I love shooting in parkades, there is so much detail and texture to work with and when you pair that with a photogenic action hero (Kris) the results are awesome!

We shot a few frames of Kris in action leaping over the railing and I have to hand it to him, there was not much space to clear the concrete above his head. In fact his hair is touching the section just above it. He nailed it every time and we had him do it several times.

Next up just a few steps away was a typical parkade environment, kind of blah aside from the fantastic pose Kris was rocking. This shot is strait out of camera (SOOC). It was lit with a single speed light through a lastolite tri flip diffuser. Hmm it was not what I was looking for, it certainly did not have much mood or mystery about it anyway.

But the shot above gave me an idea, something to work with. I liked the light on the ceiling but was not wild about all the grey and brightness of the light spilling all over the concrete. Ditch the Tri Flip and just hit Kris with a bare flash zoomed to 105mm to control spill and keep the light nice and tight on him. I exposed for the light above his head and shot with the camrea in Manual and the Flash in TTL. Now we were cooking! Oh yeah and the light placement above his head and expression were not an accident. Kris struck the pensive expression on his own and a lightbulb went off in my head! I thought why not…

Here is a side by side of the two shots.

hope you liked it. Later

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Today we went to the West Edmonton Mall waterpark. The boys were too scared to go in the “ocean” so it was just me all by my lonesome, that is why I am the only one who is wet. I wonder why they were scared, do you think it had anything to do with the way I looked? Maybe they were just embarassed to be seen out in public with their dad =)

They were both so excited to go and when we first got there and looked through the window they were bouncing with anticipation. The whole time we were in the change rooms they both kept yelling “we’re going to the waterpark…”, but once we got in the water and the horn sounded for the waves that was it. After a few splashes Owen wanted out of the “ocean” and Brandon had enough as well. We tried to get them to play in the splash park and Brandon did try a little but Owen wanted no part in it. Instead Owen preferred to alternate between the hot tub and the lounge chairs and Brandon was brave enough to tackle a few slides with me and stay in the shallow parts of the wave pool.

Not sure how soon they will want to go back but I had a pretty good time, even though we did not get to go on the tube rides which were not open… and when we asked them if they had fun they both said yes.

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The other day we were picking the boys up from daycare. As usual when we got there Owen and Brandon came running over to greet us. Owen yelled “daddy” as he jumped into my arms and I squeezed him for a hug while I picked him up. He was excited about his day and was telling me all about it when “they” came over.

They being 3 older boys who thought it was funny to run up to Owen while I was holding him and start calling him “baby”. “Hey Baby!”, “Baby!” blah blah blah. Hmm real cool kids to run up pack like and pick on a younger kid by calling him names. How smart of an idea is that, can’t they see that an adult is there? Wait thats right they are only 4/5 ish which is a good thing for them because my mind is racing and all I can think about is knocking them over and yelling at them to quit calling my son names and stop acting like babies themselves. Hmm they are getting to me, time for a deep breath think fast. I quickly ask them their names and then let them know that no this is not baby, whoever that is, this is Owen. I ask them if they are just talking silly and they laugh because they know they are. Of course kids being kids I doubt they realize how mean, hurtful, abusive, and belittleing these words can be, at least I doubt it at this age. They are being silly and this is somewhat expected for their age group, just like a 2 year old will bite another kid. Not apporpriate but expected.

We have a long talk with both Owen and Brandon on the ride home and explain that this type of behaviour is not appropriate. It is mean, hurtful, and cowardly. In some ways I think this is a good thing to happen to Owen. Hopefully it will help him be more aware how it feels to be picked on and perhaps he will be less likely to repeat this kind of action towards others. At least that is what I am hoping because it is not cool to pick on others even though that seems to be a natural thing kids do until they “grow up” and realize how silly it actually is.

Of course we know Owen is not a baby, he is a wonderful child who has a huge heart and looks after his brother, he uses his manners and is respectful of others. He has a wild imagination and is very thoughtful of mommy and daddy. He must be a big boy because we all know that babies do not share and Owen loves to share with his brother even if his brother never shares back. A sprinkled doughnut no less, what a great big brother he is and we are so proud of that!

When it came time for bed that night there were extra hugs given, probably more for me than Owen.

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Still on the self portrait kick, not sure for how long but if you like them I can keep them coming just let me know via the comments. I will be shooting them as a personal project for a while longer anyway as a friend of mine challenged me to making a self portrait everyday for an undetermined period. I just thought I would share some of the early ones here and I will continue to post them via my Flickr account at the very least. It is very challenging to come up with an idea that can be carried out from start to finish in under 30 minutes but tonight I came up with a special agent theme with a light in a briefcase. While not incredibly original I have always wanted to make a shot like this so I can now cross it off my list.

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Tonight I was trying to think of what to do for a self portrait, you know just throw something together because self portraits are easy right. Well I could not really come up with anything on the spot and was felling a little bit silly and wanted to just shoot something fast, just on a whim. I was wearing my Top Gun t-shirt and was thinking I could pull off a little fighter pilot attitude. The problem is the only props I had on hand to play up the theme besides my t-shirt was a pair of aviator sunglasses.

Then I thought that I could pretend to be a super fan or something and I busted out some gaffer tape, put it under my eyes like the football players do and fliped my hat backwards. Don’t ask why, it just felt cool. This is the only frame I got of this as after this shot the batteries for my flash were dead and I though it would be a good time to end my silly stuff and go to bed.

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In October I had the pleasure of meeting the Hofstra family and photographing Addison.

Addison was a real trooper and pretty much let us take as many photos as we wanted. She has such big gorgeous eyes!

A couple classic black and whites

Of course we played Addison out after a while and it was nap time. I love the intimacy between these two.

Rockin’ with her brother!

What a great big brother! Here let me straighten this letter for you.

Thank you guys for coming to the studio, we got some great images and I had a lot of fun!

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It’s been a hectic October and I am just starting to get caught up. I should have a wedding post soon as well as a couple other portrait sessions to share but for now I will leave you with some pet portraits. Dogs to be specific.

Back in August I was out walking Kosmo and decided to stop at my sisters place to check out the first apple on her new apple tree. While I was there the sun was setting and her dog Ripley was just hanging out begging me to take his picture. I love this one.

I did not take any pictures of Kosmo on that night as he was too busy playing with his favorite toy, a rubber ring, to sit still long enough for a portrait. So I figured I would get him in the studio for a portrait with his ring! Kosmo obsesses over this ring. He would litteraly run himself to death chasing this thing if you let him.

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We did celebrate on our anniversary but I did not have a post up on the actual day. With 2 young kids it can get a little hectic. This year marks our 6th wedding anniversary, and we dated for 6 years before we got married. I guess this is the tipping point to where we have been married for more years than we dated.

The typical “gift” themes for 6 years are Iron (traditional) and Wood objects (modern) and the flower is the Calla. I thought the Calla was pretty cool as that was the flower Angela had in her wedding bouquet. I was covered for the flowers part courtesy of Wild Orchid in Edmonton.

I got 6 callas, one for each year. I hope that was not a mistake as what am I going to do for 20 years!

Next up was to make a “wood object”. I think paper should cover that! Check! A little sign to mark our occasion.

All we needed to do now was have ourselves a little photoshoot courtesy of Aunty Claudette! This is my fav of the two of us.

Our additions since we have been married. They keep us busy and we would not trade them for anything! They are so precious and they really look after each other, it is so cute.

The family…

Thanks again Aunty for coming and taking photos of us. You may be a rookie but with a little back end work everything turned out great!

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We had the Williams family join us for a studio session to mark some milestones along with capturing their family portraits. This was my first formal white seamless shoot and I am very pleased with the results.

Of course the boys love everything cowboy so we had to have a little rodeo for them. They each got a turn being rider and bronc!

A little more grit to the cowboy look

A little face time. I love the downward look, so classic.

A little B&W of the family.

Thank you for the really fun session and I look forward to shooting for you guys again.

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Sometimes it is a real challenge just to make a picture. For example, my two monkeys love to have fun and always seem to be “out of synch” when it comes to timing expressions. Unless of course you are trying to time the funny faces then they can be dead on. It is a lot of fun watching and waiting for the right chance to get a “perfect” shot of the two of them together. Of course this is where patience and digital cameras pay off. But the more images we capture of them the more I actually like the “off” images. I really think it captures who they really are and what their personalities are at this point in time. A sense of genuine I suppose.

I think this set went something like this… “Hey guys, do you want to shake or hold hands? Sure we would love to, but I am gonna squeeze the heck out of my big brothers hand. Oh yeah and mom and dad say he has to be nice to me. he he”. Somehow I think big brother gets the raw end of the deal on this one.

Even though we love to bug each other, we are still brothers and just love to hang out and be with each other. In a word; inseparable.

Sometimes you can’t make a picture, you just have to let it happen all on it’s own. The key is being ready when those moments present themselves so that you can make the most of them.

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