New Town Council | Political Portrait Photographer

Tonight I was at our new council's swearing in ceremony at the town hall in Crossfield. I was asked to photograph the new Mayor and Council but the town office is just way too small. Actually, the building next door where we shot was also way too small but I managed to jam my lights up as high as I could and get this shot of the group.

One Big Wheel | Canadian Adventure Lifestyle Photographer

This morning I met with a couple of guys from Calgary who actually ride unicycles in the mountains. These things are simple yet built like a tank. They were riding off of 20" ledges, riding onto rocks and logs, it was very cool. We spent half the day in Kananaskis at Elbow Falls and a few other locations close by.

Here is a shot from today.

Downhill MTB Shoot | Western Canada Adventure Lifestyle Photographer

The family and I packed up and drove to Salmon Arm, BC for the weekend and while I was there I had the chance to take out a few DH mountain bikers from the area.

We Spent two days at a West facing slope just outside of Canoe in the Larch Hills called" "Rubberhead". I have ridden this area myself and it has a lot of great places to shoot. Unfortunately it rained for two days so we only managed to get a small portion of what I had planned.

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday in Pritchard with my wife's family and by 4pm the sky started to open up so My cousin Steven and I ripped a little closer to Kamloops to have a look at "the Ranch". We managed to shoot for 20 minutes with a dramatic skyline as the sun dropped below the horizon.

Square Peg | Canadian Adventure Lifestyle Photographer

I was at my doctor’s office a while back, just about the time they started removing the children’s toys from waiting rooms. Some kind of media led scare tactic in an attempt to reduce the spread of germs, I guess. I am sitting on the rock hard chair when my focus slipped from the 13 month old sports illustrated magazine to the noisy 13 month old child in the play area. I figured this little guy was waiting for his mom and he was playing with one of those hammer-peg sets with the red painted sides and the round colored blocks that kids love to hammer through the holes. Weird thing about it though, and what really drew my interest was that the peg this kid was trying to pound through the round top holes, was square. The peg looked just like the others, painted orange but oddly enough, it was square. I started to wonder if it belonged to another set or if some sick person had intentionally setup a queer intelligence test for little people. No matter though, it was starting to get interesting and I had to try hard not to laugh while I looked around the room to see who was responsible for this kid who was now beating the crap out of this toy. I was amazed by his stubbornness or maybe it was his tenacity. Again and again, this kid would grab the peg, line it up right over the hole and drop that hammer like he was drilling pipe. With every smash of the little pine hammer, a high pitched roar of contempt mixed with disgust would echo through the waiting room. This, I though, was much better than a 13 month old magazine.....

As entertaining as this kid was, I can’t help but wonder if we as humans occasionally do the same thing. I mean really, I have seen just as much frustration on the face of some of my friends at times as I saw in this peg pounding child. What if our lives were created like this wooden set with the round holes, and we are just trying to cram our idea of who we think we should be into where we are right now? Are we unhappy with our jobs, or do we constantly dream about what we should have done with our lives? All too often we take the easy route to a secure and safe lifestyle. We go to school for our parents, go for that easy money job, all the while thinking that we will be set as long as we have money. We get busy, life and kids and at the end of the day we think we’ll get started on that dream tomorrow.

The problem with tomorrow is that it is just that; tomorrow. We need to think about what we can do today, and how can we start to live that dream instead of just dreaming it. One sure way to start is to understand what it is you are passionate about. Are you passionate about some kind of vocation? Do you love to work with people? What do you do in your spare time that energizes you? I am not saying that your passion has to be your job, but what if it was? Pour your energy into the things you love, do it lots, and be patient. Eventually you will be doing something that you were created for. You will know because people will see your passion, you will be very good at it, and getting paid for it will just be a bonus.....

Relax, put down that square peg, and get started on what you were planning on doing tomorrow.

Grad Session - Two Lights

Well I had written something very profound but then my browser crashed and it is gone....

That's why you should save your work, DOH! Anyways, Mitch and I stopped at a few locations around Crossfield and set up a two light studio portrait rig to get the shot of him in his Soccer gear. Lovin this lighting setup.

The Projects

As I posted previously I am now working with a major production company in L.A. to distribute my adventure lifestyle photography. What this means is that I will be working on a lot of my own projects and shooting almost full-time while I am in the mountains. I meet a lot of interesting people and am always on the look out for individuals who live their lives to the fullest and play hard when they get out there. If you are one of these people or know someone who is into some fringe sport or likes to just live passionately in the Rockies, go ahead and send me a message.

See you out there!

OCF Workshops A Total Success

Earlier this year I was talking to a few other photographers about putting on an "off Camera Flash" workshop. I love this kind of work and to actually show others how to get great results from off-axis flash just seemed like a fun time.

The OCF workshop takes place for one day on a weekend in an exotic or cool location, we bring in models and and six photographers from various markets and spend the day learning the "baseline" for their exposures. During the day the photographers are let loose to use this new tool to be creative as well as discussing the relationships with clients, business of photography, posing, and a series of considerations when photographing people outdoors with studio-like lighting.

We started the year with both busy-amateurs and established professionals, everyone was getting amazing results early into the workshop. This weekend we finished the season by shooting the Calgary rock band "Telly Rock" out near Drumheller, Alberta and had our guest instructor Michael Warf join us in Okotoks at the Big Rock Erratics.

When I started this I was excited to see everyone getting such professional results but now I am just blown away by how amazing our students images were when they overcame the fear of off-camera lighting. Everyone who joined us did a fantastic job, including our models, and instructors. Thanks again to everyone who came out and made this project a success. We have huge plans for next years workshops, it's going to be great! Below are group photos from our workshops.