Hey hey! So I knew when I decided to drive to Chicago that I would have a pretty boring 8 hour drive to get through, in each direction. I needed something besides radio and CD’s to keep me busy, and I knew I wouldn’t have access to my cell phone for most of the drive. Did you know AT&T charges $0.75 a text when roaming in the US? Brutal! So I decided to bring a Flip Ultra HD video camera so I could do a little video blogging. Here’s a short clip, I may post one or two more in the coming week. Cheers!

I’m going to be in the Windy City this weekend just hanging out and hopefully shooting a lot of photos!  I’ve got a new Tamron 17-50 F2.8 VC which needs a proper test run, and what better place could I possibly hope for?  Unfortunately the weather looks like its going to be pretty wet for the whole time I’m there, but I think that makes for some of the best cityscapes so I’m looking forward to some opportunities.  Anything I should see in Chicago?  I hear its a pretty incredible city but I’d love some suggestions!

Photos to follow.

-Adrian Blake

Hi folks.  I’ve decided to try some video blogging as a way to more personally connect with my readers.  Now all you readers can also be viewers and especially for those of you getting married in the next year or two I hope that this helps us connect a little better.  Sorry for the quality of the first video, I screwed up and recorded it in standard definition.  The lighting is far from perfect, the sound is far from perfect, and I’m (um) not a great (um) speaker but you get the idea.  I’ll work on saying um less for the next instalment.  Oh, and in the second video I’ll need you to forgive me for the glasses and fuzzy hair.  In addition to watching Canada win gold, I also played my own hockey game last night.  So that’s what I look like at midnight after playing a hockey game, and no I hadn’t been drinking.  Although in hind sight I think I was the only Canadian who wasn’t.  Anywho, on to the vids:

and part two:

Hi!

I’m writing this blog entry to brag about the super cool party I’m attending tomorrow night.  It’s a masquerade ball!!  Yup..  I’m a nerd, I know, but I really think this will be a lot of fun.  I’m going with my good friends Andrew, Lisa and Laura.  They are three of the four that joined me for Halloween this year when we dressed up as Batman villains.  We all enjoy dressing up and having a good night, especially when there’s food and booze involved (and this party is open bar!).  Don’t worry though, we’re taking a taxi in both directions.  We’re all wearing hand made masks of unique design, thanks entirely to Lisa’s dedication and creativity.  I wish she could bottle and sell her ingeniousness….   it could be worth a fortune.  For the time being though I’m sure she’s had enough mask building and creativity.  Naturally I’ll have my camera with me for some awesome shots of the masks and such, so stay tuned in the next couple of days for those pics to hit the blog.

Other than that I’m snowboarding Saturday evening… the weather is supposed to be cold but clear and Blue Mountain has some great snow at the moment.  Sunday I’m back to work at Henry’s

I’ll get more pics up ASAP

Cheers

-Adrian

Merry Christmas everyone!  It’s December 24th and for the first time in what seems like forever I have a day off tomorrow!  Hopefully you all do too, and I hope you will be lucky enough to spend it with the most important people in your life, just like I will.  I’ve borrowed a Canon 7D and 17-55 IS lens from work to play with for the holiday, so hopefully I’ll have some fun shots for you this coming week.  Take care everyone, have a very merry Christmas, and to those of you celebrating other holidays, may the best of the season be with you.  Cheers!

So to be completely honest, nothing too exciting has been going on with me photography wise.  I’m just waiting on my new business cards to be delivered so I can start a marketing push for next year’s wedding season and I’m spending most of my time working at Henry’s and Jack Astor’s.

Having said that, I’ve discovered a new pro photographer to idolize.  Don’t get me wrong, [b]ecker is still my mentor but Chase Jarvis is someone worth checking out.  He’s a pro commercial photographer and an excellent speaker.  He’s a huge proponent of creativity and social media and he’s speaking in Toronto on Thursday.  He’s also got a series of free pod casts so search ‘Chase Jarvis’ in iTunes and check the guy out.  He does some really cool work and it really quite motivating.

Working at Henry’s means that I’m always interested in new developments in the photographic industry.  Recently Canon has brought the 7D to market, and it’s been making a HUGE splash.  At $2100 for the body alone its not a cheap camera by any means, but I honestly feel it represents the best value in Canon’s SLR lineup.  It was recently reviewed by DPReview HERE and I’ve never seen a review with so few cons.  Buying this camera represents an amazing value and unless you really must have incredible low light performance (in which case the 5D mk II is still the champion) then I beleive it is the best camera for any semi-pro camera user.  Don’t get me wrong, if you shoot Nikon there’s n0thing wrong with that and the D300S competes very closely with the 7D, but I have to be honest, the Canon is the better camera in this case.

Now the next most exciting thing is the release of the Canon 1D mk IV.  This 16mp monster can shoot 10 frames per second, has a 37pt all cross type auto focus system and an incredibly solid build.  Rumour has it that December 9th will be the first delivery date for the camera, which retails at about $55oo.  Check out CanonRumors to keep up to date with new Canon product.

Hopefully I’ll have some images for you soon, and I’ll let you know how Thursday goes with Chase Jarvis later in the week

Cheers, -Adrian

This weekend was the Henrys Photographic and Digital Imaging show at the International Centre in Mississauga.  Twice a year Henry’s hosts the 3rd biggest photography trade show in the world, bringing together all the major manufacturers in the industry, and Canada’s largest photography retailer.  I was lucky enough not only to attend the show, but also to be part of the Henry’s sales force for the weekend.  Selling at the show is a unique challenge.  It is VERY fast paced and 11 hour work days with only brief breaks for 3 days in a row can really take a toll on you.  The show was a huge success and we had great attendance and some awesome product launches.  We were the first in Canada to have the Canon G11 available, and the Canon 7D w/ 15-85 lens were available at the show as well.

Most importantly to me were the deals on Apple products!  As I’m sure you know, Apple computers are VERY rarely on sale, and usually only go on sale after they have been superseded by new models in the market.  Show discounts were specific to the model, but turned out to be roughly 10% off, with another 5% off if you paid with a Henry’s Advantage card.  Naturally I couldn’t turn down a deal like that and I brought home a brand new 15″ 2.8Ghz MacBook Pro.  I love this thing!!   It’s the first Apple computer I’ve ever owned and only the 3rd Apple product, but I’m officially hooked.  It’s super sleek, crazy fast, very stylish and wonderfully engineered.  I knew when I got my iPhone that it would turn out to be a gateway drug and I was right, its all Apple for me now.

Having said that, Windows 7 became available today.  I’ve heard some good things about it, and Windows is still the worlds most popular operating system, so a new release is a big deal even for a (newly) self proclaimed Apple guy.  Hopefully they’ve solved all of the annoying stability issues from Windows Vista.  The PC I just replaced still had Windows XP on it because I refused to upgrade, knowing that Vista was full of problems.

Halloween is just over a week away!!   What are you doing to celebrate?  I’ve heard a few people mention that they are too old to dress up, and its too bad for them that they feel that way.  Find a few friends who are up for some fun and get dressed up, its a total blast!   I’ll be going out with a group of friends on Friday night, only to go to work (in costume!) on Saturday, and then go out again Saturday night.  It’s going to be a busy but awesome weekend.  And what am I dressing up as you might ask?  Two Face from Batman!  It’s going to be so much fun!  The four of us that are going out together are all dressing as Batman villains.  Two Face, Joker, Poison Ivey, and Harley Quinn.  If you have any suggestions on where to party in Toronto on Saturday I’d love to hear them.  I’ll have some pics up of that weekend as soon as possible.  It’s going to give me a great opportunity to try out my new MacBook Pro on some legitimate photo editing.

On that note I also have an exciting shoot planned.  I can’t divulge details right now but there should be some great photos coming out of it.  I haven’t been doing any shooting lately and I’m really excited to get back in the swing of things.  A few of the guys at Henry’s in Mississauga where I’m working now also go out shooting on a lot of evenings, so I’ll be joining them from time to time as well.

That’s it for now, I’m sure I have more to talk about but I really should spread things out a bit.  More pictures and blogging to come!

Cheers, -Adrian

I officially started work at Henry’s in Mississauga today.  According to the rest of the staff it was ‘steady’ or ‘not bad’.  Compared to the London North location I used to work at it was damn busy!!  I had a great start though and really enjoyed the challenge of such a busy environment.  I’m hoping to see more of the same tomorrow, and I’m sure I will.  Come see me at the Henry’s Mississauga location, mention this post and I’ll give you 5% off regular priced items.  Simple deal right?   Hopefully I’ll see you soon.

I work all weekend, and have no idea what my schedule will be like next week, but I have two weddings to edit and post pics of and so that’s very high on my to do list.  Watch for the new stuff!!

-Adrian

Today was move day for me! I’m officially back at home in Mississauga with my family and friends and the people that are important to me. However I’m going to miss London, it was a great city and I had lots of fun there and met some awesome people. I’ll be working at the Jack Astors at Square One and at Henry’s at Hurontario and Eglington and I am looking forward to starting at both new stores. I’m also having my website reworked this fall into a blog-site which I think will allow me to have a better online connection with my brides and potential clients since my newest material will always be readily available. I shot two weddings last weekend, one with Brooke Leitch and the other with Jon Rennie. Both were tons of fun, wonderfully successful shoots. The brides both looked awesome and everything went off without a hitch. Well someone got hitched but it sure wasn’t me!
For the next 5 days I’ll be moving my sister out to Nova Scotia so I’ll be around from time to time online to check emails and such. After that I’ll finally have a chance to settle down and get organized at home so I can get some more imagery online.
This is also the first post I’ve ever made from my iPhone. It’s a pretty slick easy to use app and it’s only furthering my new found addiction to apple products. I see a Macbook Pro in my future…

Talk to you all soon!!!
Cheers.

We’ve all been bombarded recently with the advent of Twitter, Facebook, LinkeIn and other social media networks.  The world population is learning to rely on each other for information pertaining to just about anything.  We are slowly (quickly actually) becoming a society of one.  Check this video out.  Props to [b]ecker for posting it first.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]