# Lakshal Perera - Photographer of Awesome Stuff

> Macedon Ranges & Melbourne photographer specialising in weddings, families, and small business stories. Honest, heartfelt photography with warmth and authenticity.


## Posts

- [Andy & Laura](https://lakshalperera.com/2025/05/andy-laura-pandemic-love-wedding/): Laura and Andy unexpectedly found love in the pandemic and like many of us during this period, their lives went in a different direction to what they had imagined. ❤️
- [Yennie & Quynh](https://lakshalperera.com/2025/03/yennie-quynh/): [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Quynh and Yennie had been together for nearly 10 years before they were married, but a large chunk of that was in secret. Not only were they a same sex couple in a country not quite prepared to grant same sex couples the same rights as the rest of us, they were a same sex couple from migrant families. Coming from Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese backgrounds, they had additional cultural barriers to breakdown – I haven’t had the same experiences around my sexuality but I understand what those barriers feel like. A few years ago, Quynh sat her brother down […]
- [Olivia & Tim](https://lakshalperera.com/2024/05/olivia-tim/): [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]A few weeks before the wedding, Tim, Olivia and I sat in a café in Kyneton and spoke for about 2 hours about all the things that mattered to us. Tim is really into sustainable building and it was something that we were spending a lot of time talking about in our own house as we prepared for our home to be renovated. What we spoke about could really have been anything but at its heart, it was a connection and sharing of our values and the way that we believed the world should be. I left our […]
- [Inez Tattoo](https://lakshalperera.com/2023/05/inez-tattoo-melbourne-studio/): Inez Tattoo is named after owner Montana’s grandmother, Inez who was a Collingwood local through and through. She lived there from 1922, worked in the neighbourhood factories (including one on the very same street the studio sits on now!) and stayed put her whole life. She was also a breast cancer survivor, and her experience shaped the way Montana thinks about her work today. The studio itself is small, tucked away in an alley, but it’s the kind of place that immediately feels warm. Soft couches, leafy plants, music that’s easy to listen to, candles burning. It feels like a […]
- [I'm Having a Little Break from Social Media](https://lakshalperera.com/2020/04/im-having-a-little-break-from-social-media/): I’ve had a lot of trouble sleeping in the last few weeks. I keep waking up in the middle of the night, my mind whirring – not about anything in particular – but it takes me such a long time to get back to sleep. And I’ve started seeing small flashes in the corner of one of my eyes. I think I’m really run down, exhausted and to be honest, overwhelmed. All of my photography work has currently been postponed and rightfully so. We are at an unprecedented time in our collective experience and we need to do as much […]
- [Coronavirus and Weddings](https://lakshalperera.com/2020/03/coronavirus-and-weddings/): These are the strangest of strange days. How can we speak of anything other than the COVID-19 coronavirus – apocalyptic dystopian stories set in the future have become the stories of today. I can’t find a way to present images of weddings, people, art, music, or just about anything while somehow acknowledging this isn’t happening, it’s just not possible. I’m not actually particularly scared of getting sick. I’m not scared for Kristen, nor Vega either. This is because firstly, we’re otherwise healthy and fatalities in our age group are rare and secondly, it affects children at a significantly lower rate […]
- [Photographer of Awesome Stuff](https://lakshalperera.com/2020/01/photographer-of-awesome-stuff/): Photographer of Awesome Stuff means I photograph all awesome things, weddings, families, small businesses, architecture, you name it!
- [lou & jeff](https://lakshalperera.com/2017/12/lou-jeffs-hamlet-wedding-umbria-italy/): Lou and Jeff met when they were both in high school. He was a couple of years older but when two of their friends started dating, Lou and Jeff ended up spending more time together. Over the next few years, they grew up together but also gave each other room to grow. Lou lived 1.5hrs away for the 3 years she spent at University but both of their willingnesses so make the relationship work – as well as their gentle and accommodating natures – made haste of their time apart. In 2012 they embarked on a year long trip around […]
- [The Road to Here](https://lakshalperera.com/2017/02/the-road-to-here/): I was more successful now than I'd ever expected and this is what I had always wanted for my business. But I realised that I was actually unhappy.
- [Deirdre & Doug](https://lakshalperera.com/2016/11/deirdre-dougs-english-countryside-farm-wedding-festival/): Now I am fully aware that this is a long shot. A very long shot. But I’ve been thinking about writing you for a whole week, and I never take chances, and this IS a long shot, but I thought I’m gonna do it, I’m just gonna bloody do it! So here I am. You see Lucky, it’s not just the fact that you take the most beautiful pictures I’ve ever seen, but when I saw you last year, and when you spoke about your approach to your work and your life, I had a lump in my throat, the […]
- [professional photographer magazine – column 7 - finding the space to be a photographer](https://lakshalperera.com/2016/02/professional-photographer-magazine-column-7-finding-the-space-to-be-a-photographer/): First published in July 2014 I’m writing from our hotel room in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. Kristen is sitting in the next room reading and I can hear the sounds of men yelling downstairs, trying to sell fruit and vegetables to people walking past. The noisy traffic is rolling by at nearly an idle and the city is covered in a haze of smog. We haven’t got air conditioning in our room and the sweat and grime lingers on me from being outside a little earlier. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t want to be anywhere else right […]
- [Nick & Jannah](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/12/nick-and-jannahs-backyard-diy-wedding-in-ocean-grove/): Nick and Jannah first met 8 years ago. Nick had become friends with Jannah’s older brothers – they surfed together down at Ocean Grove (a beautiful surf town about 1 hour south of Melbourne). And Nick still remembers that very first time they met at Jannah’s parent’s house – she made Pad Thai and he loved it. But it wasn’t love, that was going to take a little longer. In 2011, Jannah needed some housemates and Nick needed a house, so he moved in. But their love still wasn’t to blossom, they both needed to feel what life was like […]
- [Brandan & Kelly](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/10/brandan-kellys-colourful-and-emotional-diy-melbourne-wedding/): I often think about why bad things happen to good people. So frequently, I meet amazing people who are tacking some of the biggest challenges that life can throw at us and I feel my chest tighten. It just seems so unfair when they exude so much wonderful positivity and kindness towards others that the universe would be so cruel to them. But I wonder if they are the way that they are because of this adversity. Kelly and Brandan’s story is one of overcoming these challenges but more powerfully, it is a story of love and devotion. I think […]
- [Staci & Simon](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/08/staci-and-simons-amazing-and-colourful-diy-backyard-wedding-in-melbourne/): I think about the person that I was when I was 14. I was painfully shy, awkward and very focused on doing well at school. I had basically zero emotional intelligence and girls were still pretty much foreign to me, I was more interested in soccer and The Simpsons. Things didn’t change for quite a while and I remained pretty much the same shy person until my late teens. I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden when I was about 20, I kinda grew up. I became more confident in myself and as that decade of my […]
- [professional photographer magazine – column 6 – defining success](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/07/professional-photographer-magazine-column-6-defining-success/): Before Kristen and I ran our ‘be nice + take nice photographs’ workshop last year, we wanted the attendees to spend some time to think about a few things. The main element was around how to define success and what that means to each person. The style of workshop we run isn’t so much a “we-do-this-and-you-can/should-do-it-too” method, it’s focused more on helping people figure out their unique goals are and equipping them with the tools to get there. So naturally, the first step is to actually articulate what they want and the ways to determine when they had achieved it. […]
- [Justin & Loretta](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/07/justin-lorettas-colourful-intimate-wedding-inner-city-melbourne/): Loretta and Justin’s story is a pretty amazing one. They met, a long way away from their homes, in rural Kenya where he was researching potatoes and she was working in maternal and child health and HIV prevention. It took only two weeks for Justin to move out of the farm where he was living and into Loretta’s cozy apartment – they knew there was something more than a little special there. Loretta said to me that their relationship was founded on cooking for and consuming delicious food with each other and their friends. That sounds just like my kind […]
- [Pete & Marina](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/06/pete-and-marinas-mornington-peninsula-winery-wedding/): About 2 months ago, I had just emailed Pete and Marina to check up some details about their album when Marina replied with a very sad message. Pete’s father Iain was in hospital after having suffered a sudden and significant heart attack. There was nothing which could be done and it was simply at the stage where the family would have a day or so to say goodbye to him. I’d met Iain a couple of times, once at Pete and Marina’s wedding and previously at Pete’s brother Mel and Alex’s Melbourne Wedding. Each time, Iain simply stole the show. […]
- [Richard & Clarissa](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/04/richard-and-clarissas-colourful-farm-wedding-in-melbourne/): When I met Clarissa and Richard for the first time, just a few months before their wedding, I developed a huge friend-crush on both of them. They’re just warm and enjoyable people to be around – you can’t help but love them! Richard loves cats (scroll down for a picture of his amazing cat Zach) and photography and Clarissa is a strong, intelligent and independent woman who has a soft side too (it sounds kinda familiar, hmm…). In the hours that we spent chatting at our local pub, I found out about their histories and one of them and this […]
- [Laura & Joel](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/03/laura-joels-diy-backyard-wedding-on-a-farm-in-parkes/): I was driving my hire car along a rough dirt road to Tarcoma, a property about 25km from Parkes in country NSW that Joel’s family has owned for a few generations. As I was driving, the AC/DC song “Highway to Hell” came on over the radio. There was a huge cloud of dust trailing me and I disrupted a huge group of galahs who swooped down from a tree and led me down the road. I followed them for about 100m or so before they flew off but in that moment, I couldn’t help but think how quintessentially Australian that […]
- [Beate & Edwin](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/02/beate-edwin-destination-wedding-prague/): I rarely write on my blog about what actually happens at weddings I photograph – I prefer to think more about things from a more emotional perspective because that’s in my mind where the real value of a wedding is. But I think Beate and Edwin’s wedding which Kristen and I photographed in Prague earlier this year cannot simply be limited to emotions – there’s just so much more that can’t necessarily be picked up from the images. There is symbolism in everything and Beate and Edwin, being such a unique and wonderful pair of people, need to have their […]
- [Holly & Paul](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/02/holly-and-paul-in-southampton-england/): If there’s ever a wedding that’s a reminder of what’s important, it was Holly and Paul’s. Holly had initially contacted me in 2012 saying that one day soon, her and Paul, who live in the south of England, would be getting married and that if it was possible, they would dearly love for me to photograph it for them. We kept in contact and in 2013 during our Euro travels, I spent a few days with them (and their beautiful rescue greyhound Gypsy) and discovered two souls who reminded me so much of myself and Kristen. It was inevitable that we […]
- [professional photographer magazine – column 5 - equality part 2](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/01/professional-photographer-magazine-column-5-equality-part-2/): Writing last month’s column was a bit of a challenge I must admit. I spent far too long on it, but being such a sensitive topic, I think it deserved the time and energy. It focused mainly on the idea of representation and how we as photographers had a responsibility to equally represent the people we work for. This month, we get to the second section of our brief discussion on equality – gender roles and the bride-centric wedding industry. When Kristen and I decided to get married, we were both really excited about preparing for it. We had similar […]
- [Garth & Fotini](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/01/garth-fotini-in-ambeli-greece/): You might just recognise the groom in these images. His name is Garth and he happens to be the inventor of an amazingly delicious treat called Chocorn. It’s something that he has been making in his own home for about 10 years and the adage “Nice Guys Finish Last” was proven well and truly wrong when he won the Australian TV show Recipe to Riches. I was first contacted by Garth’s partner Fotini in July 2012. They were planning on getting married in August 2013 in a small village in Greece called Ambeli. This village is one of those quintessential places left behind […]
- [Lindsay & Steve](https://lakshalperera.com/2015/01/lindsay-steve-in-niagara-on-the-lake-ontario-canada/): I tell nearly everyone that I know that I’m actually much less cynical about finding love now that I’m a wedding photographer. Week after week I meet people whose lives flow along this strange and random trajectory that just so happens to intersect with the perfect person who is on their crazy journey too. It’s a bit like that cheesy Gwyneth Paltrow movie ‘Sliding Doors’, you change one thing and the whole story is different. The wonderful Lindsay and Steve are two people from different sides of the planet who met by chance and decided their stories needed to be told […]
- [jamie & nikki](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/12/jamie-nikki-in-aviemore-scottish-highlands/): There was a moment during Jamie and Nikki’s wedding where I probably felt prouder of myself than I ever have before. The thing is, I’m not normally a very confident person – I always joke that I have just enough self-doubt to push myself to be better and better each day. But to be totally honest, there’s just more than a hint of truth in that. But first, a little history. Nikki is a an amazingly talented photographer and exceedingly kind human that lives in Glasgow, Scotland. She had been in Australia quite a few years ago and when one […]
- [niki & tom](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/11/niki-and-tom-in-manchester-england/): It took Niki and Tom 10 years and 4 countries to make it to the day they married each other. They met in Brisbane where Tom was a local and Niki a visiting Masters student from Scotland. She knew she would only be there for a year and like my lovely Kristen, Niki was an independent woman who had grand plans of traveling the world and helping humanity using her skills. Following her studies, she left to work in Bangladesh and sadly left Tom behind, thankful at least for the year that they had together. Six years and a lot of life and experiences passed, they kept […]
- [selim & nawal](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/11/selim-nawal-a-french-algerian-wedding-in-paris/): This wedding is truly one for the “pinch me” collection – never in a hundred years would I have expected to be shooting a wedding in Paris. I couldn’t believe it then and I think back to the experience and it still feels surreal. I know I was there but it feels like I was in auto-pilot or it’s just a fabricated memory. Having visited Paris last year to spend time with my friends Joana and Marcio who run French Kiss the Bride, I was excited to be going back but with Kristen this time. We spent 3 wonderful weeks […]
- [professional photographer magazine – column 4 - equality part 1](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/10/professional-photographer-magazine-column-4-equality-part-1/): I think a lot about equality – I guess being a dark skinned person growing up in a predominantly white country, you’re kinda forced to. I’ve been fortunate to not experience discrimination in the same way that many others have but that doesn’t make me immune to it. Nor does it make me exempt from discriminating – I always try to think about how my behaviour impacts others. As such, when it comes to being a photographer and small business owner, maintaining equality is something at the forefront of my mind. This month is the first of two columns on […]
- [Amber & John](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/10/amber-johns-wes-anderson-inspired-wedding-near-stanthorpe-qld/): The small town of of Dalveen is about 200km south west of Brisbane, sitting on the border of Queensland and New South Walkes. It is smack bang in the middle of apple territory – if you’ve ever eaten an apple from this area, you’ll know that they’re simply out of this world. Dalveen Town Hall is your typical country town hall with beautiful old wooden floorboards and filled with foldable chairs with the name of the hall spray painted onto the back of them. In extreme weather, the hall would protect you only from the rain and wind, the heat and cold […]
- [Nicola and Fontaine](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/10/nicola-and-fontaines-awesome-backyard-wedding-in-melbourne/): Somehow, love always has a way. I keep thinking that I seem to end up all over the earth photographing weddings for couples who have the most unlikely ways of meeting and strange ways of staying together. And sometimes, I even photograph weddings which are pretty much strung together at the last minute. But these two amazing women figured it out and made it all work – their hard work, resourcefulness and pure grit brought it all together. They inspired me and it’s honestly an honour to photograph couples whose love for each other can surpass anything that gets in their way. […]
- [Claire and Nick](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/10/claire-and-nicks-backyard-wedding-on-the-outskirts-of-melbourne/): When Nick initially contacted me about photographing him and Claire’s wedding, he told me that it would be in their backyard. They live with their 1 year old daughter Stevie in a home on the south eastern outskirts of Melbourne surrounded by 30 acres of beautiful Australian forest – I’d say that’s a pretty amazing backyard. Their place was initially built by one of Nick’s cousins about 15 years ago in a disused quarry using the stone and metal that was leftover from the times when it was an active site. The scars on the earth where this work was done are still visible […]
- [Tim & Vanessa](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/08/tim-vanessa/)
- [Professional Photographer Magazine – Column 3 – Bartering](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/07/professional-photographer-magazine-column-3-bartering/): I was born in Australia but grew up in Sri Lanka from the ages of 1 to 7. While growing up in a developing country comes with many disadvantages, there is a sense of community and camaraderie that Sri Lankans have which is wonderful to be a part of. People address each other not by names but as brother, sister, aunty and uncle and look after others before they look after themselves. I miss that. But thankfully, Kristen and I experience community through other ways. We’ve always felt a bit disconnected from the idea of how us humans can be […]
- [Jenny and Sean](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/07/jenny-and-sean-in-daylesford/): It’s actually a bit strange but I generally feel happy when I see a groom cry. I think perhaps part of it is the fact that I can immediately emotionally connect with that person, but I suspect it’s mostly because we live in a world that tells men they shouldn’t cry and I don’t agree with these notion of how they men “should” be. I absolutely respect ones who are, most simply, who they are, laid bare for all to see with no pretence of what they are expected to be. Weddings should always be honest, they should be celebrations of […]
- [Annie & Tim](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/06/annie-tims-amazing-and-colourful-melbourne-wedding/): Just about 9 hours before I arrived at Annie and Tim’s house (around 120km south west of Melbourne), I was photographing April and Dave‘s wedding in Sydney. I had promised myself to NEVER EVER take bookings for two weddings in two different cities on consecutive days – the fear of something going wrong with aeroplanes is all too much to bear. But Annie and Tim were the people who managed to change my mind (for what I suspect will be the first and only time). They promised me home-made tshirts, mixed tapes and home made goods – plus, they just sounded […]
- [Professional Photographer Magazine – Column 2 - The Window of Tolerance](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/04/professional-photographer-magazine-column-2-the-window-of-tolerance/): I recently discovered the concept of The Window of Tolerance. It’s a psychology phrase that defines the conditions in-between where you’re able to function with full access to your internal resources – ie. you’re managing ok. Life is good when we’re inside the window but when we get outside of it, we either respond with fight/flight or freeze responses. These responses are not pleasant for us and for some people, getting outside of the window is utterly debilitating. In time, it is possible to expand your window of tolerance to make difficult circumstances more bearable, but often not without significant […]
- [Shally and Rahoul](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/04/shally-and-rahouls-hindu-wedding-in-melbourne/): Shally walked out of her bedroom and down the stairs of her family’s home – the home she had lived in for most of her life. I watched her from outside the front door and knew that something was up. All morning, she had been a bundle of joy, relaxed, friendly and so full of conversation. But now, she looked like a totally different woman. She stood, holding her sari in her hand trying to compose herself but I could see she was fighting a losing battle. She had one last act to complete before she would forever leave this […]
- [Brad & Ellie's Beautiful DIY Backyard Wedding in the Dandenong Ranges near Melnbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/03/brad-ellies-beautiful-backyard-wedding/): Ellie and Brad were married in the backyard of Brad’s family home in the Dandenong Ranges, about an hour or so outside of Melbourne. But the reality is, most people don’t have backyards like this. You’ll see what I mean when you see the ceremony. I joked in the morning that I felt like Brad and Ellie hadn’t made enough of an effort – but as I said, it was very much a joke. Nearly every single element of this wedding was made by their hands, or the hands of their loved ones. But knowing that Brad and Ellie were […]
- [Lindsey and Ned's Ultimate DIY Farm Wedding in Marrawah, Tasmania](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/03/lindsey-and-ned-in-marrawah-tasmania/): Ned and Lindsey are from the beautiful island state of Tasmania – their lives were however worlds apart until the day they met in Hobart where Ned just so happened to be Lindsey’s landlord. That in itself is another story but it seems you can meet the love of your life in the strangest place. Anyways, back to the worlds apart thing – Ned grew up in the city whereas Lindsey lived her childhood years on her family’s dairy farm on the north western corner of the island in a small town called Marrawah. It’s not so much a town, […]
- [Deerfield Vintage Bridal Collection](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/03/deerfield-vintage-bridal-collection/): My wonderful friend Hayley runs a great little Etsy store called Deerfield Vintage Collection. Just after Hayley married her love Jon, both her and I were inundated with emails and comments on photos asking where she had gotten her dress from! Whilst her one isn’t for sale, Hayley decided that it was high time to include a vintage bridal range for her store as well. So here it is, a selection from the ‘little dreamer’ bridal collection which I helped photograph a little while ago. Head on over to Hayley’s etsy store or to Deerfield Vintage Collection’s FB page to […]
- [Georgie & Justine's DIY Outdoor Wedding in Melbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/02/georgie-justine/): My photographer friends have said to me in the past that sometimes it feels like I’m ready to take an image before it actually happens. I don’t necessarily know if that’s true but I know for a fact that I was not in the slightest bit prepared for Justine and Georgie’s entrance to the reception. Set to the tune of Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love”, every single guest was invited to the dancefloor to start the celebrations for the evening. You’ll see what I mean when I get to the images from that part of the day. Justine and Georgie are […]
- [Professional Photographer - Column 1](https://lakshalperera.com/2014/02/professional-photographer-column-1/): Towards the end of 2013, Professional Photographer (PP) Magazine asked me whether I’d be interested in writing a monthly column for their magazine covering the way that Kristen and I run our business. Now if you know me in person, you’ll know that I love a good rant – anything that I’m passionate and informed about, I’ll have some thoughts on! So this seemed to be the perfect soapbox to talk about the stuff that I really care about as a photographer – equality, opportunity and the concept of being nice. It was a way to share our alternative ways […]
- [A Guest Post by Kristen - India](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/12/a-guest-post-by-kristen-india/): Delightful Lakshal has asked me a couple of times to do a guest post on the website which I’ve refused. To be honest, most of the things I would like to write about aren’t really that pleasant, they are related to inequality and suffering. They are about challenging all of us (myself included) to be aware of, and take responsibility for, our actions (and, more often, our inaction). Who wants to hear about all that? They aren’t cheery uplifting topics that will make people want to come back and read more. If anything, they might make people hide under their […]
- [Bart & Kara's Amazing DIY Beach Wedding in Broome, Western Australia](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/10/bart-kara-in-broome/): In the grand scheme of things, Bart and Kara’s union is an unlikely one – they grew up separated by nearly the entire distance of the country, Kara in Melbourne and Bart in Cairns. It was only when Kara moved to North Queensland to study that their paths crossed and the unlikely became a certainty. I went to Broome where Bart and Kara live to share in their celebration and this was no mean feat. Broome is a relatively small town, nearly 2500km north of Perth which in itself is nearly 3500km to the west of me. All in all, […]
- [Staff Update 2013](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/08/staff-update-2013/): It is with much happiness that I am announcing a significant expansion of the business by 100% – as of a few weeks ago, Kristen started officially working with me! She’ll be looking after the albums, the blog, admin and enquiries as well as occasionally photographing awesome stuff with me. Kristen is accompanied by two of her former work colleagues who are very highly talented in their fields of work and will no doubt have a lot to offer!
- [Eva and Jean's Outdoor Festival Wedding in Overasselt, The Netherlands](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/08/eva-and-jean-in-overasselt-the-netherlands/): The way that Eva and Jean wrote to me in their first email warmed my heart. They told me they were getting married in the ruins of an old chapel which became the hideout for some bandits the middle of a forest in The Netherlands and everyone, including me, would be camping there. My plans had been to leave Europe straight after Mike and Cecila’s wedding in Sweden (three weeks before Eva and Jean’s date) but this was a perfect excuse to stay a little longer – and I’m so glad that I did. I received these invitations in the […]
- [Cecilia & Mike's Beautiful Midsummer Wedding in Smådalarö, Sweden](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/08/cecilia-mike-in-smadalaro-sweden/): There are times when you need to pinch yourself and ask whether what’s happening is real. Being in Sweden for Mike and Cecilia’s wedding was one of those moments. Sweden is a beautiful country, a huge geological contrast to Iceland where we had been for the previous two weeks – it was green and lush. It’s such an intangible experience trying to explain another country and why it feels different to you own but I must admit, it felt so very unreal to be there. But having experienced it, it’s one of those unforgettable things that is a watershed moment […]
- [Branch Studio Architects - Some Awesome Houses](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/07/branch-studio-architects-some-awesome-houses/): And now for something completely different… I guess it’s good to stay on your toes as an artist. It’s so easy to fall into a rut and just get used to doing the same thing over and over each time. I honestly felt a bit like that a few months ago, I was physically and emotionally exhausted and my creativity needed a bit of a kick. Doing something out of my comfort zone felt like a bit of an adventure and I was trying to figure out what that could be. Thankfully an opportunity came from a nearby source. My […]
- [Hayley and Jon's Beautiful Vintage Wedding at Boyd Baker House near Melbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/07/hayley-and-jon-at-boyd-baker-house-near-melbourne/): This is a wedding from nearly 4 months ago – a long time in my world between an event and seeing it on blog. But there was a good reason for that! The awesome people behind the website Hello May had asked to feature this wedding in their print magazine of the same name which just hit shelves last week (and I must admit, it’s a beautifully designed and printed magazine). And in an amazingly awesome turn of events, Hayley and Jon appeared as the couple on the cover too – a really humbling experience for me. A great little […]
- [Alana and Rob's Colourful DIY Wedding on Stradbroke Island, Queensland](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/06/alana-and-rob-on-stradbroke-island-queensland/)
- [Kylie and Greg's Offbeat Theatre Wedding in Inner City Melbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/05/kylie-and-greg-got-married-in-a-theatre/)
- [Jonny and Rachel's Alternative Backyard Wedding in Melbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/03/jonny-and-rachel-in-melbourne/): Rach and Jonny had something really special at their wedding – one hour allocated for speeches. But it was one of the most wonderful hours that I’ve ever experienced as a wedding photographer. Family members stood up and told funny stories about Jonny and Rach (including humourously bungled Spanish-English translations by Rach’s brother-in-law). A friend got up and played some beautiful music (I can’t for the life of me remember what it was) while another got up and recited a wonderful piece of poetry she had written called “Courage is Stubbornness Pointed in the Right Direction.” Everyone who was near […]
- [Mike and Sarah's Colourful DIY Wedding in Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/03/mike-and-sarah-in-kangaroo-valley/): Sarah is a really awesome photographer. When we met at a Sydney music festival, we were both sweaty, tired and carrying 10kg of camera gear on our backs. We became friends. A few years later, she met a nice boy. A while after, they decided to get married and I was asked to photograph their celebration. I said yes. Oh yeah, it rained a lot.
- [Mark and Ra's Offbeat Vintage Wedding in Westbury, Tasmania](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/03/mark-and-ra-in-westbury-tasmania/): “This might be an inappropriate question, but do people make a judgement of you two getting married so young?” I asked. Rhianna and Mark are both in their (very) early 20s and it was an honest question and for me came from a place of wanting to know a little more about them. I guess it’s not every day you see people this young getting married. The essence of Rhianna’s answer was that yes, people had made judgements about it, but they didn’t know that Mark and Ra had been together for over 6 years, owned a house together and […]
- [Lakshal Perera and the Great Photographic Adventure](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/03/lakshal-perera-and-the-great-photographic-adventure/): Last night after I posted a photo from a wedding I’d shot a month or so ago, and I received a message, one of the most heartfelt ones I’ve received in a long time. As a photographer myself I knew you had something special going for you when I first saw your photos. Every single one of them was transcendent – like you could envision the moment before it happened and were on guard and ready for when it happened. Now I see your wedding photos and I am continually in awe. I shot one wedding myself and swore never […]
- [James and Lauren's Amazing Circus Extravaganza Wedding at the Spiegeltent in Melbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2013/02/james-and-laurens-amazing-circus-extravaganza-wedding-in-melbourne/): To be honest, when you’re at a wedding every week, there could be the expectation that you’ve seen pretty much everything that could happen. But not in my wildest dreams could I have expected to be involved in something like James and Lauren’s wedding. Over the space of two days, I had the opportunity to document something that I’ve never ever seen nor could possibly expect to see again – a circus wedding where every guest was dressed up, circus performers did amazing acts, a well trained dog brought the rings down the aisle and photographs with a motorbike that […]
- [Nico and Steph's French/American Wedding in Leander, Texas, USA](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/12/nico-and-steph-in-leander-texas-usa/): Where do I start with this wedding? Well I guess we can go right back to the beginning. In 2007, there was a French exchange student who was in Wollongong, Australia studying for his Masters in Medical Radiation Physics. I was doing my PhD at the time and because everyone I was studying with was pretty friendly, I ended up meeting this Frenchman whose name was Nicolas. Since we already had a friend called Nick, Nicolas became known as Nico, French Nick or the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Nick. He had a great sense of humour and warmth and we […]
- [Anya and Srijan's Central Park Wedding in New York City, USA](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/12/anya-and-srijan-in-new-york-city/): A while ago, I put forward the idea of photographing weddings in exchange for non-money payment. I figured it would be a good way to meet interesting people around the world and also an outlet to experience the culture of wherever the couple were. Anya was so frustrated with the all-business-no-niceness model that she had encountered from a lot of photographers she had already looked at and was excited about the prospect of exchanging something with me to photograph her and Srijan’s very small and intimate NYC ceremony in Central Park. I had spoken to them via Skype a few […]
- [Pitinada and Sonny - A Vintage Inspired Elopement in Redesdale](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/10/pitinada-and-sonny-a-vintage-inspired-elopement/): When I was younger, I had thought that eloping was something you did when your parents didn’t want you to get married (quite common in the part of the world I grew up in [the parents not wanting you to get married bit]). But as I grew older, I realised at the core of it, it’s essentially what every single wedding is, stripped down to the purest essence. There’s two people who make a commitment to each other and declare their intent to be together forever. It removes the need for all of the other things that people often get […]
- [Shirley and Warren - An Amazing Farm Wedding in Deniliquin](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/09/shirley-and-warren-a-wedding-in-deniliquin/): I honestly don’t know where to start with this wedding. It’s not enough talking just about the wedding itself, there’s so much more to it. There’s a website that most photographers have used or are at least aware of called flickr. Shirley and I met on there about 6 years ago and we just seemed to respect each other’s work and personalities. She lived in the UK and was mainly a wedding photographer and I was always in Australia and had just photographed my first wedding. Whenever we uploaded new work to flickr, there would always be mutual appreciation and […]
- [Namrita and Preetesh's Telegu Wedding in Visakhapatnam, India](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/09/namrita-and-preetesh-in-visakhapatnam-india/): Namrita and Preetesh first heard about me on a website that I frequent called Reddit. A little over a year ago, I was depressed and could barely get out of bed on days. I was sad with my job in science and what I did everyday, and craving for a way to get out and do something different. I loved photography, and it had always been a bit of an obsession and never something that could be a life for me. Out of desperation, I did something that I now recognise was a little silly, I asked the Internet for […]
- [Namrita and Preetesh's Traditional Marwari Wedding in Chennai, India](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/08/namrita-and-preetesh-in-chennai-india/): Three months into my full time photography career, who would have thought that I would be hired to photograph a wedding in India? But it was true and I’m still a little in shock at how it all happened. This is part 1, a traditional Marwari ceremony in Chennai spread out over 2 days. There is no point tarnishing this visual experience with my words of how amazing the trip was, how wonderful the families were to me or how refreshing it was meeting new people with beautiful hearts on the other side of the planet. I’ll just let you […]
- [Warren and Shirley - A Milky Way Wedding Photo in Deniliquin, New South Wales](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/08/warren-and-shirley-in-deniliquin-preview/): As a young child, all I dreamed about was being an astronaut. As an adult, all I dream about is being a wedding photographer. Yesterday, both things came together for one brief moment.
- [The Wedding Industry Sucks](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/04/the-wedding-industry-sucks/): One of the things that is slowly becoming evident to me is the judgement made by some people about me being in the “wedding industry.” I sometimes feel a little embarrassed telling people I’m a wedding photographer and I’ve spend some time trying to figure out why. I’m really happy doing what I do so I have to admit that it is a strange guilt that I feel. This is a complicated thought process I’ve been through to get to this point so I hope you can bear with me. If you can’t be bothered, just scroll to the bottom, […]
- [Eleanor and Richard’s DIY and Vintage wedding in Colbinnabbin, Country Victoria](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/03/eleanor-and-richard-wedding-colbinabbin/): The rumour going around is that every op shop in a 25km radius of Melbourne is currently out of vintage plates. I blame Richard and Eleanor. I try to steer clear of the typical wedding photographer blogging style of explaining the photos and details, etc. It gets pretty boring pretty quickly for you readers out there, but in this case, I simply have to tell you about parts of it, I’m not sure I’ll get to experience it again. Richard’s parents own a 150 year old Heritage Listed house (on over 100 acres of fertile farming land) in the rural […]
- [Rachel and Karl's Amazing DIY Wedding at Boyd Baker House near Melbourne](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/03/rachel-and-karl-wedding-melbourne/): There are times in your life that you can scarcely believe your circumstances. Sometimes it’s as a result of hard work, sometimes it comes from natural talent, but for me, it was simply a case of being in the right place at the right time. The first wedding I ever photographed was a little over 5 years ago. The groom, Callum, was the bassist in a touring band from Melbourne who I just so happened to photograph at a small venue in Sydney. He contacted me asking whether I’d be keen to photograph his wedding to which I nervously agreed. […]
- [The Sri Lankan Marriage Party](https://lakshalperera.com/2012/01/the-sri-lankan-marriage-party/): The final wedding celebration is done and over with and I think we looked pretty alright! It’s slow and patient work uploading this at 10kB/sec from the middle of the forest near Sigiriya in Sri Lanka while we travel around with our friends, but I figured Kristen was too lovely to not show off to everyone.
- [A History of Me](https://lakshalperera.com/2011/03/a-history-of-me/): I’m feeling particularly enthusiastic after the last few days of my life. Yesterday’s post with the park photos felt like a huge weight off my back and the feedback I received from people made me glow like a little worm of the glowing type. Today, I want to share something that’s deeply personal but also extremely public. It’s all of the photos from the 52 Weeks Projects that I have started, and in some (2) instances not finished, over the last 3 years. The basic premise is that you take a self portrait each week for an entire year. Some […]

## Pages

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- [My Bucket List](https://lakshalperera.com/my-bucket-list/): [vc_row desctop_mb=”margin-lg-30b” tablets_mb=”margin-sm-30b” mobile_mb=”margin-xs-25b” tablets_pb=”padding-sm-30b” mobile_pb=”padding-xs-0b” el_class=”about-details-section”][vc_column offset=”vc_col-lg-7 vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12″ css=”.vc_custom_1477469685699{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column offset=”vc_col-lg-5 vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12″ css=”.vc_custom_1512652971480{padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”25396″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One of the most amazing things about being a wedding photographer is the opportunity to meet wonderful people you wouldn’t ordinarily get to meet and also to travel the world doing something you love. But flying me out to wherever you are can sometimes cost thousands of dollars meaning I might fall outside of your budget. Kristen and I couldn’t afford a photographer when we got married in […]
- [Nice Words](https://lakshalperera.com/nice-words/): Donna and Tenny [frame_right src=”https://lakshalperera.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DonnaTenny.jpg” href=””][/frame_right] [quote]Lucky is exactly the kind of wedding photographer that you want – he’s the guy that entertains your 3yo nephew, has a jam with your husband to be and is willing to take test shots to ensure there’s no nipple-gate sagas for the bridesmaids all while taking AMAZING photos that capture your wedding day perfectly. He is fun to hang out with and completely unobtrusive during the ceremony andamp; reception. As for the photos – there isn’t a single photo that Lucky gave us that I don’t absolutely love. They aren’t just beautiful, they […]
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