Owen got a big kid bike for his birthday, his first two wheel bicycle. He was pretty excited and wanted to ride it right away so he did a “lap” in the living room. Well lets just say that he ran out of room quickly so outside we went, even though it was pretty chilly! Owen had no problem figuring out the pedals, which was a concern of mine because when we were in the bike store he had a hard time due to the differences between a tricycle and two wheel bike. But out on the street on his home turf, he laid rubber on the road with Brandon in hot pursuit!

Owen had fun trying to run over the camera as he rode and Brandon ended up needing a little help from mom to make it up the “hill”, um yes it seems pretty flat but you will have to take Brandon’s word that it was a hill!

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A few weeks ago while visiting Aunty Claudette, Owen challenged Brandon to a duel!

Without hesitation Brandon accepted the challenge and the battle began. Owen came out swinging strong…

but soon stumbled and the tide turned in Brandon’s favor.

In the end Owen was victorious over Brandon

and set his sights on his next victim…

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Today Owen turns 4 years old, Happy Birthday Owen! We were planning on doing a photoshoot of Owen to mark his 4th birthday but things took an unexpected yet pleasent 4 year old detour. Owen is a firecracker of activity and you will rarely catch him sitting still for long. This can make for a challenging shoot to be sure but it is always entertaining. Here he is showing me how to jump rope. Not quite what I had in mind for the shoot but when dealing with a 4 year old you sort of have to roll with the punches. I thought why not get him to hold a camera too, maybe he would sit a little longer and I could get something in focus.

Right off the bat he noticed that there was no battery or lens and he needed them to be able to take picture you know. So I ran off and grabbed a battery and lens so that he could actually use the camera, and I have to say I think he is a natural! Almost instinctively he knew what to do and snapped a few frames and then checked the back of the camera to see the results of his first few frames. Chimping ain’t easy you know.

Obviously he liked the feeling as his face lit up with exceitement! Maybe Owen could rep for Canon, how cute would that be. A little 4 year old prodigy in their ads.

This was the resulting shot, not bad hey. Of course I put the camera on aperture priority mode at 1.4 and cranked the ISO to 3200 so the grainy image is not his fault, just a by product of shooting with no light.

After he smiles big, he puts the camera back up to his eye to take a few more frames… yeah now were talking!

We are now trading frames shooting each other working and it donned on me that this is probably the first photos I have of me in action. I have to say it is not pretty, I think I need to improve on my style when shooting

I also happened to notice Owen’s preference for shooting using the left eye in the viewfinder. At first he put his right eye to the viewfinder but then immediately switched to the left and stuck with it everytime he shot. The lucky kid will get to put Joe McNally’s Da Grip to use!

So the photoshoot is now abandoned, well the session of Owen anyway, but Owen has just started his own session. We wandered the whole house looking for subjects. I was taking pictures of Owen taking pictures so we have a few here of my perspective of Owen and then his resluting shot. Pretty cool hey!

Their play kitchen.

Some garden gnomes that were waiting to be release into the garden of korsan.

Himself in the mirror. I guess it is not just his dad who takes pictures of himself

Then Owen switched gears and turned his attention to some details shots of his toys.

After checking off self portraits and detail shots, I think Owen wanted to show his versatility and do some portrait work.

First up was Kosmo

Then Grandma H

and Grandpa H

Brother Brandon

and last but certainly not least Mom

Happy 4th birthday Owen! We are so proud of the little man that you have become and daddy is looking forward to a little help on my next shoot!

For full details of what our Owen has been up to this past year check out Angelas blog at Korsan Crew

Editors Note: aside from adding a blog watermark the images from Owen’s camera have not been processed in any way.

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A few days ago we took the boys out back to plant some sweet peas that our friends next door gave us. They were so excited to get to head into the garden. Once everyone was ready to “work” it quickly looked like it was going to turn into a “city job”, you know the kind were there are 3 workers and 1 shovel!

After some careful supervision and instruction we were ready to get our hands dirty.

First up was Brandon. Just need to get the seeds into the hole and then fill it up with dirt, pretty simple right…

Whoa, all this manual labour is making me a little light headed, I better sit down and take a break before I…

After Brandon had his posterior planted he was done with um planting so Owen took over. Mom helped a little and then set him free to keep planting on his own.

Owen really enjoyed working with the seeds and soil. It was extra cool because this week they got to plant seeds at daycare and have their own plants growing right in the room. Owen wanted to bring it home today but we told him it had to stay a little longer. He cried and was pretty sad because he was so proud of his plant that he created…

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The boys got coloured bubbles for Easter and I was lucky enough be to home with them for the day! It was beautiful outside so we headed out to the driveway for some bubble mayhem. Right off the bat it was obvious that it was going to be a messy affair.

I figured that before things got too out of hand that we should switch to the bubble machine.

They thought it was so cool to try to step on a gazillion colored bubbles.

Looks like the sharks are swimming closer!

Closer, closer, closer, almost touching, STOP! So the inevitable happened, the bubble machine and it’s colored ooze were knocked over… At this point I thought it might be a good idea to put the camera down and help them get cleaned up before mom got home.

The driveway was covered, their clothes were covered, their shoes were covered. We hopped into the bath and got cleaned up and put on some new clothes. Luckily the bubbles were washable otherwise I might have needed to go into hiding, or the witness protection thingy.

Before and after, see the shoes are as good as new now!

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Tonight we decorated Easter Eggs. Grandma, Aunty Claudette, Uncle Phil, and GG all came over to help and watch the boys. Of course the coloring looks like juice so Brandon had to taste it. Hmm not too bad for vinegar and dye!

Yeah know that the kits come with a little wire thingy that you can use to dip the eggs right guys? Never mind, I forgot that it was way easier to do it this way…

COOL, guys look at my egg! What egg? Ohh you mean the one on the end of the green digits!

Uh oh! Um I think there might be a problem here guys. For some reason I just cannot get the egg to be the same color as my hand no matter how many times I dip it in.

Yep they are pretty green alright!

What is with my children dying their hands green? The last time was of course St Patricks Day.

Even Aunty had to get in on the action. Look at that concentration and attention to detail…

This is mommys egg she made at the start, so pretty. I am not sure why it was the only egg to escape the greeny blue bath that was the fate of at least two dozen other eggs, including Aunties focused effort.

See there is a theme to this years egg decorating, what can I say the boys dig blue

A lot!

For some reason even with the blue baths…

We did end up with one dinosaur kind of looking egg. I think this might have been the outcome of Aunties egg after Owen got his hands on it =)

Happy Easter everyone!

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The boys absolutely love popcorn and movies, but this was an extra special popcorn and movie night because they got to share it with Aunty C and Grandma K. Lately the boys keep telling us that they miss Aunty and they miss grandma. Owen tells us he misses Aunty every day and Brandon says the same about grandma. Brandon is so dramatic about it that if you ask him how he is doing he will reply with a response of “not good” sounding all sad and dejected.

I love that I caught them giving each other a look.

Ahh nothing better than cuddling on the couch with Aunty and watching a movie while eating popcorn!

Of course on a night like this they are all smiles!

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At the beginning of March I had the privilege of photographing the wedding reception for Mandi and James. They went away to get married and had a cocktail reception afterwards. The room was adorned with white and teal including chair and table covers, M&M’s, and accents giving a very airy and beachy feel. It made me think of a hot clear blue sky day on a beach in Mexico, which was awesome considering it was still snowy and cold here in March!

One of my favourites from the night.

I loved the expression and embrace of Mandi’s parents during slideshow.

Sharing the moment together.

Their first dance, well at least first for the local reception.

I love when couples get close while dancing.

Ya got to have a little kiss at the end!

Now this was a party that enjoyed dancing, nothing like the right song to pack a dance floor.

Thank you Mandi and James, it was a lot of fun capturing your reception. Next time you got to invite me to the wedding though

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I was walking around downtown Edmonton a week ago and this little Volkswagon caught my eye. In the springtime the color palette around here is mainly browns, greys and generally muddy but this little car was a nice clean bright white with a red roof.

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I was in the mood for something a little more film noir like. Shot this with camera in hand and had Angela hold the flash behind the kids toy work bench which has holes for all the tools to hang in. That is where the hot sopts are coming from, the light passing through the holes. But it looks like I could be peeking out the window of a motel into the parking lot waiting and watching while someone is pulling in.

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