Old and New Collection 2013

Some of you have noticed the recent addition of the 2013 Old and New Collection.  I have a goal this year to have at least 40-50 photos completed.  Over the winter I have conducted research and searches for interesting and cool old pictures.  My recent additions in the album were taken around April.  I was hoping for spring to "spring" but Mother Nature has taken her time.  I still think they are quite well done and portray Lethbridge in the "golden" colors it always shows.  

As for this project, I have great news to share with everyone.  I will be published in the fall by the Lethbridge Historical Society.  They have elected to have my Old and New Collection as a yearly calendar fund raiser.   Watch out for these calendars around Christmas time.  

I do take requests for old photos, I recently had a client who requested I locate 2 old photos of where her grandfather worked growing up.   I already have several requests already from several people and I am always willing to take on the challenge of searching for others; just message me through Facebook.  

Mexico May 4 - 11, 2013

I have been to a few places down south now and I must say I really enjoyed this part of Mexico and this resort.   If anyone wants a great place to get away from it all, the Dreams Resort would be your best bet.  Its small but big enough where there is not very many crowds.   I did not have one complaint about the food and the service.   One thing which was totally different from all the other holidays was the amount of light and differences from west and east coast destinations.  Its the total opposite, which is a no brainer, but I really prefer the sunsets to the sun rises.  

On a geography note, I did experience my first mini earthquake.  It was a really weird feeling.  The whole room shook and then I just looked at Kellie.  Right away Kellie was able to find out Mexico did experience a recent earthquake a couple of weeks before and there was still some after tremors.  Scary but still a cool thing to experience.  

I did a lot of photography on this trip.  My good friend's Kara and Jason Richmond got married on the Monday.  They had a photography package with the resort which only covered the ceremony and the post pictures. So I was still hired to cover the whole thing.  I found it such a great experience cause I was able to work with the resorts photographer, Cristheell Bernal.  She is such an amazing photographer.   If you are interested on viewing her pictures her website is www.cristheellphotography.com    The light for the wedding was amazing, I was able to practice a few more techniques and poses.  

The next few days were spent focusing my ideas for the Candie Co Clothing Fashion shoot.  The shoot started at around 1900hrs, and the sun was still a fair distance from the horizon.  The model for the shoot was Ashley Lawrence, from Lethbridge.  I had an assistant who helped me with my reflector and to tell you the truth it was the first time I used this.  I think I will use the reflector a lot more.   I liked the shoot in general, I think in the next one I will have to get a more assortment of items for the shoot.   All in all, a cant wait to edit these pictures, I think there is some really great photos in there.  

Culturally, Puerto Vallarta was amazing.  Like a said before the people were really friendly and it was really easy to get off the resort.  The inner city was great to walk around in.   We found our way to their Parish church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.   I found some interesting facts about this church from WiKi:

 - English: The Crown of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Author: Sculptor and painter   Carlos Terres.

- 10.00 m in diameter and 15.50 m in height; sculpture in terroca (terres stone).

- The master sculptor and painter Carlos Terres made The Crown of Our Lady of Guadalupe basing his monumental sculpture in Nahuatl world Tecuntlanopeuh which means "that which has its origin at the peak of the boulders", alluding to the original name of the port, presently known as Puerto Vallarta.

- Symbolic elements of the sculpture are as follows. Eight angles wearing Marian symbols on their breast are holding the crown. The gems of the ring represent the 24 hours of the day. The five small palms represent the joyful mysteries of the Marian rosary. The five large palms represent the founding of Puerto Vallarta on December 12, 1851.

- Construction of the parish church began on April 15, 1883. The second phase of construction in 1915. The naming of the parish church in 1921. The borders of the sculpture are formed by a world of glass and a cross.

I did take in a night on the town with the amazing host Valentinno.  I attended the Zoo Bar for my first ever Foam Party.  What an amazing experience that was.  For $35 dollars you were treated like a VIP and drank for free.  Needless to say the next morning I was on the lounge chair with nothing planned.   

I feel relaxed, refreshed, and full of ideas and creativity.  This trip is a great start to my summer.  :-)

Old and New Begins Again

So it's been too long since my last entry on my blog. Winter has pasted and I had a chance to get out and spend a full morning gathering a bunch of photos needed for 2013 Collection of Old and New.

On particular picture a recently finished was a group of bridge workers posing by one of the trusses on the westside of the Oldman River. When I set out in the morning to take this photo my view of the original image changed. The picture was a standard group photo taken of just the group of men. I felt by just taking the same standard shot would not give these hard working men justice so I decided to take a panoramic of the High Level bridge.

By composing the picture in a panoramic format, I felt it gave the viewer a great perspective on how large this structure is and how small a human is next to this structure. It is probably one of my favorite structures to photograph. My goal with this years installment of the collection is around 35-40 pictures. Every time I go out it's amazing how much you learn from researching you cities history.