Took some photos of happy volunteers and lines at Capitol 6 on the first Saturday night for the showings of Like Dandelion Dust and Cooper’s Camera.  It seemed like a fun place to volunteer.

Took a few shots at the Empire Music Lounge at Whitebird, where they had a band playing and some awesome lighting.

I also took a few photos at the Odeon showing of Finding Farley.  The parts of it I got to see were pretty interesting and awe-inspiring.

I love shooting weddings in a photojournalistic style, but I also love a good artistic portrait.  Weddings are such a great opportunity to get a great photo of yourself, because you’re dressed up and looking your best.  The photo below on the left is from a trash the dress shoot with Steph and Steve.  Steph looks like a super tough model here, in the tunnel to the waterfall at Goldstream park.  On the right is my favourite shot from Mikayla and Chris’s wedding day portrait session.  I thought the park they chose was fairly generic and wasn’t sure what to do to make it special, but I think this amazing tree really makes the shot.  Doesn’t hurt that there’s a gorgeous couple kissing under it.

I started doing some high school senior portraits this year.  It was so fun working with these girls.  They really got into modelling and had such great spirit.  Of course, I’m a sucker for graffiti (and pretty dresses).

A couple more shots with an urban feeling.  The shot on the left was taken around sundown outside of Fan Tan Alley.  We’d wanted to get some shots in the alley, but it was locked up.  This shot makes me glad it was.  He looks like such a rockstar.  The shot on the right is my friend Irene in the alley beside the Yates parkade.  I think she looks beautiful and totally fits in with the background.

The below are from my first couple shoot ever.  These two were really cool and accommodating to all my cheesy pose suggestions.  I think they turned out pretty great.

Another sweet wedding portrait.  I think these two were feeling a little tired and a bit uncomfortable in front of the camera.   This shot gives a sense of peaceful happiness, of two people who always manage to find comfort in one another.

Yet another adorable couple.  These are my friends Lauren and Andreas, who got married in 2009.  I missed their wedding because I was traveling back from my vacation, sadly.  I’m so glad they asked me to do this shoot for them.  I love watching them together.

I love this photo of my friend Lynn, who was an ever patient model when I was portfolio-building.  I think she was goofing around with this model-like pose, but it worked out amazingly.  I love the way the sun outlines her figure.

I love this shot from Mikayla and Chris’s backyard wedding.  I think it embodies the spirit of their wedding, where they broke out the champagne immediately after the ceremony.

The classic wedding shot: The Kiss.  I love this one of Lyndsey and Brennan for many reasons: the smiling officiant, the awesome tattoo, the glowing light on her back, her dress, the kiss.

I loved the bridal party’s gangster-style outfits at Steph and Steve’s wedding.  I love the way the hats make this photo and I couldn’t resist processing it in an old-fashioned black and white style.

Another couple of shots from Katie and Hannah’s joint senior portrait session.  There were so many amazing shots from this session.  I had a really hard time deciding which to blog about in the first place.  These are two of my faves.

I think this is actually one of my favourite shots of the year, aeshetically.  I love the way the light falls on Steph’s face as she braves the cold water at the base of the Goldstream waterfall.  It was quite dark by the time we got there, so this lighting was created by one flash on my camera and another being held by Phil above and to the right of Steph.

This shot is the result of me randomly snapping as Lyndsey and Brennan were moving from location to location.  I love how detailed the flowers look.

And one shot from my Ireland trip of the castle on the Cliffs of Moher.  Did you know you can get married in that castle?  If you do, please hire me.  This was one of the most stunning views I’ve seen in my life.

Here’s to a 2010 of many more beautiful photos, stunning brides and happy grooms, and meeting lots of amazing people.

Are you all making great resolutions (and keeping them so far)?  I think my resolution will be to make monthly resolutions, or goals.  This month I aim to get rid of this cough, go back to the climbing gym (and buy some shoes for it), and finish up some lingering paperwork.  And maybe try to keep my kitchen counters clean for once.

Last Satuday, the 21st of November, a bunch of random artists and performers got together to create Victoria’s first Nuit Blanche.  It was to be an unofficial event, unlike Toronto’s Nuit Blanche sponsored by ScotiaBank and invloving government and galleries.   The idea was to come out around 10pm and create or display something that would disappear by the next morning.  When I first heard about it, I knew I had to be a part of it, but I couldn’t think of what to do.  Photography doesn’t lend itself well to outdoor displays, and it’s not typically a performance art.

I finally came up with an idea to recreate our  Candy for your Portrait experiment, which my friend Irene and I tried randomly one cold day in February at the inner harbour in order to get some group shots for a portrait class I was taking.  Of course, I didn’t come up with this idea until the day that submissions were due, so I spent all day asking friends and coworkers for advice on how to make it happen.  I wanted it to be more than just me with a camera and a friend handing out candy, like it was last time.  I wanted it to be interactive and fun. I wanted people to see what we were doing on the spot.  I had the idea to project the images on a wall as we took them, but I had no idea how to pull it off.   With help, I figured out that we needed a generator to run the projector.  I spent the next few days trying to figure out how to get and use a projector and generator, with the help of many people.

I wasn’t sure if I could get this all together, as I’ve never tried to put together so many elements and people for one event.  But thankfully a lot of people responded to my pleas for help.  I learned that delegating to people who really want to help is super easy.  Aaron volunteered to get the candy and he brought along his studio light.  Phil agreed to rent a generator, since I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how to get or use one (though I did have some great advice on what kind to get).  Lynn brought a folding table that she happened to have in her car.  A bunch of other people showed up to help out and made the whole process a ton of fun:  Irene, Eileen, Khanh, Emily, and Jon.  Other friends stopped by throughout the night and a bunch of wonderful strangers posed for us.  We got a lot of compliments about how fun it was.  I was even surprised how interesting it was to see the photos instantly projected on a building in Trounce Alley.  People were captivated by seeing themselves and their friends up there larger than life.  Another Nuit Blanche group stopped by with their paper mache deer sculptures, people gave us glow necklaces, people played hacky sack with us, and someone left us a cute bouncy ball in exchange for the candy.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped out or posed for us or gave me some technical guidance.

All in all, it was a super fun night.  We checked out the other installations and I was impressed with what can come together in the middle of the night in this often sleepy city: a saucy pirate fire show, origami in trees, random art installations, and a whole bunch of smiling people.

See the individual shots larger (click on the grid above to see the full version of it)  Other photos in lower quality are on Facebook.  Note: I didn’t shoot all of these. Aaron shot a large percentage of them and other members of our group shot some too.  I didn’t want this to be my event, but our event.  All of ours (the photographers, the helpers, and the subjects).

Here’s a shot of my posse, and some cool people who came and posed for us.  Jon took this shot.  More about the event later.

Oh, and thanks for the glowsticks!

The ceremony was held at the Pemberton Memorial Chapel at Royal Jubilee in Victoria.  The light in the chapel was really gorgeous and bright enough that I never had to use my flash.  I couldn’t help but snap a few shots of the chapel from different angles.

We headed down to Gonzales Beach for some bridal party portraits in the very bright sun.  This is my first time doing bridal party portraits and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with a group of people.  Anyway, I made some silly suggestions (i.e. “bride and groom kiss and everyone else make a face”, “now everyone point at the couple”).  It worked out pretty well, I think.

I love her tattoos.    I love shooting a girl in a big, girly, white dress with cool tattoos.

I suck at posing.

When I shoot portraits, I typically let people pose themselves. I usually ask them to stand or sit in a certain location and then just shoot away. I ask them for suggestions of what kind of shots they what and what kind of poses. I try to get them to show their personalities.  I try to make them laugh and be silly.  Sure, I can pose people in a way to make them look really good. I even have a book on it. But I find traditional poses very boring.  I want to see people for who they truly are.

I find letting people come up with their own poses creates the best photos, really showing off their personalities. For example, for the photo below from a Halloween wedding I just shot, I asked Lyndsey and Brennan to stand on the stairs, with one of them standing a few steps higher and both on opposite sides of the stairs. They were looking at each other and I suggested Brennan reach out his hand toward Lyndsey. I thought it might look cheesy, but sometimes cheesy makes the best photos. I stopped giving instruction and just took a bunch of photos. She took his hand. Then the below happened. Perfect Halloween wedding portrait. And it’s all them. You’re not going to get that if you’re constantly ordering people around. Sometimes our weaknesses can be our strengths.

Note that this probably isn’t the final edit, and the web format isn’t great for dark photos.