I was asked by a friend if I would be interested in photographing a Fundraising golf tournament. When I was told it was for a 6 year old who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy I was honored to have the opportunity to help out. This was the 3rd Annual Pyper Pro AM and was hosted at the Edmonton Petroleum Golf and Country Club.

After a little warm up the golfing got underway.

It was a gorgeous fall day at the Edmonton Petroleum Golf and Country Club

This is such a beautiful golf course, the views all around were simply stunning!

I love these pants, you think Angela would be caught in public with me if I wore them?

As the sun got low and the golf neared the end I was a little sad to see the day go…

I had such a great time, the day was filled with competition, camaraderie, hope, and emotion, and generosity!

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Brandon got a big kid bike for his 3rd birthday, his first two wheel bicycle. He was super excited because now he had a big boy bike just like Owen’s and wanted to ride it right away. He did a “lap” in the living room, just like Owen did when he got his bike but of course you have to go outside to do any real riding!

Brandon needed a little help figuring out the pedals, of course grandma K was very helpful in showing Brandon how to push with his feet.

Once he got the lesson in how to pedal he laid tracks with his pants on backwards and Owen in pursuit!

Of course Owen has a little more practice than Brandon riding a two wheeler so he has started standing to pedal faster and has incorporated some stunt riding.

With more experience Owen soon took the lead, but Brandon dug down and gave it his all so that he could keep up, with a little push from mom of course!

Like any young protege Brandon did not take long to figure out how to do a little stunting of his own. Check out my two Evil Kenevils

After a long ride and the odd crash Brandon needed a little extra encouragement from Owen to make it home, again. Brothers are the best hey!

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We took the boys to Sesame Street Live: Elmo’s Healthy Heroes at Rexall Place on Saturday and the tickets included gate admission to the Capital X as well. While we waited for Aunty Claudette and Grandma Korsan the boys played around the statue of Wayne Gretzky one of the greatest hockey players of all time who played for the Edmonton Oilers from 1979-1988. I love this photo because even though the boys are just playing around it looks like they are taking a moment and praying to the hockey gods for greatness!

Sesame Street was better than I was expecting, actually it was quite good! This is pretty much the only photo I took because security came and told me no “professional, detachable lens cameras were allowed”. I asked if it indicated that on the tickets as I had not read them and he said indeed it did, in fact NO CAMERAS were allowed. I reluctantly put my camera away so as not to be asked to leave but could not help but laugh at the fact that hundrends of other cameras were clicking away with flashes going off.

After Sesame Street we headed to the Capital X for some lunch and rides. After lunch we started off easy on the Carousel.

Brandon wanted to ride the bumble bees but Owen wanted to ride the motorcycles so we split up to wait in lines. While Brandon loved the bumble bee mom did not look as thrilled, at least not in this photo

Owen started off great on the ride all by himself, all smiles and happy!

but once it started going he put his head down in his hands and slumped over the handlebars… I was worried that he banged his face on the bars going over the “jumps”. I was even more worried that as the ride jerked and spun that he would continue to bang his face if he did not lift it up! I hollered for him to lift his head and when he looked up he was not crying or hurt but he was no longer smiling. After he got off the ride he told me that he did not want us to cheer for him on the motorcycle… Ahhh I felt so bad, we embarrassed him with all our cheering him on. Maybe the pom poms were a bit too much So sweet!

We took a break from ride time and played a few games. Both Owen and Brandon seemed to like the games even more than the rides, expecially since they could win prizes playing the games!

And what sweet music to our ears the prizes were!

By this time the clouds had rolled in and some showers started but soon fizzled and we went back for a couple last rides before home time.

Owen and Brandon had a ball in this jeep, they were talking and gesturing the whole time. I imagine this is what they will be like once they get their hands on mom and dads car in a few years. Cruising around with the music blaring waving to all the girls. “How you doin’?” I guess we better start saving for a convertible!

The roller coaster was last on the list of rides and the boys wanted Aunty Claudette and mom to take them so no rides for dad this year, which was fine because I did notice the sign behind the coaster. CRASH, did not seem like the thing I wanted to read or see just before we took the plunge from the top! Of course the ride ended without incident and Owen seemed genuinely pumped from the experience, either because he had fun or he too read the sign and was relieved it did not come to a CRASH.

At the end of a long day we all piled into the van and headed for home, bellies full, rides riden, and games played. See you next year Capital X!

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I realize that Canada day was a couple weeks ago but I was sorting through some personal pics and came across these two. We took the boys down to the Legislature Grounds for Canada Day celebrations. Owen was being cheeky all day, dodging the camera, running away, and then finally just when I thought he was going to sit for a couple shots…

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Owen got a big kid bike for his birthday, his first two wheel bicycle. He was pretty excited and wanted to ride it right away so he did a “lap” in the living room. Well lets just say that he ran out of room quickly so outside we went, even though it was pretty chilly! Owen had no problem figuring out the pedals, which was a concern of mine because when we were in the bike store he had a hard time due to the differences between a tricycle and two wheel bike. But out on the street on his home turf, he laid rubber on the road with Brandon in hot pursuit!

Owen had fun trying to run over the camera as he rode and Brandon ended up needing a little help from mom to make it up the “hill”, um yes it seems pretty flat but you will have to take Brandon’s word that it was a hill!

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A few weeks ago while visiting Aunty Claudette, Owen challenged Brandon to a duel!

Without hesitation Brandon accepted the challenge and the battle began. Owen came out swinging strong…

but soon stumbled and the tide turned in Brandon’s favor.

In the end Owen was victorious over Brandon

and set his sights on his next victim…

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The boys got coloured bubbles for Easter and I was lucky enough be to home with them for the day! It was beautiful outside so we headed out to the driveway for some bubble mayhem. Right off the bat it was obvious that it was going to be a messy affair.

I figured that before things got too out of hand that we should switch to the bubble machine.

They thought it was so cool to try to step on a gazillion colored bubbles.

Looks like the sharks are swimming closer!

Closer, closer, closer, almost touching, STOP! So the inevitable happened, the bubble machine and it’s colored ooze were knocked over… At this point I thought it might be a good idea to put the camera down and help them get cleaned up before mom got home.

The driveway was covered, their clothes were covered, their shoes were covered. We hopped into the bath and got cleaned up and put on some new clothes. Luckily the bubbles were washable otherwise I might have needed to go into hiding, or the witness protection thingy.

Before and after, see the shoes are as good as new now!

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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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I recently got the Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1 and was messing around in a parkade with Kris. He thought it would be cool to pretend he was launching a ball of light from his hands. Both of these images were lit with a single Canon 580 EXII attached directly to a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 and triggered via a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 all TTL. Kris is holding the flash in his hands and there is a wall in front of him that the light is bouncing off of to light him and everything else.

I am not sure which look I prefer to the images but if you have some thoughts please comment on them.

Settings for both images:
Canon 7D Manual mode
1/60
2.8
50mm
ISO 200
TTL

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Don’t these two have crime fighting written all over them? I mean who would not be afraid of a 2 and 3 year old dressed up as Spiderman and armed with coat hangers as their weapon of choice for battling the forces of evil. It made me scared!

Getting ready to spin a web and knock out crime.

It is time to give us their best “don’t mess with me” look. The number one tactic when dealing with bad guys is to have a tough stare. The number two tactic is to be armed with said coat hanger just in case the first approach isn’t enough. You know they mean business! Just don’t get between them and the candy and no one gets hurt.

Halloween was a real treat (pun intended) this year. It was the first year both the boys understood the idea of Trick or Treating and were both excited and looking forward to it. Of course 1 hour and 20 houses into it they needed to be carried home because they were all done. Imagine how that looked, two muscle bound Spiderman draped over my shoulders while I am holding their loot bags and walking down the street. It probably looked like I rendered them unconcious to snatch their goods, and who knows maybe I did! Muwaaahahaha

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