Here’s a bunch of shots that came off of my point and shoot yesterday. The Canon G10 is a little bit of a high end p&s (or was – it’s since been discontinued and replaced with the G11) but I found mine on eBay for $250.
Everything was shot on manual mode, and the background blur was achieved by using macro mode.
The second bonus to having a point and shoot, is that you can bring it everywhere. It’s hard to carry around a big SLR everywhere you go (and sometimes unsafe) but a good point and shoot can go anywhere.
The only thing that beats it, is my iPhone (currently under maintenance – will return sometime next week) because it is with me everywhere. You can even get a free Photoshop app for your iPhone – or pick up Chase Jarvis’ Bestcam app.

Here’s a shot of Lori (The Caketress) on the beach before we found dinner. (Dinner may have been at 4:15pm, since we’re still on EST)

Oh- for the dinner story, we attempted to go to the restaurant from I Love You Man in Venice (Where Jason Segal claims they have the best fish tacos) but sadly, the kitchen didn’t open until 6pm. So we headed to Santa Monica and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co — which is a brilliant place to eat, as I’m allergic to shellfish, and their menu items are about 10:1 shrimp items to non-shell fish items.

And here’s a few shots of the Bayside Hotel in Santa Monica where we’re staying. Right across the street from the Pacific Ocean, and 2 blocks from the Santa Monica Pier.

So I thought things were going to calm down this fall/winter – things just got busier! I’m quite alright with this though, as it opened up a whole ton of travel.

Anyways, here are a few shots from my last trip to New York City(and a little skateboard shoot):

A quick shot of TJ at 1:30 in the afternoon, overpowered by flash.

If you follow my blog, you’ll notice that I end up in Las Vegas quite often. (6 times since November I think)  It’s just been random chance.

Things I’ve learned about Vegas:

• The guys that hand out flyers on Las Vegas Blvd will never leave you alone. If you’ve been there, you know what kind of flyers they hand out.
• The hotel room bathrooms at Ceasar’s Palace DO NOT HAVE A DOOR. But they have a phone beside the toilet, and TV infront of the mirror. I suppose this balances out.
• Bally’s is probably the best place to stay if you want a good room for $35 bucks a night. They’re nicer than the Holiday Inn, and dirt cheap. Oh, and in a great location.
• Fremont Street is hilarious, and contains approx. 25% of the U.S. tye dyed shirt population.
• THE GOLDEN NUGGET HAS A WATER SLIDE THAT GOES THROUGH A SHARK TANK. This is awesome.
• The airport has free wireless and slot machines – as well as sketchy 80s style mirrored ceilings.
• You can drink on the street.
• It’s hot.
• Really hot.
• Air Canada’s 30 Rock Episodes are way behind (they currently only go to season 2, episode 8 -)
• The pools sometimes contain 1 part water to 1 part tanning oil.
• There are way too many high end clothing shops there.
• Check out the photographer in Ceasar’s Palace shops. You’ll want to buy his shots for every wall in your house.

Anyways – this trip I took every single photo with a fisheye. Why? Because I think it’s funny – and to my knowledge no one else in the world has been dumb enough to try something like this.

Here are a few photos:

Takeoff in Toronto

Clouds.

Hotel rooms look much bigger with a fisheye (Paris)

Poolside at Paris

Paris wants to convince you that it’s always daytime out.

And flying home.

I’ve taken about 20 photos for myself while I’ve been down here — above is my hotel.

Warning: lots of text.

Quick point form summary:

• It’s the prefect temperature :: 20*C, and sunny.
• Pretty sure we saw a liquor store get robbed – or someone was really late and decided to run home with his purchase.
• There is a market for photojournalistic, artistic, corporate photography.
• I met a real life Dwight Schrute. He lives on a farm, and works in sales.
• Yesterday was square root day 03/03/09. The next one is 04/04/16. I learned this from real life Dwight Schrute. It was later confirmed by Kathryn, the head of marketing here.
• Every time I see a sign for the 405 I sing the first few words to 405 by Death Cab in my head.
• The job I’m here to photograph is all indoor photography.
• The office I’m currently sitting in smells of rich mahogany.
• Carl’s Jr (Burger place) makes me think of the fast food vending machine in the movie Idiocracy.
• It shouldn’t take 5+ hours to fly Toronto – LAX. Yah, that’s right, I’m complaining that a machine capable of self sustaining flight, that serves drinks, Quiznos sandwiches, and Simon Pegg movies.. takes too long to get across North America.
• I thought the screaming baby beside you only happened in bad romantic comedies. It happens in real life too.
• Air Canada has a spiffy touch screen seat-back entertainment system. It feels wrong watching movies for free on an airplane. I am unsure why.
• Air Canada’s spiffy touch screen seat-back entertainment system, has a tendency to freeze up and take 20 minutes to reboot. It must run on Windows.

Photobreak!

Downtown L.A. off in the distance. It’s pretty much like this for 200 square miles.

• The new(old now) James Bond movie was entertaining.
• How To Lose Friends And Alienate People was great. It’s no Shaun of The Dead, but it’s up there. I wonder how many fish bowls of dead gold fish Megan Fox received as a result of this movie.
• A can Red Bull attacked me, and I bled for a good 45 minutes.
• The office building I’m shooting in is on Corporate Drive. The hotel is not on Hotel Drive.
• My hotel room has a kitchen, livingroom, dining room, bedroom, and 2 tear bathroom, and it’s only $130 USD a night.
• I’m disappointed my hotel room does not contain a grand piano and spiral stair case.
• L.A. is a lot dirtier than it appears on The Hills.
• I have not seen LC (Lauren Conrad)
• I think I did see Tay Zonday though. (Youtube: Chocolate Rain)
• Some architectural photographers (well, at least one) still shoot 35mm film out here. Medium format..yah, I could see..but 35mm 800iso? Commonnow.
• It’s usually partly sunny while it rains.
• I’ve randomly talked to 3 OC wedding photographers via email/Facebook while I’ve been out here, not knowing they’re from OC. Wish I had time to grab lunch with them.
• Seeing a roadside open-air strawberry stand that says Open January 30th, armed with a man in a short sleeve t shirt makes a Canadian mind spin a little bit. The only thing that would make cars stop roadside in Ontario Jan 30th would be a free money stand.
• It’s really neat to see snow capped mountains off in the distance while it’s 70 degrees here.
• Some of the trees are leave-less and look like they’re straight out of Nightmare Before Christmas.

Photobreak 2!

• Everyone drives a brand new car here. Except those that drive original VW Bugs.
• Everything is really spread out, and you need a car to get anywhere – except Carl’s Jr, and Pollo Loco.
• Pollo Loco sounds a little too much like a chicken version of Mad Cow.
• Crazy Cow would be a better name for mad cow. Alleration makes bad things pleasant and humorous.
• I really have no time for personal photography here, but I’m coming back in May.
• We saw the Goodyear blimp hanging out on the ground.
• To get to the plaza across the street, you have to cross the street 3 times.
• The closest Quiznos closes at 7pm – even though 7pm here is 10EST, we’re always 10 minutes late to get there.
• Wendy’s in California looks 100% identical, inside and out, to Wendy’s in Waterloo.
• I have an overwhelming desire to drive through Compton on my way back to the airport. Thanks NWA.
• If I had a million dollars, I would buy you a monkey. Haven’t you always wanted a monkEY?

So yah, that’s about it for now. I’m off to photograph some advanced-visualization-3D-immersive-virtual-reality-simulation rooms. Which should be nice and tricky to portray on a still 2D photo. I’d show you the results, but it’s classified and whatnot. Much like everything else I’m doing here. Although, I am allowed to blog a few images I’ve taken here in late April..just have to wait for the public launch of the Network Operations Center. (Center, not Centre. I checked my spelling and grammar at the border)

Manhattan Beach California

BONUS END OF WEDNESDAY SPECIAL!

Ever seen the movie Who Killed The Electric Car?
Today I met up with one of the guys that leased an electric mini van, only to have it ripped away from him at the end of his term.

For those that haven’t seen the movie – more or less here it is:
In the late 90s/early 2000s all the major car manufacturers had entirely battery powered cars on the road in California. If you live anywhere else in the world…you probably didn’t even hear about this. You were not supposed to.
It was a car you’d plug in at night, and unplug in the morning, like a cell phone. They had a ~ 150 mile range, which is more than you’d ever drive on a daily basis, ran entirely clean, for pennies a day in hydro. They were not a whole lot more than regular cars to lease, but required 0 gas. Because there was no internal combustion happening, under the hood it was clean, and not a whole lot could go wrong. Basically, once you bought the car, you were done with paying into it. Maybe change the break pads and tires every few years, but there was no service required.

Then all those cars were revoked at the end of their lease (everyone begged and pleaded to buy it out, but they wouldn’t let you). They eventually flattened all of the electric cars, and covered it up.
Why you may ask? Well… big oil has a lot of pull in North America — and the car companies would have to redesign their entire infrastructure. The service department would pretty much disappear..jobs, etc. I’m certain the car companies could deal with it, but oil and gas companies would go extinct in a hurry.

The car companies blamed the halt in production of these vehicles due to a ‘lack of market.’  They decided that the market wanted bigger cars, and GM purchased the Hummer franchise shortly after(same day even?) pulling all the EVs off the road.

Their fear was that you’d ride in one, and want one.
So eventually Chevron (oil and gas) ‘bought out’ the battery the cars were using, and refused to license it out to anyone.

So yes, completely electric cars existed, they stolen back from the owners, flattened, and likely buried in the desert somewhere. Probably because of big oil.

Anyways, watch the movie. It’s good. Then give the movie to all of your friends. It’s not a conspiracy story per se…because it actually happened.

Larry (electric car owner that I hung out with today) knows everything about this (since well…uhh, he testified on behalf of electric cars) and it was really neat to hear about his experiences with trying to keep his electric car.

Larry also took Arlonna (marketing associate) and I on a mini tour of the Pacific ocean front. First we stopped at Manhattan Beach, and visions of the movie Blow came back to me. Not a lot looks to have changed, and I had an eye open for George Jung and Tuna.
From there we headed up the coast to Venice Beach. Back at the turn of the century the idea for Venice beach was to make it a canal community, so that’s what they did. Eventually they paved over the canals and made city streets..though they did leave a few.

I’m now sitting at the Radisson, 9th floor, overlooking the tarmac at LAX. Flight home tomorrow AM.

Venice Canals, California.

LAX..currently looking down at this sign while typing.

March 5 edit:

Mountains on the way home

*yes, I’m considering photographs from 2008 lost and forgotten. The world moves fast.

I have a 2007/2008 mix of wedding photos that I will be posting tomorrow at some point as well.

Enjoy!

Kitchener Ontario Photographer Taylor Jackson 2008 (and before) Favorites from Taylor Jackson on Vimeo.

It’s also up at youtube in less than favorable quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOR3zsYpHg

I love the screen tests running in the middle of the room.

For those unfamiliar with the event, more or less, it’s a city block of music. You download one of the songs off of website, and you play it over speakers (boombox, ipod speakers, etc). The general idea is that every single person in the crowd will be hearing a different mix of music, creating a unique listening experience. It happens all across the world.

Anyways, here’s a few quick photos from the event:

They shut down a section of Galt for this.

It’s hard to keep your lens clean in a blizzard.

Warning: Here comes a slew of disconnected paragraphs.

During the course of the week, three new amazing couples signed with me, and I’m so happy to get to photograph all of their unique weddings. The ideas range for Centre in the Square – to The Children’s Museum, or on top of Talisman Ski Hill (complete with gondola rides) – to the possibility of a wedding in Brazil.
Unique weddings need a unique photographer I suppose.

Tomorrow, I’m doing a trash the dress session with 2 brides. Hint: It involves paint. Lots of primary coloured paint.

Later in the week, it’s off to Las Vegas / L.A. – I’ll bring back pictures, lots of pictures.

I’m getting really excited for Anna & Matt, and Kristen & Josh’s weddings. They’re my two winter couples for December (Dec 20 – Cambridge, and 27 – Niagara Falls). I’m hoping for just a touch of snow, with warm temperatures in the afternoon.

Tonight is my first Saturday off in quite a while (that’s the life of a wedding photographer), and it just so happens to be one of my good friends birthdays. So, in celebration, 18 of us are taking a Hummer limo to Hamilton. I don’t think any specific plans have been made past that. Anyways, happy birthday Andres! (Aka Fes – stemming from a resemblance to Fes from That 70s Show..which just so happened to be his Halloween costume this year)

Oh, I should add a few photos here. This is a photography blog after all. Last weekend I took some photos of Hollie and her beautiful puppy, Jake.

Jake has more energy than any living being probably should. He calmed down for thirty seconds, and I snapped the above. Hollie is a wonderful hairdresser that works at Cowboys and Angels in Uptown Waterloo.

That’s all for today! Thank you for following my scattered thoughts. I’ll get the trash the dress photos up as soon as possible, because I know a ton of people are looking forward to them. My good friend Marshall Angus is coming out to video tape the experience, so you’ll get all the sights, sounds and ..well, I guess no smells, but you probably know what paint smells like anyways.
I called up my brand new 2009 assistant to ask if she wanted to join in the fun tomorrow, but apparently she’s in New York City! Julie and I went to NYC for the Easter Weekend this year, so I will use this an excuse to post a few photos from my travels there.

From atop the Rockefeller Center.

Outside in Greenpoint Brooklyn

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in January. Cold.

Surreal water under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Textures.

Leaving from LaGuardia x 2

January, I drove down with KW band named Gran Casino, to photograph their journey recording with Alex Newport (Mars Volta, At The Drive In, System of a Down) in Brooklyn. Over Easter, Julie and I nabbed the last room of an AMAZING hotel room sale, and drove down. 8 hour drive from Kitchener, and it only took my Corolla about a tank and a quarter of gas. Impressive.

Ok, that’s all. I swear. This has been my longest blog to date. My next post will likely come from Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
See you then!

Taylor

I’ll be launching a brand new commercial website in the near future, I just need to find some time to get it all up and going.

Kitchener Wedding Photographer