Quick photos: This is Evelyn and her horse Pete (she calls him “Petie”). Evelyn has been training and riding horses for a very long time and she is incredibly good at it. A long time ago, she taught me how to ride. How do I know Evelyn? Simple… she’s my mother.

These are a series of Victoria’s Secret lingerie beauty shots created for my friend E. I love the movement and colour in these photos and always enjoy photographing people close up. To be honest, there are some things I would do differently concerning the model’s hair, but aside from that, I think these images turned out quite well. Lessons learned for next time, right?!

Helping others is something I am almost always willing to do, especially over the holiday season. So when the girls over at Chop Steakhouse were in need of a photographer to help them create a group photo for them to share, I came to the rescue. They were great to work with and I really enjoyed shooting at the restaurant. I love the challenge of shooting on location as opposed to in a studio. It keeps me on my feet and keeps my subjects comfortable.

After we finished the group shot, the girls let me create some individual portraits. If you haven’t been to Chop yet, go check it out and say hello. Also check them out on Twitter and Facebook.

Say hello to Grace, a beautiful Husky/Shepherd cross. She’s four years old and has more energy than a four year old human, barely sitting still for more than half a second at a time. My photograph of Maggie was a lot of fun to create, so I was eager to photograph more pets. They’re so fun, exciting, and completely adorable. I love the challenge of photographing an animal because they’re so unpredictable and energetic, and I also love how the light falls on their coats, resulting in some really dynamic and aesthetic photographs.

My girlfriend Kim had been wanting to do a Michael Jackson creative for a while now. We both grew up listening to his music and love the styles of his performances. It was no wonder the guy was the top entertainer in the world. I mean, who else creates dance moves like the moonwalk and the robot, that people will forever emulate? Not Brittany Spears, that’s for sure.

We figured what better time to do our MJ shoot than during Halloween. With our good friend and MUA, Darlene Brink, we decided that we wanted to go with a Billie Jean theme. The black sequin jacket and the striped pants are easily our favourite MJ style. In our research, we found some other creatives that other photographers had done, but none were very authentic looking. We wanted our shoot to be as authentic looking as possible, so we spent a lot of time watching music videos and researching wardrobe, styles, lighting, and poses.

Our goal with this shoot was to produce imagery that people would look at and say, “Wow, that really looks like MJ!”, and I think we accomplished that. The first image, in black and white, is one of my favourites from the shoot. At first glance, it really does look like MJ. Kim rocked the shoot and did her best to nail every pose, which was quite difficult, considering how unique Michael’s moves are (and how flexible he must’ve been).

The close-ups on the left side of each pair below are bit more fashion oriented, with Kim being much more recognizable in each photo, but the dance move shots on the right sides are what we blew ourselves away with. We really love them, and we hope you do as well.

Quick Photo: A panoramic shot of downtown Calgary. I created this image so that I could see how much has changed in the skyline from a similar shot I took three years ago. Both photos were taken right when the colours of Autumn were just reaching their peak and the poor crop of the old photo displays how much my skills as a photographer have evolved.

Every year, thousands of men across Canada and around the world partake in Movember to raise money for the number one male cancer, Prostate Cancer. It has gained a lot of popularity over the past couple of years and has become extremely popular.

My friends over at iStockphoto consider Movember a big deal, with many staff partaking and growing their very own cookie duster for the cause. The bonus is that at the end of the month, iStock will match every dollar their team raises through donations (up to $10,000). Their team is open for anyone to join and they’ll be giving away cash prizes and donations to team members throughout the month.

Well, this year, in the spirit of change, charity, protecting my prostate, and simply breaking barriers to do something different… I have decided to partake in Movember. I have joined the iStock Movember Team Page over at Movember.com and plan to document the formation of my lady tickler, via self-portraits, along with my discomfort, continuous complaints and random announcements of giving up, every single day for one month.

Will I opt for the Yosemite Sam, or maybe the Tom Selleck? How about the Charlie Chaplin, or a Dali style? The Lanny McDonald Walrus is a popular stache, but I doubt one month would be enough time for that one. What about the handlebar, the horseshoe, or the Mike Ditka Chevron? Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to pull off a Fu Manchu like Al Hrabosky and Hulk Hogan (doubtful). Whatever the outcome, it’s going to be an adventure. Be sure to come back every day to see my soup strainer evolve, as I’ll be posting daily portrait updates. I have absolutely no idea what shape of a caterpillar will form on my face, so be sure to follow along with me as I embark on this quest.

Please go to the Mo Space page and help my prostate by donating.

Movember Progress

• The first few days are going to be tough. Being clean shaven just feels WEIRD!

• Day two and my baby face looks are easily noticed by everyone.

• Day eight and I’m well into the gross stage. Not quite a stache, not quite not a stache. *shudder*

• Almost half way there. Fourteen days in and my soup strainer is starting to fill in nicely.

• Day sixteen and I’ve hit the itchy length. Should I keep it going long, or start to trim daily? Hrm…

• My mo is officially into the scraggly phase on day twenty. I’m not going to trim or maintain it, so we’ll see what happens.

Day 01	Day 02	Day 03	Day 04
Day 05	Day 06	Day 07	Day 08
Day 09	Day 10	Day 11	Day 12
Day 13	Day 14	Day 15	Day 16
Day 17	Day 18	Day 19	Day 20
Day 21	Day 22	Day 23	Day 24
Day 25	Day 26	Day 27	Day 28
Day 29	Day 30

Until then, I’ll take what I can get and I won’t complain. Members of the semi-pro team Impact Echo were refereeing and I think everyone did a fantastic job. There was a lot of awesome action on the field and I’m really looking forward to seeing more from this league and it’s players. Big thanks to Roger and Brian, the organizers.

Below are some of my favorite photos from the event, but be sure to check out my entire PPL E3 gallery.

View all of my photos from this event.

Quick photo: Dinner time photo set with model mkim-lee.

Quick photo: Portrait of Josh Traptow, an inspirational Calgarian with a passion for politics and volunteering who works on Alison Redford‘s leadership campaign team, which recently took victory at the polls.

Check him out on Twitter.