I wanted to test out the new (to me) Rolliecord film camera acquired about a month ago and I really wasn’t in the mood for landscapes, I wanted to shoot a living breathing human being. However, finding a model on short notice is almost impossible seeing that my kids won’t sit still and the wife hates having her picture taken (lol, yeah I know…and she’s married to a photographer).

Well, next to impossible was the case till I met Hayley who you may remember from a session we did at the beginning of April. Hayley is one amazing young lady. She has a great look, dances (see flying leg splits done during last session) and to top it all off, has a stellar work ethic. She is pretty much ready to shot on a dime. Last minute or a month away, if she is available she will be there. If you are ever looking for a model, I would high recommend dropping her a line. I will include her info at the bottom of the post.

Since this Rollie is completely manual and I grew up on the mini computers that are modern digital camera, all I had to figure out proper exposure was the ol’ noggin. Basically this all meant that I wasn’t sure if I was going to create some killer negatives or a roll of wasted film. I didn’t want Hayley’s time to be for not, so I brought my working camera as well so I could give her something for the portfolio even if I did mess up my exposures with the film. That’s what I have for you today. I will be showing the film if there is anything to show, but until then I have these for you.

Cheers!

Hayley On Facebook
Hayley on Model Mayhem

Well, this is more of a preview of an up and coming model I will be working with in the near future.

Got together with the lovely Hayley to talk about working together on some creative sessions. After the talk we shot off some Instax stuff for fun. With Hayley’s wonderful attitude and dance experience I am very excited to be working with her. Keep an eye out for some of that work here. The first session will be a senior type shoot, but I plan on pulling together something a little more out there to leverage her dancing skills….gonna be so much fun!

And if you want to see a few more from our walk, they are being post over on my Tumblr blog. I have been using that for more of my person fooling around

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.