The other day I grabbed a CD from Zoltan the music editor at See magazine,. While there I mentioned that I would love to be able to do other work for them if they had it. He said,
What do you think about food?
I like food
What about restaurants?
The only place I eat!
Would you be into taking photos for the food review section?
Um ya!!

So he forwarded my name off to the editor and they called me the next day to see if I would be into shooting photos of the El Rancho Restaurant, To which I said you bet I would. I called the Restaurant and set up a time to come over and do the photos. I arrive to the El Rancho Restaurant located on 118th and 87th street and the mother/daughter team were tripping over themselves to help me out. They were late in getting to the restaurant and I was thinking man it is going to take them forever to get the food ready I am going to be here a while. (not that it would have been a bad thing) I was getting some of gear set up (well it was two legs of my tripod extended and they came flying out of the kitchen with three plates filled with fantastic looking food.

And with in minutes of that they had another 3 plates and some drinks and the mother was busy cooking something else in the kitchen. I was a bit surprised I guess, I was treated like royalty and I didn’t even do the review. In fact I am not even sure if the review is good or bad. The service that gave me was crazy :) I took photos for a while of the food, of them, and the restaurant, and all the while they continued to make food in the back. They made me this traditional Guatemalan food that was a lot like green onion cakes except they are stuffed with all kinds of things like cheese and cabbage and such very good.

Any who I have a shoot with Jamie tonight and then a few free days that I can sleep a little. I am excited about that.

So I am sitting here waiting to hear back from the tech support section of my work in regards to my Computer profile. And I have nothing to do except wait. You know what that means! The Ipaq and I are going to write you all a little blog entry. There was a DJ at the bar last night so it was super loud till some time after two thirty so needless to say I am a little bit sleepy today. Mike came up last night at least and talked about the things that they are going to do to make the place quiet. I think that they are acutely aware of the city’s feelings about noise in a residential building if the fiasco that The Rev went though is any indication. The city’s bi-laws are on our side and they know that as well I am sure, because the minute that I said I was going to call the cops we saw immediate and constant action. There was even some discussion about their contingency plans and where the next step is. Doesn’t change the fact that I am super sleepy though.

Man my feet stink. I changed the way that I am sitting so I am sitting on my foot and wowzers it is crazy.

I met with a new model today for a cup of java and what have you; she was cool and open to do a lot of creative things, which is cool! We booked a shoot for next week in studio I will try and get Ali the make up artist to come out to do makeup. On another note to do with photography we may be doing wedding photos at West Edmonton Mall next weekend and I am not really sure what I think about that. I really hate the place but there is a lot that we could do in the mall like Bride and groom playing mini golf and other such things. I have been having a hell of a time getting though to the appropriate people to get permission to shoot there. No one feels the need to answer the phone or return messages arrrg. I am living on coffee, cola, and no sleep these days and I am still really far behind in things. I have a shit load of photos that I haven�t seen yet that are needing to go out and even more that need to go to the lab or to the end party.

Because I am so behind you guys get old leftover photos.

Alberta Research Centre.

Random Vee Dub

Well, well, what have I been up to the last little while you ask? I have been kinda a busy beaver really and I am liking it. :) I was getting really sick and tired of being sick and tired so I have decided that I am not allowed to be sick ever again!! In fact I have dictated to my body that illness will not be tolerated in any form. Any way here is some more Twilla shots.

Today was the much anticipated, Oh shit I forgot my sarcasm tags! Lets try that again, shall we. Today was the much anticipated cattle drive in down town Edmonton. Yup you read right cattle drive in downtown Edmonton. The mayor thought it might be a good idea to herd 100 head of extremely frightened cattle from one end of downtown to the other. I am sure that he thought it was a good idea at the time. The whole thing was kinda silly really but I did get a couple of ok photos.

I also had a shoot with Twilla today here is a shot from that.

Any way I have a wedding tomorrow so I should get to sleep.

Ahh today. This morning I woke up at 10 min to 5am to a crazy cat clawing at my nose and purring violently into my ear. I think that she was hungry because it went on for quite a while. Being the bringer of food to our cats has it advantages, they will stay in bead and cuddle with me when Miranda gets up in the morning, they give me all kinds of love and affection because they are interested in eating, But when they are getting demanding and waking me up in the middle of the night it can be quite the pain in the ass I wasn�t able to get back to sleep but what sleep I did have was quite pleasant there was hardly any bar noise last night but I think it was because the had the music off as apposed to any changes to the ceiling. I could still hear the bathroom stalls and people talking and what not. The guy gave me a call the other day and was super apologetic I think they really don�t want me to call the cops cause they will bend over backwards if they think that they stop me from calling the cops. I am at work again so the usual disclaimer about grammar and what not applies. I am sure that this will be a short entry because it is fairly busy here today. We went for Thanksgiving dinner at Shannon�s on Monday which was the cats meow. There was some great food and better company and fantastic gluten free pie. We ate and talked and met some new and interesting people, loads of fun. It was cool to talk with the tiger as well I miss chatting with that guy. We also met Shannon�s friend Nichole who is also a Photog in Edmonton. I think is cool because it seems that we have the same photographic interests and what not. She is really into architecture and is interested in older farms in the area and such. I thought I was the only one in Edmonton that would run about and find abandoned farms and what not. Any way it was good times and we need to do more coffee or what not with Shannon and friends as apposed to just waiting to Mr. Tiger is in town. :) any who I am going to jet now.

Well I was going to do this yesterday but the minute that I started typing it got crazy busy for about 4 hours and then I don�t really feel like blogging any more. So I am going to give it a whirl for today. I am at work right now so the usual disclaimers about coherency apply. I wanted to elaborate on the last post that I wrote at some god awe full hour. I kept it uber short because I was falling asleep.

So yes I went for another photo shoot with Twilla on Friday, we went for an autumn queen sorta deal. I had this idea last year but I couldn�t find anyone that would fit the bill not to mention that it is only Fall once a year :). So this year I was bound and determined to do it.. While I probably should have done this two weeks ago I am still totally happy with the results. Twilla got her hair and what not done before she came over and she did the make up here at the studio while I got the stuff ready to go. I took my full camera kit and a couple of stands with me for this shoot. Not something I would normally do but I figured that I am not going to be far from the car and it would be good to have the equipment handdy

I was thinking about getting some studio shots of the getup as well but I was concerned about time so it got left out. No big worries. So with make up and wardrobe complete we fired down to the bug (thank goodness for the abundance of head room in Volkswagens) and we were off. We had so many crazy looks from people as we went about there was a woman waiting to get in our building who was astounded at Twilla�s hair and wanted to know what we were up to. I think she was disappointed to hear that it was simply a photo shoot and not some crazy costume party or something. I had gone to the Provincial Museum a few days earlier and there was � a foot of crazy coloured leaves in some areas, so I had chosen that as the first stop. One thing that is didn�t know about the city of Edmonton is they have these huge vacuum truck things that go around and clean up leaves in the fall, I mean I have been here for years and I had know idea that they did this and I have never seen these truck things before. So the � foot of beautiful fluffy multi-coloured leaves that I had been counting on was really a small spattering stuck off in a far corner that was still untouched by the leaf sucking machine. The museum seemed like a popular spot for photographers that day as well, I think all in all we saw three other pgs doing various shoots in the sparse leaves. (however none were as cool as this one)
We added some leaves to her hair and I got her to spin slowly in a circle while I climbed a tree and shot down on her looking up. At one point I brought out the light disk and leaning it against the tripod I reflected a little bit of light up to her face and hair.

Looking over the hill down to the river valley I could see that Government House Park near the river still had a whack of leaves left so we fired on down there to beat the leaf sucking that was already infringing on the leaf haven that we had found. We also found s a bunch of red leaves and branches that we could add to her hair which was what I really wanted. At Gov House Park I busted out the light stands and the 550EX flashes. I set up the one speed light on the end of a manfrotto boom and placed it up and over where se would be at. I really wanted the light t o be coming directly down on her but be far enough away to be soft and more of a fill light. The sun was coming in on the right and I set up the other Speed light on the darks side to add as a bit of a fill. I didn�t want the main light source to be the flashes but rather act as a fill to round out the sun that was hitting the lower part of the horizon. I then climbed a nearby tree and shot facing down on her while she was sitting and spinning. All in all the shots are turning out quite nice indeed. I should have a few more to post by the end of this entry.

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On a entirely different note I have given the Bar one week to make some improvements to sound issue. If there are no improvements by next Monday I will be calling the city and/or the Cops every day perhaps twice a day till the issue is resolved. I was up at 7:00 Am this morning but I couldn�t get to sleep till well after 2:30Am No big deal if it happens once in a while but it every single bloody day (cept Sunday)

So today I went out with Twilla again for a neat shoot that I have been meaning to do all fall. Here is one shot from that.

I also had a portrait shoot with a fantastic couple today in Mill Creek. They were some of the most photogenic people that I have seen in a long time.
Any who I work tomorrow so I best get to sleep

This is some shots form a quick shoot that I had with Twilla today. Not much to say about it so here you are.

I managed to lock my self out of the house today in a fit of forgetfulness and ended up having walk to work and get Miranda’s keys from her. I am a silly boy I tell you :) I also adjusted the carb on the beetle today in the hopes that it may alleviate the horrid Gas smell that we are getting inside, but alas that wasn’t the cause so we are going to have to investigate other things. Any who we are off to M&M’s right away.