JVL's specs

Hino

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:31 -0500

When Mel and I first moved into the Hintonburg area in Ottawa, we only had a few restaurants that we knew about beforehand. With a preemie in the hospital, we were really always looking for comfort food - the familiar. That said, there wasn't much variance in what we ate, and one of the places was getting kind of expensive.After bringing Quinn home we went for a stroll with the intent of travelling a bit further from our immediate neighbourhood in search of eats. Hino is literally a few blocks from our house, but the fascade is dark enough that I wasn't even sure it was a reastaurant (despite the sign... don't tease me). As we walked by the waiter saw us peeking and insisted we come in. He was friendly enough that we obliged and, after a great meal, we were thoroughly impressed with the quality of the food and the unassuming nature of the place. Was it "pretty?" No - but it was close, good, and not very busy...A few years later and we end up eating there once a week. Terry (Hino San), the sole owner for 25 years is not only a gracious host, but a friend. He makes our meal and comes to hold one of our kids so that we can actually enjoy our meal. I don't get this kind of service at Casey's.I think the place get's a bad rep because some people come with expectations; it's Japanese so it has to be Sushi right? No - it's a grill, or the Japanese equivalent of a diner. Can Terry make Sushi? Yup - and he does on occasion, if he has the cut.All said I really like the place, I recommend it to friends, but not too many, while I want Hino's to do well, and stick around, I also enjoy the fact that it, and he, are never too busy for our family to come as we are.

Give Where We Live

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:34 -0500

I was fortunate to return this year as Telus' photographer for their "Give Where We Live" charity event. This is where the Telus community board (located in Ottawa) sit down and hand out all the money the employess gave, and then Telus matches. All told, Telus and it's employees gave back about $1.3 Million into Ottawa this year.While this is a cheque presentation "event" I'd say it's pretty well paced and not boring like so many others are. Maybe it's because everyone there is genuinely interested in helping others out, or because they gave everyone yummy cookies beforehand. Either way, it was a lot of fun to shoot again.

Back and forth

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:36 -0500

Just playing around with some of the "quicker" shots we took last Sunday. I'm shooting a corporate event today - maybe I'll have something to share, maybe I won't ;)

Stardom

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:01 -0500

Stardom! What a fan-freakin-tastic last name. These guys were awesomesauce times a million.I showed up on time but Leo (the little guy) didn't feel like wakin' up - probably because he had a rough go of the party the night before - so that dude slept for, like, AN HOUR!No problem though, because I give family shoots a good 3 hours to get done (and nothing's stopping me from staying later), so I was able to chill and get to know Max (the slightly bigger dude). It's really important for me to have my clients comfortable with me. No matter if they're a bride, businessman, party-goer, or toddler - if someone doesn't want you taking their photo it shows.Once Leo woke up (we totally hit it off BTW; this kid wanted to eat my camera), we hit the park for some family photos.It goes like this, shoot shoot break (kids get impatient standing, posed, or even in place), shoot shoot break, shoot shoot snack break crash - bed time comes early for everyone after a family photo session!

At Anytime

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:47 -0500

Parking... stalled, not moving. I think it happens to everyone once in a while, maybe the body and mind need it? Maybe there's a reason we're not out there shooting, drawing, creating. We sit at the desk, digging through our archives - "crap, crap, crap" - uninterested, uninspired...I think it's part of the process... the sit, because it's forcing creativity to build up inside of me. It does create some tension and angst when I can't explore it - but that makes me THAT MUCH MORE motivated to freakin' ace the next shoot, the next shot, the next execution of a plan.I have a couple ideas now - having been parked for a few weeks - now I just need the time to execute them. Kids, work, eat, sleep, plan... then shoot. Next week I'm going to create some photographs - I can't wait to show them to you.

Basil

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:05 -0500

If the mantra of "show what you want to shoot" applied to me I'd be doing macro's of plants and architectural photos from alleys.Thankfully that's not the case and I should have some cool family portraits (not my family - whee!) coming up next week after what's sure to be an awesome Sunday family portrait session!

World of Maps

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:43 -0500

Lots of cross-posting repetition going on in my media streams this weekend. If you haven't seen it already, please head over to Tiffinbox.org and read my post on the Ranger Quadra's and recent wedding I shot. Leave a comment to - it makes me feel good.For those who follow my flickr stream, you've already seen this image, though it is available large on black.Finally, I've updated my about page, especially the gear section - linking all that stuff is hard work!If you're new to my blog welcome, I've been running it since I first got a digital camera, over 800 posts - peep the archives - but be kind, I was a total NOOB.Thanks.

All Out

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:19 -0500

I used to be able to go back into photo's I took months ago as an "archive dive" for posts on this blog. Now they just don't cut it.It's actually kind of depressing - a lot of the images I shoot are personal, either for me or my clients, so I can't very well share every single one here (you've seen enough of my kids right?)I'm also steering away from shooting everything I see... I don't quite have the eyes for it right now. They're blurred with the pick-kid-up-get-kid-home-have-dinner-have-bath-go-to-bed routine that is our life with 2 children under 3. I know some people accomplish much more than that, but this is what I can get done at my speed.Another factor at play is quality. I'm just more strict on what I display publically nowadays. Heck, I look back to the first - oh - 100-something posts and I'm like "those sucked" but I leave them because I think it's a good indicator of where I've been and it can show anyone on what you can (or can't) achieve in a few years of effort."Show what you want to shoot" is the saying, so I'm mostly going to stick with that for the most part. Of course I'll still share the shitty photos I can't help but post now and again too.Thanks for hanging in here with me!

A4Alex

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:02 -0500

I've been ripping off inspired by a friends photos this week - or at least the few I took over the weekend of my kids - it was one of the few we didn't have plans and one I wasn't shooting/processing a wedding.Check out Angela's Flickr stream when you get a chance for some inspiration of your own.

TnT First Dance

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:05 -0500

Sorry I've been quiet on this blog lately, but as you can see from the photo, I've been working feverishly on editing images from Tara & Tony's wedding.We're putting together a really great wedding album for them, though I've often used some standard book providers in the past, I wanted to up the scale of quality and presentation for this couple. So I did some research and landed on a Canadian Company called Irisbook. The catch is I haven't tried them before, but Tara & Tony are taking a chance right now and I really respect that - hopefully I'll be able to offer more comments on it as soon as we finish design and send it off to print. Wish us luck!