awesomer day

Malcolm Gladwell's recent book, Outliers, mentions how plane crashes do not happen simply because something went wrong. 

I may be a little off, but I think catastrophes such as plane crashes happen when a series of seven or more errors occur. 

(the voting results lead me to believe you don't want to read, you want to be visually satisfied. well, here's a cacophonic light show for you. It goes out to my new friends at ACE Towing.) 

If you more the readin' type then here's a story of 7 errors for you. by no means equal to a plane crash but it certainly deserves a guffaw.

I went out last nite for a drink and parked on Hollis St where it said no parking from 7am to 6pm. The plan was to crash in town for the night and

Marty would drive me downtown in the am to get my car, we both avoid excessive cab fair, get back to the country...all is well.

1. We were going to just cab it down from Clayton Park but we didn't

2. I parked on Hollis St knowing full well that the chances of NOT making it back to the car by 7am were VERY good.

The night started out well. got out, saw some good friends, had a few laughs. end of the nite there was no chance of driving so cabbed back to Clayton Park w Marty.

Starvin.

3. Could not remember the name of the pizza place (Pizzatown) that was up the street that made a sweet veggie pizza.

4. Marty got antsy and headed out on foot in search of some food but did not take keys to security door.

5. I fell asleep, post haste. deep, no baby around, had a few beer sleep. awsome, but still an error.

6. Marty buzzed the apt and called my dead cell phone but I did not stir until 8am

7. After a failed attempt at scaling the wrong patio, Marty decided to catch a few winks in the truck and then head home

SEVEN Errors already.

Cabbed it down to Hollis to find the Purolator guy where my car should have been. Took the same cab to the Police station to find my car.

They just needed my drivers license to release it to me.

8. I left my drivers license in my wallet in my car and took only my debit and credit card

"My drivers license is in my car", I said

They could not release it to me and so I had to take the same cab up to Exhibition Park to geet to ACE Towing to get my drivers license,

take the same cab back to the Police Station to get them to release my car.

9. I had not yet licensed my car and still had a temporary permit and was actually going to do it this afternoon.

When they looked up my car it showed no VIN and no owner. So my little road trip through HRM was futile and could have been avoided had they looked it up in the first place.

I understand Rules. 

You need to see a picture of me to prove I'm me when the real me is standing right in front of you telling you its ME.

COME. ON. If I were the guy who just mugged Liam Hennessey, stole his car keys, credit cards, dead cell phone and forced him to tell him where the

car was....would I spend half an hour in the Police Station trying to get out and pay for an impounded car?

As it tuns out, there must be a higher incidence of this sort of crime because she went with option B. Ballsy Criminal.

Have you ever tried yelling at someone through a 1" glass wall with a little opening at the bottom? You kind of have to hunch down

and look up. not the most helpful to my cause.

As it turns out my vehicle showed NO OWNER. It hadn't licensed it and VW never really owned it either...so it was no ones car.

Now I needed to prove I bought the car from Hillcrest VW. They tried to fax them documents but it didn't prove anyone owned it.

I needed to go home, get my papers, license the car at the DMV and come back w the papers to prove it was mine...then I could have it back.

Madness.

Expensive.

Luckily Mark and Cory from Hillcrest VW gave me a car for the day. A sweet, 6 speed, black EOS with all the gear inside. Thats what I'm talking about though...its so easy to help someone out

that I just can't believe it doesn't happen more. They did not have to offer that...but they did and it turned the day from suck to awesome.

i grabbed a coffee, charged my phone, headed home to pick up Marse, kiss the baby off to Gam's for the nite and we headed out to save the car together.

She played brickbreaker. 

I ranted.

She listened.

We ate fast food & choc chip cookies.

My wife turned awesome day to awesomer day.

Cars back. Its mine and I can prove it.

The moral of this story: Don't let me fly your plane.

inspired by Munroe

been singing this song all day long because Cheryl blogged about Hank Williams yesterday. You can check out her blog here 

it always makes me feel bad for poor Kawliga every single time i hear it...even though he's a wooden indian.

albums and the Woolco...

seriously, we're all old enough to remember actually having photos albums right? taking a picture with some old school film camera you just point and click and hope you pick up some decent prints at the Woolco for $2.99.

you peeeeel back that nasty plastic cover on the album page and place 4 images in a perfect square on the page and slide back the plastic cover and carve out the air bubbles.

my mom has a bunch of albums from when i was a baby up to about 3 or 4. its so much fun to flip through them, not to see me, but to see what my parents were like when they were my age. let's face it, until we were all about 4 or 5 we weren't gettin around unless it was with the folks in the car, stroller, backpack, wagon, sled, etc...so its fun to look back at my parents haulin my ass around for a few years. we had an old jeep that i wouldn't ever remember without the photo, skidoos, they dressed me up in ladies clothes for yucks...oh yeah, it's all in a photo album.

so my question tonight is this...

if the world wide web goes out of business tomorrow, will you be able to show your kids what you looked like 30 years ago?

the internet could be the next coelacanth and you won't have pictures of your totally trendy skinny jeans to show your kids.

this is the very first photograph i ever took of Marse (& Thai). It only exists here, which sucks if the internet goes out of business. whats also really wierd is that it is almost 4 years ago to the day. huh.

so you should upload a couple of your photos to a cheap lab somewhere (we would have still had the Woolco if we had all kept printing) and put together an album. and keep doing it. 

dont forget to vote.

more Lola

its been some time since the little Miss Lola Jean has been here.

as you can see she's been bulking up. she is hopefully going to become a cyclist like her Daddy used to be...what else would you do w those thighs!

so we're not crawling yet...more of a rolling all around the house which is great for laughs and she picks up dog hair at the same time.

god i love this kid. just uploading these 4 pics brought tears to me eyes. these are right off the camera...LJ doesnt need too much photoshop to be cute.

enjoy!

thanks Erika

here's a quick post. i'm pretty sure Marse slipped me sleeping pills to lure me away from the office.

finished up our second nite of shooting for MaMe Maternity jeans and grabbed a quick last minute shot for Erika....it was very close to the sushi table.

asleep before midnite. some kinda miracle!

wanna role play?

in my old job, i used to role play in an attempt to be prepared for circumstances that could potentially arise in 'real' life. 

i'd be the sales rep and a colleague/manager/suitable filler would be the buyer. this, of course, is at 8am after 2-3 hrs sleep in your business casual clothes face down on the bed w shoes on. (now don't go gasping in disbelief at me. c'mon, if you've travelled for work, stayed in a hotel....you've slept in your business casual clothes and saved the maid from making your bed the next day.)

anyway, there was always a suggested retort for almost any (5-10) possible situations, always with the purpose of selling product. i was never any good at the rehearsed stuff...i'm the guy that would always get possible situation 11-100. 

as i type this, i do actually have to sit back and laugh at some of the very fun times i had role playing. my first ever real, videotaped role play happened mere seconds after i picked myself up off the bathroom floor of the Hilton in Montreal and i killed it. i have the tape to prove it. 

but i digress.

so new reps would come in to the industry and they would be sick at the thought of the dreaded role play. repeating things over and over and over and over and over and over and then when it came time to role play.....your tongue sets a pace your mind can't keep up with and you get notes taken about you that you can't read because it's upside down and you're hung over.

my point here....

today i set up to meet w Sarah and Sean for an engagement shoot. I knew they were lawyers so i just asked them to bring some law books and meet me at the Rebecca Cohn. thats it. no more preparing.

there's something to be said for just letting it all hang out and going with whatever is in front of you and around you. i really enjoyed this shoot today after hours of editing.

 

this ain't no picnic in the park...

so today was my only Saturday off until November. The sun was shining, it was super warm and the plan was to meet some friends at Point Pleasant for a picnic with all the kids and brown bag beer for the adults. Marse packed up a bad ass picnic w sandwiches, boccaccini cheese, fresh cookies...and beer. Lola was dolled up in her little yellow dress that one of her grandmothers probably bought for her (thanks Nanna and Gam!)...and we headed out.

Here's where it gets weird...

I said, "If we sold the house today what would be buy?". We've been keeping our eye on 2 very different places. So we talked about it for a second and then the phone rang. it was my Mom saying a real estate agent was trying to reach us and that they had a couple who were leaving on a jet plane later this afternoon but really wanted to see our house before they left. my first reaction was Hellll No. I'm taking my baby(s) for a picnic and no one is gonna stop us....

and so we turned around in Point Pleasant Park (40 minutes from home) and headed back home to clean the house and cut the lawn (by hand...because the mower broke 5 minutes in).

so we get all ready, clean the house, pretty it up and split. we went for coffee down at the Bike & Bean and my phone rings again...its our agent saying the couple were at the house but the their agent didnt have a key to the lock box. So I head back home AGAIN to open the door to let them in.

An hour passes.

An hour and a half passes

The phone rings.

Its our agent/marse's mom - she said they LOVED the place and were headed back TO.

My one Sat off went from picnic w the kids to hand clipping the dandelions and raking leaves while being eaten alive by black flies.

Wanna know how it all ended?

Me too....

here's some fun stuff from a shoot w last nite w Matt & Katie.

be nice Friday's

i was up at 6.27am this morning because thats when Lola told me to get up. we had coffee and conversation and i think she's falling for me...still no kisses but she hugs better than ever before.

i checked a few blogs, tweets, facebooks etc and everyone...i mean EVERYONE had positive things to say. everyone was in a great mood and its obviously contagious. its a cool way to start a friday.

so since everyone is in such a good mood i figured it would be a great time to tell you something nice about someone you may or may not know. maybe i'll do it every friday...maybe

so here's something nice about: YOU

its very nice of you to come here and read these ramblings and take in the sites. i appreciate it very much. i haven't the foggiest of idea how many of you are here or who you are but even if its just you and only you...it's nice of you stop stop in.  we should have lunch sometime.

here's some pics from last nites shoot w Lavern & Robin. 

 

this is for you Cheryl MacKenzie...

i know this girl...well, I internet know this girl who sent me some buttons in the mail. a real, mailbag carrying, letter dropping, always bringing me nuthing but junk mail mail man delivered the package to me. in return, i was supposed to send her a photo with the buttons somehow in the photo.

i think i posted some lame attempt a few months back just to get bad karma off my back...but this is what i had in mind. i wanted it to be spur of the moment and random.

so i headed out the door tonight to meet Laverne & Robin for a pre wedding shoot and grabbed 2 buttons. i picked "sunshine" and "+ lolipops"

i hadn't met w Laverne and Robin prior to tonight so I had no idea what they would think of me stickin em with pins. lucky for me they were in. yes, it could be more perfect and placed and posed and photoshopped but i like it like this.

more of L and R in the next few days but until then...this is me keeping my word. thanks for the buttons Cheryl!

so hard done by...

i'm sitting here tweaking a few images for the website...time to update some images and drop in a few images from this years weddings. in the background is gord downie singing, 'one day you'll just up and quit and that'll be it...'

it's times like these that i ponder destiny and fate and patience. i don't pretend to have the answer but from the moment i woke up today i knew we, as a family, were headed in the right direction. Marse took Mom in for her second last chemo appt today and I hung out w Lola and the dawgs all morning, throwing tennis balls, riding rocking horses and drinking coffee w baby formula. it all just felt right. i did just 'up and quit' and that is it...

i want to be around to watch my family grow. i want to change shitty diapers, bandage scraped knees and watch my wife try on all the things she bought on her shopping trips and then take them all back. i also plan to watch my Mom spoil Lola for many many years to come.

i also want to create amazing wedding images for you...and like my family, I feel like it's all just beginning. i can't wait till my wedding images take off the training wheels and glide down the street, quickly glancing over their shoulder to flash me that "Look at me" smile.

but i digress.

here's Mike & Amy. i'll avoid the cliche's and not tell you they were so much fun to work with and what a great couple they were. I haven't worked with a couple yet who ISN'T fun to work with. I will tell you this...it's fun to be in a room of 100 people and have the hair stand up on your arms because you can feel the love that all of these people had for each other.

Felicity's Sexy Little Wedding Dress

i love doing photo shoots w Felicity Bridal. the best part is, i think we're just getting warmed up. each shoots seems to evolve a little bit and yet we manage to keep it really simple.

this is one hell of a sexy little wedding dress. i'm a big fan! chelsea & martin were fantastic. she's all class and he'll wear someone else's suit for heineken and guiness. it was the perfect yin and yang for this shoot.

sexy red lipstick & make up courtesy of Mickey LeBlanc

killer hair courtesy of Brian Fader

someone else's suit courtesy of Moore's in Dartmouth (thanks Erin & Danielle)

he's just one of so many good shots...

my dingle shoot

easy. get  your mind out of the gutter.

met up with Julie and Mark while they were in town for a few days and took a quick walk around the Dingle. mark used to engage in extracurriculars there and julie pulled swimmers out of the water years ago.

it was a fun shoot because we just met at the Dingle and in the end it wasn't all about the Dingle. there are some really cool textures there and we shot some cool stuff. looking forward to more w them in July.

bloggers cramp

seems I'm always in a hurry when i get to this point. i'll be somewhere at some random place and think about something brilliant to blog about...and then i get here and have to rush off to shoot something or edit something or change a bum.

looking forward to a night shoot w Felicity Bridal tomorrow night. we have a beautiful bride in a very sexy and chic wedding dress and marty mac as the brooding and mysterious groom.  should be interesting and if the cops showed up i wouldnt be suprised.

stay tuned.

andrea & louie get married

just finished downloading and backing up andrea & louie's wedding collection and pulled this one out.

tonights shoot is 3 three boys who love to smash stuff. I'm pretty excited....

more on andrea & louie in the next week or so...but here's one for now.

...and today's shoot

Andrea & Louie are getting married on Saturday at the Waeg which, in itself, is going to be great. I'm also stoked to have the uber talented Emma Rose shooting w me on Saturday. 

here's a couple we took today. fun.

beyond the law

every night at this point, i try and post something, anything. 

it's wedding season. 

of course i always think of our wedding and just laugh. we surrounded ourselves w our best friends and partied for 3 days. fireworks, food, dogs, sun, the ocean. i would show you video but i haven't seen it yet myself...

so instead of a clip if marcia and liams wedding...here's a simulated version.

BEYOND THE LAW

"Get yer shit together, we're going to a ffffucking weding!"....virgil

susanne

this was a fun shoot. susanne just wanted the fan on her and the rest was easy from there. i think she looks amazing. very maternal & strong.

boris

thats my keith fudge cryptic title. usually fun, sometimes frustrating....

so as per the title, i'm in a hurry so here's some funness from Friday nite.

l.