A few weeks ago, the time finally came for one of my favourite events of the summer – Dustin & Melanie’s wedding in Lacombe, Alberta!  Melanie and I go back quite a ways, we went to college together, and spent a spring break together on a missions trip in Cary, Mississippi.  We painted walls, put new roofs on, and built relationships – between members of the community, and also other members of the group. We spent many hours, laughing, chatting about the meanings of life, love, and laughter, and just spending time together while we worked and served.

It still amazes me that although we grew up in different countries, approximately 3,170 kilmetres away from each other, and in very different situations, I was able to have the privilege of joining Melanie and her new husband, Dustin, and getting to know them both through the celebration of marriage!  It’s amazing what power love holds.  Shooting weddings that involve people you have a past with are awesome – don’t get me wrong though, ALL of my clients are more than clients, you are friends, and I cherish you all!

Anyways, I wish you two all the best, and I hope that God blesses you in ways you can’t even imagine!

Mark

To see more images, check out the album 2010 weddings on my Facebook Fan Page!

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Mark

Many thanks to the awesome Brittany Esther of Brittany Esther Photography for helping me out that day, and running the Photobooth!  Stay tuned for the fun shots from that!

Can you believe that her mother made her dress?  She is amazing!

I love the white tux in this shot:)

And they are great dancers too!  It was a fun night!

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I hope you guys enjoy these shots, I know I did and I can’t wait for your wedding day!

Blessings,

Mark

Aren’t they cute together? 

Haha the twigs…Liza could barely keep her’s on!

So they decided to climb a tree instead.

 I LOVE this shot!

 These next two shots show you the scale of their relationship – having fun one second, to falling for each other the next!  So awesome!

lol yippee! 

Gorgeous eyes!  Can’t wait for the wedding!

Bradford also has some stellar eyes…maybe I should have turned him away from the sun lol

Of course, I saved the best for last!

Taken with my 5D and 50mm 1.8 lens – all natural light.

Enjoy!

Mark

This past week I went on vacation to Chicago to meet my new neice, and I had lots of time to shoot.  I brought along the simplest of setups  – just my trusty Canon 5D and a 50mm 1.8 lens.  It was nice and light to carry, and a lot of fun! 

When I pulled up this shot though, I knew that I was going to be changing some gear in the near future - I love prime lenses! 

This is my first neice, Clare!  We had a good time playing on her swing, going to the park, and also to the zoo!  I think I need to go and visit more often!

Blessings,

Mark

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Mike & Leanne have such a great relationship with their children. You can tell just by the way they interact with their children and the love they shower on them – just like their Father showers on them.

I hope you guys enjoy these images and treasure them for a long time to come!

Blessings,

Mark

Really?  Is it possible to make a baby any cuter than this little girl?

Mike & Nate like to play a little game called “chase”.  It’s pretty simple, Mike basically chases Nate around, catches him, and tickles away until his gails of laughter echo throughout the house.  Then they start again:)

You can also definetly tell they have big dreams for each and everyone of their children.

Actually I think I am going to go away from just doing 1 shot, not that I am backing down from the challenge, but I am finding that I am not learning as much as I could be if I can play around with different setups and try different things.

Anyways, technical setup was my 5D with 100mm macro lens, a 580EX II on a 42 inch shoot through umbrella to my right as my main light, and a 50 inch white reflector on my left to act as a fill.  I also had another 580 EX II to act as a rim light behind my model.

Blessings,

Mark

This week I got some new flash triggers for my camera, and so on Good Friday I decided to play around and shoot myself.  Not gonna lie, I definetly could not do this one in a single shot (self potraits are very hard!), so after about 200 shots I ended up with this one. If you ever decide to shoot self portraits, here is a hint: teach yourself to smile first:)

My technical setup was a Canon 1D Mark IV camera with an 85mm 1.2L lens (amazing lens btw – kudos Canon!).  For lighting I was going for a butterfly lighting setup (with a single umbrella directly above the camera), but I modified it a bit and for this shot I had a reflector in front of me, and I have 2 Canon 580 EX II speedlites firing into the white side of the reflector.  If you have any comments on how I could have improved the lighting, please let me know!

I hope you like it, please don’t be too harsh and hurt my feelings!

Blessings,

Mark

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This week I am actually on the ball and I shot my image a night early, because tomorrow my time is already spoken for:) 

Last week though, I thought I had set my image to post during the day while I was at work, but something happenend and it didn’t work!  Of course that made the post late (as I didn’t realize it), so this time I am just going to post it tonight, to make up for lost time!

For this week I decided to give you a little snapshot into what my life is like.  Vanessa is one of my housemates, along with her kitty.  Both of them are quite the characters, and we have a lot of laughs. 

For this shot, I once again used my favorite combo of the Canon 5D and my 100mm 2.8 Macro lens.  For lighting I used a 580 EX II on my camera, which triggered another 580 EX II that was on a lightstand about 2 feet in front of Vanessa and a bit to her right, just off camera.  To soften the light, I picked up a Honl Speed Strap this week, and I used that to attach a Honl 8 inch Speed Snoot.  The snoot can be either opened up to act as a modifier, or closed to act as a snoot.  It’s a pretty neat product, and you can add other items to it like grids and filters.  If you want more information, check them out online at http://www.honlphoto.com/servlet/StoreFront

Anyways, here is the image!  Have a great night everyone!

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