they like to break stuff...

when i was a wee lad, probably 10 or so, I would hop on my bike and walk about 2 blocks to the playground near my house every single monday - friday in the summers. 

i don't think they offer the same thing to kids these days, but back then they had 'big kids' looking after us little kids. we would play games, swing on swings, teeter on teeter totters, have great snacks...it was a great way to spend the summer.

i don't remember the teetering or the tottering, the games of tag or purple kool-aid. i was there for one reason and one reason only.

Donna.

She was the playground leader and the only reason I never missed at day at that playground on Alexander St in Sydney. I got "King of the Playground" that year...not for sharing or sports or winning. it was because i never missed a second at that playground. if it was pouring rain and freezing I'd peer down the winding sidewalk of Alexander St to see if Donna was coming to work.

no wonder i was never really that good at team sports. i was a skirt chaser at 10.

why am I telling you this? because i hadn't thought about that time until 25 years later, Donna's brother, Darryl, calls me up to get some pics of his three boys as a surprise birthday present for their Mom. 

I asked him what they were into and he said, "What are they into? They love to break stuff!"

these 3 dudes came into the studio and were the most well behaved, polite, charismatic little fellas I've ever seen. Darryl told me that after the shoot one of the boys said, "Dad, Liam's more teenager than adult isn't he?". Success!

here's a few from the shoot.

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.

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!

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.

a psychologist, a nurse and a dental technician walked in a studio...

I got a call out of the blue from Chelsea and she needed some grad photos done. She told me she didn't want the average run of the mill grad photos and started her web search to find something a little 'left of center' for her grad shots.

She also brought along Danielle and Devon since they were all graduating from Dal and we just figured we'd shoot em all together.

So these 3 beautiful girls walk into the studio all quiet and shy...and I wasn't having any of that! It took about 5 minutes to get them to start giggling and laughing and being themselves. I wished we had more time to shoot but hot tropical beaches and airport deadlines pulled them away!

here's a couple form the shoot. thanks ladies!

BRIDES 2009

I've worked many a trade show booth in my myriad of jobs over the last few years. I've brought fire to the people w the Prometheus pellet fuel basket (google it), drugs to the hypertensive and wood stoves to the cold and frigid...but nothing was more fun than our own little 8x10 booth at the BRIDES 09 show yesterday at the WTCC.

It was my first time in the show so I wasn't sure what to expect and now that it's over I wish it was a few days longer.

Marcia and I met some amazing and adventurous brides (and grooms) and I'm looking forward to some great shoots....in 2010!

One of my favorites was Melinda & Earl, who asked me if I would do a wedding shoot for them in their new Jeep YJ. WILL I!? September, 2010 can't come quick enough Melinda.

It's always fun to hang out and talk about wedding photography all day long both with brides and grooms and other local photographers. I had a chance to catch up with Alex & Kate (and Sophie of course) and my old friend Emma Rose who was always wayyyy smarter than me in high school.

Christa, from Felicity Bridal put on an amazing fashion show with some of her latest bridal gowns. I'm always a sucker for a wedding dress...here's a few shots from the show as well as the only photo i took of the applehead studio booth.

more from an old shoot

haven't posted anything in a while...so here's one more from elizabeth and gavins maternity shoot.

new stuff coming soon.

lola, the crazy eyed frog and the quacking ducktub

this crazy eyed green frog that lola has is really gettin on my nerves. 

doesnt matter what time it is, that frog is happy and chipper and, i dare say, just a little showy. 

6 am and that thing wants to dance the cha cha or condescendingly tells us how high he can count. 

well,the crazy eyed frog and lola met up today and faced off in a game of who-can-sit-propped-up-in-the-corner-of-the-chair-the-longest.

the crazy eyed frog pulled a fast one with his cotton stuffing guts. 

i locked him in the closet and we took some pics of lola gettin ready for bed.

too many made us laugh so here they all are in slideshow form...

Miss Lola Jean

i-got-nuthin.com

my fcking website and email have been down for 2 days now.

sorry to throw the profanity out on the information superhighway like that but what else can i say? 

perhaps tomorrow it will come back. i was told there is a chance...but my hopes exceed my expectations.

the reason is long and uninteresting and the result of making decisions based on price and not on quality. my apologies to anyone who is trying to reach me and cannot.

liam

up before the sun...

just a few pics from a sunday morning we all got up before the sun.

coffee

bottle

dogs

macbook

crazy and unpredictable singing frog

all before 7.30

as an aside...you know how they put the milk at the back of the grocery store in hopes you walk through and pick up a few more items. well ever since lola came i always buy her something...and that something is either too big or too small or...not actually meant for babies. well i went in for milk and came out w a hat for lola (a hat that will never be photographed), Office Space dvd extended edition for $9.99, milk and a copy of wedding bells.

flipping though Wedding Bells and saw one of my photos that Felicity Bridal had used in an ad. and here it is....

i should buy milk more often.

sit in on a hand of domines

i spent the week in Cape Breton...

(SIDEBAR - I was in Cape Breton and did a shoot with my good friends Jeff and Steph who I hadn't seen for a long time. They are having a baby in late February and I couldn't wait to take some photos. the last time I took pictures w Jeff he coined the name "applehead". 

anyway, shoot was fun. we drank homemade wine, or at least jeff and i did, smoked backyard cigarettes and had a few laughs. then we decided to get Brodie. 

Brodie is their 4 year old chocolate lab. he's a phenominal dog motivated only by his overwhelming desire to show you love and affection. i love him, he loves me.

in fact he loves me so much that when i bent down to turn on a light he careened, lovingly toward me, knocking me in one direction, my on-camera Pocket Wizard in another, my 5D and one portion of my 24-70/2.8 lens in yet another and finally, the remaining portion of my lens also off toward the cement basement floor. good boy Brodie.)

anyway, i get back from Cape Breton, undaunted by the fact that my camera bag has more pieces in it now than when it left.

my cousin, cynthia, is in town from Edmonton to hang out with us for a while as my mom rushes fists first into a battle with non-hodgkins lymphoma with the courage of a thousand men. it's a battle i expect has only one outcome. mom wins.

so my point here is that I got home from Cape Breton after a week away and mom and Cynthia came out and made spaghetti w anchovies and we played some dominoes and drank wine.

Bolla wine...which always makes me think of Dickson because his front door area would always be full of empty bottles of Bolla Valpolicella. not 4 or 5...like, 10 or 12 on any given day. it was awesome.

bla bla bla...man, I get sidetracked easily. 

here's a my-eye-view of a one rotation of dominoes. note my double nine with no satisfaction anywhere and Jude's sitting pretty on Last Tile.

i forget who won. who cares.