Q. Which photographer do I receive?

The first booking on a date will have the owner of the company, Gavin Cato - shooting your wedding. If your date is already taken when initially  contacting us I will let you know & one of my other photographers will then be used for your wedding.

All the photographers who work for me are highly skilled and experienced and great with people. Specific examples of their work with us can be seen when meeting me.

This will all be made 100% clear to you before you actually decide to book. In most cases, you’ll  get me - but please make contact as soon as your date is confirmed as people often book a LONG way in advance.

Q. Where do you go to for weddings?

I travel all over Sydney, and there is nearly always no extra charge for travel.

I also regularly do interstate weddings, and the odd overseas one.

I love what I do so don’t mind a bit of time in the car (or plane) to achieve it!

Q. How do I organise to come and meet with you?

Please click the Contact page for contact information - Generally I see couples most weeknights after 6:30pm, and on selected weekend days when I am not shooting. We will work out a mutually convenient time when you contact us.

Q. Where are you based?

I am based in Helensburgh, about 15 minutes south of Sutherland. Detailed address details are given when organising a meeting.

Q. I want to book you but you live too far from me!!!

If you have a busy lifestyle and don’t have time to head down to where I am then perhaps we can have a chat on the phone, and once you are happy with all the details we will make a deposit to secure your date, then later on down the track when you have a bit more free time we can arrange to meet up.

Once the deposit is made I will send you an official booking confirmation so you can rest easy knowing your date is securely booked.

A common thing that couples in this situation do is book the base package to secure the date, then later on when we do meet up you can decide on album type/size etc. when I can show them to you.

Q. What type of packages do you offer?

The packages are common in that they all have all day coverage, and full resolution negatives.

The biggest difference between the packages in terms of pricing is the album used - and how big it is!

If you would like to mix details in the packages around I am more than happy to make a custom mix for you.

Please click here to see the packages.

Q. How far ahead do I need to book?

Really hard to answer as it depends when other couples call to book your date. First in best dressed! I recommend you contact me as early as possible to save disappointment, as a lot of people do book well in advance.

Q. How long until my photos are ready?

Generally 3-4 weeks after the wedding, and often sooner.

Q. What type of albums do you have?

I have a wide range of albums. None of my albums are small - I love large albums.

All the albums are stunning quality - this really cannot be impressed upon enough and will be understood very quickly when you visit me to see them.

In general most albums I make are magazine style these days. I can still do traditional of course - but I find that 99.9% of people opt for my magazine styles when they see them.

Albums are a real passion of mine and I spend a huge amount of time on them. It’s a real buzz for me to give a couple something of such quality which I know will last lifelong.

Q. How do we choose what photos go in the album?

What happens when you pick an album package is that after the wedding you will receive a (large) pile of 6x4” prints (thats postcard size) to sort through. What I get you to do is go through that pile and create a new pile with photos that you would like for the album.

When you have finished doing this, you give me a call and then we can do the album layouts in 1 of 2 ways.

1. 1)You book a time to come and see me to sit down in front of the computer together and lay out the pages. This is a fun process, and very easy to do. The computer I use to do this has large twin 30” screens so it’s very easy to move photos around and pick layouts that you like in realtime in front of you. During this process, any photo that you want made black and white can be done in realtime, along with many other modifications.
   

2. 2)If you don’t have time to come and see me to do the above, what I get you to do is post me the photos you have selected, and I then design a draft album and then email you proof pages. We go back and forth a couple of times over email until you give the all clear to print the album. This is generally how interstate wedding albums work but can also be used if you live in Sydney but have other commitments going on timewise.
   

When finished, the album will generally be ready for pickup or courier in 4-6 weeks. All of the 6x4” prints used to initially decide on the prints are yours to keep. The reason I print those shots out initially is that it is much easier to flick through a pile of prints to decide which ones you want to use, rather than scrolling through a list of filenames on a computer. On the back of every print there is a unique number which is reflected/matched in the files on my computer to generate your album.

Q. Do you shoot on film or digital?

I shoot entirely on digital using professional Canon digital SLR’s and literally the best lenses money can buy. I primarily use the Canon 1Ds MKIII which are 21 megapixel and are the best digital SLR’s money can buy.

Q. Do you shoot B&W/Sepia and/or digitally enhance photographs?

Yes. I will generally do a lot of black and white photography, and a lot of enhancing of photographs after the day. I can also do this in realtime for you during an album design session at our studio where I  have a comprehensive high end computing setup with multiple 30” monitors.

Please note, as I shoot in digital every file begins it’s life in colour - whenever a file is modified in any way, the original untouched file will still be included on your negatives disc.

Q. How much time do we need for photographs on the day?

As much as possible! I don’t have any limits on the number of shots taken so it’s in your best interest to give me as much time as you can manage.

I will generally be at the brides house approx 2 hours before she leaves, as some of the best photos of the day are taken there.

For after the ceremony, generally a minimum of 1 hour, however I highly recommend 2 hours or more - if we have enough time to fit in 2 or more different locations you will not only have great fun on the day, but the amount of incredible photos you end up with will be enormous.

I love shooting weddings and am happy to go non stop!

Q. Do I get photos on the website for my family/guests to see?

Yes. I place your photos on my website for 12 months after the wedding. What I do on the day of the wedding is hand out cards with a username/password on them which people can use to view your photos generally within 24hrs of the wedding.

Please note, to leave most of the excitement for you, I will only place 70-100 of the best photos online and won’t put the rest up unless you want me to after you return.

Q. Tell me about the slideshow at the reception?

If you would like me to, I can bring a 30” LCD screen to your reception, or use a projector if they have one. This ties in with the above website feature, where I show 70-100 photos on the slideshow and they are then the photos placed on the website. This is inclusive with all packages, and there  is no extra charge.

Q. What are your payment terms?

$500 non refundable deposit, the remainder paid 5-7 days before the wedding. Payment can be taken by direct deposit, cash/cheque, or EFTPOS (credit or savings).

Q. Do you do video as well?

No I do not, but I can certainly recommend video guys I get on very well with.

Q. I want to do a lingerie/other type of photo before the wedding

If you would like to do this please don’t be afraid to ask - this is something I can get really creative with and get some incredible shots of you looking your best, however it is not something I will bring up with people - due to their nature, I leave it to the bride-to-be to bring up the topic. With a lot of modeling photography under my belt for several big name magazines, this is an area where you will be stunned by the results.

I have samples I can show upon request.

Q. What is this “Trash the Dress” thing?

There are a lot of things we’d love to do photographically on the wedding day but can’t because of risk to the dress! What some couples like to do is head out sometime after the wedding day, and do the things we can’t dare to do on the wedding day. Please note, “trash the dress” is a poor description and originated from America where it is a bit more common. Generally speaking your dress will be fine after a trip to the dry cleaners.

Definitely not for everyone, but great fun and  awesome results for those who get into it!

Click here for more info!

Q. My friend says film is better than digital. Why don’t you use film?

I get this question a lot. There is a massive difference between the digital gear I use, and the digital cameras that most people own. The gear I use surpassed most types of film quality wise a long time ago, particularly in low light.

Q. My friend says digital is risky as the photographer may lose all my shots with a computer problem!

This has some truth in it and is certainly a nightmare for photographers who are not equipped properly and have the computing knowledge in this day and age.

I was high level computer systems engineer for some big ISP’s and Telcos before doing photography and as such I have an enterprise level of understanding regarding redundancy and backups of digital files.

I cover this issue in 5 ways ;

1 - The cameras I use have dual memory card slots, and photos are written simultaneously to both cards so if 1 card fails the photos will be available on the secondary card.

2 - At the reception I immediately backup photos to a laptop.

3 - Immediately after the wedding the photos are backed up in triplicate at my premises on both a mirrored hard disk setup plus a separate redundant storage device drive (A RAID5 SAN for you technical types).

4 - Within 48hrs after the wedding the photos are additionally copied to an offsite server housed in a secure 24x7 monitored datacentre - this is to protect against theft or fire at my premises.

5 - Although I give you your negatives on disc, I will continue to store your wedding files on my servers for a minimum of 12 months after your wedding, and often much longer.

Q. Do I get the digital negatives?

Yes. Every package booked gets the full resolution negatives with their package. These files are NOT watermarked and you have full permission to print them to your hearts content.

The negatives will be all perfectly adjusted and ready to print. There is enough resolution there to print to wall/billboard size if you were so inclined. Many files will have effects applied such as black & white/sepia/other adjustments.

Q. What type of enlargements can you do?

My most popular requested enlargement is a 20x30” block mount canvas print however I will print and (if necessary) frame any size you want, on any type of material whether it be high quality art gallery level metallic paper, or canvas printing, or acrylic.

The framing type and matte is also your choice.

Every enlarged photo will be individually edited and enhanced to complete perfection.

Q. The photos on the site look too dark or too bright or the colours aren’t right.

One unfortunate thing about computers is that every computer monitor is different. You could have 2 identical computer monitors side by side and both could display very different results.

Unless your monitors have been calibrated with a professional level calibration tool, there will be variance to the photographs. As always, please see me to view the photos in print - where they look perfect.

I have all our machines perfectly calibrated and re-calibrated weekly however I can’t help what other peoples monitors display our pictures like. That said, generally most monitors are “close enough” to look fine for casual web viewing.