Montreal Trip

My sister and I have played soccer for the last 10 years and every summer we have always had lots of games and tournaments to go to. I quit playing soccer a few years ago and this is the first summer my sister hasn't played so there has been no traveling for the family. Instead my mom offered to bring the three of us on a shopping trip to Montreal. It was so much fun to spend so much time with my mom and sister. We haven't done something like this in a long time. Here are some photos from our trip :)

All of us together :D Gotta love self portraits.



Saint Paul St in Old Montreal.



This is the restaurant we ate at to celebrate Mom's birthday. Such good spaghetti!!! :D



Window display for the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Bed In for peace.





Mom and Jess :)



There is a piece of the Berlin wall in part of the underground tunnels/shopping mall. Pretty cool to see!









I love street performers!





Have a good Friday!

Just Breathe

I have done yoga a few times in my life but I had never tried "hot yoga". About a month ago I caught up with a friend of mine and she mentioned that she has taken hot yoga classes before. So this past weekend I decided to go to one with her.

It was at a place called Moksha Yoga in downtown Halifax. On my way there I was really nervous because I had no idea what to expect. I was really amazed by the amount of people that were there. And of course I ended up being the mat beside the instructor. Talk about making sure my posture was proper! lol.

The room was completely silent for the full hour besides the instructors directions. The heat was waaay up there and I have never had a work out like that before in my life. It really was amazing. I got kind of light headed during some of the standing poses so I had to go back into childs pose on the floor but other than that it was great! I used to go to spin classes multiple times a week and I swear I have never sweat as much as I did during this hot yoga class.

I got their complimentary unlimited one week pass so I'm going again tomorrow morning and on Saturday. I definitely recommend it to anyone that is looking to strengthen, tone, relax, sweat, or gain flexibility.

On another note I haven't been posting much in the past week because I was in Montreal for a couple of days with my mom and sister. We took a shopping trip to focus on certain aspects of our wardrobe. I got some comfortable business outfits for when photographing weddings which is exactly what I wanted. Needless to say, there will be some photos coming up in the next few days from our trip.

Happy Wednesday!

MacSween Family | Portraits

I know Andrea through a friend at work. She actually used to live in the same apartments/condos as Matt and I currently live. We never got a chance to spend much time together but even without spending time together I knew Andrea is an amazing person. She is always so full of love and happiness. So when she asked me to photograph her and 2 of her siblings together I was so excited! Their mom is turning 50 this month and since they don't have any photos together they figured why not get some done and frame one for their mother. I absolutely loved the idea so we set up a date.

Now it has taken me a while to post these just because I didn't want to post them until after they gave their mom the present.

Enjoy the photos anyways :)

Tall Ships

Last week my good friend Ryan stayed with us for a few days while visiting in Halifax. I mentioned our HDR photo adventure for in this post. We also decided to venture downtown for a few hours on Thursday to see the Tall Ships along the water front. I have seen them before so it wasn't really anything new but I got to try some new photo techniques and we had Beaver Tails!!!!!!!! Yummmmmmmmmmm.

Here are some photos from our Tall Ships Adventure.

There shirts were all in Cows, one of the best ice cream stores ever.











This was on one of the bikes we walked by. I couldn't help myself. lol

101 in 1001 | Update

I don't have a whole lot to update for my 101 in 1001 list that I previously posted about. But as promised I am posting my first update :)

1. Register my business
2. Launch my website
3. Photograph a bay that is less and 1 week old
4. Brand my business
5. Order my first sample albums
6. Attend WPPI
7. Meet someone inspiring
8. Intern w/ Jamie Delaine or Sarah Barlow
9. Create a canvas print from a vacation in Italy, Las Vegas, and the Caribbean
10. Upgrade to the Canon 5D MK II
11. Take a course/workshop in creative writing
12. Post in my blog 4 times a week (2/143)
13. Go for a shopping trip in Boston
14. Read a photography related book once a month for 6 months
15. Read a business related book once a month
16. Read a book related to a topic of personal interest once a month
17. Paint 3 canvas paintings for our living room
18. Frame 100 photos
19. Take a homeless person out for lunch and learn about their life and their dreams
20. Bottle my own wine
21. Have my photography published
22. Go sky diving
23. Photograph a musician
24. Photograph an artist
25. Photograph a writer
26. Make strawberry & blueberry jam (07/07/09 – strawberry jam)
27. Run a marathon
28. Meet Jasmine Star
29. Take a hot yoga class
30. Photograph at least 5 weddings each year
31. Become a member of Canon Professional Services
32. Learn how to make HDR Photographs
33. Join a craft class/club
34. Do 20 consecutive pushups
35. Do 20 consecutive pull ups
36. Plant a tree
37. Take a photo a day consecutively for 2 months
38. Knit an Afghan blanket
39. Learn how to clean my camera
40. Don't talk for 1 whole day
41. Spend 6 hours blind folded
42. Bake a cheesecake
43. Learn about another religion
44. Host a social networking event
45. Solve a rubik's cube in less than 1 minute
46. Hike for 1 hour naked
47. Make my own candles
48. Make my own jewelry
49. Photograph for a not for profit organization/charity
50. Start a food fight
51. Bike the Cabot Trail
52. Have my own garden
53. Take a ballroom dance class
54. Get a facial
55. Blow glass
56. Actually send out Christmas Cards
57. Have a romantic weekend at a bed & breakfast
58. Get a touch up tattoo
59. Make my own ballpoint pen
60. Keep a journal for 1 year
61. Get another kitten
62. Make a sculpture
63. Learn how to play 1 song on piano
64. Buy a house
65. Coach soccer for a summer
66. Donate blood
67. Donate plasma
68. Bake bread from scratch
69. Spend 1 whole day in bed with Matthew
70. Do some macro photography
71. Organize our storage room
72. Volunteer for charity/non-profit/hospital
73. Get a 6-pack
74. Photograph 1 wedding for free for a deserving couple
75. Write a poem
76. Have Matt teach me to snowboard
77. Complete a 50 photo self portrait project
78. Have professional photos taken of Matt and I
79. Read the Bible
80. Blog a wedding within 12 hours of photographing it
81. Make plans with dad once a month (1/36 – Harry Potter Movie)
82. Quit my job
83. Help a stranger with complete disregard for personal gain
84. Visit Ovens National Park
85. Go on a roller coaster
86. Photograph a hummingbird
87. Learn to french braid my own hair
88. Have a sexy girl party
89. Make corned beef and cabbage
90. Photograph a beach at sunrise
91. Photograph my grandparents
92. Photograph Matt's grandmothers
93. Organize my printed photos
94. Make an photo album of Matt and I
95. Take on a mentee (summer ’09 – Quentina Parsons)
96. Send a balloon with a message in it into the sky
97. Complete 5 cross stitch
98. Decorate my home
99. Have a girls night with all of my close girlfriends
100. Make an official business plan.
101. Tell the people that are important to me that I love them more often

Photos are always good in a photo blog so here is a sneak peak at a session I had last week. I can't actually post it for 2 weeks but I thought I would put out a little teaser :)

HDR Response

I originally posted a few HDR images in this post. I then received the following comment:

I prefer to see more what my eyes see in photos, to me these look almost fake , cool looking but still not capturing what the person would have seen at that particular moment of the picture being taken..

I just wanted to address this. When looking at a scenery with the human eye we can see any more ranges of light than a camera can. For example, at sunset our eyes can see both the details and colors in the sky and also the details in the landscape portion of the scene. Cameras on the other hand do not have this ability. If you were to expose properly for the sky then the landscape portion of the scene would be completely silhouetted, which is not what our eye would see.

To further demonstrate my point please view the following images.

HDR:


Original 3 photos it was formed from:




None of these photos are edited.

I use a program called Photomatix Pro to actually create the HDR image. It takes all of the best exposures for each part of the image and combines it into one. This "HDR" file is not readable by printers or computer screens so you need to then do what is tone mapping. I don't know a whole lot about tone mapping but it basically changes the HDR file into a JPEG/TIFF file that is viewable on computer screens and printers.

I hope this clarifies any confusion there may have been :) I totally recommend a book I am reading called Complete Guide To High Dynamic Range Digital Photography.

Have a good weekend!

Lindsay & Nathaniel | Portraits

Lindsay contacted me a few months ago stating that she wanted to get photos done as she was pregnant. She moved back to Halifax with her boyfriend Nathaniel and we setup a session. I haven't seen Lindsay since high school but she hasn't changed. She is still all smiles and the sweetest girl ever. It was my first time meeting Nathaniel. He laughed at my jokes so I definitely think he's a cool guy. Hahaha. I have such lame jokes btw.

We went to Conrads Beach in Dartmouth to take these photos. It was actually my first time going to the beach so far this year and I miss the sand. We had a lot of fun with the sun setting. At one point I asked Lindsay and Nathaniel if there were any particular photos they had a request for and they said that they love my work and that they trust me to take great photos. It definitely wasn't the response I was expecting but it did melt my heart a little bit. My clients are the most amazing clients ever. Even from the beginning they have always had faith in my abilities. I love you guys!!!

Ok, enough with the mushy stuff ;) Here are some photos from our session. I can't wait until Layla is born. She has such loving parents and I think it will be so much to photograph them again.