stuff. Because you know what? It’s alright. Photography: Don Barrington.

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The word of the photographer.

The evening was slowly settling in when we arrived at the Chattanooga Gold Dredge. Josh and Tonja were familiar with this dredge, from either late night escapades or parties. I had never been. As we walked up this small hill the gold dredge became visible. Abandoned, forlorn, yet a powerful machine loomed in the middle of a lake, like a mighty despot defeated long ago. I got really excited. I’d never photographed anything like this before. Tonja kept telling me we should shoot here and we were finally doing it. I told them to take a walk as I reached for my camera.

Hand in hand they stumbled down to the edge, climbed inside the big medal cadaver and walked to the furthest front portion of the dredge. I could see their silhouettes, shimmering in the water from the shoreline. I told them to stop and just look at each other, while I captured their bodies in the water. I ran over to them, taking shot after shot all around them. We surveyed the dredge from the inside out. We climbed weather worn steps. We danced. We drank wine. We explored. And all this time I couldn’t stop documenting Josh & Tonja’s love for one another. This was one of my most memorable engagement shoots in Alaska, and I keep referring back to it when I meet new couples.