At long last Danika has arrived!  Here are some pictures of friends and family visiting her at the hospital on her first day into the big scary world.

Click HERE for the full album.

Alicia invited me along for a photo-shoot in Red Head.  She had lined up 2 models finishing off their portfolio followed by a total of 5 girls for a Trash the Dress session.  For those who are not aware of the Trash the Dress concept, basically you take the pretty dresses you only wear once and go have some fun in them!  This usually leads to getting dirty.  Alicia who I’m starting to think is the Queen of bargains provided most of the dresses.  The girls were all fun to work with.  I mostly just stayed out of the way and shot from other angles.  Getting to watch someone elses work process was really good for me.  I look forward to shooting with her more.  So enough of my rambling click HERE to check out the shots.  Comments are welcome as always!

Note:  I’ve noticed the plug-in I use for the pictures has a tendency to cut off the right hand side of the picture from time to time.  If it looks like it is cut off you can just click on the picture to see the full version…  Sadly, I think it’s time to upgrade… which will probably mean no comments per picture as no other plug-in has that feature… boo!

Every year I go to the Zoo with my folks, it’s a summer tradition that we’ve done for a number of years and is always fun.  This year I expanded my family to include some good friends.  The extra people just made it more fun and Robert seemed to enjoy his first trip to a zoo.  Instead of feeding deer with Barry, he thought it more fun to throw dirt at them.  He wasn’t interested in feeding the ducks so much as chasing them.  And learned the valuable lesson that when you grab a goats tail, you’ll get a headbutt to the rear end.  *chuckle*  Hope you enjoy the pics, comments are welcome as always.  Check them out HERE.

I had the happy opportunity to try my lens at some maternity pictures.  It meant a lot to me because not only did the couple trust me to capture this time in their lives but it’s my brothers first child.  I admit I was nervous about doing them, it isn’t like I can just re-shoot them again down the road should they not turn out.  The end product was something I was mostly happy with though.  The studio setting ones need more work with lighting.  I blew out the sides on a few.  My lighting gear isn’t the best and I don’t get much practise with it.  Maybe that will be my quest this winter, spend more time working with lights.  Most important thing was the clients were happy with the pictures!  So I’m happy too.  Check them out here and let me know your thoughts!

Well I’ve been following the E3 coverage on G4 Tech TV as much as I can because… well… I find it interesting!  Nice to know what new games and such are coming down the pipe.  So these are some of the things that caught my eye (mostly 360 and Wii based as I don’t own a PS3).

Metal Gear Solid: Rising, appears to feature Raiden as the main character not Solid Snake as previous games did.  Also it’s coming to 360 (and PS3).

All Points Bulliten (APB) is a Crime Based MMO,  it features highly customized characters (way more than I’ve seen in other MMOs from what the video showed), you can join / create gangs, and have up to 100 people in a given area at any time.  Become famous or infamous for the evil deeds you do.  Seems like a different take on an MMO.  Should draw the GTA crowd.

The Saboteur, is a stealth action game set in Nazi filled

Assassins’ Creed 2, set in a Renaissance Italy you play a man forced to become an assassin to survive.  Graphics look beautiful and in the trailer the main character has a flint lock gun attached to his forearm.  Pretty cool looking.

Avatar,a game being made with director James Cameron by Ubisoft based off his movie (to come out later this year), is slated to be the worlds first 3D video game.  A demo should be out next week and no trailer or footage was shown.  The game takes place on a planet called Pandora where a band of humans have travelled and end up at odds with the local race called the Na’vi that has their own language and culture.  It is unknown if you’ll need 3D glasses to play it or not.

Facebook and Twitter both coming to Xbox 360, along with On Demand ability to download games.  30 Titles will be available on launch and will be priced similar to their retail counter parts.  I’m still waiting for Netflix for Canadian users!  And new avatar content is on the way too!

The Old Republic is a new MMO to replace the failing horrid mess of Star Wars Galaxy.  Little real information, but the trailer was pretty bad ass.  I’m assuming it’s for PC.

Final Fantasy XIV for PS3 and PC is the next MMO in the series set for release in 2010, little else is known about it aside from the fact that Chocobos will be present!

Mass Effect 2, Crysis 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Crackdown 2, Halo 3 ODST, are all big name sequels that are slated and look pretty awesome.

New Super Mario Wii, will support four player co-op play, with you being able to play as various characters like Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess, etc…  Still a side scroller with hills, boxes, pipes, and bad guys.  But the four player co-op looked really fun.  Reminded me of playing Little Big Planet in Co-op mode.

Metroid: Other M, a new instalment in the Metroid series which could be a little more hardcore as it’s being made by Team Ninja, who made Ninja Gaiden, so the combat should be fast and furious.

More Wii Hardware in the form of, Wii Vitality sensor that will go over your thumb and track your pulse, giving a visual representation of your own emotion to your Mii.  Also, Wii MotionPlus (which was introduced last year), an add-on for the Wiimote that makes it more sensitive and accurate to motion.  It was demoed with Wii Sports: Resort, that has new games from sky diving, to archery, to table tennis.

So Microsoft seem to have continued to bring their A game this year, Nintendo did much better as they didn’t bring anything to the table last year, and Sony has promised 35 PS3 exclusive titles to launch over the next twelve months and more than 100 titles in total.  So we will see if they can finally get into the competition.

This past weekend Jess, Hil and I took a trip to Halifax.  We had two reasons, first was to visit Jared, Vicki, and Sylas and the other was it was Hilary’s Birthday and we wanted to do something fun.

The drive down was fun as always with much loud music and other craziness.  We didn’t do a whole lot while we were there, went downtown to the farmers market at this new time I’ve never heard of… Vicki calls it “7 in the morning”, guess it’s a nurse thing.  After that we wandered around waiting for everything else to open.  Visited the usual haunts like Freak Lunchbox, Little Mysteries, and the Black Market.  We got Tara something Uber cool at Freak Lunchbox, Hil spent an obscene amount of money between the three places, and sadly Jess did not manage to find a new puzzle ring.  In between all this we had pizza at 10:30 on the steps of a church.  Good times. 

Jared made an awesome dinner and breakfast the next day and it was just a good time all around.  Makes me miss them more after we have to leave.  Really can’t wait for them to move home… or to find out if they won the million dollar eco house so we can move in with them.  ;o)

As usual I took some pics.  Feel free to check them out and comment.  I always like when people comment.  My main walk around lens is farked and I’ve been too lazy to take it to get serviced so I was forced to shoot at either 50mm fixed or my big honkin zoom lens.  I feel it was my punishment for being lazy.  Hopefully today I’ll be smart enough to take the lens with me before work and drop it off to get it fixed.  *shudders at the possible cost of repair*  Click here for the pics.

So I’m back from Toronto and actually going to blog!  CAiNE (Canadian Annual National Event) is the big con for a gaming group I used to be part of.  A few years ago I parted ways with the group for my own reasons and this year by events I’m still not sure how they came to pass I ended up getting back into it.  I never thought I would be part of that group again when I left but going again, playing, and most importantly seeing old friends was really good.  Those that went for the first time in a few years have called it “Coming home”, and I think that is the perfect words for it.  And we were welcomed home with open arms.  So thanks to everyone that made us feel that way.

Now on to a quick recap of the trip.  We went by train which was a 24ish hour trip.  Which although fun in some aspects is not something I’ll do again.  Just too long for my long legs!  Going through Montreal’s big station and Union Station in Toronto was pretty cool though.  Thursday when we got there Jody picked us up and drove us to the hotel.  Many thanks to him!  We spent that night just getting caught up with some friends and taking it easy.

Friday I woke up not feeling that well but it soon past.  Jess, Jared, and I took the bus downtown to the subway which led us to Union Station.  It was not hard to find our first stop, the CN Tower since it loomed over us.  While waiting in the rather short line for the elevator I started to feel ill again but figured it would pass.  We got up to the top and I had to run for the washroom, but after being sick I felt fine again.  I took some pictures and we headed up to the Skypod, the highest point you can access in the Tower.  Everything looks fake from that height… it’s kinda odd.  I think the pictures do it justice as all the buildings look like models.  Our next stop was the Hockey Hall of Fame, which we had to travel back the way we came from to find.  Again, while waiting in line I had to run for the washroom.  Maybe my stomach did not like lines… I prefer to think it hated the idea of the 100th Anniversary of the Montreal Canadians exhibit that was inside.  We did get to look around and see most of the displays but my stomach would not allow me to do the interactive things.  Twice I’ve been to the HHoF and twice I’ve been unable to do the interactive bits… gives me a reason to try a third time in the future I guess!  Finally we headed back to the airport by cab.  I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping and happily felt well enough to play Requiem that night and hang out with friends til the wee hours.

Saturday Phil took Jess and I down to Chinatown for Dim Sum.  I had never had it and to be honest had no idea what it was!  Come to find out it’s a way of serving Chinese food.  You sit at your table and they circle around with carts of food.  You take what you want and they mark it off on your food scoresheet ;o).  I learned to eat with chopsticks and really enjoyed the experience!  It was great food and really cheap.  We checked out the shops along Kensington which were all very cool retro shops before heading to the Silver Snail.  It was HUGE!  Felt like a storage house for everything I’ve ever seen in the Previews catalog.  Saturday night I played Requiem again and we finished off a plot we’d been chasing since I made my character.  It was very cool.  Also got to interact with the Unholy a bit, which probably does not mean anything to most but it was pretty awesome.   After game we stayed up til the wee hours partying with friends and drinking Jody’s evil Black Rum.

Sunday was the closing ceremonies and a lazy day of just hanging out before taking the very long train ride home Monday morning.  Jared being the silly monkey he is missed his plane but managed to get home eventually.  All in all the trip was well worth it.  I had a blast the whole time (even while being sick).  Really looking forward to seeing everyone next year at Trois-Rivieres!

All the pictures of my Toronto adventures can be found here.  Feel free to check them out and comment!  Also here are pictures from Mortal and Changeling.

Testing to see if this will Crosspost to Livejournal

I had my first wedding shoot last month as I’ve mentioned a few times, but now the editing is done, the couple have the pictures so I’m uploading a few here as I use this site as my portfolio of sorts. 

 Again many thanks to the couple and the brides parents for trusting me with this very special day. 

 From all the horror stories I had read from wedding photographers I was so happy to have such a great client to work for. 

 Everyone was easy going and fun to work with. 

 I can only hope my next wedding goes as well. 

(Click on the picture to see the full album.)

This past weekend Greg and Chris hosted the sequel to the murder mystery we played last year “Murder at the Four Deuces”. 

A lot of people got out to play in this one and reprise their characters as well as having a few new faces to add to the mix.  It was great fun!  Just enough LARP to remind me why I enjoyed playing but conversation afterwords reminded me of why we don’t bother anymore. 

The best thing as usual was seeing friends from out of town.  It was really fun to get Chris & Anita down for it, if only as an excuse to see them.  Hope peeps enjoy the pictures, as always please feel free to comment on any of them.  I like the feedback!

(For facebook users click either of the pictures to see the full album hosted on my website.)