Earlier this spring I was at Gibbon’s park here in London Ontario with the family. I was busy tracking my boys, getting shots of them at play when I spotted this cute little guy and his mom who also was sporting a camera. I asked her if I could get a shot of her son and gave here my website to contact me for a copy of the image if she wanted one.

That was how I met Amanda and her adorable son Brayden (Love that name by the way!). She contacted me via Twitter about doing a session with her son and I was more then happy to help her out! Brayden has one of those faces that just cries to have a camera pointed at it and I was excited that camera was going to be mine.

We decided to met up back at Gibbons Park seeing that there is quite a bit of stuff for kids to do and the park does offer a lot of different backdrops. Amanda asked if she should bring anything for Brayden and I suggest she bring some balloons. After seeing an engagement session by a California wedding photographer Bonnie Tsang, I so wanted to work balloons into a few shots and Brayden offered the perfect opportunity.

I normally try to keep my image count in the blog posts down to around 5 or so, but I really had a hard time choosing between all the great images we produced, it was all I could do just to get it down to ten. So this is a long one, but with such a cute kid like Brayden, I’m sure you won’t mind…….Hope you enjoy.

What is it with kids and water? Last Sunday the wife and I introduced the kids to the beach for the first time. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but the crowds of Port Stanley have kept me away with such young kids.

One thing i love about kids is their excitement and amazement over the things us grown ups have become desensitized to. I think that is why I prefer to photograph children at play rather then having them pose for the camera.

Our trip to the beach was a short one for the first time unfortunately, about a hour in Nathan (the youngest) got it into his head that he wanted to swim to Erie or something and he wasn’t happy that mommy wouldn’t let go of his hand. He insisted and took the required temper tantrum when he couldn’t get away from mom and we had to head back to the car. Our trip may have been short, but I got some great shots of our first time at the beach and I thought I would share.

Hope you enjoy,

I was introduced to No, Really by the Creative Commons music website Jamendo, if you are ever looking for music to inspire, I highly recommend stopping by and check it out.

What can I say about No, Really…Well to start Hannah Clemens, Ms. No, Really herself, has the voice of an angel. It says in her bio on Jamendo that her goal is to get people to stop what they are doing and listen, well she does just that. The first time I came across her music, I had to listen to her album Rust from start to finish while doing nothing. Even now I will be editing and one of her songs will come across iTunes and I have to stop.

I have gotten tons of inspiration from No, Really and I hope you do to. One of my favorite songs from the album Rust is a mellow number called Go. So sit back, close your eyes, press play and enjoy.

This session started out great, Kevin and Katie are an amazing couple, they are everything that a photographer could ask for. Fun, friendly, affectionate and don’t go all “deer in the headlights” when you point a camera at them.

I say things started out great because unfortunately this session had to come to an early end because of a nasty spill and Kevin taking Katie to the hospital to get looked over. She is alright, some scraps, bruises and I bet one nasty headache, but in the end we did get some good shots and we all have a story to tell.

Katie, Kevin…You guys were a blast and I can’t wait for the reshoot. Until then enjoy what we did create in the time the fates allowed us.

Rogue Wave is a San Francisco band consisting of Zach Rogue, Pat Spurgeon, Gram LeBron, Patrick Abernethy, Dominic East, check out there website at www.roguewavemusic.com or their imeem profile at www.imeem.com/roguewave

I found this song using the very useful service Musicmesh. I just loved the smooth flow of the vocals and the acoustic guitar, it’s perfect for putting me in the mood when thinking of the intimate relationship between two people and how I can use that to create the best images of a couple in love.

California (Album) – Rogue Wave

When I started this blog last year I was fully intent on using it for the sole purpose of promoting my wedding photography. But, like with everything in life, it is evolving. To be truthful, I have no idea where this blog is going, I do know it will still include my wedding related work and it’s main focus will still be to give you a look into the life responsible for producing the images you see on this blog, but I just think it won’t be keeping the strict guide lines of only featuring wedding related material. I’ve never done well with guide lines anyways, I have always had a hard time keeping the colour inside the lines, I seem to want to go off in another direction.

One of those directions I do want to go off on is inspiration, it’s a big subject in the world of photography right now. I think with the countless website talking about and showing you the technical aspect of taking pictures, the more advance photographer is looking for more. They know about lighting, composition, exposure, shutter and aperture settings. They know how to take a picture, but now they are running into the problem of what pictures to take.

I’m the furthest you can get from being an authority on the subject of photography or inspiration, that is why I am not planning on pretending to be one, but I can talk about my own personal skirmishes in the battle for inspiration. And today I think I’ll be starting with one of the bigger influences in my road to inspiration…Music.

I have heard many creatives say that they use music as inspiration, there is just something about the right music playing in your ears that gets the creative juices flowing. As it turns out some of my favorite photographers are real music junkies, taking every chance they can get to have music playing. I for one know that having the right tunes playing while I’m editing or planning a shoot can really help.

With all that in mind I have decided to start featuring music that hits home with me. When i hear a song that gets my neurons jumpin’ I’ll share it here on the blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to give you a better look into the workings of my creativity and maybe even introduce you to some new favorites.

So lets get start, today’s song “Some one turning” is by the Canadian band Arctic. You can check them out at http://www.projectarctic.com/ and follow them on Twitter. Hope you enjoy!