News

Hi everyone. I wanted to write this quick blog post as I haven’t been around as much as normal. I haven’t disappeared but I have been off most social communication systems for a while. It’s amazing how a short break from facebook, blogs, and twitter can snowball from a couple months to over a year.

Well. I am back on. It will take me a little bit to catch up so please be patient. I will be going through everything in the next couple weeks as well as catching up on some items that have been on the to do list for a while.

These new ones are hot! I will be posting way more like this throughout the season but this is just a taste of what’s to come. As a comparison, you can check out the old version of the same wedding here.

I finally got my new business cards to fit my new branding. I have been itching to get new updated cards for a while now and I am really happy about these.

First up are the paper cards.

Second, I have some plastic PET business cards. They are made of old plastic water bottle material so they are environmentally friendly and they have a great shine to them (which, unfortunately, you can’t see in the photo.)

The standard in wedding albums has changed over the years from mounted photos on black pages to today’s flush mounted coffee table style books. I wanted something with a little more character and infinite possibilities. I came up with this. It is inspired by historical book binding techniques that date back to the middle ages. This is the first of many samples to come, but it gives you an idea of the possibilities.

This particular book is 31 pages, 29 full spreads and 2 single pages front and back. Made of full grain black leather with natural linen stitching. It comes with a strap to hold it closed as well as a slip cover to store it in.

The pages open up flat with a seamless flush mount design

The pages are thick but fairly flexible to fit with the look and feel of the book.

I am really excited about the possibilities with these books. I will have another sample within a couple days which will be a little more colourfull.

I am heading to Mexico to meet up with Jen & John for their wedding in a couple days, so I am getting a head start on my packing. My plane leaves at 6:20 in the morning so I want to be all ready to just walk right out the door. Packing for a destination wedding is no small task; I am amazed by how much stuff I have to bring for just 3 nights away from home. I thought it would be interesting to take a pic of most of the stuff I will be bringing (about 80% packed).

Summary:

• 3 Camera bodies, 5 Lenses
• 2 flashes w/ remote radio triggers and coloured gels
• 40GB in memory cards
• Laptop & External Hard Drive
• 4 Pairs of shoes/sandals (Airport shoes, dressy sandals, walking around sandals and water shoes for the cenote)
• 5 bags and cases (luggage, pelican, shootsac, camera backpack, and laptop bag)
• Underwater camera bag
• 3 Tripods
• Tons of batteries and small accessories

I can’t wait to get down there! Just a couple more sleeps before I go…

I am so excited about these new albums that I wanted to share some pics of one of the samples I just made. You can’t get these albums anywhere else! And the best part is, they are made in Canada.

When you first get your album you will notice the amazing slip cases they come in. There is a brown version of the cover as well.

This particular book is a white guest book.

Open up the book and it lays flat. This book was 10 spreads (20 pages).

Each spread is seamless. There are no seams down the middle where the pages fold. This 10×10″ book is 10″x20″ opened up. Sizes come in 5×5, 8×8, 10×10, and 12×12.

Each page is thick and stiff. No floppy pages here!

Premium leather! This leather stands out above other albums I have had in the past. This full grain leather really pops and the texture and feel of it is just amazing. Colours come in White, Black, Red, Brown, Lime Green, Orange, and Hot Pink. I can get some specialty colours in, too, so anything is possible!

I will have many more samples to post soon. This particular album is a guest book, so it is made of matte pages to make it easier to sign. Regular albums are made with a lustre finish and protected with a laminate to ensure long life. These prints are rated for around 100 years, so it will last a very long time!

Yesterday I was sitting looking at my website and there was just something that I didn’t like about it. I wanted white backgrounds for my text. I wanted it different colours. I wanted it to change.

As some of you know, I design websites on the side. It is something I have picked up on my own and have quite a few websites out there. So, I dove right into it and played hooky from my social life for the night. What you see here is what I came up with and I love it. It isn’t 100% done yet – I still need to make some of the content and sidebar pages more beautiful, but it’s where I want it to be. Hope everyone likes it

I have loved infrared images for years now. I used to take infrared pictures with my old Canon Digital Rebel about 4 years ago. The only problem with that was it took at least 10 seconds to get a good picture; you couldn’t just point and shoot. It was pretty impractical for wedding photography.

What is infrared photography?

First, it’s not a heat camera and it can’t shoot in the dark (without an infrared light source). Infrared is part of the light spectrum just under the colour red, but our eyes can’t see it. Digital cameras are designed to filter out infrared light, which is counter intuitive to infrared photography, but an absolute necessity to take regular pictures.

So I took apart one of my expensive DSLR cameras and cut out the insides, and replaced a little filter that prevents me from taking these amazing photos quickly like a regular light camera.

What does it look like?

Different objects reflect IR light differently. In infrared photos the sky and water will look deep blue or black. Fluffy clouds will continue to look like their fluffy selves, while grass on the other hand reflects a lot of infrared so it turns out a snowy white. The picture above is one I took at the end of September on a nice sunny day at York University. Trees were green at the time and there was no snow for months.

Infrared Photography at Weddings?

That’s the plan! I am so excited to have this in my arsenal (I love new gear). I will be shooting a wedding down in Mexico next month and this will be the first wedding I will try it out with. The results should be spectacular! I will be bringing the camera to all of my 2009 weddings to take a few pictures with.

So I haven’t updated my blog in a while, but that is about to change.  2009 is here and I have a lot of exciting things planned and a few things to announce within the next couple weeks that is both exciting for brides & grooms as well as my fellow photographers.

Congrats to all those that got engaged over the holidays.  Feel free to contact me to check to see if I have your date available this year.

Part of my new years resolution is to start posting on my website every week, so keep checking in.