One thing I find really annoying about being part-time in this photography thing is that the day job gets in the way of actually taking pictures. If you look all over the internet for advice on improving your photography, the number one response is shoot and shoot a lot…Well that’s kinda hard when you work 70 hours a week in another profession.

I have found ways to work around this problem though. One way is my 18 Wheels and a Camera project, this allows me to shoot and exercises the ol’ noggin in spotting those images even while I’m driving my rig down the 402 highway. Another way is my regular photo outings, today’s outing was kind of a road trip. I wasn’t sure where to go, so I put up a vote on Twitter asking for which direction to go…They said south, so I went south and ended up at Port Stanley.

I couldn’t believe the weather for a mid December day and it was quite nice out, the light was amazing. Anyways, here are some of my favorites from today….

As I was heading out of Port Stanley with the intention of swinging east and north to hit up some of the smaller towns past London, the clouds came rolling in and killed my light. I was totally bummed, I was having such a great time. I ended up just packing it in and heading home. As I was driving along I saw this last image. The mix of light, clouds and the framing of the trees just grabbed me and I slammed on the breaks. If the guy in the blue and white late model Ford Pickup up is reading this….Sorry dude! But I think it was totally worth it

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!

Yes, again with the iPhone…Sorry!

But seriously, you really don’t know how important it is to me to be able to just grab my phone and capture memories of my family as it grows in a fun a creative way.

Lately I have been playing with the iPhone app called Old Camera. I just love this app and I’m finding I’m using it more and more when I want a beat up looking black and white image. So I thought that I would show you some images today from my iPhone of the family using this great app.

Hope you enjoy, if you do or if you don’t, please let me know and leave a comment. I don’t push comments that much, but I think it’s time. I find a lot of people are afraid to leave comments good or bad because it’s like barging into someone’s front door or something, but hey….I’m leaving my front door wide open!

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.

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 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.

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!