byDesign Visuals Blog

Being born and raised on beautiful Vancouver Island, I often feel like I was deprived of winter as a child.  I don’t know how to ice skate very well (ok I can skate, I just can’t stop!), and I missed out on chances to build huge snow forts or go ice skating outdoors like my Calgary friends.  When it did snow though (or there was even a single snowflake on the weather report – up to 5 days ahead!), I used to get VERY excited and could hardly sleep! As a kid my bed was placed right under the window in my room, and I remember staying awake literally for hours, pushing the curtains aside and checking to see if it was snowing yet by the light of the Christmas lights.  Often tims I was stay awake until it either started snowing and I was able to calm myself down to fall asleep or nothing was happening and I gave up.  I wonder if this blog post will enlighten my parents as to why I woke up so tired so often in the winter time!

Since I have been in Calgary I have wanted to shoot some portraits outside in the snow.  Finally on my third winter here, I got the chance to actually do it!  I had posted on facebook that I wanted to shoot some wintery pictures once, and Jenn said herself and her husband Alan would be more than happy to model for me!  It didn’t work out that day, but a few weeks later we got quite a big dump so I figured now was the time!  It was pretty cold outside, but they were great about it – except Alan, he forgot his gloves!  But Jenn was nice and let him borrow her jacket pockets:)

Just so you know though, I wouldn’t trade the hours I spent as a child building sandcastles on the beach, swimming in a friends lake, or doing week long hikes on the west coast of the island in my teenage years for anything.  I like the snow and the mountains here, but I much prefer the beach now:)

Thank you so much Jenn & Alan for helping me out with this little project!  If you are looking to do some renovations any time soon, Jenn is an incredible interior designer – go check out her work at http://www.patinadesign.ca!

Enjoy, and I hope we get a lot more snow this winter! (*I take no responsibility if this actually happens, I had nothing to do with it, I swear!)

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Happy New Year, and welcome to 2010!  I am pretty excited about this year, and the big plans that I have!  Some or all of them may actually happen, or none of them may happen at all, but it’s still exciting to think about and plan for!  Here are a few of the things that I have been thinking about lately.

52Photo:Are you familiar with Project 365?  Many photographers do it every year, and basically you take a photo every day for an entire year and post it in a public place like Flickr.com, a blog, or Facebook.  Well I have been thinking a lot on how I can improve my technical skills this coming year, and I was talking to a friend about this.  He challenged me to complete a project that I am going to call 52Photo.  I am going to plan, shoot, and edit a unique and different photo session every week for an entire year!  Yikes!  The catch though, is that I am going to nail the shot on…get this…the first shot!  That’s right, I said the first shot! And I only have one chance to get things right, so it had better be good!  This is a very big and challenging task, but I know that if I stick with, by the time January 1st, 2011 rolls around I will know my stuff and will be able to nail the shot right away!  I will post the shots on my blog by Thursday night of each week by midnight, and hope for the best!

The reason I am posting this is so that you can be excited to see the results and progress, but also so that I may ask for your help.  Taking 52 different and unique images is going to be a lot of work, and I want to focus on mainly portraiture for this challenge.  From time to time I may ask for models, assistants, or anything and everything else, so if you see a post or are interested in helping me out, please let me know!  You can also comment on this blog and I will keep you in mind for future shoots.

Etsy:  I have always had a great respect for landscape photographers, but I have come to the realisation that I suck at it.  I am not trying to be a landscape photographer by any means, but I would like to learn more techniques and expand my horizons!  Living so close to the majestic rocky mountains provides easy access to some gorgeous scenery, and if I ever move away I am going to require some art to hang on my walls that will make my friends jealous!  The other side is that I want to make this type of work accessible to the public, and mainly people who aren’t able to just drive out and visit the mountains.  So I have started up a small shop on Etsy, a site that many artists and artisans use.  You can check out my new site by going to http://www.etsy.com/shop/bydesignvisuals  Keep checking back, as I will be adding more images on a regular basis!

The Water Project: A HUGE thank you to all of you who were able to take a few minutes to leave a comment and help others out!  Before the deadline ran out on Christmas Day, I received a grand total of 30 comments, which means that we are able to provide up to 9 people with clean, fresh water for up to 10 YEARS!  Isn’t that awesome?   I know, I know, water for just 9 people seems like a very insignificant amount, but trust me, those 9 individuals won’t think its only  a small deal.  This was accomplished through an organization called The Water Project, which has many ongoing projects to provide clean water.  If you would like to learn more, go and check out http://thewaterproject.org/  I dare you to donate, buy a water bottle, or even a T-shirt – all of these will help!

Below is a clip of what we are helping to accomplish – look at how clean the water is!

Anyways, I have many more hopes and dreams for 2010, but I think this is all that you can handle right now!  I hope that you all were able to spend lots of time with family and friends over the holidays, and that you cherished the time you were able to spend together!

Blessings,

Mark

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