There is one personality trait I have yet to figure out if it’s good or bad, I guess it all depends on who you ask, this little addiction of mine is I love to give.

Maybe it has something to do with my natural impatience, I don’t know, but if I buy someone a gift I can’t wait for what ever special occasion to hand it over. This trait shines when it comes to my sons. I love nothing more then finding that perfect gift, to pull it out and watch their eyes just light up with joy. This often leads to unplanned trips to Toy’R'us and that is what happened today.

I was heading to BestBuy to pick up some stuff and I brought Logan along for the ride. He was being so well behaved (an extreme rarity for him) that I thought we would jump over to Toy’R'us, he had been bugging us for a dinosaur he had seen on a YouTube video and I thought we may be able to find something similar.

We enter the store and start looking. Not finding anything of interest, I grab a salesman and ask him where I could find an animatronic dinosaur. He points us over to the Fisher Price aisle to check out the Kota & Pals series. When we rounded the corner my face dropped and I thought Logan was going to explode with excitement…Right there before us was a 2 foot T-Rex that roared, walked and a whole bunch of other stuff. I looked at it, then Logan’s face, then the price tag. I knew I was gonna have a fight on my hands.

I had to do some quick thinking to avoid a scene (read yelling, screaming, hitting, so on and so on). I grabbed the first small dino I could find and shoved it in front of Logan. It took a bit of talking, but I was able to get him to forget about the monster T-Rex and he walked out of the store with a new best friend.

That was at 11:30 this morning and since then he has done nothing but play with his new triceratops. When he is not playing with it, he is talking about it. I have heard “The triceratops has ‘free’ horns and a frill because T-Rex tries to bit him” more time then I can count this afternoon.

Yes the noise gets annoying and Nathan (my youngest) is terrified of it the poor little guy, but I think it’s worth it. I got to see that look of joy that every father just loves and my little addiction to giving has been satiated for a little while. Now if only Nathan was so easy to please. That boy is so hard to buy for…..

2010….sounds so sci-fi.

How will you remember 2009?

For my family 2009 was a year of firsts. First bike, first day at school, first hockey stick, first word (we think…). For the business, 2009 has been a year of maturity. It has also been my first full year with the blog. I have gotten to point my camera at some truly amazing people and I can say that I have the best clients on the face of the earth.

How will I remember 2009? With a huge grin on my face

I spent my new years long weekend combing through all the memories of 2009 and I’ve gathers 61 images that I think express the feeling of the last year of this decade for me. Lots of smiles, lots of emotion and a copious amount of lip locking. Some images you have seen, some never made it to the blog for one reason or another, but all would be lining my walls if I had a much bigger house.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did capturing them.

Now….Bring on 2010!

Above image taken for Red Button Photography

It’s been a while since I have posted anything about my family, but after the news we just got I thought I would share a bit.

If you have been following this blog for a while, you will know that my youngest son Nathan has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS (pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified). PDD-NOS falls under the autism spectrum. He is 3 years old, but at the level of a child half his age.

As it turns out, after a visit to a developmental pediatrician, our eldest son Logan may fall under the autism spectrum as well. We have been concerned with his social skills for a while, but having a diagnoses of autism was kinda hard to hear. You start to blame yourself and a feeling of failing your child does tend to happen. It is to early to tell anything yet with more tests to follow, so all we can do is wait.

All I can ask for as a father is to ensure my boys are happy, whether or not Logan turns out to have autism is a mute point. Of coarse I have moments where I feel like I have failed my boys, like I have neglected to protect them. Then I have to tell myself that I have done my job, Logan is a happy child and as long as I do everything in my power to keep him a happy child, I have not failed.

Be them doctors, lawyers or the guy behind the counter at the gas station… As long as my boys are happy I will be proud of them.

Cheers.

Today I hit the park with the boys, the wife was out and it was just me and the little terrors. I was trying to figure out what to do with them when my chain of thought had me thinking about my niece Chelsea and how I have yet to get her in front of my camera. How I have yet to do so is beyond me seeing how she is such a little cutie. So I thought today would be the day to rectify this oversight as well as get the boys some time with their aunt Becky.

I called up my sister which happens to live by the kids favorite park and arranged to meet up with her and Chelsea. One thing I found quite amusing was that Chelsea insisted on wearing certain clothes and having her hair exactly how she wanted it. When my sister informed me of this little act of will I was kinda nervous seeing how a child of her age would dress themselves if given the chance. My eldest Logan when given the decision still decides on his Spiderman underwear….and only the underwear…

But, I guess my concerns were a waste of emotional energy because as it turns out my little niece has a real eye for fashion, I couldn’t have picked out a better outfit…But then again I’m a 34 y/o dad, what do I know of girls fashions :-/

To add to Chelsea keen sense of fashion, she is also a great little model! I have said that some of the kids I have worked with were naturals, but I have worked with grown up “models” that didn’t pose or take direction as well as my little niece. She has a great attitude that leaks out in these pictures that I got. It’s safe to say that this is no where near the last time Chelsea will be in front of my lens.

Oh…and Mom, I’m email you link ASAP

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!

There are major milestones in the life of a parent and I believe they differ between mothers and fathers, as well as what gender your children are. As a father of two boys, my milestones are:

1)Fist birthday
2)First steps
3)First time you hear “Dadda”
4)First bike
5)First day of school
6)First public presentation (be it sports, stage, what have you)
7)First Girlfriend
8)Graduation
9)First beer

Today on Logan’s 5th birthday I got to enjoy number 4, Logan’s first bike. We did have a tricycle for him, but he never really got the idea of using the pedals and really, for use fathers…The first bike means the first two wheeler, none of this three wheeler crap!

This morning was a flurry of activity, I was running around, I bought a bike, I bought training wheels, I bought a helmet. I returned a bike, I returned training wheels, I bought another better bike, I bought another set of training wheels. I bitched, sworn and yelled as I tried to put the training wheels on the bike…Yes, it was an eventful morning, but in the end it was worth every scrapped knuckle and trip to Walmart and Canadian Tire when I got to see the look on Logan’s face when I walked through the door with his very first bike. These are the days every father looks forward to.

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.

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!