I think I take photographs for the same reason I do graphic design – when I hit my mark, I mean, really hit that mark, manage to achieve something I’m just intrinsically happy with… there’s a certain endorphin rush that’s satisfying, exciting and particularly calming all at once. I can’t explain it better than that. It’s the achievement of that “j’ne sais quoi” that always seems to be just out of reach. But happening upon the design solution, evoking the atmosphere the shot was meant to have… even when you only get there a small percentage of the time and realise that everything else is somehow lacking… just hitting that perfect mark once in a while makes all the hard work, the constant unending hard work of everything else, seem perfectly worth it.

There are always a few shots from a wedding that I remember well, and am quite happy with. This is one of them from L&S’s. There are likely to be more, I still have 1375 images to go through and distill down to the good ones.

It’s only a title, but how many people get my reference to The New Newlywed Game (or got it last time)? Not that it matters, just curious.

Oh, and this is L&S just outside the tiny church the got married in.

Nah, I’m not dead and I’ve not forgotten about Detour. Just been a bit short on any free time recently. Anyway, them’s the breaks.

Weddings always tend to have a couple of interesting people at them, and when I briefly spotted this guy after L&S’s ceremony I quickly grabbed a shot from afar. And then it turned out he was not only the bride’s brother but also the MC for the day, so he ended up being in quite a few shots later on. Still, this one’s my favourite, looking right into the camera.

L&S’s wedding ceremony was in quite a small church, and when I say small I mean the seating area for the congregation was about the same size as (if not smaller than) the chancel/sanctuary area. But it worked out nicely because they pretty much packed the place out, while elsewhere would have been a half-full church.

I photographed another friends wedding the other weekend, my second as an ‘official photographer’. This time it was a more standard wedding format, including the bride wanting some photos of her and the bridesmaids getting ready in the morning, which is the setting for this shot. That’s L, the bride, with her dad shortly before she jumped into the car to the ceremony.

And yes, I know there’s a mop in the right of frame. I might retouch it out later, but for now I kind of like the edge of reality it brings to the scene.

Yeah, holiday snapshots of H & I maybe aren’t the most artistic shots of I’ve posted but hey, I’m bringing in the personal, realistic side of things here. It’s reality photography.

“Next week, on Detour; will A use his immunity idol to vote H off the island? Will H form an alliance and find an immunity idol of her own?” etc. Yes, I’m a big Survivor fan.

Here’s another from the opening night of this years Fringe. Taken in the park beside this shot only moments before, you start to see just how many people were out and about enjoying the vibe.

It’s a pretty noisy shot, but on ISO 6400 it’s to be expected.

My timing on this one is all wrong – if I’d thought about it I’d have found and posted this during the recent winter olympics because this is the inukshuk on the top of Whistler mountain. Like yesterday it’s an oldie, taken in 2006 when H & I did our north american trip.

This is the skinny Brahmin priest I mentioned in a previous post, but I’ll save you the click and repeat the relevant part of that post here for convenience:

“The first stop, Airateswara Temple (also /Airavatesvara/Airavateshwarar Temple), was also nicely un-busy. As we wandered within the temple a skinny little Brahmin priest gestured for us to follow him to the inner sanctum, where he said a long blessing, gave each of us a tilak and was quite happy to receive our donation. Then as we came across him a few minutes later in a different part of the temple he urged me to take a photo as he posed in a shrine to Shiva (I think it was Shiva), and once again was happy to receive a donation. He seemed like a nice guy so we were cool with handing over some cash.”

When I was a kid I had this cool aunt who would take the usual rigidly-posed family photographs, but instead of the typical “Everybody say cheese!” she’d say “Everybody say penis!” which worked really well to get a shot full of smiles (it’s also a pretty good indication of my family’s irreverant humour!)

So when I was playing photographer at J&J’s wedding I thought I’d see if I could get away with the line. Which I did. Again and again. And by the end of the day even the bride was using my line – J: “What is it you make everyone say?” Me: “What? You mean, ‘everyone say PENIS’?” and it still cracked everyone up! #

H & I recognise valentine’s day for what it is, a Hallmark holiday and a bit of a non-event. So this year we didn’t bother with anything fancy, and instead just headed into the hills to a nice pub we both like for a laid back dinner. Afterwards I though we’d mark the occasion with one of our self-portrait shots. That’s me sporting my freshly shaved head, and my 4 foot-long arms. Nice hey?! They come in handy for high shelves.

The arms are due to my new 180 degree field of view fisheye, the Peleng 8mm. It’s a hunk of the finest military-grade Belarusian optics that money can buy, and I friggin love it! My previous fisheye stuff was done with a cheapy ‘fisheye adapter’ – which means it wasn’t a lens you could use by itself, it had to be screwed onto the end of another lens (usually my 18-55mm EF-S kit lens). But after I upgraded to the 5D Mk II, the adapter either didn’t work with any of my EF lenses, or didn’t achieve the fisheye effect. Completely unable to live without my fisheye, a bit of research turned up this baby, which had the full-circle whacky distortion I was looking for, and more importantly was a lot cheaper than any of the brand-name lenses! Only downside, it’s not only full manual but it also has a weird lock/unlock aperture thing (believe me when I say it’s too hard to explain here) – but I’m slowly learning how to work it, so expect more fisheye fun in the future!

If you’re looking for a cool fisheye lens that’s got some reasonably good optics, I highly recommend the Peleng 8mm. A quick search on eBay and you’ll find it no problem.

This is the sister shot to Passing, the side portrait I spoke of. I like both shots, I think they’re great, but Passing still wins for me.

Before heading to India I knew I wanted to get some portraits of the local people, and even though I usually hated asking I just forced myself to. I’m glad I did, because this is one of the portraits I came away with, and I’m still blown away by it.

This is Nivas (that might be his last name, I’m not sure) and we met him and his family at the Thanjavur Royal Palace. We were wandering around, glancing into display cabinets full of old palace artefacts when Nivas here took a shine to H & I. He trailed us for a bit, and when the opportunity arose was quick to say a rather polite hello before asking the usual “Country?” We asked him a couple of questions and learned his family were originally from Northern India but now lived overseas. He seemed like a friendly little guy, so I asked him if I could take his photo. He smiled, nodded and then patiently struck this pose for me.

I’d like to say the colour tone was intentional, but it wasn’t. Only when I checked the shot did I realise his shirt and jacket blended perfectly with the wall. Not to mention his skin tone. My god I couldn’t have planned it better even if I’d tried!

We saw him a few more times through-out the day, both at the palace whilst wandering and then later on at the Brihadishwara Temple, where he cheerily called out my name and gave me a big wave.