Hockey, Golf and Open for Business (soon)

Well, both Adam and I have joined the Nanaimo Casual Hockey League for our first time. I just learned to skate over the past two years as I wanted to go skating with my daughter. This year I decided to take hockey lessons took three sets of them over the spring and summer. My first game will be Sunday night and I'm pretty excited about it. What does this have to do with photography? Well nothing but it is a year of new things for me and inspired by playing we have started doing more sport photography including hockey. Adam shot his first Nanaimo Clippers game for the News Bulletin last night. I want to hold off until I get a camera that can handle higher ISO.

Just took a look at the MS Society's website and they give us a mention here and here. That is kind of nice. I remember enjoying that day a lot and it was for a good cause. They mixed up the galleries, Adams and my photos are under each others names, but it really doesn't matter. We can be pretty interchangeable sometimes.

Lastly, we just recieved notice that Vivid Photography can be our official business name so now we can go ahead and register the business with the friendly folks at Canada Customs and Revenue and open our doors. I have a shoot coming up for a pre-school owned by a friend, hoping to get our name out to families that might one day look for photographers. Also I finish off the month with another trip to Vancouver to take a studio lighting course. Busy busy.....oh yeah and did I mention my family adopted an 8 year old cat named Virgil?

Body Gras

Adam and I were able to photograph the Canadian Bodypainting Championship. It was a long day for me and I ended up leaving before it was over but I hung in there for 13 hours. In no way is that meant to be a complaint however as it was definitely a highlight for me in my brief photographic career.

We were able to set up our studio gear and have our own space to shoot in. The artists and models were incredible and made for really interesting subject matter. I've never photographed a stage or runway before and the end of the night had me crouched by the stage giving it a try. I ended up with several keepers during the course of the day and met some other photographers that I really liked and respected. Occasionally someone else would pop into our studio and chat which we liked. Sometimes they would shoot over our shoulder which was cool, but some of the photographers would fire off our strobes while we were setting up a shot without waiting and I found that annoying. Oh well!

Adam had a cold or something all day and was having a rough go of it so he didn't even last as long as I did. The next day I was out photographing the Crisis Society Suicide Vigil. It was a complete change of pace from the previous day, but really nice to do. The event was well put together and presented some pretty meaningful photo opportunities for me. I've already finished with those photos and submitted them which is good because I have several hours of editing ahead of me with the bodypainting photos.

Lastly I've been looking at Dave Hill and Marco Grob's websites lately. They are a couple of portriat photographers that Adam and I really like. Someday....

Also, have bought Lightroom 2. It saves me soooo much time in post processing!

Lastly, I'm off to Vancouver at the end of this month to take a studio lighting course. Looking forward to the instruction and working again with professional models. I have included one photo from the bodypainting festival. Great times!