It’s almost impossible not to turn your head when someone with a presence like Faye walks past you. I felt all of New York staring at us while walking through the streets of Manhattan. After the first amazing shoot in a tiny hotel room in Toronto with Ms. Faye, I had to fly her down to New York to shoot in three hotels and a studio. It was an incredible pleasure for me to have her spend the weekend working with me, shooting some high end work, and lots of intime work. The fabulous high end makeup was done by the super talented Nancy Lan.

As a photographer who shoots the “same” cookie cutter weddings every weekend, it is always a nice treat to see something new. The Eglinton Grand reception hall in Toronto was exactly that surprise. What used to be a movie theater is now a banquet hall while keeping the character of theater. The warehouse session was completely unplanned and some trespassing was required. The unexpected is always welcomed in photography.

One of my major goals in shooting weddings is to convey a cinematic mood to the audience. The main method is to shoot in landscape format since that is how video is shot. Landscape is also more calm to the eye than portrait, which is tall, grand, and energetic. Portraits usually limit photographers into thinking it has to fill the frame with the subject, but if you’re willing to color outside the lines, you will discover a lot more interesting composition throwing the subject off center and to the side.

Had I known there was such a gorgeous actress in the Toronto area, I would’ve gotten a nicer hotel.  My favorite style is backlit windows, though this is also the hardest to shoot. Nearly half of my shots are mis focused because while you look towards the model, she is basically a sillouhette and it is very difficult to focus. The only way to get enough light is to use a prime at f/1.8 which furthur increases the difficulty of getting a correct focus. After you’ve tackled the lighting issues, now you just have to get the model to flirt with the camera. =) The few shots that do come out makes it totally worth the trouble.  I feel quite privileged someone of her looks, talent, and maturity offered her time to model for my intime work.

I flew to Toronto this weekend for a wedding, and noticed a guest had a new DSLR with “Live View.” I believe it could be a useful feature for those hard to reach places, but it’s a feature that I personally would never care about as a selling point, but that’s just me. This guest, however, was using Live View holding the camera far away from her body thus making it unstable, and shooting a straight forward portrait of the wedding couple only 5 feet away. Is this necessary or just plain neglect of a SLR’s capabilities? What’s the point of using a SLR body to take snapshots when it’s much easier and effective with a prosumer point-and-shoot? Relying on Live View just because it’s available will most definitely detract from your patience in framing correctly, noticing the slightest details due to the limits of LCD resolution, and of course prevent you from shooting in direct sunlight. Sooner or later, these photo kiddies will never have any experience of film or know what a view finder is.

Can you guess what aircraft this is?

Not too long after I checked into my hotel, the fire alarm goes off and I stroll out the rear exit and look up and noticed my hotel is on fire…

I rented a Ford Mustang GT for the weekend since I’ve always wanted to test drive a Mustang. It’s one of those American muscle cars I wish to own someday, preferably a Shelby. Even though this GT was only a 300hp V8 with AT, it was still fun and made me smile. The interior was garbage, but that’s not the point of getting a  Mustang. I’m glad that didn’t catch on fire either. These photos were taken with my Sony W170. The last shot of this series is definitely my favorite because of the perfect lighting condition with the sunset. The shot wouldn’t have worked any better without the warm brick walls against the fiery red Mustang – and of course, a little tilt adds some dynamics to a still shot.

The following day I invited a gorgeous actress from Toronto to model for me. Of course I had to use my sweet ride as the prop, all the while trying to not make this look like an import model shoot. Obviously, I switched back to my Canon 1D with 24-70mm. The trick here is to drive the car in circles until you get the proper sunlight location. I love it when girls play in the back seat with no pants.