It might have taken 2 months to get caught up enough to share this but I think it is totally worth the wait… I photographed Tabitha and Pierre’s wedding about a year and a half ago and it is awesome to be able to photograph the newest edition of their family! Congratulations guys!

Such a handsome little man!

I love how little baby feet and hands look.

Dude, is that a smile there? You bet he is happy, he is hanging with mom.

Of course hanging with dad is pretty awesome too!

Hit play down below for more images

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At the start of October I met up with Kristine and Kevin to take some engagement photos with the added twist of also doing some family shots including their two beautiful girls. In case you are wondering, the beautiful girls happen to be a couple of super energetic dogs.

But this session was not just about the dogs, we made sure to capture some great stuff of Kristine and Kevin too!

It was a pretty adventurous session too! Kristine, Kevin, and the “girls” braved the edge of the river bank which was actually quite slippery and the girls were itching to go for a swim. They also climbed up into the trees as well!

Such beautiful eyes!

Ahh, dogs are amazing…

I absolutely loved the light we found under this bridge. I could have shot here the whole time, if it wasn’t for the insanely steep hill we were standing on!

After climbing said insanely steep hill we found a nice little spot where Kristine and Kevin could sit. I have no idea what they were talking about but from the expression on Kristine’s face I imagine they were planning the next shot.

These two know how to have a great time and I think it really shows in their photos. The silly one:

The serious one:

One last one, tall grass + cuddles = FUN!

Thank you guys for spending the afternoon with us and for bringing the “girls” this was truly a unique way to celebrate your engagement. Now if only you could bring the girls to the beach for the wedding

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A few weeks ago I photographed Janna + Martins engagement session and I thought I would share my approach to the location scouting for the session and all sessions I photograph. I like to be prepared and this approach is what works for ME, it may not work for you. In fact I know some people prefer to not see a location ahead of time and that is fine too. Remember this is my approach, take what you like, toss the rest, and add as you please!

I try to scout locations as close as possible to the date I will be shooting as well as at about the same time of day. The reason I choose time of day is so that I can see what the lighting will be like at that time. Where is the best light? Can I find open shade for the size of groups I am dealing with? Will there be enough light or will I have to supplement with flash? I like to check out the location close to the session date so that I can see the conditions of the location. Is there construction or renovations on the premise or grounds where I will be shooting? What can I use for backgrounds? Is there parking close by so that the clients do not have to do too much walking and I can have access to extra gear or props without the need for a donkey?

I take test shots to see if I like the way things look. I had Angela stand in while I dialed in the look I wanted, she got a little restless and started to play it up for the camera! I like what I see with this wall because it provides me with two things 1. a simple uncluttered background that I can throw slightly out of focus and 2. open shade with a touch of rim lighting. This same wall in the morning would be lit totally differently and I may not have used it if it was a morning session. 1 Spot down lets look for more.

Here we set up the camera on a tripod and used the 10 second self timer… I barely made it into position for the camera to fire! lol In fairness the camera was almost at ground level so I had to lay on my stomach to compose and focus the shot, then get up and run as I was using a long lens. As you can see the tails on my shirt have yet to settle.

We saw this amazing Lilac tree and I loved the subtle pop of purple from it’s flowers. The light here is awesome and the background gives me good separation from my subjects. 2 spots down…

From there I continue to walk the location and search for spots that I can use with my subjects seated, standing, walking, full length, three quarter length, in close… I take photos of all the spots I want to use and put them on my iPad, I can then use this to plan my “path” to hopefully create some efficiency and flow to the session. I will bring this with me on the day of the shoot and get there at least a half hour before the session starts and do a walk around to determine if the spots I have picked out are still usable. For example an empty fountain with some funky blue tiling is now either filled with water or the tiles have been ripped out and awaiting replacement, not that either of those have ever happened.

I take any opportunity I can to photograph my assistant, who happens to be my beautiful, lovely, and talented wife even if she is just lugging gear around!

And last but not least is to pack the gear up and head to dinner, hey you have to take every chance you can when you have someone looking after the children!

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After getting rained out for the original shoot date, it was dumping huge, we finally had a break in the almost non stop rain Edmonton has had this summer. Early in the day it was looking like we might have been in for some more rain, but the sun found its way out by the late afternoon and it was smooth sailing for the rest of the evening.

I have to hand it to these guys, they were troopers! Not only did we have to rebook but Janna and Martin had to endure waves of mosquitoes during the shoot as well.

I was in love with this doorway, I wish this was the front entrance to my house!

I love this spot, I could have shot here all day long.

I love me some hand holding and these guys know how to get it done right!

I brought a chalkboard along and asked Janna and Martin to each write three things about each other and this is what they had to say. The best part about this is that they really get to show off their personalities here, so saucy and fun!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding guys, I had so much fun shooting the engagement session I can’t wait for your wedding!

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Today Owen turns 4 years old, Happy Birthday Owen! We were planning on doing a photoshoot of Owen to mark his 4th birthday but things took an unexpected yet pleasent 4 year old detour. Owen is a firecracker of activity and you will rarely catch him sitting still for long. This can make for a challenging shoot to be sure but it is always entertaining. Here he is showing me how to jump rope. Not quite what I had in mind for the shoot but when dealing with a 4 year old you sort of have to roll with the punches. I thought why not get him to hold a camera too, maybe he would sit a little longer and I could get something in focus.

Right off the bat he noticed that there was no battery or lens and he needed them to be able to take picture you know. So I ran off and grabbed a battery and lens so that he could actually use the camera, and I have to say I think he is a natural! Almost instinctively he knew what to do and snapped a few frames and then checked the back of the camera to see the results of his first few frames. Chimping ain’t easy you know.

Obviously he liked the feeling as his face lit up with exceitement! Maybe Owen could rep for Canon, how cute would that be. A little 4 year old prodigy in their ads.

This was the resulting shot, not bad hey. Of course I put the camera on aperture priority mode at 1.4 and cranked the ISO to 3200 so the grainy image is not his fault, just a by product of shooting with no light.

After he smiles big, he puts the camera back up to his eye to take a few more frames… yeah now were talking!

We are now trading frames shooting each other working and it donned on me that this is probably the first photos I have of me in action. I have to say it is not pretty, I think I need to improve on my style when shooting

I also happened to notice Owen’s preference for shooting using the left eye in the viewfinder. At first he put his right eye to the viewfinder but then immediately switched to the left and stuck with it everytime he shot. The lucky kid will get to put Joe McNally’s Da Grip to use!

So the photoshoot is now abandoned, well the session of Owen anyway, but Owen has just started his own session. We wandered the whole house looking for subjects. I was taking pictures of Owen taking pictures so we have a few here of my perspective of Owen and then his resluting shot. Pretty cool hey!

Their play kitchen.

Some garden gnomes that were waiting to be release into the garden of korsan.

Himself in the mirror. I guess it is not just his dad who takes pictures of himself

Then Owen switched gears and turned his attention to some details shots of his toys.

After checking off self portraits and detail shots, I think Owen wanted to show his versatility and do some portrait work.

First up was Kosmo

Then Grandma H

and Grandpa H

Brother Brandon

and last but certainly not least Mom

Happy 4th birthday Owen! We are so proud of the little man that you have become and daddy is looking forward to a little help on my next shoot!

For full details of what our Owen has been up to this past year check out Angelas blog at Korsan Crew

Editors Note: aside from adding a blog watermark the images from Owen’s camera have not been processed in any way.

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I was in the mood for something a little more film noir like. Shot this with camera in hand and had Angela hold the flash behind the kids toy work bench which has holes for all the tools to hang in. That is where the hot sopts are coming from, the light passing through the holes. But it looks like I could be peeking out the window of a motel into the parking lot waiting and watching while someone is pulling in.

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Happy Family Day weekend everyone! In the spirit of Family Day I thought that I would post a photo from my family. Tonight we were to my grandmas for a Family Day dinner and like I have mentioned before my grandma is a photo nut like me. Her walls are filled with photographs of family, some are portraits and others are simply snapshots. Everytime I go over I love to look at all the old photographs and came accross this one. This is more a portrait of myself rather than a self portrait as I did not own a camera back then This is my sister and myself all dressed up for the rodeo. What a pimp hey!

The following two shots are a little more on the creepy side. The one of the hand looks like it could be the back of a hand that has a palm print on it, at least that is the illusion I see because of the way the fingers curl.

This one is creepy to me just because of the crop and expression…

until next time…

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Looking for a portrait that says Active, Adventure, Corporate, Cool all at once? Well look no further this is it. Well ok it might be plain old fashioned tacky like the tie! This is actually week number two of Self Portrait Sunday and while I was not really sure what the photo would entail I did know that I wanted to include a dilbert like tie, or at least the appearance of being windblown.

Cue mountain bike from the basement, hair gel, spray bottle, necktie, and wire!

Next up was a freestyling all business serious look

And last but not least after all the “safe shots” were taken was some time to bust some moves and haul out the old bag o tricks. Pretty stylish eh. PS. the pie plates under the arms were achieved via the soray bottle mentioned above, honestly.

Until next time!

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I was recently doing a self portrait every night but that was insane. There is no way that I could keep that up and do anything else so I decided to make it a weekly thing and only do one a week. Lets call it… Self Portrait Sunday. The pictures may or may not be taken on Sunday but I am going to do my best to post a self portrait every Sunday, we will see how that goes!

So for this installment I wanted to do something with a guitar and the concept of being on stage performing a concert. I hope you enjoy it.

I had too much fun shooting this set. Do you think I have a shot at being a Country Music star?

Ok so I have no clue how to sing on key or play any instruments but that has never stopped other people from making it before. All I need is a super fab image and someone to manage me and I could be great! Well at least I had fun singing even if it was out of tune and no one was listening, and I think that is good… for everyone!

See ya later

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I love shooting in parkades, there is so much detail and texture to work with and when you pair that with a photogenic action hero (Kris) the results are awesome!

We shot a few frames of Kris in action leaping over the railing and I have to hand it to him, there was not much space to clear the concrete above his head. In fact his hair is touching the section just above it. He nailed it every time and we had him do it several times.

Next up just a few steps away was a typical parkade environment, kind of blah aside from the fantastic pose Kris was rocking. This shot is strait out of camera (SOOC). It was lit with a single speed light through a lastolite tri flip diffuser. Hmm it was not what I was looking for, it certainly did not have much mood or mystery about it anyway.

But the shot above gave me an idea, something to work with. I liked the light on the ceiling but was not wild about all the grey and brightness of the light spilling all over the concrete. Ditch the Tri Flip and just hit Kris with a bare flash zoomed to 105mm to control spill and keep the light nice and tight on him. I exposed for the light above his head and shot with the camrea in Manual and the Flash in TTL. Now we were cooking! Oh yeah and the light placement above his head and expression were not an accident. Kris struck the pensive expression on his own and a lightbulb went off in my head! I thought why not…

Here is a side by side of the two shots.

hope you liked it. Later

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