There is a thing in photography now-a-days that the cool kids all call “chimping”. “Chimping” is done when you take a picture and look at the back of your camera to see how it turned out. It’s a habit I know I possess. Case in point: when I take a picture with my old film camera. I cannot count the number of times where I have caught myself checking the back after I take a picture, and hey, guess what? There’s no LCD screen there!

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that a little “chimping” is not a bad thing because I have been saved, countless times, by “chimping”. Inevitably,  during one of these sessions I will discover that I have made a terrible mistake in reading my light meter, horribly over or under exposing the image, and with the instant feedback I can have from the screen on my camera, I can solve the problem, lickety-split.

But I digress. Besides the technical stuff going on behind the camera, I’m also working hard to keep the people I’m shooting comfortable and relaxed, and mostly I accomplish this through inane chatter. I just talk randomly, asking questions, making casual conversation and, more often than not, saying things that, upon reflecting on the shoot afterward, I think to myself, “Man! They must think I am a total nerd!”

Now, the only reason I bring this up is because one of the strange and nerdy things I love to ask people is about the show, America’s Next Top Model. If you have every been on a shoot with me in the past, inevitably I will have asked if you know how to smile with your eyes. For some reason I love asking this question–well, actually I know the reason I love asking this question: because it generates some pretty hilarious reactions, especially when you ask a guy to do it.

I do believe that this question is not that difficult to answer, because either you know how to smile with your eyes or you don’t, making it kind of a yes or no type of question. Well, enter Raoul, stage left. With Sara and Raoul there was not a lot of ice-breaking needed, nor was it a lot of work to get them to start having fun together in front of the camera, but I still went for my old stand by and asked Raoul if he knew how to smile with his eyes. Like I said, simple yes or no question, right? Wrong. I wish someone was there to catch my reaction because I nearly dropped my camera in amazement when Raoul answered, ”Oh, man! I can never do this!”

“You mean you’ve practiced this?” I asked him, my mouth hanging slack with shock. Most of the time when I ask a guy to smile with his eyes, I get a half snort, half laugh and adamant “no”, but this was something totally unexpected.

At this moment, Sara chimed in and said to Raoul,

“This is probably going to make Jan’s blog.”

And guess what?

She was right.

In every wedding I shoot, there is always something special I am able to glean from the day. I’m not talking about myself growing technically with each wedding, I am talking about what I learn about the couple, or about people in general, as I am able to watch the whole day with my unlimited access. With Jenny and Byron it was no different–from this wedding I learned that speaking English as a second language can be a beautiful thing. During the reception speeches, Jenny’s father, who was here in Edmonton from China, gave a speech in halting and broken English, toasting his daughter. I found the emotion he was able to express through his limited English, was very moving, his pride in her so plainly evident that I could not help but take notice–even from behind my camera.

That was just one of the small jewels I found scattered throughout the day–but I know you would much rather see than hear about them so let’s just get into it, shall we?

Chronologically speaking, I know this next photo is a little out-of-order, but I decided that this would be my lead-off photo for a number of reasons. Firstly, it conveys, very succinctly, the general feeling of the wedding, and secondly, a “double fist-pump” is the perfect way to start the wedding photographs for 2012. See? Good on all fronts.

Now, since that is out of my system, back to the chronological flow of events.

Now, you all know I loves me either a good processional or a good recessional photo. In this case, processional won for obvious reasons.

After the ceremony we headed to the U of A campus to tour the grounds. 
After hijacking a green bench and putting it the middle of a snowy green-space, we headed to the Rutherford Library and disturbed some of the people studying there. I know it looks pretty empty in the picture, but trust me, there were some raised eyebrows.

However, crammed in between tearing down walls and cabinet installations, I have done a few photo shoots, one being with Heather and Tom for their engagement. I figured that since I have not posted in so long, I was in danger of having WordPress shut my site down completely–something that would strike me a mortal blow, should it ever come to pass. So, being the proactive guy I am, I will nip that problem in the bud, right now.

Besides the potential of having my blog deactivated due to lack of posting, I also wanted to continue with the theme wherein I photograph members of the high school basketball team I coached some years back. If you remember  back to the engagement and subsequent wedding of Cindy and Ryan, then you will remember the first of alumnus of my coaching days with Tom being the second. With Tom, the first thing that jumps into my mind when I think back to coaching him, is the time we were sitting as a team in the stands during a tournament watching a game just prior to us having to play. Tom is talking off-hand about how he has the strange habit of capitalizing certain letters of the alphabet when he is spelling, no matter where they appear in a word–beginning, middle or end, it did not matter, these three letters would be capitalized.

I leaned over and asked him what his initials were and he cited the three letters that he always capitalized.

“Problem solved,” said I, leaving him dumbfounded. “Anything else you need solved?” I added with a feigned look of haughtiness. The look on his face still makes me laugh.

Any who, to WordPress I say, “Ha ha! How’d you like to try deactivate me now?”

To Heather and Tom I say, “Congratulations, and please enjoy this little preview of your photos.”

I mean, I could take up hours of your time doing some “catch-up”, but I think it is time for me to admit defeat. I’m so far behind now, there is no way I can reasonably ever expect to get caught up now. It’s just time to start over.

So, that said, this past Tuesday I shot an engagement session for Jenny and Byron, one in which the pressure was sky-high. I mean, outside the norm, there was not that much pressure on me to perform; what I mean is that there was a lot of pressure on me to arrive on time. Let’s just say that in our first meeting, I was a little late (yes, I am again pointing out another one of my photography faux pas), and when talking to Byron on the phone I discovered how severely lacking my vocabulary is when it comes to synonyms for the word, sorry.

Well, on this occasion, I was not going to be late. When I left my house I gave myself so much extra time I could have scheduled a picnic in the park before Jenny and Byron arrived. As it turns out, construction, plus rush-hour, plus downtown equals near disaster. I ended up spending over fifty minutes driving, growing more and more anxious every second and when I arrived at the park, it was exactly at the scheduled time. So much for being early to make up for my previous disaster. The best laid plans…

Turns out Jenny and Byron had the same problems I did; and, since both of them are engineers, I would have complained about roadways and construction but electrical and waste engineers have little or nothing to do with roads.

Anyway, enough about me, let’s look at Jenny and Byron for a few minutes, shall we?

And, as always, I will end with my favourite shot. Enjoy.

“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
“Frequently.”
“How often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then how many are there?”
“How many? I don’t know.”
“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen.”

Ah well.

Anyway, I would be lying if I said that the only reason I decided to post on my blog was that I wanted to express alarm over my ignorance concerning the connection between Aschenputtel, Disney, and the Brother’s Grimm. That would be a total lie. It just so happened that at the exact moment I decided to blog Sarah and Chris’ wedding, I happened to stumble across the whole Aschenputtel thing, which, as I said earlier, blew my mind.

So, with that out-of-the-way we can get down to the business of posting the pictures from the wedding I shot last Friday at Fort Edmonton Park. There were so many great things about this wedding it would be hard to describe them all: from the modern-vintage feel of the bride to the reception held above Reed’s Bazar in Fort Edmonton, there were a lot of wonderful details. However, all that said, it is the little unexpected moments that occur, completely unlooked-for and unplanned, that make for great memories; and when the Stanley Cup made an appearance, everyone knew this was going to be the best wedding ever!

I’m kinda starting out-of-order but I just had to post that picture first. It is pretty cool!

Now, back to the beginning.

And I will end appropriately with a group shot of all the guests. It wouldn’t have been half as fun, I’m sure, for the bride and groom without all of you there!

How much would it cost to hire me to photograph the grade 12 graduation?

Since I really enjoy being able to do things for my old school (from filling in for a year as a basketball coach to taking the senior’s graduation photos), my soft spot for my alma mater made the question a very simple one to answer:

I’d do it for free. Pro Bono. I jumped at the chance for a couple of reasons but mostly because, I could see myself fenangling a free dinner out of the deal (probably the most important thing to me as a photographer is knowing when I get to eat); and, secondly because I would get to spend the day with a bunch of grads who would not only be dressed to the nines, but would be celebrating what is probably the biggest accomplishment of their young lives; and all that equals: fun times.

I would love to go off on a tangent here, as is my habit, but I have way to many pictures to post and I am afraid most everyone will be skipping what I am writing anyway to have a look-see.

So…

Let me introduce to you the Parkland Immanuel Christian School graduating class of 2011 as they do their best Abbey Road impression.

The whole time I was preparing these images for my blog, I could not help but feel that they needed to be accompanied by music–a soundtrack, if you will, was needed for this project to be complete; and, as my blog has no sound, the only way to remedy this situation was to create a slideshow. So, if you want to see more pictures from their day, head over to Vimeo and take a look!. I will say this: make sure to watch the slideshow in High Def because firstly, this class is just to sweet to be contained by the paltry limits that mere Standard Definition has to offer; and, secondly, it’s just that awesome!

I moved.

Before I moved, I thought to myself,

“Hey, it’s not that big a deal. The first thing I will do is unpack my computer and things will carry on from exactly where I left off.”

I was wrong for thinking that. So very wrong. I’m actually not sure I knew exactly what I was thinking, truth be told. I was expecting my routine to be thrown off a bit, for sure; but I was wholly unprepared for the sheer magnitude by which my life would be thrown out of whack. So, firstly, I would like to both apologize to, and thank everyone who has been patiently waiting for me to finish editing photos. For a while there, it felt as though I moved not only to a new house, but to a new dimension in which I have to take crazy pills and there were less hours in the day to work with. Before I knew it, I was suddenly two weeks behind in my work while feeling as though I experienced the passage of only a couple of days at most.

I may have been abducted by aliens because, as they say, unexplained time loss is one of the characteristics shared by many abductees. And this makes it the second time I have had unexplained time loss, too. The first time happened several years ago when I was going to go to the gym. I looked at the clock and saw that it was one in the afternoon. Since I had to be at the gym by three I knew I had plenty of time so I lay on the couch and decided to watch television to kill an hour–one of those horrific, hour-long shows like Beastmaster or Hercules: the Legendary Journeys–I forget which one it was; but it was in that dreadful genre). After the satisfyingly predictable conclusion, I got up, hopped in my car and drove to the gym. When I got there it was 3:30.

Whhaaaat?

I don’t know what happened to all of the two o’clock hour. It simply disappeared.

Kinda like the last two weeks of my life. They just vanished.

So, that said,I am going to try and catch up on my blogging, starting with Pat and Ed, and in keeping with the tradition of my latest blog-themes, I have been confessing my photography foibles to you all–and falling off a picnic table would rank up there as one of the worst things you could do while on a shoot. Thankfully, I was able to tuck, then roll expertly, saving my camera from destruction, and only dirtying up my lens on the focusing ring a bit. See, I stepped backward while standing on a the top of the picnic table and as I was falling thought about how incredibly stupid it was for me to do that; and then, as I hurtled earthward, there was just enough time before impact to cradle my camera like a newborn babe, doing my best to save it from what most likely would be certain death.

Fortunately, my pride was the only thing seriously injured. It is funny to think that when everyone there was asking me if I was okay, all I wanted to do was yell “MEDIC!” while trying my best to console my camera. Fortunately, I did not have to lie to my equipment and pretend that everything was going to be okay.

Smooth operator.

That said, I will give Pat what she has been inwardly dying for–and that is a little preview of their family shoot.

But, I’m sure this is all pretty obvious to you–as obvious as the direction this blog is heading, no doubt.

So, the other day, I was out garage sale-ing and after hitting dud after dud after dud, I was both extremely hungry and losing faith in the whole garage sale as a means to find a treasure hitherto unknown. At the last one of that afternoon I found a camera bag, filled with all kinds of ancient (read 1970′s) camera equipment, priced to clear at a whopping ten bucks. Since I was in the market for a new camera bag and was hesitating in my decision to buy one, going back and forth as to whether I wanted to drop the money and order a new Domke anyway, I figured that for 10 small, I could hardly go wrong. But besides buying it all just for the bag, the deep-seated urge to shoot with film was pushing me to buy it all and just get all Ansel Adams with that relic of a camera, fulfilling my dream of shooting black and white 60% of the time, all the time.

Well, in a shocking twist of events, I ended up no buying the camera bag or the medley of old camera equipment it contained. As I was looking at it the man running the garage sale came up to me and said,

“You can just have that all.”

“Pardon me?”

“Yeah, go ahead. Just take it all. I kinda just want to get rid of it.”

“For free?”

“Yeah, sure. Why not?”

Did he not realize how close to making ten dollars he was? Did he realize that if he kept on this line he was going to lose a huge, ten-dollar sale? This was lunacy! I had been looking over the bag and its contents for probably five minutes and had firmly made up my mind to buy it, solely  for the bag alone–but now this guy was working his way out of a sale and basically forcing me into the decision to learn how to shoot on film. How could I refuse?

“You sure?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“No. Really?”

“Really. You look like such a nice, young man and, looking into my crystal ball, I can see photographic greatness in your immediate future; so, I want you to have it.”

Well, that last part never happened; and, now that I am being honest, most of the above conversation never happened either. Other than the part with the man telling me I could just have the camera for free, to which I replied, saying, “Cool. Lisa! Free camera. Awesome. I’m hungry. Let’s skidaddle.”

Other than that, the rest was all hyperbole, the sweetest of all the literary terms.

And, now that I have this sweet new Pentax Spotmatic II, and a nice little Takumar 55mm 1.8 to fool around with I have been quite occupied, of late. I can’t believe how funny it feels to shoot a picture and then find myself looking at the back of the camera, forced by habit, to look for the histogram, finding only nice black bit of plastic staring back at me. It’s pretty cool, I have to admit.

But, strangest of all, is that my kids cannot comprehend this device. They know it is a camera but they cannot, for the life of them, figure out where the pictures once the shutter is released.

“Can I see the back?” they ask after I shoot a picture of them.

“Uhhhh, sure,” I say, showing them the plain, black back, sans screen.

“Is that whole thing the screen?” Ava says, a confused look on her face as she points to the back of the camera.

“Nope. There is no screen, it’s all on film.”

“Whats film? Is it kind of like ashes?”  Ava retorts.

“Ashes?” I ask, incredulously. “Ashes? No it’s not like ashes,” I add with a laugh. “Where did you get that from?”

“I don’t know what film is–so I just guess it looked like ashes.”

Kids. They can be so crazy.

Books and camera equipment equals awesome garage sale!

Let’s be realistic–amidst all that juggling, at one point I was bound to drop one of those hats, right?” Don’t ask me why, but I often get the irrepressible urge to confess some of the embarrassing things I have done; and today is no different. Whether it’s because I feel the need to have others share in my discomfort or some other deep-seated reason for confessing my wrongs, I just can’t help but tell people these things. So, here I am, a couple of weeks removed from Cindy and Ryan’s wedding where I felt the urge to talk about my misfortunate encounter with the paper flower during the ceremony, and I, again, am feeling the urge to blunder and tell; and, although, for my mother-in-law I did not do anything overtly embarrassing (no decorations were destroyed during the photographing of this wedding), I still managed to covertly do something that make me go, “Whoops!” seconds before beads of shamefaced sweat formed on my brow, almost at the exact moment I had realized what I had done.

It’s funny how fast your body can perspire. For me, I always wonder why it is that, when suitably mortified, every pore on my body puckers and I find myself instantly sweating. It may be imperceptible to anyone else, but I can feel it–that thin sheen of moisture across my brow; and it appears so fast I feel as though it boarders on perspiratory precognition. So there I was during the ceremony, suitably mortified I was when, to my disappointment I realized that I had dropped my photographer’s hat and was clutching my participant’s hat tightly in my hands. What I am getting at is that I had stopped taking pictures. I suddenly found myself just kinda standing there, camera dangling in my hand, watching the wedding unfold instead of photographing it. After the exchanging of rings and the registering of the marriage, there came the time in the wedding for the lighting of the candle; at this point I was caught up in the people, wrapped up in the moment, a regular guest, before I caught myself.

The moment had passed and all that was left to me was a film of hot, chagrined sweat that had magically condensed upon my forehead and a really, really awful picture.

It is very hard to remain detached when emotionally invested in something.

Sigh. Worst picture, ever.

Anyways…

I was thinking about what more I could say in regard to Sadie and Al that, firstly, I have not already said in one blog or another, and, secondly, that has not been said better by someone more qualified to speak on this topic then I am. People such as my wife, and her speech to her mother that made it impossible to wear my photographer’s hat and left nary a dry eye in the house–including my own; and Brad, Al’s son, whose words painted such a touching and personal view of  his father; and especially I am left thinking of Al, the subject matter expert on his relationship with Sadie, and what he said during his thank you speech at the end of the reception where he expressed his absolute joy and wonderment that he has been so blessed by God that he has been given this chance to marry again.

You see, I could go on, telling you how beautiful the day was or how memorable the ceremony was; or, I could tell you how much I enjoyed the reception or how great the food was. But, in the end, all this would amount to nothing more than a superficial glossing of the wedding, a treatment that misses the mark so completely it would be laughable.

That said, for the first time ever, I am left not knowing how to express myself or what to write. Both of you, Mom and Al, know how we feel. We have had many, many long conversations and I don’t think there is any misunderstanding on how happy we are for you both. All I can think to say is that it is very, very hard to wear two hats; and, that said, I will take this opportunity to just stand and watch, keeping my blogging hat hung on the hat rack, just this once, without fear of being suitable mortified.

So, when I got home, the first thing I did was unload my gear. The second thing I did was feed my kids’ supper and then put them to bed and then, that’s when I had the chance to have my sneak peek preview. It is usually my practice to download (or is it upload?) the pictures from my card to my computer to prevent a disaster from happening, and then I wait until the next day before I even look at them. I wait, because, as I always tell Lisa, “It’s to near to the trauma still.” There is a little bit of pressure on myself to perform when I shoot a wedding so that when I get home, I am always nervous to see my pictures, just in case they suck. So, I spend the rest of that night, psyching myself up to view them and then the next day I dive right in.

Not so today. I was extremely anxious to look, dying to know if I caught even the faintest hint of the emotion that was displayed between Al and Sadie. As a result, I found one picture that I absolutely love, that gives just a hint of the fun that I was able to share with them during their formal portraits.

And, on a side note, I am not sure I have ever seen or heard of another bride and groom having their formals done on Big Island, so, props to us for that! Yeah!

So, just like on Sesame Street, this Sneak Peak Preview will be short and sweet, and, oddly will be somewhat educational; but unlike Sesame Street, this contains no Oscar the Grouch only Telly giving this wedding five out of a possible five “wows”.

I will probably read this tomorrow and wonder what I was thinking referencing Sesame Street, but until then, enjoy!