Bridget’s Burger is a twist on the classic bacon mushroom burger featuring mouth watering boar bacon, fresh portabello mushrooms, vine ripened tomatoes, and crispy lettuce. Be sure to stop by and check it out. You can catch Bridget on Breakfast Television, weekday mornings from 7-9 and you can also follow Bridget on Twitter along with her fellow host Ryan Jespersen. You can also follow Delux Burger for daily specials and other juicy details. Here are a few photographs from our shoot.

And for the keen eyed observers of my blog, you may notice my brand new logo on these images! Yes it’s finally finished and I’ll be posting more about my new branding soon. I will also start to use it across my website and blog once I get through September and have some free time to start implementing it. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your comments on the new logo.

What can I say about Dao & Joseph’s wedding that we photographed this past Saturday? It was such a blast from beginning to end. I only met Dao a few weeks ago after they made a last minute decision to go in a different direction with their wedding photography and I am so happy that they decided to choose us to capture their day. I knew from the minute I met Dao, that she was going to be so much fun to photograph and that their wedding day was going to be amazing!

In a rare treat, we were able to do all of the photography prior to the actual ceremony. Our day started on the grounds of McNally School where we met the whole wedding party and family members for photographs overlooking Edmonton’s beautiful River Valley. Unfortunately due to the forest fires in BC, our view of downtown Edmonton was a little hazy but we still managed to create some great family photographs with everyone.

From there we released the family members and headed down the road to Henrietta Louise Edwards Park to photograph Dao and her handsome husband Joseph along with the rest of their wedding party. Joseph and his groomsmen were looking very dapper in their tuxedos and Dao & her bridesmaids were stunning in their gorgeous gowns. When we first met, Dao expressed to me that she didn’t really care for urban style photos and wanted to be surrounded by nature. The night before I did some scouting in the area and found some awesome trails to shoot in so special thanks to the girls for navigating the dirt trails in their high heels in the name of great photography. We had a lot of fun and I also learned that when a bride’s gotta go – she’s gotta go. Sorry Dao, I couldn’t resist sharing that story but I know you’re a great sport.

After we were done shooting in the river valley, it was off to the gorgeous Matrix Hotel for the ceremony and reception along with a few more photo opportunities with just the bride and groom. Joseph’s cousin Tina is a world class belly dancer and she performed a fantastic dance routine after the ceremony which got everyone up and dancing; particularly Joeph’s dad Ismat! Before the reception kicked off, we snuck off with the happy couple for a few quick portraits around the hotel and then it was time for the reception.

The meal was delicious and the speeches and party that followed were filled with plenty of emotion and laughter. Sarah and I both held back a few tears during the speeches when Dao started to tell the story of how her parents had fled the war in Vietnam over 30 years ago, leaving behind everything in search of a better life in Canada.

After the speeches, the party got rolling and the dance floor was hopping. Then it was time for the bouquet and garter toss and for the first time in my life, I was witness to one bridesmaid taking down another bridesmaid to catch the bouquet. Her head hit the dance floor and everyone froze for a moment but  thankfully nobody was injured and she popped to her feet no worse for wear. The same could not be said for the bouquet however as it lay in a thousand pieces on the floor. Then it was garter toss time but Dao had taken it off earlier in the evening and couldn’t locate it so a dinner napkin had to take it’s place. Being a fellow north sider, I joked with Dao about being a true north side girl and her ghetto garter.

Thanks again Dao & Joseph for choosing us to be your wedding photographers. We had such a blast and can’t wait to get together with you to show you the rest of your photographs from your amazing day. Hope you had a great honeymoon in Montreal and enjoy this sneak peek.

Here’s a look at the album design we put together for Kelly & Brad. Enjoy!

This time around, we were able to shoot in the brand new Delux Burger location in West Edmonton Mall. It’s a great looking location with over twice the capacity of the original Delux Burger Bar and it features a take-out window which is open until 3:00 am for the late night Bourbon Street crowd looking for a delicious burger. August’s Celebrity Chef is Che Bechard of Baseline Wine & Spirits and his featured burger for the month is the Poutine Burger. This mouthwatering delight is made with 7 oz of Alberta beef, secret sauce, fresh cut french fries, and real curd cheese on a kaiser bun. Truly a Canadian masterpiece. Sarah and I actually stopped by the new location yesterday to partake of this gastronomic delight. Be sure to drop in to either location of Delux Burger during the month of August to try out this delicious burger before it’s gone.

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words and professional photography is one of the best ways to show off your product or service. Don’t leave your next project to chance or rely on bad photography from someone with a point and shoot camera. If you are looking for professional commercial photography for your next project, feel free to contact me with the details and I would be happy to provide you with a quote.

If you are having an event in Edmonton or beyond and are looking to book a photographer who can provide a mixture of photography and video coverage, be sure to contact me for a quote. Photography and video coverage is a great way to tell the story of your event and use it on your website to promote future events to your customers.

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After the ceremony, we headed downtown for some “urban” wedding photography in an abandoned parkade which was relatively cool and reasonably free of mosquitoes. We finally have some nice weather here in Edmonton but thanks to all the rain we’ve had, we are now faced with one of the worst mosquito infestations we’ve seen in awhile, so wandering around in grassy fields was definitely out of the question. Lisa & Ben had such a great wedding party, many of whom have been lifelong friends since they were kids which is something you don’t find that often but was so wonderful to be a part of.

From there we headed to the brand new Art Gallery of Alberta for a few quick shots. We had decided to book the Art Gallery as a backup in the event of rain and since you now have to pay to use it, we figured we should at least make a brief stop in there. Most of the wedding party were in from out of town so it was a great opportunity for them to see our newest attraction. After we were done at the Art Gallery, we headed to Rundle Park for some family photographs and then it was off to the Sundridge Ski Resort for an amazing BBQ reception and party.

Here are a few of my favorite photographs from yesterday’s fabulous Edmonton wedding. Thanks again for trusting us to photograph your wedding and for allowing us to share in such an amazing day! Can’t wait to share the rest with you soon.

Thanks to everyone who came out and I hope you all enjoyed your day. A big thanks to Edmonton photography legend Bill Hill for taking a great group photograph at the beginning of our walk.

Also a huge shout-out to the team from Fotojournal who donated a 1-year Pro blog and gave away some sweet buttons and discount coupons to our walkers.

If you would like to see photographs from any of the three walks there were held in Edmonton, be sure to visit the official Flickr group at  http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmonton-photowalk3-2010/. Scott Kelby has also created a Flickr group for everyone who participated in this year’s walk so you can see photographs from around the world. Just head on over to http://www.flickr.com/groups/wwpw3

Just a reminder to those who participated in our walk, if you want to enter your favourite photograph into the contest for a chance to win one of Scott’s books, you have until August 1st to upload your photo. Visit the Worldwide Photo Walk page, sign in with the user name you registered with, and upload your photograph.

Even though I was leading the walk, I did manage to find some time for photography. I decided that I was going to challenge myself by only bringing one lens with me and trying to shoot with just that lens. I chose to go with my brand new 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens which I recently added to the lens collection. I’ve only had it for a few weeks and have used it primarily to photograph wedding details such as rings, table decorations, wedding dress detail, etc. This was a chance to experiment with it more and play with the lovely shallow depth of field that you can get with this lens. I had a great time shooting with it and trying to look for the small details on a campus that is filled with many large scale buildings and giant trees. Here are a few quick photographs that tell the story of what I saw through my lens on Worldwide Photo Walk day.

It’s been months in the planning and tomorrow the day finally arrives. It’s Scott Kelby’s 3rd Annual World Wide Photo Walk and I’ll be leading one of the three walks taking place in Edmonton. For those not familiar with a Photo Walk, it is basically a social gathering where photographers of all ages and abilities gather to walk around, take photographs, and network with one another. This year’s Worldwide Photo Walk will take place on July 24th in over 1100 cities around the world with close to 33,000 people participating! That is a lot of photographs that will be created.

Walk Details

The walk I’m leading will be held on the grounds of the University of Alberta and will run for 2 hours from 10:30 – 12:30 followed by a social gathering at Earls on Campus afterward. Here are the details for the event:

Date: Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Time: 10:30 – 12:30 (plan on showing up at 10:15 so we can start right at 10:30)

Location: Timm’s Centre for the Arts (in front of the West Entrance on 112th Street)

Below is a map of where we will be meeting:

View Larger Map

Afterward we will meet back at Earls on Campus to enjoy a cool beverage and socialize.

Entering Photographs into the Contest

Photo Walk contest submissions will open on Sunday, July 25 and close July 31. Here’s a short two-step walk-through for submitting your best image to the Photo Walk contest.

Step 1) Go to WorldwidePhotoWalk.com and log in (look at the top right corner of the page)

Once you’re logged in, you’ll automatically go to your Photo Walk page.

Step 2) Once there, you’ll see a section called “Upload Your Photo” below the Meeting Location & Time (not today or tomorrow, but it’ll show up on Sunday):

Just follow the on-screen instructions and you’ll be good to go!

Each walker is allowed to submit one image to the contest.  The deadline to submit is July 31.  If you change your mind on which image you want to enter, you can change it up until the deadline.

After that, walk leaders will have till August 7 to choose the winning image from their walk.  They won’t be able to make a selection until after the submission process is finished. The winner from each walk will receive a copy of one of Scott Kelby’s books.

All of those winning images will then be posted in the People’s Choice gallery where everyone can vote for their favorite shot during the following week.

Then, on August 14, they’ll announce the Grand Prize, Honorable Mentions, and People’s Choice winners who will be eligible to receive a variety of prizes from companies such as Adorama and the Kelby Media Group.

Sharing Photographs from the Walk

What’s the point of taking photos if you can’t share them with people? There are two Flickr groups which have been setup to share photographs with each other. The first is the official Flickr group for all participants from around the world. This group will allow you to upload up to 5 photos per day. You’ll find the group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/wwpw3

We have also setup a group for all three of the Edmonton Photo Walks where you can go to share your photographs. You can request to join this group by visiting http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmonton-photowalk3-2010/

Other Prizes & Post Walk Goodies

The great guys & gals over at Fotojournal have graciously donated a one-year Pro Blog and will also be passing out some sweet buttons and discount coupons to check out their service. If you are looking for a great platform to show off your photography, be sure to check them out. They are a local company and are also pretty darn awesome.

Secondly, Scott Kelby is hosting an exclusive Lightroom® 3 training Webcast for all 30,700+ registered photo walk participants on Wednesday, July 28 at 10:00am EDT USA! Scott will also be joined by Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, and RC Concepcion. During this exclusive Webcast, Scott will take viewers through his Lightroom 3 workflow using the photos he took during his Photo Walk. This live Webcast is only available to registered Photo Walk participants.

Finally, Adobe is extending a 15% discount to Photo Walk participants! Registered participants will receive a unique code via the email address you provided at registration to be used for 15% off the purchase of Lightroom 3 the week of July 26th. Watch for your email, or check the official website for the Worldwide Photo Walk.

The wedding ceremony was held outdoors in front of Government House on the grounds of the Royal Alberta Museum. Given all the rain that we’ve had this summer, we were hoping for a break in the weather so that photographs and the ceremony could all be done outdoors. After calling in a special favor, Mother Nature finally delivered a day without rain and allowed us to capture some beautiful images in the great outdoors. After the ceremony we headed into downtown Edmonton for some fun urban photography and then back to the museum for a few more quick shots before the party started.

One thing that I pride myself on is having a quick turnaround time for my clients so they can see some of their images within a few days of the wedding. As promised, here is a quick sneak peek at a few of my favorite photographs from the day – delivered just a short 24 hours later! Look carefully to see if you can spot the happy couple playing the Laying Down Game.

This week I’d like to share some of the photographs from our model shoot that we did in Santa Margharita, Italy. Vanessa and Alberto were our models for the day and braved the rain, cold, and throngs of fans mobbing them for autographs. Vanessa and Alberto were contestants on the Italian version of the popular reality television show Big Brother. They actually met on the show and their relationship has continued since then. You can imagine the excitement when fans recognized them and saw that they were decked out in wedding apparel. The texts and phone calls started flying as I’m sure many thought they had stumbled upon an exclusive celebrity scoop.

The first challenge in this shoot was overcoming the language barrier. Normally I’m used to being able to freely communicate with my clients. Neither Vanessa or Alberto spoke much English and beyond ordering wine and beer, my Italian was non-existent. Fortunately we had someone to help translate but it wasn’t quite the same as being able to communicate directly with the couple. Despite the language barrier, we all worked really well together and managed to have a few laughs. It was also great working with a group of talented photographers and seeing how everyone managed to tell a different story with their cameras.

The second challenge was the weather. During our last two weeks in Italy, it rained every single day and this day was no exception. Fortunately there were a few breaks in the weather here and there but I think the rain made for some fun photos and one of my favorite images happens to be of the two of them kissing under an umbrella. As a photographer, you have to be prepared to shoot in any conditions and be flexible and creative enough to take whatever situation is thrown at you and adapt. I think this is one of the marks of a great photographer and is often undervalued and under-appreciated in today’s photography market where so many people are just looking at the dollars and cents. In my time as a photographer, I’ve faced a wide variety of weather situations including rain, snow, hail, wind, extreme heat, and even shooting outdoors on one of the coldest days of the year last year when the mercury hit -47 degrees Celsius. If you are looking for an adaptable photographer to photograph your wedding, definitely find out how they are prepared to shoot in any situation.