Shannon & Fernando: Wedding

Last weekend I photographed my last wedding of the year! Shannon & Fernando were awesome to work with! Fernando and his family are from Ecuador, and I was quite impressed with how they braved our cold weather :-)

Shannon & Fernando.....Thanks so much for being so awesome to work with!!

Here's some images from the day:























If you're friends or family of Shannon & Fernando, CLICK HERE to be notified when ALL of their images are ready for viewing!!

To see more of Shannon & Fernando's pictures, check out the slideshow:

Reality TV For Photographers

Every year there is an international conference and trade show in Las Vegas for wedding photographers who belong to WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International). I love connecting with so many photographers from around the world when I attend the conference - the week is truly inspiring to me.

The WPPI conference is coming up in February, and 24 of the best known photographers in the USA recently hooked up to do an interesting "reality TV" type podcast. Many of these photographers will be conducting seminars, and the video is meant to generate some additional buzz about WPPI 2009

For all of my photographer friends that follow my blog, I encourage you to check it out!

Here's the first episode:



I also encourage you photographers to check out Ron Dawson's "F-Stop Beyond" series on a regular basis. Ron does regular interviews with some amazing photographers....his interviews are a great way to get to know a bit about their personal side, and find out what makes them tick.

Lastly - if you are a photographer and would like to get into WPPI 2010 for FREE, CLICK HERE to find out how!!


T

IL FOTO will give away a $20,000 wedding photography package!!

As mentioned yesterday, I was involved with a photo shoot last week to create promo images for something cool that's happening in Winnipeg in January. The thing is, I wasn't the one taking the pictures - I was one of the guys IN the picture :-)

Below is a copy of the official PRESS RELEASE that the Breast Cancer Foundation has issued to media contacts in Winnipeg. Read the press release to learn about what IL FOTO is all about and who we are.

Also read on to learn how you could potentially win a wedding photography package valued at over $20,000 this coming January at the Wonderful Wedding Show.

Keep up to date with IL FOTO using the following links:
- IL FOTO WEBSITE
- IL FOTO BLOG


IL FOTO TO CREATE A FUTURE WITHOUT BREAST CANCER
ONE PHOTO AT A TIME


IL FOTO & KISS FOR A CURE - In support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation


Manitoban couples can now help build a future without breast cancer by simply deciding to register their wedding for the “Kiss for a Cure” program at the Wonderful Wedding Show at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, January 16-18, 2009. Getting married is a special time for couples. It’s about sharing their hopes and dreams with one another and their guests. Instead of the traditional clink of glasses to get the couple to kiss, guests are invited to make a donation to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-Prairies/NWT Region to initiate these first kisses.

To reward these special couples, Joel Ross, Manuel F. Sousa and Trevor Brucki are three elite photographers who have combined forces to create “IL FOTO”. IL FOTO has donated the Ultimate Wedding Photography Package, a $20,000 value! All couples who register their wedding at the Wonderful Wedding Show will be entered in to this draw.

“The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-Prairies/NWT Region is excited to have IL FOTO join one of our longest standing partners, Showtime Productions Inc. in promoting our Kiss for the Cure™ program,” says Monique Levesque-Pharoah, urban partnership coordinator with CBCF.

Sherri Rheubottom, Show Manager from Showtime Productions Inc. adds “The Wonderful Wedding Show is thrilled to once again support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Having the IL FOTO package as a prize for potential brides at the Wonderful Wedding Show will encourage even more brides and grooms to Kiss for a Cure™”!


In 2008, approximately 22,400 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer; approximately 5,300 will die from the disease. Men can get breast cancer too, though they account for less than 1% of all cases.

About the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF)
CBCF works collaboratively to fund, support and advocate for: relevant and innovative research; meaningful education and awareness programs; early diagnosis and effective treatment; and a positive quality of life for those living with breast cancer. For more information, please visit www.cbcf.org.

For more information, please contact:
Monique Levesque-Pharoah
Urban Partnership Coordinator,
Prairies/NWT Region
(204)-231-4885 Cell (204) 612-9611
Email: mlpharoah@cbcf.org




The above photographs were taken by our good friend Patty at OFF THE PAGE PHOTOGRAPHY. Thanks Patty for doing such an awesome job :-)

Also, a big thanks goes out to the guys at BIG FOLIO for donating the IL FOTO website. You guys have been so helpful!!

Can you guess?

Last week I had a really exciting photo shoot where we had to create promo images for a group of guys who are doing something really exciting in Winnipeg this coming January. Here's one of the shots from the shoot - does anyone care to guess who these 3 dudes are?

The official press release will be coming down this week, but I thought it'd be cool to see if any of you could guess their identities first! It'd be even cooler if you could guess what they're doing in Winnipeg this January :-)

Please leave a comment below with your guess!!

Tara & Ryan: Wedding

On Saturday, we headed out to Pinewood Lodge (by Dorothy Lake) to photograph Tara & Ryan's wedding. I was amazed at how willing Tara and Ryan were to keep shooting outside stuff - it was a VERY cold day!

It's weather like this where I'm glad that I bring multiple cameras. I needed to leave one camera outside in the cold, because anytime you're dealing with such drastic temperature and humidity differences it's not a good thing for electronics. So, we had 2 "inside cameras" and 2 "outside cameras".

All in all, it was totally worth freezing because I really love the shots we have! Here's some pictures from the day:



















If you're friends or family of Tara and Ryan, CLICK HERE to be notified when ALL of their images are ready for viewing!!

To see more of Tara & Ryan's pictures, check out the slideshow:

Events by Emma

On Friday, I photographed a corporate event that was planned by Events by Emma. I was so amazed by the detail that went into this event, and how flawless the entire evening was. Emma is definitely amazing at her job!

The evening was planned around the theme of "Moulin Rouge". Check out the amazing decor! They even had an ice sculpture of the Eiffel Tower (it must have been at least 10 feet high).

These images were processed to give a vintage feel to keep consistent with the "Moulin Rouge" theme.








The entertainment was amazing too!!










Emma doesn't only do corporate events - she plans incredible weddings too! If you're looking for someone to plan an amazing wedding day, I highly recommend giving Emma a shout.

Thanks for having me out at this event Emma! You did an incredible job, and it was a pleasure working with you!

T

JAM is hot!!

Pam and Juan (their couple nickname is JAM) were married this past summer, and their wedding was definitely one of the main highlights to my wedding season! McNeill Media Creations did the wedding video - Don & Lori are so awesome to work with, and VERY good at what they do!!

After seeing the "photographs" reel produced by Don & Lori, I thought that their awesome work needed to be shared with all of you :-)

Here's JAM's "Photographs" reel (produced by McNeill Media Creations):


Pam Photos from McNeill Media Videography on Vimeo.

For those of you that have not seen their photographs, you can CLICK HERE to be directed to the blog post about them. You can also check out the remixed slideshow of their photographs below:


Pam & Juan from Trevor Brucki on Vimeo.


JAM is definitely one HOT couple!! The editors of Weddingbells magazine were checking out my blog and came across their wedding - they were impressed so much with JAM that they featured them in the upcoming publication. So, be sure to check out the feature in the next issue of Weddingbells that is due to be released very soon!!

Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!
T

Breakfast Television

I was asked to be on Chum TV's Breakfast Television this morning to give some quick tips on how to take your own photos at home. It's always kind of fun being in a TV studio, but to be honest I'm kinda camera shy and much prefer being BEHIND the camera :-)

If any of you were watching the show and saw a Starbucks cup floating around in the background (to the left of Jon), that was me seeing if the director would notice. No one noticed....so I guess Starbucks just received some bonus advertising ;-)

Here's some of the shots that I took of Jon & Terri goofing off during the segment:

Download your hi-res files!

I'm excited to announce that my online storefront now offers the option of letting you purchase PROFESSIONALLY ENHANCED HI-RES FILES!! These downloaded files will be fully color and density balance, and prepared so that you can make your own prints anywhere that you want.

A lot of people don't know the difference between what's commonly referred to as a "Digital Negative" and a Professionally Enhanced image. Here's the difference:

- A DIGITAL NEGATIVE is representation of how the camera saw the image when the photographer captured it. Most people think that an image looks good straight out of the camera, but this just isn't so. Usually, "real life" doesn't look nearly as cool as the image looks in a photographer's mind. Once captured, the digital negative needs to be adjusted in order to make the image look the way the photographer originally envisioned it.

- A PROFESSIONALLY ENHANCED FINISHED FILE is representative of how the photographer envisioned the image to look when he/she captured the scene. Making the necessary adjustments to the digital negative is a time consuming process, but the file has been professionally enhanced the difference can be mind blowing!!!

Here's some visual samples for you so you can see the difference:









To purchase your hi-res image, just log into your online gallery and select "Buy as Digital Image" from the options on the right hand side of your images.

Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!

T

Make your own custom cards

Most of you are making really good use of my online greeting card designer, and making some really awesome Thank You cards using images from your portrait shoot/wedding. I'm really happy to see so many people finding this online tool so useful!!

Here's something that you may not have thought of though - you can also make some really amazing "everyday" cards using images from my Fine Art Collection. All you need to do is log into my ONLINE ART SHOPPE, and select an image to use for your customized card!

For those of you who have not discovered how to make your own cards, here's a quick tutorial:

FIRST - scroll through the images to find the one you want to try out. On the right hand side, click on CREATE A CARD.



The online design tool will open, and you'll have a bunch of options you can select from. For size, I recommend the 4.25 x 5.5 - the reason is that they are much cheaper to purchase than the 5x7, and postage will also likely be less when you mail them.

The card designer defaults to 5x7, but it's easy to select a different size and see how it looks.

Play around with the different borders, styles and backgrounds.

When designing the cover, you'll have a wide variety of stock phrases you can choose from. But you can also make a custom phrase just by clicking on the default phrase and typing in your own!!




On the inside, you can either use one of the stock messages, or just type in your own custom message.




Once you're complete, you'll have a completely customized press printed folding card that looks every bit as good as one you'd buy at a card shop - except that these cards will portray YOUR personality because they've been created by YOU.

Plus, wouldn't it be nice to send out a Holiday Card featuring photography that no one will ever find at the Hallmark card shop?

To experiment with the online designer, CLICK HERE TO LOG INTO MY ART SHOPPE.

have a great day!
T