Jamaica

So I just got back from my trip to Jamaica, which I must say was amazing. I got a wicked tan/burn, and got to swim in the Ocean, so I'm happy.

While we were there we shot a music video for an up-and-coming reggae singer, Ras Slick. He worked as one of the entertainers at the resort that we stayed at in Negril and was super friendly. He drove us around the crazy streets of Negril, took us to one of the local parties and was pretty cool. He gave me one of his CD's and I've been listening to his songs on my iPod ever since leaving Jamaica. :)

So here are some of the photos I took while we were shooting.

Happy Holidays!!!

This year Christmas just hasn't felt the same, it may be because I've been all over the place and haven't been surrounded by the traditional hustle and bustle I'm used to. Instead I've been preparing for my trip to JAMAICA! The flight leaves at 6:10 tomorrow morning and I'm QUITE excited. I'll be taking my camera along with me, so I should have some photos to post after. We fly back January 1st, 2009. :)

So as not to leave this post with no photos, once upon a time when I was in Montreal (this past summer) I got to take some photos of a friends niece while we were playing on the kayaks and I never posted any of the pictures I took of her. I was rifling through old photos on my computer today and came across them again and thought I would post a few.

How time flies...

I must admit, I'm ashamed to admit how long it has been since my last blog post. It's inexcusable I know. However, in the mean time I've been busy relocating from Barrie to Mississauga. The idea is that I will no longer have such a crazy long commute to work and to my clients, and with winter fast approaching I believe I moved in the nick of time. Unfortunately though my internet access is rather limited at the moment, since I'm still getting things set up and organized, so any lack of blog activity is mainly due to lack of the interweb.

The following are some photos recent photos I did for fun. The first is my oldest brother. We took these photos as a sort of pick-me-up after he had a bad accident and completely destroyed his new truck by taking out a hydro pole as a result of bad weather and slippery roads. Thankfully he only suffered from whiplash.

The other photos are of my baby niece Emma. She is SOOOO adorable. I love babies, they're just so cute and cuddly and lovable. If I end up posting more photos of her, it's because I just couldn't resist. :)

IPM Helicopter Photos

So as promised, here are some of the shots I took of the International Plowing Match during the course of my helicopter experience. I hadn't actually brought my camera home with me that weekend for some reason, but luckily I had lent my old SLR to my sister-in-law who had also made her way to Teeswater for the festivities. The ride seemed to go so fast and when your looking through the lens or your camera for the duration of the trip you don't get to really experience much. So fighting between the desire to shoot photos and just taking in the sights I was able to get a few quick shots.

We got there just as they were starting for the day. My dad didn't want to be the first group to go up just to make sure the helicopter was warmed up and didn't have any problems. :P Oh daddi. So this is two of the nice helicopter guys starting up the helicopter early in the morning, with the first group already inside waiting to go.


Getting ready for a plowing match:


The RV Park where lots and lots of people camped out for the week (it was about the same size as the plowing match):


Now imagine this with thousands of people milling about the little "streets":


My parents house. You can see my little car parked on the lawn by the barn, since when I had arrived the driveway was full:


Parents house again, mainly blocked by the barn: :P


And some random tree in a field I thought was cool as we came in to land:

I heart Helicopters!

So I come from a nice and "very" small town called Teeswater. And this year my quaint little hometown of Teeswater was the host of the International Plowing Match. (it's kinda a big deal :P ). Also referred to as the "Tented City", the IPM basically doubled the size of the town and brought in a LOT of people. It was definately a sight to behold. I was fortunate enough to get to spend a day there walking around, taking in the different shows and events and look at the many many booths and vendors who were all taking part. I got to watch a Lumberjack Show, which was pretty entertaining, along with "Square Dancing Tractors".....?!?! I know, only in Bruce County. It was hilarious to watch and must have taken a lot of practice. There were a few times I thought they would definately run into each other. I can't even accurately describe it.

However, my ultimate favourite part of the whole experience was the Helicopter Ride. The very nice guys at Gateway Helicopters Ltd. were there to give the adventurous souls a memorable experience. Unfortunately my photos from the flight are on my other computer, so I will be following up this blog post with a photo post of my awesome adventure. We were able to fly over my parents house and I was able to get some nice ariel shots that my dad has been wanting for a while. So stay tuned and I should have them up within the next day or two. (I'm promising this now so that I can't slack off. :) )

Visit to Mt. Tremblant

Today we went on an excursion to Mt. Tremblant. I've only been to Mt. Tremblant in the winter time when everything is frozen and covered in snow, so it was rather interesting to see it in the summer time when everything is thawed out. Surprisingly it was no less busy then it is in it's prime ski/snowboarding season. Awesomely enough, instead of skier/snowboarders coming down the slopes, they have a "Alpine Luge" run. Wicked awesome fun!!! Chris, Sam, John and I all had a go down the paved winding slope track in these little go-kart like things that don't have any motors in them, they're just powered by the gravitational pull from the downward slope of the hill, complete with brakes.


Photo from the Mt. Tremblant Alpine Luge website

And here are some shots that I snapped quickly as we were running around going into all the little shops. Apart from the Alpine Luge being the highlight of my visit, I was also able to enjoy another fresh Beaver Tail. Mmmm....delish. It's like a large flat donut type thing with a chocolate hazelnut Nutella type spread ontop of it...and it's in the shape of a beavertail...not an "actual" beavertail. Gross. :P











And these were Chris' shoes sitting on the dock one evening just waiting to be photographed. :)

Playing around...

Occasionally I play around with different things and experiment with various means of creativity. Lately I've been playing around with my MacBook's PhotoBooth Application...yeah I know, pretty basic. And here I call myself a photographer. Anyways, I like to see what I can do with the quality of image it gives me... (a.k.a. test the theory that it's the photographer, not the gear that makes the photo art). Since you can't really adjust your aperture or shutter speeds...or anything really for that matter it's interesting to see what comes out of it. So out of my experimenting...and post-production, I have come up with my most recent Self Portrait. :)

Ta-da!!

Still here...

I know, I know, I haven't been doing this blog thing for too long and I'm already starting to slack. My excuse is that I've been pretty busy with love, life and work. Over this past week I had the opportunity to work with the awesome people over at Joseph Mimran & Associates, Joe being the creator of the Joe Fresh line and heading up the PC product design and selection for Loblaws. I was brought in to help them in their frenzy to prepare their presentations for the new seasons line of fashion, design and product. Photographing, retouching, organizing, proofing package and label designs, spreadsheets, you name it. Overall, it was hard to believe that the week was already over, but it was a great experience. Who knows what the next season will bring. :)

This coming week I get to head for a little vacation in Montreal. I promise to bring my camera and hopefully get a few shots of my adventures just so I'm not neglecting the photo side of my blog. Everyone likes a few pictures. :)

Stay tuned my loyal blog readers.

Sultry Secrets...

I hadn't considered intimate portraits as an genre of photography I would be personally shooting during my photograph career...that is until a good friend of mine asked if I would take some photos of her. I had done a lifestyle session with her and her niece a few weeks ago and she had expressed her interest in doing something a little more risque on another date and wondered if I would do it for her. Clearly I agreed, and she was thrilled with the results.

Since I wasn't sure how prepared my blog audience would be for an onslaught of more intimate photos, I thought it might be best if I just provided a link to a small gallery of some of the photos from the shoot for those people who were interested. :) Below is a sample of what to expect.

Feedback is always welcome. :)

Meet my new sister-in-law...

So I went back home for my mom's birthday this weekend and my new sister-in-law Chantelle came over for a bit. She'd been hoping I could take some photos of her sometime, so since I was in the area we went ahead and did it. We had about 10-15 minutes to run around quick and get some shots so it was nice that we had such a great location to work with already. My parents place seems to be an ideal setup for photos, there's so much to work with and you can get such diverse photos all in about a 200 meter radius. And man what a sport she was; she kinda expected me to tell her to just flop down in different places, so lying in the straw in the field didn't phase her one bit. We both have a few battle wounds from lying on the leftover wheat stalks, but I recall hearing from someone that that best poses hurt the most...so here's hoping they were right. :P

Here's some of the final shots. It was hard to believe how many good ones we got in our short run-around.