Charlie is December 24th!

Okay, I do that most years but this time was a little different.  The kids and I sneaked into Toronto to visit my friend Jessica of JB Smith Photography at her studio for some portraits.

Emma loved having her picture taken as usual and Jack only wanted to be on the other side of the camera.. as usual.

Jessica managed to get a ton of great pics but here are the three I chose for 16×24 standouts that I had printed from ProDPI

A big thanks to Jessica for helping me to pull of the surprise!

It was a great two days with some of Toronto’s best wedding photographers sharing their knowledge and passion.

A big thanks to Dave & Charlotte for putting this all together, can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year.

Here’s some of my favourite pics.

Dave Biesse started the show off with a bang!

Robert Nowell telling us all about having balance in our lives.

Robert was giving his talk with his good friend Bryan Caporicci.

My good friend Taylor Jackson talking about finding your target market.

Day 2 started off with a hypnotist giving a great talk about how to use your subconscious mind to be more creative.

Charlotte talking babies, babies and more babies.

Rebecca Wood talking about keeping things simple.

The workshop ended with the StillMotion crew talking cinema.  Here’s Justin…

And Amina…

Here’s all the presenters for a quick group shot.

Instead of another bar or restaurant, Jasmyn from Olympic Sound graciously offered her house which allowed everyone to mingle and avoid a sore butt.

I thought I’d be ‘that guy’ and bring my camera and grab some pics.

Our host Jasmyn.

Naghmeh from D&G Photography

Ida from Sweet Sweets.

Christine from Pure Potential Weddings.

Tracey from Little Details.

Melanie from Melanie Driedger Photography.

And her other half Justin.

Scott from Re:Action Photography.

Erin from Erin Carpenter Make-Up.

Shelly from Shell Designs.

Tanja from Courtship Weddings… Okay, it’s actually Tanja’s little girl.

Afzia from Style and Elegance.

Karolina from Karolina Kuras Photography.

Carrie from Carrie Lynn Weber Floral Design.

Christine from Click Photography and Teresa from Ultimate Affairs.

And of course Emma, from Barebone Photo.

For the record, we are DONE with the Christmas shopping!

We all went out to Will’s Christmas Store & Tree Farm again.  We liked it last year so we went back again, might become a tradition.

What a difference a year makes!  Last year there was a couple feet  of snow, this year grass &  mud (although there’s a blizzard raging outside as I type this).

Emma loves these things.

Why does he always look like he’s getting into trouble?

Gotta get really close to inspect the tree.

Cutting the tree down… Nice to have help.

The long walk back….

My brother in law having some really, really, really unfortunate touque hair.

the family.

Joe Milton over at ISPWP did an interesting survey that shows how the average wedding photographer spends their time.

Take a look over here.

1.  I love my kids.  Hands down, had to be #1.

2. I don’t say it enough, but I really love my wife.

3.  I’m really proud of the job my wife does (she’s a nurse at Sick Kids), I should tell her that more.

4.  I never went to school for photography, everything you see is all self taught.  I know, I know… pretty amazing isn’t it!

5.  I wasted a lot of time & money going to school to be a commercial pilot.  I finished and had all my licences, but by that point 9/11 had happened and the whole industry was going downhill.  Plus, TBH, being a commercial pilot is pretty boring… hours of staring at a dial.   Originally, I wanted to fly for the airforce but getting glasses at 12 killed that idea.  Then I just wanted to be like the guys in Air America.

6. I joined the army reserves when I was 17 and was in for 8 years in the infantry.  Made some good friends and learned how to shoot and blow things up.  Very handy skills to have in the wedding industry.  My entire family going back many generations served served in uniform, including my parents and even my nana!

7.  I am scared to death of heights.

8.  Even with #7, when I was 18 I spent the summer jumping out of airplanes for fun!  I did 14 jumps, including some freefalls.  Being up in a plane (or jumping out of it) never scared me…. but ask me to get up on a step ladder and I break out in a cold sweat.

9.  My favorite food is sandwiches… hands down.   Give me some cold cuts, veggies and some fresh bread and I’m a happy camper.   Sometimes I wish couples would just serve some good sandwiches at their wedding instead of some of the fancier fine cooking I get sometimes.

10.  I like running my own business, I just wish it wasn’t so hard sometimes.

11.  I’ve turned into a complete softy since the kids were born.

12.  I like a good argument.  My grandfather was the ultimate devils advocate, he could argue both sides of a position in the same conversation just for fun… I guess I get it from him.

13.  I’m a big time history buff.  I read a lot and my collection of books is starting to look like a Chapters.

14.  I hate cleaning the house… and it shows sometimes.  Okay, most of the time.

15.  I love to travel, but we don’t get to do it enough.  We haven’t gone anywhere in years.

16.  Being a dad was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.  We’d love to have more kids.

17.  Writing 25 things about yourself is harder than it sounds….

18.  I don’t consider myself an artist, though most photographers do.  To me, an artist are those guys that stick a dead cow in formaldehyde.

19.  I wish I was a better photographer…. lots of time left to get better.

20.  Most people think I’m pretty funny in person, not sure if it shows on the internet?

21.  I like to cook.

22.  I could live either in the big city or out in the country, either way would be good with me.  But we probably won’t ever leave Kitchener-Waterloo since all our family is here.

23.  I hate clutter… My wife’s a packrat.

24.  After the Foundation Workshop last year, I had big plans to go out and document stories that aren’t weddings…. I got busy.  No excuse, it’s one of my resolutions for next year.

25.  I hate having my picture taken.