My first year of doing Cans for Comments was a pretty good success if I do say so myself. Thanks to all the kind peeps out there, I collected 70 cans for the London Food Bank.

Today I headed out and picked up those cans. Now I’m no math wizard or anything and counting can be a little tough for me sometimes, so I think I may have gotten a wee bit more the 70 cans from Costco…But whats a few more cans really? Just a little warning though, I’ll be looking to double my can count for next year, so all of you have 12 whole months to warm up those comments. In the mean time I’ll try my damnedest to have some killer posts for you to comment on.

Again I want to send out a HUGE thank you to Chris+Lynn for birthing this awesome idea, you two are the best! Also don’t forget that there are still tons of photographers and bloggers doing their part for Cans for Comments. For a list of those said participants you can head on over to the Cans for Comments website and start commenting away to help get some food on to the tables of those in need.

Cheers for now,

David

It has been a while since my last (Music to Inspire) post, so I thought I would feature one of my favorite bands The Civil Wars. I’m not exactly sure how I came across this duo, but I’m sure happy I did.

The Civil Wars are the combined talent of Joy Williams and John Paul White. Apart, they are both amazing artists with some of the best vocal cords I have heard in a long time, together they are absolutely f-in amazing. One of my go to songs is The Girl with the Red Balloon off of their album Live at Eddie’s Attic. This song is kind of a contradiction for me. If you listen to the lyrics it is a rather sad story of a girl that has lost the love of her life (or something along those lines), but the guitar and vocals just lift my spirits out of even the darkest of moods. I find that when I get depressed or if I’m in an irritated state of mind it really hurts my work, so all I have to do is boot up iTune, throw on this song and I’m up and running again in the perfect frame of mind to create.

I really think you’re gonna dig this song. If I’m right, you will want to head on over to their MySpace page where you can watch some videos, listen to more of their work and download the above mentioned album Live at Eddie’s Attic. Also, don’t forget to follow them on Twitter(@joywilliams @johnpaulwhite and @thecivilwars) and hit up their Facebook page.

I guess I’ll just shut my yap and let you listen to The Civil Wars with their song The Girl with the Red Balloon

Cheer!

Just wanted to do a little update on the Cans for Comments food drive happening all over North America.

For myself, at last count I had amassed 35 comments meaning 35 cans heading to the tables of London’s Food Bank….so far. There is still about a week and a half to comment the hell outta this here blog. If that is not good enough for you, Scotty of Think Photographics and Chris+Lynn have put together a nice little site where you can find a big ass list of some extremely caring and talented photographer that are also taking part in Cans for Comments. So why not head on over, look at their amazing work and leave some kind words.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a post from a killer engagement session to work on….Gotta give you something new to comment on don’t I?

Nothing feels better then when you go out of your way to help your fellow man….Nothing make me happier the hearing from my readers…..This got me thinking, why not mash up the two and get a double whammy!

In 2008 Chris+Lynn, an amazing Vancouver duo, started the Cans for Comments campaign raising 221 cans. On top of that tons of photographers from around the world joined in helping out their local food banks. This year I have decided to join in on the fun.

Here’s how it works. For every comment you leave on any of my blog posts from today to December 15, I will donate one canned product to the London Food Bank.

Now trust me, the food bank needs all the help it can get! Doing a little research I found out that this year with all the financial problems and job losses, the food bank is getting hit extra hard. More and more people are turning to the food bank to get meals on the table. In March roughly 800,000 people visited their local food banks (Yep….5 ZERO people!), that is an increase of 120,000 compared to 2008.

As this thing gathers steam, I will be adding a list of fellow photographers from around the world who are showing the love and taking part in Cans for Comments. So why not be a pal and head on over, check out their awesome work and leave some love of your own. This may not heal the world, but putting one meal in front of even one kid this year makes it all worth it to me.

List of kick ass, love showing photographers:
Kristel Wyman
Think Photographics
Andrea Murphy Photography
Tracey L Heppner
Mike Murrow
Rowell Photography
Erica May Short
White Album Weddings
Crystal Genes
Amy Karp
Shandro Photo
Smiles From Mel

If you are a photographer doing Cans for Comments as well, just make sure to pipe up in the comments of this post and I will add you to the list.

Now to get the comments rolling, here is my favorite shot from David and Ashley’s wedding that for some reason never made it to the blog…..I promise, I wasn’t holding out on you!

So a while ago I heard this interview with a guy that had started a cool Google Earth project on North Korea. With the help of North Korean ex-pats and people scattered around the world he started tagging locations of interest all around North Korea. He has managed to tag airports, dams, military bases, missile launching sites, ground defense locations and even Kim Jong Li’s house.

This interview got the rusty wheels in my head turning, I started thinking about all those posts in forums all over the internet from photographers traveling to unvisited cities and locations looking for good locations to shoot. I have yet to travel for a wedding yet, but when I do I’m not looking forward to scouting out locations in a city I know nothing about. I would really hate to be a photographer scouting in a country who’s language he doesn’t speak!

Now, wouldn’t it be cool if a bunch of photographers got together to collaborate on a Google map just like the one for North Korea, but instead of military bases and dictator’s homes, you would have cool locations for a portrait or engagement session. What a great way to help out other photographers from all around! Then there is the local aspect, this would be a great way to spare that cool barn you found or that little bridge with the rusted support beams.

So I’m now looking for photographers from all over to help out create this map, if you are interested just drop me an email and I will shoot you off an invite to the Google map. This wouldn’t even take up a whole lot of your time. You would just pull up the map in your browser, click edit, drop a pin and then enter a small description or a photo of the location if you want… It’s that easy.

I’m expecting this to have a slow start, but once I get the word out and hopefully more people join, we’ll have one killer resource for location scouting world wide!

Update – Been a good response so far, thanks all who have contacted me asking to help out! Anyways, I do have to mention that you need a Google account to collaborate on a Google Map. So when you contact me with your email I will need the email address you use to sign into your Google account.

The one thing wedding photographers love is stalkers fans. These days it’s very easy for people to follow your every move and I am more then happy to give my fans the tools to follow everything I am doing. Up top in the links bar you will see a link category full of links to ways you can see what I’m up to (if you are so inclined that is).

Contact me:

A simple contact sheet for all your questions, complaints or messages about how much you love/hate my work. If you don’t like email and prefer taking the more direct route, my phone number is on there as well.

Twitter:

If you have yet to hear about Twitter, it is a mini blogging service that limits you to 140 characters to say what you are doing. Once you start following people you will get short updates about what they are up to at the time of their message. I use Twitter when I want to say something, but it’s not involved enough to merit a blog post. Give it a try, it’s free, it’s addictive and you can get tons of information… But, don’t forget to follow me!

Flickr:

Not every picture I take will make it into a post here on the blog or into my portfolio. If you are interested in seeing everything I make available for the internet my Flickr stream is the place to go.

FaceBook:

I LOVE friends on FaceBook! I clearly don’t have enough. Another good reason for befriending me on FaceBook is everything I do on Twitter, here on the blog and what I upload to Flickr shows up in my FaceBook feed. So if you really don’t feel like checking out Twitter or heading over to Flickr, you can just friend me up on FaceBook and let all that info come to you.

Friendfeed:

Ok, so you don’t have a FaceBook account and you are not interested in getting a FaceBook account, but you still want to keep up on everything? Well then head on over to Friendfeed. Again, just like FaceBook, everything I do on Twitter, the blog, FaceBook and Flickr is added to my feed.

So with so many ways to follow me one must ask “Why aren’t you?”.