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.

Toronto is my kinda town, not the traffic mind you, but the atmosphere. I didn’t really know these till I met with Aleen and Luke in the Distillery District of Toronto to shoot their engagement session. There are just so many little nooks and crannies to shoot that I was almost over loaded with input.

The weather wasn’t the best, but with a couple like these two and a play ground like downtown Toronto it’s hard not to get great pictures. Driving home I kept spotting other little spots and back drops, I wish I had a few more hours with Luke and Aleen.

I couldn’t ask for better clients (I really do have the best), I’m on pins and needles waiting to work with Aleen and Luke again, I can already see the smiles, tears and how absolutely gorgeous Aleen is going to look on her wedding day!

*Cans for Comments Update: It’s been a week of C4C and we are up to 31 comments, meaning 31 cans collect for the London Food Bank. I really want to say cheers to you all, I’m absolutely lovin’ this!*

Yesterday I jumped in the car and headed to Toronto to meet up with Aleen and Luke for their engagement session. Although The Weather Network lied to me the night before, promising me “Partially Cloudy” when in fact we got “Partially Sunny”…Hell, make that down right dark over cast…It still turned out to be a great session.

I am liking the FujiFilm Instax for my sneak peaks so I thought I would continue and make it a regular thing. So stay tuned for the full post.

Real quick….Cans for Comments is going amazingly well and I want to thank everyone for showing the love and helping out by leaving their kind words. It is only day 4 and at last count we are looking at 18 comments…Don’t forget to check out the Cans for Comments post and help out all the other great shooters taking part in C4C

I have actually teased you a few time with pictures of Kaily and TJ. First it was with some fun iPhone shots and then with their Instax Sneak Peek. This time it’s for real people!

I was REALLY looking forward to shooting with Kaily and TJ. Like I have mentioned before, I work with Kaily’s dad at the dreaded day job and TJ use to work their as well. These two are a classic couple, both extremely cool and with a real style all their own. Have you ever meet one of those couples that just seem like they have been together for like 50 years and are still in total love? Well that’s TJ and Kaily. Watching them during the shoot as well as at a few of Kaily’s old man’s parties, I have seen the love in their eyes. The way Kaily gives TJ the “LOOK” when he does something especially goofy…..or the “What did I do?” expression TJ gets after seeing that “LOOK”. They are a great couple, I had a killer time with them on this shoot and I’m super psyched about their wedding day.

I like to believe when I first met Katie and Deryk, we just clicked…..I would say that they would agree seeing that they signed me on the spot! Katie completely won me over when she announced that besides the wedding dress the photography was number 2 on her list of priorities at the wedding. I would have liked being number one, but hey, EVERYTHING comes second to the dress!

A few Sundays ago I got together with Katie and Deryk to take a little tour around the country side. Katie had all the locations lined up and to tell you the truth, I couldn’t have picked better locations myself. It would also appear that my luck with weather also extends to peoples health. Katie emailed me about a week before our session saying that they may have to reschedule because she was fighting a nasty bug. I really don’t know if it was my luck or if Katie is just that tough, but come our shoot date Katie was good to go. Either way, were cranked out some great shots in my opinion and with Katie and Deryk’s wedding in June, it’s looking like 2010 is going to be an amazing year!

Last week I picked up a little addition to my equipment arsenal, a Fujifilm Instax 200 (think modern Polaroid). I’ve never been a huge instant photography fan, but after seeing what the Instax turns out I became very interested.

Earlier today I was in Cambridge to shoot Kaily and TJ’s engagement session and the new member of the family tagged along to play. I absolutely love the results and thought they would be perfect for Kaily and TJ’s sneak peek post.

Stay tuned for the rest of the session coming soon.

Last Sunday I got to spend the afternoon with Katie & Deryk…..I’m enjoying being a tease with these sneak peeks so I thought I would continue the trend with Katie and Deryk’s engagement.

Stay tuned for the rest.

I’d really like to know what goes through my head sometimes. For some reason i always find myself sitting at the computer till 3 in the morning doing up a post. I had every intention of just editing and going to bed like any other sane, rational person would if they had to wake at 5:30 am.

This time though, I do have an excuse…

Last month I headed out to Grand Bend to photograph Chantal and Josh’s engagement session. I was really looking forward to working with these guys, they are such a laid back, super cool couple.

We did a little tour around the Grand Bend area hitting the beach, a farmers field, the local drive-in and ending the trip at Chantal’s parents house in the country. Both the ceremony and the reception are to be held here (have I said how much I love outdoor weddings yet?) and I am super excited for their wedding day after seeing this amazing chunk of land. Fake outhouses, rusted old Ford pickups and paths through a huge garden all add up to photo nirvana.

It was a complete pleasure to hang out with the both of them and if you enjoy the pictures even a quarter as much as I did taking them then I did my job……..

Cheers!