Assignment of the year!

Well it was a pretty fast paced year and it's just about over.  The assignment of the year goes to UFC 83 in Montreal.  Our golden boy, Georges St. Pierre and Matt Serra were the main card for the event. St. Pierre displayed a remarkable show in the Octagon and defeated Matt Serra.  I was very delighted to shoot the event in sniper mode, something I had requested.  I took so many photos and I have a stunning collection for my image vault.  I want to thank the people at Nikon NPS for loaning me the bazooka lenses that I requested.  The PR staff at UFC, you were very kind and you treated me like I was your house photographer.  And the biggest thanks goes to Harris at Peace Magazine...thanks again for the accreditation, placement and the opportunity.  UFC 83 was a historical event for Canadian mixed martial arts enthusiasts everywhere.  We had a record attendance in UFC history!

Bring it back Dana...

joey!

The Art of Surveillance Photography - Coming in 2009

I want to thank the people at Google for putting me on the map...for free!  I've been getting e-mails and visits on my photography blog from around the world.  And I want to thank everyone for visiting the blog and checking back.  The feedback on my paparazzi style of photography has been interesting.  I take articles and book suggestions pretty serious and I have decided to put together an article on my surveillance photography and expose my experiences as a renegade photographer.  While it may be a controversial topic, one that might be unethical to some and intrigued by many.  I want to just share knowledge....so I will let you be the judge.  It all started at a young age!

joey!

Much Music

All of those students who stood outside for hours waiting on celebrities at Much Music this past year(you all know who you are).  Thanks for your contributions!  2009 will be another exciting year for entertainment assignments.  I chose the above image of singer, Miley Cyrus because it was my favorite of all of the assignments that took place at Much Music in Toronto.  Special thanks to the staff and security for being considerate to my student photographers.

Merry Christmas!

HO HO HO...

Snow, snow and more snow...

It has been said in the news recently, that Canada hadn't received a national white Christmas since 1971.  With all of the winter storms hitting Southern Ontario lately, we have many snow removal crews working late hours around the eve of Christmas, ensuring our roads and major highways are safe for holiday driving.  

design, innovation, content...no time!

It's the holiday time and it's very hard to find any time for blogging lately. I have a ton of images to still archive properly. However I decided to give everyone a sneak peak at the future site layout, thanks to the Noizex team. I've been sharing my thoughts and they just design the ideas locked up in my brain!

Btw - the above image was taken by student photographer Pat Tapia. If you click on the image, you should get a bigger view. The close-up of the gauge was taken at the Distillery in Toronto.

401 Heroes

Signs across the highways have made a remarkable meaning to many Canadians who oppose our peace keeping missions abroad.  The overpasses have become a spectacle show of hearts and many continue to display missions of respect.  This image goes out to Professor David Greener, at Ryerson.  I did an imagery theme on signs when I was attending Ryerson and I continue to photograph certain objects that appeal to my artistic senses...401 Highway of Heroes has become a significant theme.   It is also a great opportunity for students to push their abilities in photojournalism!  

Toy box fun!

Cruising in Toronto

Well this is so cool!  A student has e-mailed us a photo of a recent Tom Cruise siting at the CTV, E-Talk Studio in Toronto yesterday, while he was in town to promote his new flick, Valkyrie.  She didn't want to be identified, but said she wants to learn more about paparazzi work...hmm.  I guess so, considering she waited in line for 5 hours!!!

Mini photo shoots

I dug these images up from the archives...I remember that shoot very well(look at him).  We set up softboxes and speedotron lights over at the JDC warehouse(thanks Dad) with some seamless paper.  I had some oufits lined up and props.  Put my skills to the test and just shot a whole bunch of images for the family collection.  During those times, I remember learning new lighting techniques while my son modelled for us.  Lot's of fun!

Anyhow a fellow pap from Las Vegas, pro photographer Tim Jackson had recently worked on some projects with Nikon Speedlights and some seamless paper.  Tim has inspired me to push more children's photography and I'll be sure to post some of his shots too.  I'm trying to book more children's photography(everyone's having babies)...so I'll be sure to work on some future posts with regards to studio style imagery surrounding the wee ones.

Highway of Heroes

Crowds line 401 - Highway of Heroes to salute fallen soldiers as a motorcade makes its way from CFB Trenton, destined to Toronto.  The 3 coffins of the recent soldiers killed in Afghanistan were brought home for funeral services.  The deaths of Corporal Mark McLaren of Peterborough, 23, Private Demetrios Diplaros of Toronto, 25, and Warrant Officer Robert Wilson, 27, represents a grim milestone - 100 Canadian soldiers have now died in the war-torn country since 2002.  All young blood!.  I took the opportunity to photograph all the people who lined up on Harwood Avenue, Ajax, Ontario today because I was moved by the Canadian flags and firefighters who stood in soldier like position on the tops of there fire trucks.  Unfortunately light was very limited, so I had to crank my ISO to 3200.  The vehicles on the very left lane are all black stealthy looking government vehicles in motion and the shot is significant because of all the people on the bridge who lined up for today's event.  I wanted to capture an image that told a story!  

A close encounter!

Durham Region

I was at the annual Christmas gathering at The Durham District School Board yesterday, taking pictures and participating in all the festivities for all the little ones. I must have tken a few hundred images! Unfortunately when I got home, I nearly had a coronary when I couldn't upload those images to my pc. And I've never encountered this problem(remind me to never say never)! I'm also hearing that other expression.. "always a first" repeating in my head. I was pretty upset about the whole deal and I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see any of those images and follow-up with orders to clients(ouch). What do you do in this case? You basically tell people you lost the images-right? Howwwww embarrasing! What if it was a wedding...yikes!

Anyhow I ran the software that came with my Sandisk memory card and so far things are looking great! I was able to recover 'ALL' images and I have developed a whole new outlook on Sandisk!

Pictured above is an image I promised to the 'Fulton' family(congratulations). Fifteen day old infant, Owen Fulton gets some special love from Mr. & Mrs. Clause! I'm just glad that I recovered all those images....that was a close call!

joey!

Ted Rogers dies at 75

Special thanks going out to the PR department at Ryerson University.  I was a former student there and I remembered this event last year.  Unfortunately I was on another assignment.  But I just wanted to commemorate Ted Rogers for his outstanding generosity, as he and his wife Loretta Rogers donated $15 million to Ryerson last year!  Ted was known to be a big philanthropist and long time supporter for the faculty of business at Ryerson, known today as the Ted Rogers School of Management.  I know several freelance photographers who started their careers shooting for many of the publications that is owned by Rogers and I often direct students to those publications for internship opportunities!  Rogers Communications is well known for employing thousands of people across Canada and we express our sincerest wishes to the Rogers family for their loss.

Yup the truth came out...Nikon D3x is here!

Well I'm up late editing images and I'm on the Nikon website.  The D3X is officially out of the bag at $9g's...ouch.  I don't suggest going into debt on this one kids...the economy is so volatile these days that I'm going to tell you this: "cash is king-not the toys."

But I really think the camera will give Hasselblad a good run!  The 24.5 mp body can process image files exceeding 138MB...insane!  And any advertising shooter can drive it like a Porsche!

Check out www.nikon.ca for more details.

MLA-Media Literacy Assignment

The Dalai Lama was in Toronto to bless the Tibetan Cultural Centre in Etobicoke.  I put out a feeler and contacted some students at the Etobicoke School of Arts...I communicated with the pr people at the Tibetan centre and told them that I required a student photographer in the building.  

I was caring for my son and I couldn't be at this one event...but I'm glad I could pass the glory onto a student.

Nice shot Gabor!  And you clicked so well with security...glad my mentoring has rubbed off.

joey!

We got lucky with Willa

The very lovely Willa Holland was in town.  You might remember her from the television show, The O.C.  The actress and up and coming movie star charmed our camera!  It turned out that one of our young and aspiring students scored this nice celeb shot and I'm going to help her run the image somewhere...this lesson will be part of 'Sales 101'...making money on the streets as a part-time paparazzi photographer!  And don't worry Kaitlyn...I won't steal your soul.  Unlike the ones who buy all rights and clearances from others who are also trying to climb in the paparazzi industry.  "I won't mention any names"

Nice work!  Do not stop being tenacious!

joey!

church street

Another shot for my night photography archives...night shots look pretty cool in black & white, they create a smooth dismall effect, if that's the style of image your looking for!  I hand held this shot as best as possible and meta data doesn't lie...so my shutter was 0.3 sec. and aperture was set at f3.8...I wished I had my tripod and 2.8 lense around to boost the quality, but for blog sakes...I think one needs to eventually determine what they are using their images for.  And one could argue that if they were going to print gallery style canvas prints, that they would of extended the mentioned techniques...but with a 12mp sensor and photoshop(black & white conversion, cropping, sharpening, saturation), you really can push a high resolution jpeg to make your walls at home look lovely!  

Sorry RAW I've been neglecting you...