Here’s a quick update on baby #2:

Darcie is at 18 and a half weeks and feelin’ some kickin’. I can’t believe how little is showing compared to #1 at this time. Here are some quick tummy shots:

Some more of our favorite images of past brides + grooms…

Well, I have one, anyways.

You have some crummy shots on slide that you wanted to keep for some reason. Here’s a fun way to deal with them and create some art while you’re at it.

Sample manipulated slide entitled ‘Dragonica’. My parents have a 20×30 canvas print on their living room wall.

What you’ll need:

• 1 can oven cleaner
• cheap loupe (magnifier)
• pair of rubber gloves
• box q-tips
• glass jar
• tweezers
• a bunch of slides
• ‘Gepe’ or equivalent slide mounts, preferably glass.
• microwave
• table top with good lighting
• some good tunes

1. First, put on the rubber gloves. Spray some oven cleaner in the glass jar and dilute it with about the same amount of water.
2. Now find the first slide you want to torture and drop it in the glass jar. Carefully move it around for about 15 seconds in the mixture and then pull it out with the tweezers. Be extra careful when doing this as the emulsion can easily slide off the film.
3. Lay the slide on your work surface and with a Q-tip press and move the emulsion in different directions (to taste). You may need to look through a loupe to do this.
4. Here’s the cool part: use the tweezers to bring the slide into the micowave and nuke it for 10 second intervals until it starts to bubble.
5. Bring the mangled slide back to your work surface and check it out with the loupe. If you like what you see, grab a slide mount and insert the slide into the mount. Since it may be a bit tricky with non-flat slides, you may need to use a glass mount.

Voila, it is complete! Host a slide show party for your friends and project your masterpiece onto the big screen!

We have an advertisement in The Complete Wedding Directory Magazine that features Jamie and Karen Schuh, from Spokane, Wa. We photographed their wedding in Tofino, on Vancouver Island. The wedding day was overcast and drizzly, typical for the West Coast . . . but it was gorgeous nonetheless.

Here’s the image we used for our ad:

Download a complete presentation of their wedding here [ warning: filesize = 11.5 Megabytes ]

Some of our favorite images of past brides + grooms…

Some fun with Xander and a 70’s Polaroid OneStep,

The tool (why don’t cameras come with the cool rainbow stripe anymore?):

The results (unretouched):

Yay, Darcie has new Kindermusik classes starting on Monday!

For those of you who don’t know about Kindermusik, here is Darcie’s website. She runs the Little Brown Music Studio: music, movement and sign language classes for kids 0 to 5. Here’s some of my favorite images from the last group of classes . . .

Darcie + Xander

We just had one of our weekly practices last night with the local jazz group I am with, called ‘Bassic Sax Jazz Ensemble’. Helen, the lead player (saxophone, all types), brought us together: Steve on electric guitar and bass; Steve’s wife Karen, vocals; me on keyboard; and Gary on drums. It’s going really well – and it helps that Helen, Steve and Gary already play together in another group.

We are going to be performing at Durant Illusions, in downtown Abbotsford on Friday, February 3, at their monthly art show reception. It will be our first ‘real’ gig, and I am looking forward to it. If you are in the area, I would check it out!

Here’s some images from last night…

keys

Helen

Steve

Karen

Me (courtesy of Karen)

Gary

The other day I had the opportunity to photograph some cabinetry for a local finishing company, Art’s Custom Woodcrafting. The homes that I photographed the cabinets in were simply amazing.

Here are some details from the shoot:

Art’s Custom Woodcrafting specializes in high quality, custom wood finishing. They are located in Abbotsford and can be reached at 604-504-3400.

My brother-in-law Dan and his fiance Nikki are going to be wed May 20 this year – and guess who’s doing the photography?

We had a fun engagement session later last year – they were on roller blades and I was running after them with cameras around my neck. We got some great images and used a couple of the favorites for the design of the wedding invitation: