Wedding photography
in the Dandenong Ranges.

An hour east, but a different forest.

The Dandenongs photograph unlike anywhere else within reach of Melbourne. The mountain ash forests around Sherbrooke, Sassafras, and Olinda hold a soft, even light through most of the afternoon, filtered through canopy that diffuses sun the way a ten-thousand-dollar light modifier can't quite manage. For couples who want photographs with a sense of place, the Ranges deliver immediately.

Marybrooke Manor sits in the middle of the Sherbrooke Forest, with grounds that move from manicured lawn into dense fern gully within a hundred metres. Tatra Receptions perches higher up, with longer eyelines through the trees and an outdoor ceremony space that catches dappled light beautifully. Lyrebird Falls in Kallista has a literal waterfall, which sounds gimmicky until you see how it photographs in soft afternoon light.

The catch with the Ranges is weather. Mist rolls in fast, the temperature can drop ten degrees over a forty-minute drive, and the roads narrow once you pass Belgrave. I always arrive with a clear plan for both rain and shine, and I'll usually have walked the venue's portrait paths once before the day so we can move fast if light shifts.