London Convention Centre, Urban Photography
Inspired by Jane Heller’s Montreal Landmarks photography series I started thinking about how to make it my own. Minimalist. Black and white. Clean. Crisp. Focusing on details. Suggestions of London.
I’d love to hear what you think. Do you like the black and white or would you prefer colour? Too minimalist or not enough? Is there a location you think I should definitely consider adding to the collection?
When I was out indulging in the beauty of spring flower photography I waited until the sun rose up beyond the horizon to get some warm sunshiny, sun flare-y images. These are my new favourite thing.
Do you like photographs with sun spots? Or do you prefer a nice clean landscape with soothing soft light?
It was a pleasure when Amie Ronald-Morgan of Scene Magazine emailed me about an article she was writing. She wanted to interview me about my participation in this year’s Visual Fringe show. I’m among some mighty fine artists exhibiting this year and I’m honoured to help promote the festival any way I can.
You can check out Amie’s article on page 19 of the June 6, 2013 edition of Scene Magazine.
Daphne’s Dream, Flower Photography
Tickled Pink, Flower Photography
Young Love, Flower Photography
Vintage Blush, Flower Photography
Spring’s Smile, Flower Photography
Fantasy Island, Flower Photography
Lurid Lilac, Flower Photography
I’m not really one to photograph flowers but in the springtime it’s hard to resist.
I liked Nicola Applegate, Art Buyer at Winkreative, from her very first email. She used words like “lovely lady” but was still able to keep her messages brief yet informative. The best of both worlds. As our emails progressed her positive nature and her passion for her job shone through. If she wasn’t based in London, England I know we could be friends.
I was over-the-moon excited when she asked me to photograph for an upcoming issue of re:porter, the Porter Airlines in-flight magazine. In every edition they profile an outstanding employee – a nice article about who they are and what they do along with a few portraits.
This time they were featuring Jade Cutinho, supervisor for the cafés in Porter’s lounges at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Jade was just as thrilled as I was to be part of the magazine, she glowed when she told me about how much she loved working for Porter, and beamed as she relayed her life story beginning in the Philippines and all the way up to surviving her first winter in Canada. Jade’s beautiful smile can be seen in the May/June issue, Edition 28, of re:porter.
Thank you so much to:
Client – Porter Airlines
Publication – re:porter
Director, Marketing – Michael Macaulay
Agency – Winkreative
Photo Editor – Nicola Applegate
Writer – Stuart Husband
Model – Jade Cutinho
Location – Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
Photography – Jennifer Squires
Got plans Thursday evening? Then why not pop by The Arts Project for the official opening night for this year’s Visual Fringe Festival. We’ve been busy over here framing up three landscape photographs to hang in this year’s show. For your peaceful viewing pleasure we’ll be featuring Secret Song, Exhale, and Summer’s Serenity, all are signed 11×14 photographs, professionally framed and ready for your wall. Darren and I will both be there along with many of the 26 other artists, so stop by, say hi, have a snack, check out some fantastically diverse art, and get inspired.
Visual Fringe
June 5-16, 2012
Opening Night: Thursday June 6th, 2012, 7-9pm
The Arts Project
203 Dundas Street, just west of Clarence
London, Ontario, Canada
Free Admission
A group show and sale
You can join our Facebook event here - https://www.facebook.com/events/659096060784021/
In addition to opening night I’m also slated to be in the gallery on Friday, June 14th, 3:30-6:30pm, so if you have questions about my work, about photography in general, or if you’re looking for a bit of guidance with your camera, then come on down and we’ll talk. Hope to see you there.
Have a beautiful Monday!
Good Morning June! I can’t believe you’re finally here.
Our calendar this month features Golden Beach, my first beach photograph of the season, and you can download yours here:
June 2013 Calendar - iPad (1024 x 768 pixels) (33)
You can see our whole archive of calendars here: Downloadable Desktop Calendars.
I love the beach in these early days of summer, lying in wait for the party to begin. And I’ll be there. Will you?
Golden Beach, Lake Erie Landscape Photography
I have a love hate relationship with 4am wake up calls. It means going to bed at 9pm if I can and I still need to drag myself out into the darkness in the morning. But when the sun comes up on the beach it makes it all worth while. It was beautiful and quiet in Port Stanley, summer is definitely in the air. Surprisingly lots of people out getting the town ready for summer.
Here’s how my day looked:
4:00 am – wake up call
4:40 am – load car and leave for Port Stanley, gear was packed the night before
5:30 am – arrive at the beach in Port Stanley, set up and begin photographing in pre-sunrise light
6:00 am – sunrise, keep shooting
6:30 am – wrap shoot and head back to the studio
7:20 am – arrive back at the studio and unpack the car
7:30 am – begin downloading and backing up files
8:45 am – breakfast
8:00 am – choose selects, tweak images for colour, contrast, lightness, and darkness, process raw files
10:30 am – caught up on client orders and emails
1:00 pm – retouch
1:30 pm - send test prints to the lab and archive final image
Oh and I just about forgot! A little video from my morning on the beach {if you’re reading via email or RSS you’ll likely need to click through to our blog to see it}:
Where do you dream about spending your spring mornings?
Part of what made our trip to Collingwood extra relaxing was that we made a point of stopping to smell the roses, or in spring in Ontario stopping to take in the beauty of the trilliums. We got a tip about a loop of the Bruce Trail we should check out while we were in the area so after a nice slow wake up one morning we packed up some muffins, filled our water bottles, donned our wide brim hats, and headed out for our hike.
It was such a gorgeous morning! Wandering through the woods in this beautiful spring weather is such a simple way to relax. And we were lucky enough to see the trilliums in bloom – which is an amazing feat for these plants since it takes them about seven years to flower, pretty crazy huh?
What are your favourite simple ways to relax? Do you like to head out for a nature walk? Poke around in your garden? Or do you prefer to cozy up to a good book?
Two weeks ago was our five year anniversary so last week we took a three-day mini-vacation to Collingwood primarily to visit the Scandinave Spa. Oh Scandinavian spas, how do I love you… We went to the Scandinave at Blue Mountain two years ago for our anniversary and we were hooked. It led us to a day at the The Nordik Spa in Chelsea, Quebec later that same year and the Strom Spa in Montreal last year.
The baths are simply divine… They have wonderfully hot pools, refreshing cool pools, and beautiful relaxation areas. The idea is that you spend 10-15 minutes in the hot pools which vary between 38 and 40 C (101-104 F), allowing the heat to open your pores, release toxins, and stimulate circulation. Then you go for a quick 2 second to 2 minute dip in the cool pools, which are 12 to 16 C (55-61 F), to rinse off those toxins and close up your pores. After that you head to one of the various relaxation areas for 10-15 minutes - a warm room with Muskoka chairs and a big beautiful window, a hammock under a tree, or you can dry off by one of the fires. If you’re like me you’ll spend this time sound asleep.
Oh, and if you need a break from the hot pools you should DEFINITELY try out the eucalyptus steam room. The first time Darren and I ever went to one of these spas we were both skeptical about whether we’d like a steam room. I thought it would be suffocatingly humid and way too hot. It turns out they’re the perfect balance of hot and steamy, we’ve actually been known to lose track of time and spend a half hour enjoying the easy breathing. And yes it’s just like in the movies, you walk in and can’t see a thing. Unlike the movies everyone was clad in bathing suits and there weren’t any back room deals going down.
We ended up spending a full five hours there, including our fantastic one hour massages. Now this is a getaway I could get used to. If only it were closer to home…
I love all the bath spas we’ve been to so far but I like Collingwood the best because the scenery is stunning and they have lots of clocks to help monitor how long I’ve spent in each area, sometimes it’s the little things that really matter. It’s set in a small wooded area surrounded by lots of trees making it cozy, quaint, and very tranquil.
I was surprised to see how much I loved the silence. I spend a fair amount of time alone in my studio retouching and writing blog posts causing me to crave social interaction, but spa silence is completely different. It helped quiet my mind in fifteen minute intervals, which was exactly what I needed.
If you ever have a chance to check out a bath spa you totally should. It’s one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever done. And they all seem to have their own personalities. The one at Blue Mountain offers yoga classes, I even saw a yoga day that they’re hosting, while at Strom some nights they have martinis and a DJ.
So what are your favourite relaxing getaways? Do you like to camp far, far away from the city? Are you into all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean? Or is a massage all it takes?
