The saddest picture
I know everyone wants happy cheerful life is beautiful type pictures all the time, but sometimes our kids cry….and sometimes you get to capture their sadness. Desiree just wasn’t happy this day. We went to visit her Great Grandma, but at the end of the visit when we were trying to get a beautiful family shot of all of her 6 great grandchildren, Desiree didn’t want to take part and started to cry. Here’s how it looks when doves cry
Tablouleh, Hummus, beets and more
Wow, lots of food posts this year eh! Don’t worry, I’ll be getting back to photography on this blog soon.
When I decided to make some tabouleh, I thought, hey 2 cups should be enough for 2 days….HA. 2 cups of dry made about 6 cups when finished. I had originally purchased 1 bunch of parsley, but had to go back and get 2 more just to have enough. So now we have enough tabouleh for a week. Plus I made some hummus and a beet salad. The iphone app for the Food Network is awesome and my favourite chef so far is Michael Smith, that’s where I found the recipe for the Beet Salad(which they seem to have taken down!). Is it just me or does he not look like John Corbett?
That’s it for today, I guess. Just playing with the kids and maybe visiting the folks.
Guacamole Rules
It has to be one of the easiest things to make, albeit a little time consuming, but it tastes soooo good.
3 avocados
1 onion
1 tomato
1 bunch of cilantro
juice from 2 limes
chillies to taste
salt to taste
That’s it! Peel the avocados and onions, take the leaves off the cilantro. Throw it all into the food processor and blend. You don’t get any easier than that.
Ok…I’m on a new health kick. yes it’s January and everyone is going to diet and exercise, so am I. I started a little workout this morning at 6:00am. It was really tough…but I’m a big wuss. 5 minutes on the elliptical and I was DONE. I was panting like a dog. A few minutes to recover then a few other exercises and then finished on the bike. Let’s see what tomorrow morning brings. Maybe even some pictures as I’m suppose to be this phenomenal photographer(lol).
Website update and more from your Burlington Ontario Photographer
Not much to report on today. Just doing some updates to my website. A cool new iPhone version is being launched as well as a new html site. They should be up and rocking in the next few days. Be sure to check them out and let me know what you think. Also, I’m updating a whole bunch of pictures and styles on my main site, so watch for those.
I can’t wait to show you the latest wedding I shot as well. I’ve got to present to Latoya and Thomas first and I know they are excited to relive their day through pictures. They should be up by this weekend.
That’s about all for now. Just a quick hello. I figure I tweet enough that I should probably blog a little more as well.
Now for a quick image for ya, because a post doesn’t seem complete without something.
6 reasons why I didn’t post this weekend
No photos or blog posts this weekend! Here’s what happened:
1. It was the long weekend, and I needed a break
2. Saturday was a shopping day for our great BBQ fiesta
3. The bbq’s started at 8:30am and lasted until the guests arrived
4. I can’t post to my blog from my iPhone
5. Monday was clean up day
6. Monday was also spend time with my kids day and try to relax
We had a great time at the BBQ. Friends and family all showed up. I tried to reconnect with some old clients as well because I don’t like to just shoot, I like to build relationships with my clients that last forever. We become friends when the work is over.
Maloreigh and Allie – Burlington Strobist at work
Another day (there Dave, another Dream Theater reference for ya).
I emailed my next two brides that I’ll be shooting in August. I can’t wait. It’s been forever since I shot a wedding. I still have to post a few of my favourite pics from the last weddings I did with AC Images. They look great and Andrea is an awesome photographer whom I can’t thank enough for the privilege to shoot with her this year. I hope to get a few more weddings under my belt with her.
The rest of my day was a pretty standard Friday. Tim Hortons for breakfast, worked my 9-5, home, Pizza Pizza for dinner, play with the kids until they are tired, then off to bed. I don’t think I’ll need to tell any of you that last part anymore because that’s what I love to do every night. My kids mean the world to me and I love playing with them.
Tonight Maloreigh had a friend over who’s going hang with us all weekend. Allie is also going to help babysit the kids tomorrow night so that Susie and I can celebrate our wedding anniversary. 6 years tomorrow.
So for tonights inspiration comes another backyard sunset shot. I love the back-lighting and the way the sun give such great red to their hair. I think I could use this shot for a band one day (so any local bands that want to shoot, drop me a note).
f/18
1/40th
ISO 200
430 fired again off camera right, full power, no diffusion
You also get to see how my little helper Desiree worked with Daddy tonight. She wanted to shoot the models and photographer. I think she did really good. This shot is SOOC and I think she even nailed the rule of thirds! Not bad for a 4 year old.
Time for Change
Today hit me like a ton of bricks. Here’s why:
I just found out that I don’t exist and it’s getting worse. I have to ask myself, What am I doing? Well, I thought I’ll get a nice flash website, an awesome blog, a smugmug page, a facebook page, a twitter account, and on and on and on. Why? Because that’s what all photographers need right? We need social media to stay current and capture our clients. Well, I have them all and guess what? Clients aren’t finding me. I post to my blog every day, I twitter a lot(not lately thought), I keep updating facebook. I’m doing everything that I’m “told” to, but I’m not getting the results. My first step was, go to Grader and find out why. Now, most people wouldn’t want to show how bad they’re doing, but I do. This is my testament to all the budding photographers out there.
So I turned to my good buddy David Schultz, who is a web guru to find out why. So he and I went back and forth through email and it came down to the article I posted above.
I have lots of work to do! Which is now represented in my picture below. I’m changing. I’m no longer saying I’m a Wedding Photographer and doing the blah blah blah that everyone says you have to do. Yes, I love Weddings, I want to shoot YOUR wedding and that’s what I want to do in life, but now I’m going to be really letting you into my world. My blog is now going to follow my trials and tribulations of making it as a photographer, 9-5er and father/husband. It’s going to be a reality show in a blog. You can help shape this blog. I want your input and feedback and I’ll be reaching out to you Mr & Mrs Internet. We have until Dec 31st to turn this thing around.
Susie with Flare
Tried a bunch of shots in my backyard tonight, inspired by Strobist and Zack Arias. It’s time to get creative or get going. So I’m getting creative.
The Cookie Thief
I had a great idea tonight to shoot the cookies that Desiree and Maloreigh made last night. We had tons! So tonight as I was trying to setup my shot, a little hand reached up to grab some. I thought, you know what? this is my shot. It was perfect.
Lighting Flare
I thought I would try my hand at some more flare shots. I think this one looks pretty cool.
Gargoyle
One of my neighbours was getting rid of his gargoyle because he’s missing an ear. Well, I think it adds character, so I picked him up. Yup, I’m a garbage picker. I need to find an awesome spot for this guy, I just don’t know where yet.
Burlington Ontario Photographer
Kids make their memories
One of our walls in our new basement had this writing all over it. Lots of great memories for the previous owners. Kids heights at different ages, all kinds of scribbles. One day it will be gone as we will be doing our own wall with our kids.
Wall of Memories
Backgammon Cube
Ah the cube. It changes everything. It can make a nice friendly game end in seconds.
Sophie & Hovig Wedding Invitations
I received my wedding invitation from my cousin and her fiancée today. The invites look amazing as will my cousin!
Burlington Ontario Wedding Photography
Burlington Ontario Wedding Photography
Kraft Peanut Butter
Mmmmmm goodness. I love peanut butter and so do my kids. Tonight, Hayden had 2 PB sandwiches. My favourite is the triple decker, 3 slices of bread with lots of PB. You can’t go wrong. On special occasions I’ll have PB and Strawberry Jam. Now that’s a treat.
Exercise – ugh
Well, it’s time to get back on the bike. Today marked my first day of getting back in to exercising. It was a rough start, but I give it a few more mornings of hard work and I’ll be right back into it. My goal is to lose some weight around the “keg” section!
Broil King
yes I am! I love to BBQ. When we moved into our new house, we were not able to take the old BBQ with us as it had lived out it’s life. It was a good BBQ, but it had to go. So welcome the new BBQ, Mr. Broil King!
Desiree and Hayden at Bronte Creek
Today we spent the day at Bronte Creek. I didn’t bring any of my cameras as we were suppose to go swimming, but Mr. Thunderstorm put an end to that fun. So we spent a lot of time inside the play barn and looking at the animals.
Candy cigarettes
Wow, I guess I haven’t looked at the candy aisle for a while. It’s amazing what is still out there. I didn’t think they were allowed to make these anymore, but boy do they look authentic. I agree that these “Target” and “Round up” young smokers.
Cabo Wabo Tequila
Tequila! duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh duh.
I did some minor de-construction tonight when I got home from work. We finally got rid of our old washer, dryer and fridge. Our basement and kitchen seem so empty now without these extra appliances just hanging around. Once they left, I went right to work, in my work clothes, cutting away a piece of our cabinets so that we could fit the giant fridge into it’s new place. I tried to get the water line run as well, but that will require a little more drilling this weekend.
So back to why Tequila. Well, our booze was in said cupboard above the old fridge. Right now it’s all just sitting on our counter. We need to find a new home, not including my belly. So I found my old Cabo Wabo bottle that I’ve kept all these years with the full ones(I don’t really know why). I thought I’d flash it from the bottom of the bottle to light it up and keep the blue colour prevailing. I shot this hand held with a 1 second exposure, and I manually triggered the flash with my left hand. I didn’t want to take out my remotes tonight and I think this worked out really well.
Jenga fall
I tried to capture some motion of the game falling, but couldn’t get it to tip over while hand holding the camera. Also, you had to re-stack every time and I was growing tired of rebuilding my set every 30 seconds.
July 13th 2010 – my 365 – Rush Concert Review
Tuesday night was a great night! Thunderstorms held back, the temperature was just perfect and Rush was playing for nearly 3 hours. It just doesn’t get better than that. Yes, many people do not like them, but they have an amazing fan base. Lots of families were there to enjoy the show, even little babies. One could have called this a mini Rush-stock. A few points about our night:
- Neil Peart – You still have it. This guy is amazing. You could see so many air drummers during certain licks mimicking his every move.
- Geddy’s voice is still strong. He may not quite get the highest notes, but his voice hasn’t changed much in 30 years.
- Alex – Still strong. While I wish he’d write some crazy riffs like the olds days, he can still play the hell out of them.
- You can’t go wrong with the video segments. Finishing the concert was a 5 minute reprise of “I love you man“. This was a new segment made just for the tour and it rocks. I can’t wait to find it on youtube
- The Molson Amphitheater really needs to get another exit and a few more entrances. It’s just a nightmare trying to leave.
I wish I had a better image of my night, but I waited too long to take a shot, so you get my nice iphone blur.
July 12th 2010 – my 365 – dueling fridges
Out with the old and in with the new. It was a good fridge(not really) for the last 5 days. We won’t even be keeping the oldie as a beer fridge as the door doesn’t stay shut.
July 10th 2010 – my 365 – Henry Franc’s Darling House Charity BBQ
My dear friend Henry Franc had his annual Darling House Charity BBQ this weekend. You couldn’t have asked for a better day. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky, great food and great friends. I’m attaching a picture of his smoker, as I was quite jealous.
