August Desktop Wallpaper / Indentity
Summer is here and most things are in full bloom. I captured this image while shooting for Astral Harvest Music & Arts Festival. Astral Harvest asked us to capture the spirit and essence of their festival and I happily accepted. My good friend Chris was there to help me with lighting. Thanks Chris! To see […]
Wax Poetry & Art Magazine / Photo Contest
Wax Poetry & Art Magazine is having their first photography contest. All Canadian photographers are invited to submit photographs for the first Photography Contest from Wax Poetry and Art Magazine. Photographers of every level of experience are invited to participate in this free contest. There will be a cash prize awarded! For full contest details […]
Movie Recommendation / Everybody Street
I love movies. In fact I get a lot of my inspiration from movies. When I saw the movie trailer for Everybody Street it got me excited to see it. I really admire street photographers. It takes a special kind of person to walk around cities snapping pictures of strangers (usually without permission). Here’s the […]
What Constitutes Original Art? / Artist Discrimination
The Vulgar Photographer Chase Jarvis wrote a very informative blog post in December of 2012 entitled “the Vulgar Photographer – Trespasser on the Sacred Ground of Fine Art”. Read the article and you’ll get my point when it comes to what people consider fine art. I consider my photographs from the JCFA collection fine art. […]
Vote and Help Donate to the Canadian Red Cross Alberta Floods
Flooding in Alberta Last month my home province was hit with the worst flooding in history. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes. Canadian Red Cross Alberta Floods I put a call out that I would donate 25% of all my print sales in July to the Canadian Red Cross Alberta Floods […]
What Inspires You? Pt. 5 / The Dream of Life
A few months ago I posted What Inspires You Pt. 4 which was a speech by Dave Grohl. For the next installment of What Insprires You I’d like to share a video made with the teachings of the late Alan Watts. Watts was a British-born philosopher, writer and speaker. He is known for popularizing Eastern […]
Adobe Creative Cloud: Hook, Line, and Sinker
The start of Adobe’s demise Last year Adobe Systems Incorporated announced something big. Adobe products are the industry standard when it comes to digital image editing. Photoshop CS is a flagship product that leads the market in image editing software. Photoshop and/or Lightroom is used by almost all serious photographers and image creators. Myself, I’ve […]
July Desktop Wallpaper / Island Life – Happy Canada Day
Happy Canada Day everyone! To celebrate Canada’s beauty in the Rocky Mountains, this month’s free desktop wallpaper is an image I created out in Yoho National Park. I arrived at the location I scouted days before wanting to capture the iconic first bit of golden light on the mountain tops. I waited and waited finally […]
Live Instagram Photos of Calgary & Alberta Flood
One of the great things about blending social media into photography is how we can share our images instantly. Here is a real time feed of Instagram photos of the flooding in Calgary and Alberta. The feed is pulling the following tags: #flood, #flooded, #flooding, #yyc, #calgary, #yycflood, #abflood, #yychelps Hit REFRESH on your browser if […]
How To Get A Photo Pass for Concerts
Brad Moore is a concert and entertainment photographer from Tampa. In this 500px blog post he talks about how you would go about getting a press/photo pass for concerts. This 500px article talks about how you go about shooting concert photos, finding alternative venues, contacting media, getting the pass, big shows vs. small shows. Click here for […]
Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner
Photojojo is selling a new Lomography smartphone film scanner. It’s a fun new way to get your 35mm negatives (or positives) scanned. The resolution won’t be as great as a flatbed scanner but for most uses it’s enough. It turns your negative into a positive before you snap a pic of your image. It also […]
Craft & Vision eBook | Lightroom 5 Up to Speed
Everything You Need to Know About the Adobe Lightroom 5 Upgrade Lightroom 5 Up to Speed is written by an Adobe Certified Expert who shows you all the new features and how to get started using the new tools. This 77-page eBook, and the companion videos (50+ minutes), will help you get up to speed with […]
Tips for New Photographers
Quite often I get emails asking how to break into the photography business. Photography is regarded as a cool profession. That being said, most people don’t realize the tremendous work involved in being a professional freelance photographer. There’s so much to being a photographer than just creating images. Marketing, accounting, bookkeeping, sales are all part […]
May Desktop Wallpaper / Dance to the Morning Light
Before a photo shoot I like to scope out my location. This particular shoot I was scouting for was to have a mountainous background for a car in the foreground. This particular day quite cloudy. It was so cloudy in fact that I couldn’t even see any of the mountains. What do you do when […]
Gilmore Junio / Editorial Shoot at Olympic Oval
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted work up on the blog. I’ve decided to dig back into some of my older shoots and show you some of them. Will Tigley, a senior editor for Mabuhay Calgary asked me to photograph Gilmore Junio for an article he was writing. I gladly accepted as I love working […]
What Inspires You? Pt. 4 / Dave Grohl’s Keynote Speech
Dave Grohl’s keynote speech at SXSW (South by Southwest) is an amazing 50 minute inspirational speech about how he started in the music industry. More importantly he talks about how “the Musician” comes first. This applies to all artists and the art they create. Clear an hour off your calendar, get a beverage and prepare […]
March Desktop Wallpaper / Moonlight Over Minnewanka
Back in December last year (2012) I went on a road trip to Banff National Park with Aiofe and her family. We spent the day hiking out in Johnston Canyon and window shopping at the Banff town site. Aiofe, her mom and sister went to the Banff Hot Springs while I took the opportunity to do […]
Exhibiting My Work in the 2013 Exposure Photography Festival
Every year in February, the Banff / Canmore / Calgary region is host to the Exposure Photography Festival. Last year I showed an exhibit of my Instant Art project at the Resolution Art Gallery. This year I’m having two exciting new exhibits. The first show is called “100 Years 100 Faces of the Stampede”. The […]
January Desktop Wallpaper / New Dawn
Happy New Year! To set the year of right I decided to wake up early on New Year’s day. Originally I was going to play some hockey with friends but that didn’t work out so I was up before dawn with nothing to do except catch the sunrise. With no destination in mind I just […]
December Desktop Wallpaper / Canyon Mist
Again, another late wallpaper offering for the month of December. On the bright side you can enjoy it throughout the holidays. This image was taken in Kananaskis Country. It’s an intimate capture of Blue Rock Canyon in the Sheep River Provincial Park. Field Notes: Nikon D800 / Nikon 16-35mm f4.0 @ 27mm f16 / 2 […]
Help-Portrait 2012 | Thanks Vistek
Saturday, December 8th, 2012 marked another successful Help-Portrait campaign in Calgary. Help-Portrait is a worldwide initiative to provide portraits to those who otherwise could not get one. The Calgary volunteers were able to provide over 450 prints during the one day event at the Calgary Drop-In Centre. A big thanks goes out to Vistek for […]
November Desktop Wallpaper / McDougall Memorial United Church
I’ve been swamped the past few weeks and so I’ve been delinquent in delivering this month’s free desktop wallpaper. I hope you can all forgive me. The November 2012 free desktop wallpaper is a long exposure of the McDougall Memorial United Church. I’ve been here a few times before but I’ve never had any luck until now. […]
100 Years 100 Faces of the Stampede | Day 1
When I first thought up this crazy project it took me a few days to decide if I really wanted to do it. It would involve me going to the Stampede almost every day for ten days. Each of those days, instead of trying to win prizes on the midway, instead of going on thrilling […]
Hurricane Sandy Pictures | Landfall Photos by the Atlantic
One of the best places for photojournalism online is the Atlantic’s In Focus column with Alan Taylor. I knew they would have lots of pictures of Hurricane Sandy devastation. When Sandy hit New York last night I wanted to see the waves, flooding and devastation from the eyes of some great photojournalists. My hearts, thoughts […]
