The Entrance wedding photographer: Channel, sandbar and pelican
Lumenry is a Cooks Hill studio, and as The Entrance wedding photographer we work where Tuggerah Lake runs out through a narrow channel to the ocean. The town is built around that channel: a foreshore park on one bank, sandbars that shift after every big storm, and a surf beach a short walk away, all about an hour from Newcastle.
What we look for as The Entrance wedding photographer
At The Entrance the lake drains to the sea through one channel, and almost everything worth photographing sits along its banks.
Memorial Park runs along the southern bank of the channel, a long, grassy foreshore with the water right beside it.
Next to it is Pelican Plaza, where the pelicans are fed every afternoon at half past three, a habit that began with scraps from the local fish shop.
The bridge carries the road across to The Entrance North and Karagi Point, where the channel opens to the sea between low dunes.
Inside the channel the sand builds into pale bars and shallows that change shape from season to season, and east of the town centre the surf beach and the ocean baths face the open sea.
Along the channel at The Entrance
Memorial Park
The foreshore park on the channel's southern bank, with wide lawns, shade trees and the water a few steps away.
It's flat and easy for a bridal party, close to parking, and gives the channel and the bridge as a backdrop.
The channel sandbars
At low tide pale sandbars and clear shallows show through the channel, the colour of the water shifting from green to blue.
A couple on the edge of a bar, with the lake on one side and the sea on the other, says exactly where you married.
Karagi Point
Across the bridge at The Entrance North, the reserve at Karagi Point looks over the mouth of the channel where it meets the ocean. Dunes, coastal scrub and big open sky, and usually far quieter than the town side.
The Entrance Beach
The surf beach east of the town centre, with the ocean baths beside it.
It gives the open-ocean frames, waves and long sand, a short walk from the channel, for couples who want the sea in their pictures as well as the lake.
The Entrance has water on both sides of it, and that changes the evening.
The surf beach faces east and goes into shade as the sun gets low, but walk to the lake side and the sun goes down over Tuggerah Lake to the west, so this is a place on the coast where a couple can stand with the sunset over water behind them.
The shallow channel throws light back up on a bright day, which fills shadows on faces. Summer afternoons often bring a north-easterly breeze off the sea, and winter evenings are calmer on the lake but cold once the sun is gone.
What we're asked about The Entrance
Will the pelican feeding be on during our photos?
It runs every day at half past three, beside Memorial Park, and it draws a crowd. If you'd like the pelicans in a few frames, we time a walk past just before or after. If you'd rather a quiet foreshore, we keep that half hour for the far end of the park or the other side of the bridge.
Can we stand out on the sandbars in the channel?
On the edges, at low tide, yes. The bars move and the water through the channel runs fast when the tide turns, so we never wade across it. We check the tide for your date, pick a bar we can step onto from the bank, and keep the bridal party on dry sand.
Where do we watch the sun go down at The Entrance?
On the lake side, looking west across Tuggerah Lake. Unlike the ocean beaches, the sun sets over the water here, and on a clear evening the lake turns orange and then pink. We leave the last twenty minutes of light for this and walk you to the shore in time.
Is The Entrance busy during the summer holidays?
The foreshore is the town's main gathering place, so holidays and weekends bring crowds, markets and events in the park. We check what's on for your date with Central Coast Council and plan around it, or use the quieter ground over at Karagi Point.
Can our photos take in both sides of the bridge?
Easily. The bridge links The Entrance with The Entrance North in a couple of minutes by car, or a short walk on foot. A town-side session in Memorial Park followed by the open dunes at Karagi Point gives two very different looks in one afternoon.
Is The Entrance a good choice for a winter wedding?
It's a good one. The holiday crowds are gone, the lake is often calm, and the low winter sun sets earlier over the water, so the lake sunset arrives in the middle of a reception timeline rather than at the end of it. Bring a coat for the two of you once the light goes.
Meet us where the lake runs out.
Give us your date and the reception address, and we'll time the channel, the sandbars and the lake sunset so they fall in order.
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