That video you just watched featuring photographer Clay Enos was the inspiration for todays street portrait session. One of the biggest fears for new photographers is photographing people they don’t know. Make that complete strangers on the street and you will make even the most seasoned photographer nervous. It take a special someone to be confident enough to grab people on the street as they pass and ask to photograph them… Well that’s exactly what I did today.

With the help of Scott Webb of Nuwomb Creative I set out downtown London to find a nice spot to do some portraits. Scott was acting as my human background stand holding a piece of white foamcore board while I wrestled me up some passerby’s. At the time I was setting this up I was wondering where a good place would be, then I was informed that the London Pride Parade was happening today and I know where I had to make camp, right next to the parking lot where the parade ended up.

The foot traffic was good and I got to meet some amazing people. I really enjoyed myself and think I will be making this a regular thing when ever time allows. I was never nervous at first, so I didn’t approach as many people as I would have liked, next time I plan on snagging a few more people then I did today. All in all I am very happy how the images I did manage to get turned out and hope you agree.

If you are any kind of wedding blog stalker around the London area, no doubt you recognize Heather from HRM Photography in the above images. I spotted Heather walking with her husband and new(ish) baby girl and wrangled them up for a few shots. Now I was very nervous to shoot Heather, being a photographer I highly respect in the London wedding market, I didn’t want to mess up.

That last image is of a great couple I met at the end of the shoot. Join me in congratulating them on their up coming wedding. They told me that they are doing a destination wedding down south somewhere (they hadn’t decided), all I could say to them was “Ummm, I travel….”. Ladies, if you are reading this….I meant every single word! lol

I don’t know why, but I am drawn to the countryside. Not nature itself, but the dirt roads, farmers fields and the great old houses and barns that you drive by in the countryside. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a city boy, well as much of a city boy as you can be in London, Ontario. Maybe it’s the colours, there is something so calming about a field of golden wheat, that rusty red used on barns and the deep greens of reeds alone the road or in a row of corn… I may not love living in London and dream of moving to away. But one thing I do love about this area is that it’s surrounded by some amazing countryside.

Today I participated in the World Wide Photowalk, this year was the second annual World Wide Photowalk started by Scott Kelby of the National Association Photoshop Professionals.

It was fun had by all and at the end we all met at Friday Night Lights on Richmond which turns out is owned by the Mayors husband. The Mayor was actually there and I can now say that the Mayor of London served me lunch!

I would like to thank Keven Van Lierop and James Wilkinson for organizing this arm of the World Wide Photowalk. These two guys actually started putting together informal photowalk about 4 months ago.

Well without any further a do, here are some of my favorites I was able to get today

Last week, if you remember I attended a BBQ at a friends house. There I ran into another friend I hadn’t seen in a while, we started talking and I offered to do a session with his daughter who has to be one of the cutest little angels on the face of the earth!

Last Sunday we got together at one of my favorite parks to do the shoot. Let me tell you, she may have been shy, but she was a natural! Hardly took any direction from me, she just dropped into perfect poses every time. It was a good time, I got to catch up with an old friend as well as get some amazing pictures of this little sweetie. I wish my boys were as easy to shoot, but then again their challenge helps sharpen my skills lol.

OK, not really, I love my iPhone but I don’t love it that much!

Next year I will be shooting Kaily and TJ’s wedding and as it happens Kaily’s father and brother are good friends and co-workers on mine. TJ worked with us as well for a few years but has moved on to bigger and better things. Being the way things are, when Kaily’s father came up to me at work and told me that TJ was marrying his daughter and that I was going to be the photographer (not asking, stating a fact, he’s that kind of guy lol) I was fairly excited. You see, a night at their house is something to experience, image a 1950′s blues club in the middle of the Garden of Eden (Kaily’s father is quite the gardener) and you will get the picture. Any night there is a blast and I can’t wait to see what the wedding is going to be like. I have a strange feeling that after I’m done with my duties as a photographer, I won’t be allowed to leave without have a few (dozen) beers in me.

Kaily’s brother called me up yesterday afternoon and invited me over to watch UFC 100 and both TJ and Kaily were there. After the amazing spectacle that was UFC’s 100th Pay Per View I noticed Kaily and TJ foolin’ around on the couch across from me. I quickly grabbed my iPhone to nab some shots of this little moment. Afterward I showed them and jokingly stated “There, your engagement shots are done…bring on the wedding!”, I was surprised at how the shots turned out and that they even liked them. But after showing them around to everyone and seeing how much they all enjoyed them…I figured it would be fun to share them here.

*Please not…These are pictures taken on a iPhone by me after a few beers and in a very dark back room. They in now way represent the quality of my actual work. But if you have been visiting my blog long enough I really don’t have to tell you that now do I

Now I just can’t wait till the fall when I get to do the real engagement shoot! Classic cars, farms with barns and two great clients! This gonna be fun!!!

One thing I love about the current line of smart phones like the iPhone, the HTC phones and Blackberrys is that it opens up a world of people to my blog and images.

Myself I keep up on all my blog reading on my iPhone, I’m not sure I could keep up with all the new blog posts from some of my favorite photographer if it wasn’t for my phone. But, this does bring up one pet peeve for me and that’s load time. I’m not sure about the rest of the smart phone offerings, but the iPhone has an annoying habit of giving up loading pictures if the site takes to long. There have been tons of time where a shooter posts about a wedding, I go to load it and only get about 25% of the images loaded.

Now I didn’t want anyone having to put up with that on my site, so I did a little research and found this cool little plug-in for WordPress that formats you website for mobile browsers make it load much faster. This doesn’t effect the site for people on computers, just those viewing on their phones.

If you run a blog and would like to look into this, I highly suggest you check out Brave New Code’s plugin called WPTouch. It is very easy to set up and customize, it even comes with a Photoshop template to make your own icons…How cool is that!

I have had my iPhone for almost a year now and I really can’t think what I would do without it. Sure it’s a cool toy with the apps and it really helps me keep in touch, it’s the reason why I can answer any email in about 5 minutes of receiving it (clients love that!). But, it’s that little 2MP camera and the photo editing apps that I love so much and what I couldn’t live without.

As some of you know, back in March I started documenting my day job trucking with my iPhone. The project is called 18 Wheels and a Camera and was inspired by the work Chase Jarvis is doing with his iPhone picture a day thing. As you can see, Chase is a true believer the term “The best camera is the one you have with you” and he is right.

That is why I love the iPhone so much, in the past year I have gotten some great pictures at times were I just couldn’t have my “big” camera or didn’t want to carry it….Examples

Last weekend I took the kids to Gibbons park with my wife. I packed up my camera to get some shots and when I arrived at the park I realized that I hadn’t tested the battery I grabbed and it was deader then a door nail (don’t worry, I triple test everything before client shoots lol). Well I did have my iPhone and I was able to capture this great seen.

Then there was the time when I had to take my youngest son Nathan in for an MRI. He had to be put to sleep for the test and had to rest after he woke up from the drugs. The poor little guy had such a bad day that after crying for an hour he just passed out in the recovery room of the hospital. I’m sure the nurses would have looked at me funny if I had my dSRL with me, but they didn’t glance twice at my iPhone.

This weekend the family all packed up to go to a BBQ at a friends house, now this is kind of a sticky point with me. I’m not fond of hauling my pro equipment with me to things like this, I find that people get a little intimidated by having a full on slr camera pointing at them when they are just trying to relax and have a beer with some friends. Point and Shoot camera are cool, so the iPhone didn’t bother anyone.

Last example…I was driving home from the store or something (can’t really remember) and when I get home I see the wife heading out the door with the boys on their way to the splash pad just down the street from us. I wanted to go so I just got out of the car and started walking with them not even thinking about grabbing my camera. But since I ALWAYS have my iPhone I was able to grab these.

Some of you may be thinking that this is just one big commercial for Apple or something, but really it’s just to get the point across. The iPhone has to be among the shittiest camera phones out there, but the important thing about it is that I always have it. I wish I was able to be one of those people that always carries a real camera be it a slr or a point and shoot. But because of my job and because of my habit of forgetting things I just can’t be one of those people…well that was until I started using the camera that is in my phone. It’s not about image quality, hell if it were the iPhone wouldn’t even be in the race let alone be in the running. It’s about capturing those moments in your life and those odd images that always seem to pop up outta no where. It’s important to be ready and thanks to the iPhone, I always am now.

Cheers!

I love kids, always have. I couldn’t wait to be a father and may have jumped into it a little to early, but I have no regrets what so ever. I’m one of those people that believes children bring meaning to ones life, a purpose to care for and teach another human being.

My oldest son Logan was planned for, we were among the lucky couples that had no problems conceiving. We basically lost the birth control and about 6 months later my wife was delivering the good news (please don’t quote me on that one), Nathan on the other hand was a complete surprise.

The first months were a joy, but as Nathan grew we started to get worried about his development. At first we got that ol’ line “Don’t worry, children develop at different rates”. Other parents were saying this, Nathan’s doctor was saying this, but as time went by we really started to get worried. Then on a late night visit to the Children’s Hospital for an ear infection (gotta love those ear infection eh!), the doctor on duty walked in and with in 15 seconds he noticed signs that signaled our worst fears…There was something wrong with our little Nathan.

After a few months of waiting and worrying, Nathan finally got in to see a developmental pediatrician and he diagnosed Nathan with PDD-NOS (pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified). From what I understand, this basically mean “He may have Autism, MAYBE, but we don’t really know. If it’s not Autism it’s something else, either way theirs something wrong”. At the age 2 and a half years, Nathan is not speaking, has social problems, motor skill problems and has a major case of Momasboyitis, he’s a HUGE mama’s boy!

This last part kinda stings sometimes. I come home from a long shift at the day job and Logan will come running to say hi and jabber on about his day, but Nathan completely ignores me. I do get to have some fun with him with tickling and stuff, but it doesn’t take long till he wants his mommy and goes running. I completely understand that the combination of my working long hours, starting a photography business and his condition won’t lead to strong bond. His mother is his life line and that is why their is such a strong tie between the two of them. But when he runs past me to go to mommy, well it kinda breaks my heart just a little.

I know this won’t last and as he improves (which he is doing little by little) he will come to daddy for more fun and rough housing. Till then I guess I will just have to satisfy myself with snapping pictures of my little guy and enjoying the little time I do enjoy with him…So don’t be surprised if you start to see even more pictures of Nathan.