Oh, and it just so happens that I took my new favorite wedding photo of all time:

Here’s a few more from the day:

I really like that last shot, even though it was a complete mistake. If I’m battling two drastically different lighting conditions, I’ll set my main camera to one configuration (in this case, the bright daylight filled bridal room at St. George Hall) and another camera to the second configuration (the ceremony room, dark, incandescent lights) – this shot was taken with the dark room camera. I saw this pop up on the LCD, and instead of switching, I just shot a few more with the wrong camera.
My grade 8 art teacher told me something along the lines of: Art is knowing which mistakes to keep.
I think this was one of those situations.

I’m off to Houston and Vegas this week, so I’ll post something new from my travels before the week is through.

The story didn’t actually start here, this was just my favorite. It was taken on the back step of a Cantonese place in uptown..that bag to the left is full of eaten lobster claws. We were all a little awkward/jumpy around these shells..I’m unsure why.

Train tracks near Victoria Street. We stopped to snag some shots on the train cars, but I liked this the best.

Back to the Cantonese place.

Cliche orange wall.

Opposite the orange wall.

Alleyway behind the Vault.

Sketchy building.

In the parking lot of Home Hardware…what?  The lighting was awesome.

Here’s a few photos from the day:

Happy to say that UW leaves their lecture halls open all the time. So we took advantage.

Alright. So on Monday I’m off to Las Vegas, for a few photos at Showest (cinema industry tradeshow), and a drive from Vegas, to L.A. to Malibu and back. I should bring back lots of photos. Looks like next Sunday, I’ll also be heading to New York City to photograph Grand Central Stations BMW exhibit. And April 21st, it’s back to Vegas for NAB (Broadcasting, media, entertainment and communications tradeshow) Should be a fun month.

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

Locations and venues in this video:

• La Hacienda Sarria, Kitchener
• Liuna Station
• Ancaster Old Mill, Ancaster
• Carmen’s, Hamilton / Toronto
• The Pines, Cambridge
• David’s Fine Dining, Port Dover
• Mill Race Park, Cambridge (Galt)
• McMaster Football Field
• Firerock Golf Course, London
• Puddicombe House, New Hamburg
• Old City Hall, Toronto
• Lilies White Flower & Gift Shop, Uptown Waterloo (Thanks for the beautiful bright green paint job your brought to Waterloo Town Square!)
• Waterloo Town Square, and other local locations
• Various brick walls around southern Ontario
• Langdon Hall, Cambridge
• A backyard in Guelph
• Waterloo Park
• Starbucks, Uptown Waterloo
• Courtyard by Marriot, Hamilton
• The Hilton, Niagara Falls
• Piazza, Hamilton
• Arden Park, Stratford
• D&D, Scarborough
• Rockway Gardens, Kitchener
• Hamilton Christian Fellowship, Hamilton
• Riverside Park, Cambridge
• Saugeen Street Rock Gardens, Kincardine
• Ellis Chapel, Cambridge (Hespeler)
• Kitchener Holiday Inn
• Parkview United, Stratford
• Minolta Towers, Niagara Falls
• Toronto City Hall, Downtown Toronto.
• Chatham
• Blessed Sacrament, Kitchener
• Concordia Club, Kitchener
• Soper Park Cambridge
• and various other abandon buildings, parking garages, supermarkets, etc

Wow, that ended up being quite the list. Enjoy the video:

Kitchener Wedding Photographer – Taylor Jackson Photography – 2008 Highlights from Taylor Jackson

*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.

The first! This is the most exciting for me – starting next week, I will be offering a full black and white photography package. All day wedding coverage, fine art album, and every photograph in black and white. That’s right. No colour. A ton of wedding photographers out in the UK are shooting primarily black and white, and I would like to bring some of that overseas.

We’ll see how this works out. I may have to bring in one or two colour images just to break up the feel of the album, and make it more exciting.

The second! with most full day coverage packages, I’m going to try to do a day-of slideshow. I won’t officially offer this, but if I have the time over dinner to edit together a quick slideshow, I will.  For now, I’ll just run it on my laptop and put it somewhere out of the way after the first dances.

The third! Recently, a couple I met with came to me with the idea of doing guest photos as party favours. Now… it’s a little more tricky than that – what we’re going to do is set up a little photo area. Guests will come over to us, we’ll take the photo, load it to a laptop, print out a 5×7, frame it, and give it to the guest.  All within 10 – 15 minutes. Should be a fun time!

Like always, I’m open to any and every idea a couple can bring me, so don’t be shy.

Alright, now I’m off to a bridal shoot at the Puddicombe House in New Hamburg.  Stay warm!

The morning after, I woke up to 90-100KM/h winds, that made the morning walk to Starbucks and epic mission. They even closed to the Skyway in Burlington because of it.

All and all, a great weekend!