This year’s fall vacation certainly wasn’t only the Disney Parks. If we’re going to Florida, might as well do it right and take a day to visit Universal Studios in Orlando as well. Both Heather and I are big Harry Potter fans, both the books and the movies. And the main purpose of our visit to Universal was to visit the two areas dedicated to Harry Potter. Like Disney, the folks at Universal have designed two immersive worlds that bring both the books, but mainly the movies to life in two interactive and immersive environment that will have you shooting a lot of images asRead More →

Wait, you’re probably thinking what is a Disney Travel Blog doing here since you mostly expect photography, film photography at that. Well don’t worry, there’s plenty of both some beautiful images from Walt Disney World and some handy tips from one photographer to another when travelling to Walt Disney World (or even Disneyland Park). And if you’re thinking all you can capture at Disney is family snapshots, think again. Disney is immersive, you honestly feel like you’re a world traveller especially in Epcot and Animal Kingdom. So don’t be afraid to bring your cameras, but I do suggest following a few tips that I’ll outlineRead More →

It was my wife’s idea to attend something new from Conservation Halton, the Hops & Harvest Festival. I think the idea of holding a craft beer festival in Milton is a wonderful idea. The craft beer market has been moving further and further along in the past several years. Considering Milton itself has a wonderful brewery in Orange Snail. If you haven’t tried their Rattle ‘n Nemo, I highly recommend it (and so does good friend Bill Smith). It’s the beer that made me like Red Ales again. The day itself started rather cold and under a cloudy sky but no rain in sight, soRead More →

If you’ve ever had a serious conversation with me about cameras, gears, and how to choose what camera and lens to run with, you’ve probably heard me speak on the Three Lens kit, but recently I got to thinking, what about other lens kits? Could I go on a trip with maybe a two lens, or even a one lens kit? I’ve spent many years with a fantastic set of prime lenses which have always formed the core of any lens kit I bring with me, but what about going with some more zooms, reducing the number of lenses to bring along. So today, I’mRead More →

I’m sure sitting on my parent’s shelf is the book that inspired this title, The Church Mice Spread Their Wings, but in this case, I’m not talking about a book, but the Toronto Film Shooters Meetup. Usually, when these events are run they stick closely to the Greater Toronto Area. I made a choice, on the suggestion of James Lee to change up a couple things with the Summer 2018 meetup, and by a couple things, I mean all the things. Location, Time, even starting and ending points. I went full radical, must have been the influence of reading up on the Upper Canada Rebellion.Read More →

It’s been just under a year since the gang visited the Riverdale/Leslieville areas of Toronto. And again I found myself as a participant in the walk rather than the organiser. For that, I left it up to Bill Smith who knows the area like the back of his hand, though this time around we took a much different route. There’s something about getting started early as we gathered at the Rooster Coffee House for our start, after an Atomic Rooster Brew and some discussion. And of course, snapping photos with our cups of coffee and our cameras we started off. The day had promised toRead More →

My first experience with a Doors Open event took place in 2007 in Hamilton, wow, I’ve been doing these for over ten years now. I learned of it through the Urban Exploration community. And really there’s no surprise there, explorers do love getting a view of places we normally can’t. And frankly, there’s no better way to do that than legal tours. And while these days I don’t go with a big group, I still enjoy getting out to the Toronto or Hamilton event. Sometimes even both if I can work it. There was even a year I went to Guelph’s and I helped runRead More →

PYPS, Presbyterian Young People’s Society, Pick Your Potential Spouse. However you want to call it, yesterday I learned of some news that I never expected to receive. And while I have, like many before me, aged out and ultimately drifted away from the organization a friend whom I met through PYPS posted the following on Facebook. THE FUTURE OF PYPS Hello PYPS family, Recently the Synod of Central Northeastern Ontario and Bermuda had their annual meeting and decided to pull funding from our ministry. We felt that, in the face of declining attendance, the money that has been allotted to PYPS in the past couldRead More →

Black powder and a plastic camera is the theme of World Toy Camera day for my shoot. This year I am not in an exotic location like Pittsburg or Washington DC, but instead, I participated in the final War of 1812 Reenactment event of the season at the Bradley House Museum in Mississauga. So into my Haversack went my Holga 120N loaded up with a roll of Fomapan 100. While toy cameras aren’t for everyone, they certainly add a touch of fun to my photography. For the most part, I work with high-end equipment, but I do enjoy the strange nature of toy cameras, plasticRead More →

There’s a fun nature for an event that is total fiction rather than historical. It gives us a chance to play and provides us with a view of other historic sites within our province. Until this event, I had never even heard of the Bradley House. But as I took the gentle curve along Orr Road in the village of Clarkson on the border of Oakville and Mississauga I was pleasantly surprised at the industrial fences of a Suncor Petroleum plant melted away into a forest alight with fall colours. As I chatted with folks around the site, it turned out that Clarkson has aRead More →