MEGAN AND CONOR SECRET GOLD COAST HOT AIR BALLON ELOPEMENT

It's not everyday that you get asked to shoot an elopement in a hot air balloon. And while it all sounded really cool to begin, I knew I would need to prepare in more ways than one to make it happen. Truth is, I actually have a fear of heights. And I'd mistakenly watched the film 'Fall' not that long before, so I knew I would have to prepare personally to overcome my fears. But in the end, the opportunity was just too good to pass up and that was enough for me to commit to it. 

Logistically, preparing for the elopement followed a pretty similar process to that of all my couples. We do a really in-depth timeline meeting where I can ask plenty of questions and go on a fact finding mission to map out every detail of the day. I chatted with Megan about her vision and then armed myself with as many shoot ideas as possible to maximise every opportunity up in the sky.

Some key details and questions we chatted through included:

- Where the balloon was taking off from?

- How much time we had in the air?

- How long the ceremony was planned to go for?

- How many people would be in the basket and where everyone would be positioned (including if I could move around in there)?

- If I could use a drone alongside the balloon (which unfortunately isn't allowed)

- Plus any venue access details for the breakfast afterwards.

I wanted to get as many unique photos as possible, ensuring good placement of any other balloons in the sky, and making sure I knew where the sun was positioned and how the lighting would work at various stages of the morning. Being a sunrise wedding, we met at 3am to be whisked away to the location on the Gold Coast and the sun was just starting to rise as the balloon was being blown up. Soon enough we were in the air, and it was such a smooth transition that I didn't even notice we were elevating because I was so focused on what I was doing compositionally. The couple were so great to work with, always smiling and giggling, making my job so easy and then before you knew it the ceremony was over and we were back on land. 

We got some great photos both outside the deflating balloon afterwards and we also got to go inside it as well which was amazing, before getting some couple shots on the road where we touched down. We then made our way to O'Reilly's Vineyards for breakfast and more photos.

Looking back, I think the majority of prep for me was mental, but once I got over my fear, I could focus on the job itself and play with how to achieve the best results and execute it all in the best way possible. It was such a unique opportunity that I'm grateful to have had and I couldn't be more happier with how the gallery turned out.