It started off by being featured in The Globe and Mail. During the interview, I realized that I actually started working with photoshop and photography when I was 12 years old.

March 1st – Las Vegas.

I was in Las Vegas to speak at a conference for photographers, but I wasn’t there to speak about photography. I was there to tell a 3000 person audience at Ignite How To Travel The World For (Nearly) Free (link to e-book).

We also did a few other things. Like went to the Grand Canyon in a helicopter.

As well as having some pretty remarkable suites to stay in (see the Video above)

After Vegas, I headed to Lake Louise to visit a friend, before heading to Canmore to do video for a wedding.

I flew from Calgary up to Yellowknife for an engagement session. We spent the night outside in the -40C temperature capturing a few photos of the Northern Lights.

Global News liked one of the photos so much they put it in the news.

Wedding Trends Magazine also liked Shiera and Alejandro‘s wedding so much they put it in their magazine!

From there we headed out to St. Maarten for Amanda and Matt’s wedding.

Air Canada Rouge might end up using the photos in few more locations over the year!

Now that it’s April, I’m looking forward to a few things:
– Writing a book for CAA about how to take better photos on vacation.
– Travelling back to Las Vegas to cover NAB 2015 in a very unconventional way.
– Continuing to build our luxury travel magazine, Q. Oliver.
– Travelling to Italy to photograph a gallery show that will debut sometime over the summer and fall around the world in physical galleries.

On our Italy trip, we’re also bringing a documentary crew to capture the behind the scenes process – as well as we might end up making a pilot for a television show.

Mark Araujo is in charge of the video side of the Italy trip, and charted out our course on Google Maps earlier this week:

Amanda and Matt were married at Fort Amsterdam in St. Maarten.
If you’d like to see a little more of the behind the scenes, find it on YouTube by clicking here.

Here’s a video from the wedding day:

Here’s a video of Lindsay and I:

I’m off to Tokyo for a week now! Will bring home lots of photos.

Le Marais (Old Paris) – stay there. Eat there. One of my favourite areas in the world.
Also, have lunch at Les Ombres on top of the Branly. Beautiful rooftop view of the Eiffel Tower.

Here is a little preview from their wedding day at Hacienda Sarria in Kitchener.

Here’s a video and some photos from their day at Chateau Des Charmes, Vintage Hotels, in Niagara On The Lake.

Thanks to Mary at http://weddinggirl.ca/ for making the day run smoothly, http://luvvlycakeco.com/ for the cake, and http://www.fraichefloral.com/ for the flowers.

Earlier this summer I achieved a strange goal. Photographing 1 year of weddings. I wasn’t really keeping count until one evening when I decided to go through my calendar and see just how many weddings I had photographed. This was the Monday before before wedding 365 – I felt it was some sort of odd fate that this was the first time I had ever even been curious about how many weddings I’ve captured in my career.

So here are the things I’ve learned:

Being successful in a creative career takes about 50 hours a week in the beginning and 70 hours a week once you’ve ‘made it.’ Even with people that help edit, coordinate, and generally free my time, I still find that I work about 10 hours a day/7 days a week between the months of April and December. This isn’t only for wedding photography, this also includes my various other projects, like all the corporate video work I do over at Taylor Jackson Media, screenwriting and casting my next feature film in Paris, working on our Taco Documentary, and all the random projects that pop up in between.

Planning a perfect wedding is impossible. Here are my tips:
If you’re in Kitchener-Waterloo, get married at Langdon Hall or Hacienda Sarria. Cambridge Mill and Whistle Bear are also good choices.

Here is the perfect wedding day timeline (from a bride/groom enjoyment standpoint – ideally ceremony and reception at same location):
2:30pm hair and makeup finishes up.
3pm first look/reveal (so you can enjoy cocktail hour later)
3-3:30 photos with you two and bridal party. (note: keep bridal party as small as possible)
3:30 – 4:00 enjoy the fact that it’s your wedding day. Have a glass of champagne.
4pm guys start to greet/usher guests.
4:30 ceremony
5:00-5:15 family photos
5:15 – 6:15 enjoy your cocktail hour. Enjoy some of the h’orderves you paid for.
6:30 dinner. Speeches either in between courses or all after. 3 – 5 minute limit speeches are the most pleasing. BM, MOH, Parents, B&G. Your MC should never say the words ‘If anyone has anything they’d like to say, the mic is open’ — there is no such thing as a great kissing game. Good luck here.
8:00 – 8:10 Go outside for a few quick sunset photos.
9:15 speeches conclude, and first dance. Do the father/daughter and mother/son dance during the same song, have DJ announce that the dance floor is open to all towards the end of the song.
10pm throw a bouquet. Ignore those that try and tell you a garter toss is a good idea.
Enjoy the night. It’s a once in a life time experience.

Bachelor Party/Bachelorette Party. Vegas. Go together or separate. Get a Terrace Studio Fountain View at the Cosmopolitan.
Alternatively head to Germany and rent a Porsche 911 like Jason, one of my recent grooms did.
Miami is also great. Stay at the W South Beach.

Honeymoon. Hilton Bora Bora.

Book a photographer you like as a human. Don’t compare on price/skill if it’s a small difference. A photographer that actually connects with you will do an exponentially better job than one that does not. Same goes for all vendors. The planners/decorators/florists I regularly work with are thrilled when their only direction for the day is ‘Here are a few examples of things I like. We trust you. Make us something you’d want at your wedding.’

Here are a few photos and a video from day 365 with Emilie and Dave.

Emilie and Dave | Hacienda Sarria Wedding from Taylor Jackson on Vimeo.