“Hey Bren, wanna come to Japan?”
“Yeah, it should be okay, let me have a look at my schedule”
“I have a few days that can work”
“Done, cya there”
I met Ace and Linh on the Monday night. We drank coffee in Starbucks and exchanged interesting facts about the things we had discovered about Japan. I think for me the thing that made me most excited was that not only was this going to be a pre-wedding shoot, but also a secret elopement.
Planning for this trip in the middle of wedding season wasn’t easy, but I was super excited to head back to Japan and shoot with these love birds. I went from a wedding reception, home for 3 hours, off to Sydney airport, arrived in Kyoto & started location scouting. Roaming the streets with thousands of tourists, trying to remember information about which trains to get, google translating an explanation to a taxi driver to drive us 650 meters up the road cos it’s easier than walking up hill with bags of suitcases and then back to Sydney for another wedding.
Whilst scouting, I was on the train to Nara and Linh rang and asked me where I was, I replied saying “on the train to Nara.” I then had about 5 people give me the “get off the phone” death stare and I politely and quietly whispered into the phone “let’s whatsapp yeah” and hung up. I was quite anxious, the sun was starting to set and I knew that there wasn’t much time so I had to make it count. I arrived to the most amazing park I’ve EVER been too. The anxiety had disappeared. I knew that this place would be PERFECT for them.
How do I describe Nara? Quite simply, breath taking. There’s no busyness or chaos. It’s peaceful and you really feel relaxed. The thought of talking about Nara makes me smile & I get the warm n fuzzies..
Round two: When we arrived in Nara I was so excited to be taking them here. The sun was setting and things just fell into place beautifully. Linh changed into her gown while Ace prepared a video camera. They had a first look then gave their vows to each other. The sun had gone down and they were happy. You could feel the sense of joy as they realised what had happened…
The more often I travel the more I start to feel like each place takes a piece of my heart. Nara was a place that will forever remain vivid in my mind.
I think back to what happened and how it all came together, I look at these images and feel connected to a story, a city and a couple.
Nara, you’ve won my heart.
Bren.
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