A week ago I shot a beautiful wedding for Derek and Reina.  It was right here in Mississauga, with the reception hosted at Le Dome Banquet Hall in Oakville.  Reina looked absolutely gorgeous as I’m sure you’ll agree.  Here’s a sneak peak:

Just thought I’d post this picture of myself, taken by Alyssa Alkema at one of the weddings we shot together this year.

Well, it turns out that today was my plane’s final flight. I clipped a tree and the plane landed in a heap of broken styrofoam. The plane isn’t repairable, and although I salvaged some of the important bits and pieces like the radio controller and receiver and servos I’ve chosen not to replace it just yet. Since I was only able to fly it 3 times before completely destroying it, this intended hobby cost me more than $100 a flight. I’ve never been particularly good at being frugal, but I think I will pursue a cheaper hobby. I might even get a remote control car in the spring instead and I feel like I’ll probably get as much enjoyment with less destruction that way. With winter coming up I will stick to snowboarding and hockey for now, I’m sure I’ll get back into the planes eventually but probably many years from now.

One of the things I have been trying to accomplish with the regular updating of this blog is to let my readers know as much as possible about my personality and the things that make me ‘tick’.  Of course, first and foremost is photography, and especially photography of people but from time to time I feel the need (like anyone else I’m sure) to branch out and try something new.   This little video is about just that, check it out:

Sorry about the abrupt ending to that little clip. The camera cut out on my while I was talking to it and I didn’t notice until I was already home. I also broke the balsa wood cage that the motor mounts to but I’ve repaired that before too. It’s been a couple of days since I filmed this video, and I’m happy to announce that I have rebuilt the motor mount which was damaged in my nose dive landing, and fixed the bent mounting point for the front gear.  So I’ll be flying it again tomorrow, and hopefully with a little more success this time!  Wish me luck.

I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to shoot Wakestock.  It is a little outside my normal type of shooting, but it was so much fun to stretch my talents outside of my normal comfort zone.  Wakestock is a huge Canadian wakeboarding competition held annually.  For several years it has been held in downtown Toronto, near the Toronto Island.  This year it was held in The Blue Mountains, Ontario, on Georgian Bay.  Unfortunately I was only able to make it up there for the final day, which offered the best wakeboarding but the worst weather.  Nonetheless, here are a few of my favourites:

Alright, so I ended up having no time at all to post later on in the evening, so here I am the next day sharing a few pictures with you.  The party was a HUGE success.  Total dollar figures haven’t been confirmed yet, but it looks like we raised more than $8K after expenses!  Everyone is thrilled with the results.  I have to extend my friend Andrew Davy and Stagevision a massive thank you.  Andrew brought a huge pro level audio system and although we definitely helped him with the heavy lifting, he did all the setup and audio control himself.  Dude, when you read this, know that we owe you huge for that effort!  Thanks man!

I know a lot of people would have loved to be here that just couldn’t make it.  Please, donate to the cause, its totally worth it.  You can do so online securely here: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2649243

This is Alanna’s brother James starting the festivities off by burning the makeshift barn the boys had built the previous day.  A little diesel fuel and a roman candle seemed to do the trick in style.

Yup, we had a retired fire truck on hand.  Full of water too, just in case things got out of hand.  It also doubled up as the source of water for the wet T-shirt contest.

5 local bands / entertainers played over the course of about 6 hours.  It was an awesome lineup.

This shot was taken from stage right, to give you an idea of just how many people were there.  This is probably a little over half of the total attendees.

My friends John and Eric trying to look like they know what they’re doing.  My buddy Andrew was the only one of us who really knew what was going on with that sound board.

The guys enamoured by the wet T-shirt contest.  It always proves to be a big attraction.

At one point these next two guys were locked in an AWESOME drum duel.  Its sort of like duelling pianos, but way better.

Tiff, Ren and Jack hanging out.

Alanna’s father having his beard shaved off.  The man hasn’t been clean shaven since 1989.  He raised more than $1000 himself for pulling this stunt.

Another family friend having her head shaved.  That’s Alanna comforting her on the left.  Alanna shaved her head last year at this event and raised a lot of money.  This young lady did incredibly well to support the cause as well.  She got $100 out of me for the cause.

Yours truly taking a bit of a break.  Because I was involved with the sound setup, it was pretty much a non stop day from 9am, until 6:30am the following morning.  It was so worth it though to be a party of this amazing event.  I can’t wait to be part of it again next year.

So as I mentioned in my last post, I am at my friend Alanna’s huge party raising money for breast cancer awareness tonight.  Here’s a couple of pictures of the setup, and hopefully I’ll most some more pics later tonight, or if not then definitely tomorrow.

Yup, a fire truck.  How else are you supposed to have wet T-shirt contest?

Yes, the speakers are LOUD .  HUGE props go out to my friend Andrew Davy and Stagevision for making sure we have epic audio

It has become an annual thing.  The bush party (or barn burner as its affectionately known) is huge.  Attracting more than 500 guests to the 49 acre property north of Waterloo, Ontario and last year raising more than $8400 for charity makes it one incredible event.  Pictures from last years bash can be found here http://adrianblakephotographer.com/blog/2009/07/the-coolest-party-ever/ but this year promises to be even better.   For one the weather will be better, warmer to say the least.  Two there is an awesome lineup of bands playing.  And Three, I’ll be there and I’m bringing recruites.  My good friend Andrew is providing the audio setup, equipment, and know how.  And the two of us are bringing several other friends to make our contribution to charity.

So I suppose I should mention WHY this whole event is put together.   It started as just an outdoor bash at my good friend Alanna’s place.  There was lots of property and therefore space for camping and parking.   But then Alanna’s mother passed away of breast cancer.  This happened just shortly before last year’s party, and in order to raise money several people including both siblings decided to shave their head.  They also charged a minimum of $10 to be part of the party (I donated $20 at the door).  The generosity of the people in attendance was incredible and everyone was so pumped to hear that more than $8400 was raised.   This year’s goal is $9500, and its going to be tough to hit.  We need everyone to come out, party, drink, celebrate, and most importantly contribute to the cause.

Here’s the link to the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125470927464771   Check it out and feel free to come out if you can make it!

The location is: 7907 Wellington Rd 45, Mapleton, ON

The event starts at 8:00 pm and runs until you can’t party any longer.

Bring your wallets and give generously!

Here’s a pic of myself with my good friend Ren at least year’s party.  I can’t wait for Saturday!

Each year every Jack Astor’s in the chain hosts a Bar Competition featuring a flair bar tending competition.  At the London North competition this year there were three team of bartenders from the local Jack’s.  Laura and Christina, Lindsay and Ryan, and Dana and Dustin competed for the chance to compete in the chain wide competition at Jack Astor’s Scarborough at the end of the season.  Sincere congratulations go out to Lindsay and Ryan for taking first place.  Their routine was excellent and performed to near perfection.  My focus this time was on capturing video of the event, which I am working on editing and putting together into something I can share with you.  In the meantime, here’s a few pictures to tide you over.

Two of the judges, Travis and Braden enjoying some pre competition beverages:

Laura and Christina:

There was a pretty awesome turnout to watch the competition, and everyone had a great time.

Ryan and Lindsay:

Methinks Ryan may not be a fan of the camera….

DJ DoubleDown and Taz from the FM96 Tucker and Taz morning show:

Dana:

Dustin:

Taz announcing one of the many prize winners on the night.  I was lucky enough to take home a Corona beer cooler and a golf shirt which was (naturally) a couple of sizes too small.

Hi again folks.  How many times have you had a bad experience with a company and told everyone you know?  We’ve all had those horrible experiences that we just can’t stop talking about.  But what about the last time you had a great experience?  Did you tell anyone about it?  That’s exactly why I’m writing, I’ve just been blown away by a local company’s customer service.

The story goes like this: A couple of weeks ago I ordered a sample album through Willow Paper Works which is a front end marketing company that works with GTA Imaging to do some of their printed products.  When I ordered it they promised it would be shipped on March 25.  It was shipped right on time and I received it the next day.  It was expertly packaged and absolutely GORGEOUS.  The cover was beautiful, thick and plush, the binding was perfect and the print quality was incredibly good.  There was one small problem though, and that’s where the customer service part comes in

Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes from time to time.  This mistake was a fairly small one, it only affected one page of the album and was something that could have been easily overlooked.  I called GTA and they offered to send a pickup to collect the album from me.  I figured that I could do better than that and brought the book into them.  I was greeted at the door by name which totally blew me away.  Somebody took the time to remember that I was coming and even though Andrew had only met me once, he remembered me.  They took a quick look at it and decided there was nothing they could do to repair the damage, so they’re reprinting and rebinding the whole book and shipping it to me, all free of cost.  Now THAT’s customer service!  I have no problem with someone making a mistake, it happens, its how that mistake gets corrected that counts for everything.  I’m extremely impressed with GTA Imaging and their customer service and I’m going to continue to use them for any projects I can.  I also recommend them unconditionally, they are awesome people and run a good business.  So if they can help you out, I encourage you to give them a call.

Keep this in mind in your own businesses and at your jobs.  Customer service is the most important part of any business, and it is so important that you never waste a chance to wow you customers.  Mistakes are an opportunity to blow your customer away, make sure you do exactly that.

-Adrian Blake