Camping Trip - Promo Shots

After graduating from University in the spring, I spent my summer living in my parents cottage. I worked for one of my friends, who runs his own painting business in the summer, and we also had a few other friends working with us.

During our working days, the four of us guys daydreamed about going on a camping/canoe trip (we didn't include the girls on this plan). While wondering about equipment and other logistics, we weren't entirely sure whether or not the trip would happen and during one of the conversations a date was set for the trip. Once the date was set, it was final, there was no changing it and no backing out. We were going to do it even if we had the worst equipment we could find. 

Not to worry though, because we didn't have the worst equipment we could find. Luke's Dad runs an adventure camp and through him, we were able to pick up almost all of the equipment we needed, including some much appreciated advice from experienced trippers. 

Now, jump back to the daydreaming stage of this plan and remember that I am a photographer. As a photographer I knew that there could be lots of opportunities on this trip. As someone trying to find a place in the photographic world and not being overly interested in nature photography, I wanted to come out of the trip with photos that could show my ability to market and promote an adventure/extreme sport equipment company.

Back to the story. It took almost all summer to plan (although we weren't rushing anything) and the final details came together within the last week. We rigged Mike's jeep with some u-bolts and 2x4's, so that two canoes could rest on-top, piled all of the gear inside and headed off. The route that we were taking was suggested to us by a friend, so we only knew our general area (my parents weren't too thrilled with that idea). We finally made it to the provincial park rangers' office that had our route map waiting for us. After talking to one of the rangers about our route, and getting some tips and advice we were finally into the water.

Click "Read More" to read the rest of the story and see more photos.

Night-Time Series

A couple weeks ago I was up north at my parents cottage in Huntsville, Ontario. I drove up late Saturday night with my girlfriend, and on the way I noticed a couple of newer buildings that are very nicely lit at night. Seeing these buildings sparked the idea to go out late at night and take pictures around town. Huntsville has a small town, country feel to it, and I thought that it would be perfect to capture Main St. at night with the lights.

Click "Read More" to see a couple more photos and read about the series will progress

Still Life

Last week and this week, I have been experimenting with different types of still life photos. First I started with smoke photos, shot on a black background with one flash, then taken into Photoshop for manipulation. Then I tried some exploding water-balloons, but after getting more wet than I wanted to, I quickly realized that I needed an assistant for that.

Click "Read More" to see what else I have done this week.

The Hendersons

A couple of days ago I had the amazing privilege of shooting Dan and Amanda along with their daughter Grace. I have known Dan and Amanda for about a year and a half now and I met Grace shortly after she was born, last winter. Typically Grace likes to stare at me and give me weird looks, but when I held up a big black thing in front of my face (my camera), I don't think she knew what was happening. She likes to make noises and faces, has two teeth coming in and is starting to learn to crawl. The weather for the day started off pretty chilly, but got warmer when it was time for pictures, we all had a great time. Enjoy!

A follow-up to SU Sportz, if you will, Canadian Football

For my American readers, yes, it's true, we do indeed have football in Canada. The CFL is comprised of eight teams. A large number of the players on these teams from the States. They are either players that didn't quite make it into the NFL or played in the NFL and got injured. Most of the rest of the players played at Canadian universities and then went on to play in the CFL.

As a part of my work with SU Sportz (see previous post) I covered a couple of their Real Deal events. The most recent event was at a Toronto Arognauts (CFL team) game. I covered the game as much as I could (from my seat) and also shot the post game concert and motivational speakers, from the field.

Summer Pics: SU Sportz

This past summer I had the privilege of taking photos for SU Sportz. SU Sportz is an organization that is all about building relationships with young people, through sports. They have a few different ways of doing this, through summer camps, partnering with churches and Real Deal days (professional sports events).

I approached SU at the beginning of the summer asking if they wanted any photography work done, that they could then use in their promotional materials. There was some back and forth discussions, and they agreed, and also wanted me to shoot some video footage. Throughout the summer I attended (took pictures) at some of their camps, Real Deal days, and other events.

A blog update and Leah and Jay

Where to begin... It has been way too long since I have updated the blog. Many things have changed since June. I finished off the summer, having a great time with the people I worked with, and spending time with good friends, new friends and my wonderful girlfriend.

At the end of the summer, I was offered a position with my church, so I am now working as the Graphic Design and Media intern, where I am creating graphic design projects, and helping with all forms of media, including the website, video production, photography, painting, carrying drywall, tv's and anything else when asked.

As this is a photography centred blog, I should probably leave you with some photos to look at. I recently did some engagement pictures for Leah and Jay, I then designed a book for them to use as a guest book for their showers and wedding. It was the first book I have designed from start to finish, and I am thrilled with how it turned out, so are they!

To check out some pictures of the book click here

There are more photos after the jump!

ps. my website is in the works, and should be live within the next week or so!

Photos to come

It has been a while since there was an update on this here blog. Since my last post, I have left the USA. I am currently living in Muskoka, Ontario. Summer in Canada doesn't really start until the beginning of July. There are going to be lots of local events that I will be covering, and I'm also in the process of picking up new clients. So stay tuned for some fun pictures to be posted.

This picture, taken on my cell phone, is of the calmness of the lake, that pretty much describes what life is like in Muskoka.

Inspired By Chase Jarvis

One of my favourite photographers is a man named Chase Jarvis. He is extremely talented, and so creative. He has been using his blog, videos, tweets, meetups, etc. to help grow and unify the photography and creative community. Recently, I tried to recreate one of his pictures. A picture he took for Reebok, a basketball ad. Instead of doing basketball, I chose to shoot hockey. I grew up Canada, so hockey has pretty much always been a part of my life. I played it for a long time and have been shooting it a lot as well. I haven't tried any sort of set up/editorial/commercial type photos for hockey, so this was a first. I brought out a couple of my friends, two are in the shot, one is holding a flashstand with a Canon 430ex, and umbrella, above the two players, and another friend is there for support ;)

Here is the photo that Mr. Jarvis took, that I based mine off of.

And here is my photo:

As you can see, my lighting isn't exactly that same, but still I thought I did a pretty good job.

Thanks for checking it out!

Day on the Island

A little while ago, my friends and I decided to head to the lake to test out one of the guys recently purchased jet ski. We followed another group of our friends to the lake, and we ended up at a different area than we thought we were going to, with no beach or area to hang out really. Talked to a couple people at the marina there, and they told us about an island not to far from there. It took three trips on the three-seater jet ski, but we all made it there safely and had a great day. I used my Dad's 20 year old, original, Canon Rebel, and shot 35mm film through it. 1 roll in colour and the other roll in black & white. It was a blast and a great day with friends, enjoy!

ps. there were no colour adjustments or anything done to these photos, thats just what film looks like, pretty sweet eh?

Onto the sports fun

Here are some of my favourite sports photos. I have taken them over that past few years in various locations and settings.

Event Coverage

This next series of photos are from the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay. This stop was in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. The town really showed up with lots of people and performances. Here are some of my favourite pictures. I really tried to capture the even and the excitement.

Well hello there...

So here's the deal everyone. I am in the process of creating my own website. This is a lengthy process, and in the meantime I want to be able to share my photos. This here blog will hopefully help me to accomplish that. Starting out, I'd like to show some photos out of my editorial and journalism portfolio. So here goes...