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!

Hi again everyone!  I decided to do a video blog again, this time its pretty low class.  I hope you can appreciate me even with my crazy hair-do and overgrown facial hair.  I was camping this weekend with friends and wanted to make a post about it.  Here’s the video followed by  a couple of pictures from the weekend.

Andrew skipping rocks (successfully I might add).

Yours truely hanging out in the water, looking like a goofball.

Urszula had just splashed Luke who was avoiding getting fully into the water.  Hahahaha Luke… sucker….

mmmm dinner!  Beer Can chicken!   That’s right…  these poor birds are impaled on beer cans, but it makes for a tender meal.

A cute moment shared by Andrew and Lisa.

A feeble attempt to get creative after a few beverages.  Andrew spent the evenings providing audible entertainment.  He’s not bad though so we appreciated it.

Self portrait so everyone remembers I was there

Meet Tucker..

I cant believe I caught this moment so perfectly.  Check out Luke’s facial expression, and his hand position.  Good thing they’re married!

Luke’s lovely and beautiful wife Nicole.  This was taken out by the beach while we all went for an evening stroll.

Luke has many talents…   this one is my favourite.

On the last night it POURED rain just shortly before dinner was ready.  This is everyone chilling under Urszula’s epic tarp.  We were able to get the picnic table under there and enjoy a tasty (and dry) dinner.  After this we decided that the rain could be ignored from inside the tent.  We hooked Jordyn’s iPod up to my MacBook and watched a movie.  We watched Pirate Radio, about the pirate rock radio stations in Britain, a very funny movie and highly recommended.

All in all it was a great trip, very relaxing and enjoyable for everyone.  Thanks to all who came!

Hi again everyone.  I was lucky enough to book my first Indian wedding for the first weekend in October and I’m very much looking forward to shooting it.  Especially since I recently shot their engagements and we had a blast!  I’d like you to meet Shez and Rahim.  These two are going to be great fun to work with on their wedding day(s) I’m sure!  Here’s a few of my favourites!

We went into a random toy store to see what kind of props we could come up with.  I love Shez’s crown!

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.

I had the privilege of photographing a beautiful wedding at The Atlantis at Ontario Place on Friday.  The outdoor ceremony was held on the roof of the building (see the pic below) and the reception was held downstairs inside.  There were some nice places to shoot around the Ontario Place grounds so even though we had tons of time for photos, there was no shortage of ideas.  I worked with the wonderful Alyssa Alkema on this one and it was another great experience.  I’ll let the images speak for themselves.  As always, if you would like more information on packages and prices please just give me a call or send me an email.

Alison and her girls were absolutely amazing to work with and were so much fun the whole day.

It was a pretty cool view from the ceremony on the rooftop of the Atlantis.

A very proud mother of the groom.

The guys made it easy to work with them as well.  This shot was barely posed at all, they pretty much set it up themselves.

The bride and groom get points for originality on their entrance to the reception.

Trash the Dress sessions have become a common after wedding photo shot for creative and spontaneous brides.  The trick is not destroying THE dress, but destroying ANY dress.  A quick fun trip to Goodwill can turn up an outdated wedding dress for cheap that would work perfectly for a trash the dress session. Then its just a matter of finding an awesome location.  Beaches are perfect but just about any body of water will do.  They can also be shot in urban areas, especially during or after a rainfall.  The whole point is to get crazy and creative and to create some of the most interesting imagery you can.

This time the shoot involved 5 models in 5 different dresses with an outlandish number of photographers.  So there were limitations on the creativity, and we as photographers were crawling all over each other trying to get a clear shot at the angle we wanted.  It wasn’t the ideal situation, but I’m still really happy with some of the shots I got, and naturally I’m posting those here for you to enjoy.

This is Frankie, she was my favourite model that day, and I hope we can get to work together again.

Lucky penny anyone?

Frankie’s sister Jessica:

On Saturday I had the privilege of shooting the most exciting and fun wedding I’ve been to yet.  I started off at the guys house while Amelia of Flirt Photography took care of the ladies.  The guys were wearing full Scottish dress, Kilts and all which I knew would be absolutely amazing.  The guys were awesome to hang out with and looked dashing in their suits.

Chris is a firefighter with the Toronto Fire Department, and his dad is the Chief of the TOronto Fire Department.  A true ‘like father like son’ moment.

The boys were supposed to be ready for 1:30, and they were….. JUST.  Usually the guys are way late getting started with dressing up, but somehow manage to pull it all together in the last couple of minutes and still leave me enough time for photos.   The photos were seriously rushed this time around.  Thankfully the limo driver was more than understanding while I made her wait for us.

The wedding was held in Mississauga at the St. Thomas A Becket church, which has a beautiful worship space lit surprisingly well by the afternoon sun.  The bride was absolutely stunning, and you should have heard the cheers her mom received as she walked down the aisle! That’s when I knew it was going to be a good party.

True to form with the Scottish theme Jill and Chris had a piper present.  He was very good and the music actually made for a very nice backdrop during the receiving line.

I snapped this shot through the crowd outside the church during the receiving line.  It was a busy time, and I love how all the out of focus people frame Jill’s face perfectly.

I had to laugh at this wonderfully appropriate cake topper.

Now THIS is the way to enter the reception… riding on your groomsman’s back.  More evidence of the wicked party to come.

The speeches were great, hilarious and animated. These two gorgeous ladies are the bride’s younger sisters.

When the wedding party dance to their first song, it really only lasted 30 seconds.  Then the music picked up and they all ran to pull people onto the dance floor.  Two minutes later everyone was having a blast.

The world of wedding photography is changing on regular basis.  The nature of any creative art such as photography is such that it is subject to popular trends.  More and more digital SLR cameras are coming available that capture incredible high definition video, and as such the lines between photographer and videographer are becoming blurred.  The new technology (or art form) is called Fusion – the interception of photo and video.

Now, I’m nowhere near being confident enough to capture video at a wedding, but I’ve taken the first step.  I’ve bought myself a Canon 7D, and a couple of microphones and audio recorders.  My plan initially is to at least record the audio from the vows and the speeches so that I can overlay the audio over the slideshow, for a really dramatic effect.  As my skills and knowledge grow, I hope to add some video clips to slide shows to make them more engaging and entertaining.  This whole idea gets a test run this weekend when I work with the amazing Amelia Thornton of Flirt Photography.  Wish us luck!

Here’s the new gear:

My friend Dan had told me a few times that he was a pretty avid skateboarder and a bit of a show-off.   Now, I had seen him snowboard before, so this didn’t come as a huge surprise to me.  What did come as a surprise is how big he was willing to go!  He brought a friend along (also named Dan) and we shot for a couple of hours in 10 degree weather with a brisk enough wind to blow our softboxes over a couple of times.  We learned TONS about lighting with off camera speedlights and apparently I need to read my pocket wizard manual again.  In any case, we did get a few shots worth sharing so I’ve naturally posted them here.  Enjoy!

That’s right folks, the new album is here, and its amazing.  GTA Imaging’s amazing customer service took care of the little bump in the road with speed and class, I must say I’m very impressed.  The album is gorgeous and I absolutely love it.  I’ll let the images speak for themselves.