Have I mentioned that Im loving this little camera? *lol*  Seriously though its so small I have it with me all the time and this has proven to be beneficial!  How many times are you out there and you say to your self "wish I had my camera" I dont say that anymore but I think Im starting to drive my family a little nuts.  I keep on hearing "dad do you have to bring out that thing" I tease them back and replay "thats no way to talk to your sibling" maybe I am going a little nuts! *wink*  On our way back home from seeing our Godson I saw this cool looking garage that, so I turned backed to see what my little Leica could do?  I gotta say that Im impressed with image quality, I cant wait to get my newLeica 28mm f/2 SUMMICRON-M ASPHERICAL.  I just hope it comes in time before Vegas! *wink*.  In this photo I was trying to capture the dark and moody feel but still maintaining the "rusticness" of the garage.

I still remember the first thing Kathryn said when we talked about her winter wedding, "I hope it snows that day!"  Here wish certainly came true, even though it had been mild for the past two weeks prior the day of her wedding it snowed and snowed and snowed! *lol*.  The E-session blast but with past experience I was worried that I might be too cold on their wedding day for them, geez was I wrong! I gotta give a big-ups to our awesome couple and their wedding party.  It was cold that day I had three layers on and I was freezing!  But we all made it and captured some kick a$$ photos while we were at it too! *wink*.  I know, I know, I know I keep on saying this but I love it when my couples decide to see each other before the ceremony, its the perfect calculation for amazing photos!  After the photos we head for the reception venue, Otellos Banquet Hall where the ceremony was being held.  What a beautiful ceremony it was, intimate with the closest family and friends to witness their marriage.  Then the party began!!  You can check out the rest of the photos on my Facebook!

Venue: Otellos Banquet Hall

All the boyz wore their old school Adidas, I wish I had of brought mine!       

This was a moment I caught with my Leica, I just love how quiet this camera is!

Can you say radiant, Kat you look absolute beautiful sister! Did I mention how much I loved your dress? *wink*    

Anyone that knows me knows Im a shoe fanatic! So when Kathryn showed me her Red Boots I just flipped.  Yes Guys can have a shoe fetish too! *wink*

I just loves Mark's reaction here!

I think this is my favourite photo from the day.  I just LOVE how happy they look!

I really like this one too from the reception. Yeah I have a hat fetish too! *lol*

I love these moments and I always consider myself blessed to be there to witness and capture them.

Big-ups to the Staff at Otellos for rocking out an awesome dinner and yummy dessert!

Mark is a HUGE Hockey fan....."Mark with the garter save!"

Before I announce the winner I want to thank you from all of my heart to everyone that had purchased a ticket for this raffle.  As mentioned before all the proceeds were donated to the Canadian Red Cross Haiti Relief fund. My goal was to raise at $500 but Im so proud to say between yours and our governments generosity we surpassed that and raised $2180!! 

I know their can only be one winner of the raffle but the real winners here are struggling people of Haiti.  If you have not done so its not too late to make your donation even $5 can make a difference.

Because of your generosity and willingness to help our brothers and sisters of Haiti I wanted to do something special for all of you who purchased a ticket.  This summer I will be holding a {BASSEM} "Portrait day", this is where you can come and have a picture taken with your family or friend or fiance or boyfriend or girlfriend, mom or dad or both, sister or brother, your pet or even just of yourself.  I will email everyone the details who purchased a ticket.

So Yesterday I want to the Canadian Red Cross here in Cambridge and asked them to choose the winning ticket.  Sharron of the Red Cross was so kind to volenteer.  The winner will recieve a complimentary portrait session:

Value of the portrait session: $500

Portrait session includes: 1-2 hours of coverage, $300 credit towards albums or enlargements, DVD of full resolution images with licence for personal printing. 

AND THE WINNER IS........

First thing is first WAY TO GO CANADA!!  For a country that has 1/10 of the population of others is amazing that we earned 14 gold medals, a new Olympic record!!!  I think what was most amazing was seeing Canada's support and enthusiasm towards this years Olympics and especially towards our athletes.  This past weekend I had the pleasure of documenting a real sweet couple and real Hockey Fans! In the spirit of the festivities Kathryn and Mark thought we'd dedicate our "You+me" to our MOST AWESOMENESS Canadian Athletes!

p.s. I will be announcing the winner of our Haiti Raffle tomorrow!

Time for another photo tip!  Ive been getting a few emails lately asking what lens should I get?  My first answer is to get the best you can afford but not every has the budget for a 24-70 F2.8G ED, or the new 70-200 VRII or the super new 24 F1.4G each lens runs about 2K each.  But dont loose hope every camera manufacture makes a standard 50mm lens usually f1.8-2.8 which is great for low light situations.  These lenses run for about $150 but you can find them used for about $100.  Now your asking "am I really going to get a quality lens for $150?  The answer ABSOLUTELY!!  For $150 you get a super light, sharp and bright lens perfect for almost any situation.  You put that lens on a cropped sensor body and you have the great portrait lens, put it on a full frame body and you have a perfect all-around lens great for street photography.  But the proof is in the pudding I recently did an e-session with Michelle and Brandon this past weekend and pulled the lens out for what I was expecting to be a few shots, I actually used it for almost the whole shoot.  What I particularly love about this lens is its a prime (no zooming) and it forces you to use your feet to get closer or further from my subject or different angles.  Well enough talk here are a few shots from this amazing lens.

Heres a link to help you find a 50mm lens for your camera 

Happy Monday, I have to tell ya that Im loving this weather!  Im not sure if you remember but I had mentioned that Lez and the kids told me that my final Christmas gift hadn't arrived yet!  Well on Friday I got a parcel in the mail when I opened the box I started screaming with excitement like a little kid.  My family gotten me a Old Mamiya 645 medium format camera complete with waist-viewfinder, 80mm f2.8 lens and of course a roll of film.  Not many of you know this but I started off shooting film with an old Minolta xe-5 35mm camera shooting mainly b&w.  I even rolled and developed my own film; I remember turning our bathroom into a darkroom and processing my own images.  Nothing is like the seeing your print come to life in the developer for the first time, its magic!  The funny thing was at the time our house only had one washroom and Lez would be knocking on the door needing to use it! *LOL*

This is my very first medium format camera for any of you that dont know what the difference is, your standard film camera usually takes 35mm film.  My mamiya takes 120mm film, bigger negative means bigger enlargements.  Before I could use the camera I had to figure out how to load it! So of course I went to YouTube to find an instructional video, gotta love YouTube! *LOL*  Now that I knew how to load the camera I took Kennedy and our new addition to the family out to play!  I gotta admit it took a couple of shots for me to get used to not looking at the back for instant gratification.

Im going to mail the film out today, I cant wait to get it back.  This is bringing back so many memories for me.  Its so nostalgic!  Maybe Ive gotten to used to digital but Im so anxious to see the photos! *LOL*

I get asked alot what do you do for inspiration?  I believe doing things like this helps artists get their mojo flowing!  I will post the photos as soon as I get them back!  In the meantime I thought I'd take come photos of my new/old camera!

For the most part Ive been taking photos of people with my new leica but I thought I would try something different this time and see how this baby handles a little architecture?  As any Leica owner knows you by the camera for its superb quality and handcraftmanship, each camera and lens is hand made to meet stringent tolerances.  Leica lenses are the best in the world second to none but they come at a hefty price almost 5X the cost of your standard DSLR lens. Ive been mainly using the Zeiess Biogon 25mm F2.8 lens, damn this puppy is sharp it even rivals some of Leicas offerings at a fraction of the cost.  On the my Leica M8 this lens acts almost like at standard 35mm lens on a full frame camera.  This a perfect general purpose lens maybe not ideal for super-low light situations but great for outdoors! I picked mine up from Rob Skeoch of Big Camera Workshops awesome guy to deal with and super knowledgeable!  This was supposed to be a simple post about some architectural shots but I turned it into a half a$$ review! *LOL*  Here are a couple of photos I took while I was in downtown Cambridge, Ontario.

I thought I would post some photos from a real fun e-session I had during the summer!  Kathryn and Mark are getting married this month and Im getting super pumped for the day.  We decided to shoot the e-session down town Milton where this couples spends a lot of their free time in, I just love this town and all its little shops!  If anyone gets a chance you have to stop by Mike's ice cream shop...so good! *lol*  Come back soon to see how their wedding went!

You can see more of their engagement photos on my Facebook