Here is the second night of a two night shoot for the Artist Next Door Series.  I’d never been to the Graffiti Gallery before, and like many inner city gems, was surprised as we pulled up along an emptier stretch of Higgins Avenue to find a warehouse full of art.  This show featured a variety of local artists, including handmade postcard-maker Becky Thiessen, story-teller Hannah Godfrey, painter Arlea Ashcroft, photo/video designer Tyler Funk, and was headlined by a performance by singer/songwriter Don Amero.

As always, I love playing with light.  The warehouse space was surprisingly large and was lit mostly by fluorescents, so I purposely set up my flashes to overpower the ambient light and create some more interesting directional light. And with the display of paintings in the background, it made for some pretty neat and colourful backgrounds.

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As I walked out to the car today, it was hard to believe that it was the middle of March and that full-on winter was only a few weeks ago.  With the fields poking their heads out from under the snow and the evenings suddenly one hour longer thanks to daylight savings, it’s as if someone fast-forwarded us into spring…

But before we leave the cold weather behind completely, here’s a wintry engagement session with Anjali and Arun.  We pretty much closed our eyes and picked the date of the shoot a month in advance, and much to our luck and delight, we managed to pick out the first weekend that kicked off our current warm spell.  There was still plenty of snow on the ground at the time and the Forks was packed with snowboarders, skaters, and people out and about enjoying the sunshine.

We started the session outside and Anjali and Arun were kind enough to appease my whimsy and muck through drifts of snow for me – there were some nice wintry blues to be had!  And though it was a nice enough day, 45 minutes of standing around in the snow is enough to chill anyone, so we wandered inside to warm up.  I don’t often get to sit down and chat with my subjects in the middle of a shoot, but we sat down in a patch of sun with our hot chocolates and got a chance to talk about the Olympics, traveling in Europe, and East Indian food.  Even though I’ve shot my fair share of Indian weddings, I definitely learned a thing or two with the inside scoop from Anjali and Arun.  An informative coffee break!

We finished up the shoot inside the building, playing with patches of light from the setting sun.  All in all, a great way to kick off the engagement sessions this year.  Here are a few of my faves:

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Like I said, our frisbee team is prolific at procreating.  Margie and Nic are the latest couple on the team that will be joining the ranks of parenthood.  Her due date was coming up fast, but we managed to get Margie into the studio before the baby popped out.

Armed with a sunny smile and a cheery demeanor, Margie is just fun to be around whether on or off the field.  Already an easy subject to photograph, her big round belly made for a lot of great pictures. The smile was never too far from Margie’s face either as she and Nic engaged in their usual playful banter. As a long time NY Jets fan, I wasn’t surprised when Nic pulled out the jerseys for the shoot.  I’m guessing there’s a little newborn version just waiting at home.

If I had to make a prediction, I would say their baby is going to inherit a winning smile and an unorthodox but extremely effective forehand…

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For a couple of years, Tim & Tara were the newest parents on the team with the arrival of Analeigh.  It seemed they were destined to pass the torch onto Jacq & Will when those two announced they were pregnant (see the previous post).  But apparently Tim & Tara weren’t ready to relinquish their claim to fame, as it turns out they were pregnant at the same time.  It occurred to me one day at a frisbee game that when Jacq and Tara were on the field at the same time, our team technically had a 9 to 7 player advantage over the other team (although I’m sure neither of them would have considered lugging an extra 20-30 lbs around an “advantage”).

And thus arrived little Sidonie.  Just like her older sister Analeigh, Sidonie is a little precocious fireball.  The two girls were squawking away in the studio, and it won’t be long before the two of them will be chattering away in complete sentences – in between squabbling for toys of course…

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As I’ve mentioned previously, when I’m not taking pictures, chasing after my kids, or playing hockey, there’s a good chance you’ll find me chasing after a frisbee. About 5 years ago, I put together a team of friends – mostly new parents who after parenting all day needed a physical outlet. To our surprise, not only did we end up really liking Ultimate, but we also found that we were fairly successful! This despite being a collection of mostly “old and slow” moms and dads.

One defining trait of this team is that other than a few sad departures and a few welcome additions, there’s been great continuity – we’re pretty much the same crew over the years. The other defining trait is that just about everybody who plays with us will promptly breed children. You can usually tell it’s us from afar by the mob of babies, toddlers, and youths that buzz around on the sidelines.

This particular shoot was of Jacq and Will and one the newest members of our team: Ethan. I may be biased, but I have to say Chinese babies are soooo cute. Ethan was like a little buddha. I thought he looked pretty good in the team jersey too, though I’m not so sure he was as convinced.  Otherwise, it turns out that among his favorite things are fans. So to his delight and ours, we turned the studio fan on and I snapped away.

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