Christchurch

Capturing Feelings and Stories.

With a half a lifetime love affair with photography I am motivated by the beauty of light, the celebration of human connection, the capture of moments, and the creation eye-catching images that tell stories. Forever I am looking for subtle nuances, quiet beauty and feelings in the work I love to create for my clients. I run a Christchurch based photography boutique, serving clients New Zealand wide and Internationally.

Recently I was greatly honoured to be named the winner of New Zealand Professional Photographer of the Year for 2016, also winning both the Wedding Classic and Wedding Creative categories.

I am passionate about the moments within a wedding day. The moments between you and your family, the love you share with each other, the quiet moments that sometimes get passed by. I seek to capture your love and your personalities in a classic and beautiful way.

Known for loving rainbows, excessive jumping shots, and eating waaaay too many Raspberry Chocolate Logs... And that's what we like to bring to every photo shoot... Colour, energy & a bit of sweetness!

Based in Christchurch, and available internationally. My eyes are always peeled for new, colourful and creative opportunities.

Pictures are built into every part of my day, I photograph everything the visible light spectrum has to offer. I am in awe of colour & rainbows, enchanted by music & travel, and delighted by natures glow & family life.

Thoroughly love traveling with my wife as we document our own lives. Our passion lies in capturing peoples most special moments, their families interactions, friends reactions & the start of a couples married journey together.

While utilizing natures ever changing available light, I also embrace my creativity with our own special luminance & colour which plays as a large pillar of my style that I will forever love...

Currently based in New Zealand, but look out for me wherever summer is showing its warm face.. :)

We've been loving photographing weddings together since we got married in 2012. Before this Michelle studied photography and got a start photographing her friends weddings; James was doing architecture and was keen to start a creative business - so when the time came we formed Patina and decided to see where this journey would take us.

Through this passion we've got the chance to travel the world and we feel so lucky that the couples we work with trust us completely. We love meeting new people; from hotpools under the stars in the Nevada desert, to magical snow fall at Tongariro; the places and experiences they've introduced us too, have been some of the best we've ever had.

If we get the chance to work together, we can't guarantee that your wedding dress will still look pristine at the end of the day (in fact it almost definitely won't!); but we can say that you will have an amazing time; memories and pictures that will last a lifetime.

Each year dozens of couples from all over the world let me join them on their wedding day, and to each one I'm grateful.

A wedding is a celebration of love in all its forms and I want to create photographs that speak to that - images that are honest, raw, and real.

If you're considering having me photograph your day, whether it's in Auckland, Albania or fill-in-the-blank, I'd love to talk with you.

My studio is on Victoria St West, Auckland, NZ, and if you're elsewhere, I'm always down for a Facetime.

Mel has a relaxed documentary based style and she likes to focus on bringing out your personality as well as the feeling of the day. Mel knows that every wedding is different and special to the couple getting married and feels it is important to have the right photographer for you, someone who is flexible and able to incorporate their skills and experience with your ideas and needs to capture the memories the way you want them. She has lots of experience and has won lots of awards that you don't really need to know about but what Mel does what you to know is that she is rather fond of cake.