We will be offering our popular SLR Overview class at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford on Thursday, January 28th at 6:30 - 9:00. This class is for people who own an SLR camera or other kind of camera that can do manual settings. We will cover basics such as modes your camera has and topics such as focus, aperture, shutter speed, iso, shooting modes and metering.

In the class after talking about each topic, we go around and help each person find the setting on their own camera. It’s a lot more engaging and less confusing than reading a manual.

This is the only class we have scheduled so far in 2010 and our winter/spring shooting schedule is booking quickly so we may not have time to add more. If you’re someone who wants to take a class with us this year, now is the time to sign up! You can register by calling The Reach 604-864-8087. Please bring your camera and manual to class.

The pics on this blog post were taken by Jason two days ago with our old (in digital years) point and shoot camera when he was out and about. You can see more of his “December Wanderlust” pics and other random things that he photographs when no one’s watching on Flickr.

Robert Lee YMCA on Burrard in Vancouver is being built and will be open May 2010. Their website designed and implemented by the talented team at Domain7 went live last week and we were pleased to do some of the photography for it.

I think custom photography is a relatively inexpensive way for businesses to make their websites stand out from competition using stock photography. We are always pleased to work with designers to create photography specific for websites. Here are some of the photos that Jason did for this project. You can click the screen shot above to visit the complete website.

We had to keep these pictures top secret so Donna could surprise our parents. The Thomas family are pros are posing for Jason as they’re used to him following them around at our family gatherings and vacations at the cabin. Donna’s my little sister. Isn’t Melissa cute? Here are a few favorites ….

Just to brag: Donna’s an awesome graphic designer.

Every year I comb through thousands of our personal pictures and choose about 20 to make into brag books for our parents. This year it took three evenings to make it through all of the somewhat disorganized personal folders to choose the best pictures. And I’m fast!

It’s a happy / sad thing to see how much the kids have grown up over the last 12 months. This year I was amazed to see how much happier Lexi got as the year went on. I think it has to do with how much more she can communicate now. Xander looks so much more grown up with his longer curls.

Click the picture below to see a slideshow of the album …

If you’re in Facebook, you’ll have to view the presentation here.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Yes. It’s photoshopped. We’re more talented with trick photography than we are with cirque arts.

The short version of how we did it is the card is four pictures combined. We photographed each person in our studio on a white background. We knew what we wanted the final card to look like so we did a couple poses for each person to give us some flexibility in case it didn’t work. Jason did the rest, including the beautiful sketch of the tree in photoshop. Fun times!!!

We don’t send out cards every year but here are a few of our past cards:
2007
2006

Audrey is a real estate agent and needed some new headshots. Here is one from her recent session …

Judy Dueck of Effix Systems needed some headshots for her personal training business. Here is one of the headshots Jason did for her …

It’s always nice to see couples that we photographed having growing families. Jeff + Chantelle now have two beautiful children and we photographed them on a cool, clear day up at the monastery in Mission. Ben is playful and on the go. Alice takes everything in and is adorable. Here are a few of our favorites ….

Here’s a card Jason designed for his family to send back to the Olde Country (England). It was his Mom’s great idea to colour coordinate with the red scarves. Keep it in mind if you’re wanting colourful cards for next year.

Dexter came by our studio for his one year old portrait session that will be included in our Imagine book of kids photography. He is on the go and his mommy came to the studio prepared with some of his favorite toys. I think he’s got the little gangsta look down in a few of them. Here are our favorites …