Dave and I are totally honoured and completely shocked! The blog has been nominated for the Best Photography Blog through the Bloggers Choice Awards (sorta like the Oscars in the world of blogging) and it’s quickly moving to the top of the list!! This is so awesomely UN…believable…and even though we’re still in shock we’ve been recruiting everyone we can to vote and help the blog reach #1. Some of you may have seen the little "Bloggers Choice" button at the top of each blog post, that shortcut takes you straight to the site and makes it super-easy to click and vote!!

It only takes a minute and it would totally rock if we actually won! We can’t thank you all enough for the positive feedback and casting all of the votes we’ve already tallied. We’re really not that far from the top of the list so maybe your vote could be the one to push us to #1! Oh ya…you can only vote once per category…sorry Mom.

Wow. We just arrived home from one of the most romantic and spectacular weddings of the Summer.

Charlotte will fill you in on the details of the day in a post next week, but we wanted to share the slideshow of photos that the Jennifer and Brent asked us to project at the end of the evening as a surprise to their friends and family.

We put down our cameras around 10pm, and by 11 we rolled the projector into the reception hall and presented the following slideshow….

The response from family and friends was overwhelming. There were many tears of joy shared throughout the slideshow and a LOT of very sweet gestures between fathers and daughters, husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends.

I tell you honestly - I’ve never been so taken aback by people’s love for one another at a wedding.

We’ll tell you more about the day next week, but in the meantime we hope you enjoyed the photos : )

Cheers, Dave and Charlotte.

The telephone rang. Even though it was 2 am in Korea, John had a important job to do…book a wedding photographer in Toronto. John once called Canada home and up until university lived here with his family. Korea’s high demand for finance related jobs brought John, a Stock Broker, overseas to pursue his dream career. While working in Korea another dream was about to come true when he met the love of his life, Jung. He noticed the pretty girl with the adorable laugh and knew that she was something special.

Unlike John, Jung had always called Korea home and once John popped the question the travel plans began. This would be Jung’s first visit to Canada and what better reason then to marry the man she loves. John and Jung were having a traditional Korean wedding so it was very important to them to have a photographer that was experienced and knew to respect and honour these traditions.

The couple has a large family on both sides so getting everyone overseas is a big feat. Jung’s immediate family flew over with the couple and to celebrate the big day. The celebrations will continue on when they arrive home to Korea where they have another party planned to honour their marriage.

After the ceremony we strolled around Edwards Gardens and caught some candid shots of the two together for the first time as man and wife. Jung looked so beautiful and you could just see how happy John was to have her as his bride. These two were so cute together, they laughed and played around and were up for anything Dave and I had up our sleeves.

John and Jung have flown home to Korea after a short visit and beautiful wedding. Congratulations to you both and we were so honoured you selected us to photograph the most important day of your life!!

We’re very pleased to announce the winner of our Spring Photo Contest… Michael Matner!! Congratulations Michael! You have won a $100 Fitness One gift certificate and a $100 Dave Biesse Workshop gift certificate good for any of our workshops, both prizes are transferable so feel free to pass them along to anyone you’d like. Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest and keep a look out for the next contest coming soon…

6.7.8…We’re not sure if they planned it this way, but June 7, 2008 was definitely the "it" date for couples to get married this year. As the inquiries came rolling in for this "primo" date, we had already cleared our calendar for this very sweet, completely adorable, match-made-in-heaven couple…Isabelle & Scott.

We arrived to Isabelle’s condo on this lovely spring afternoon. Glancing around Isabelle’s home I couldn’t help but notice not only what a great photographer she is, but that she had so many photos from her engagement shoot beautifully framed and displayed. Seeing the photos again made Dave reflect on what an awesome couple they were and how much fun they were to photograph. As I was shooting the details…dress, bouquet, engagement ring and invites I stumbled upon a little brown jewelry box in the mix. I opened it up and saw a set of absolutely stunning diamond stud earrings… Scott had sent them to Isabelle as a wedding gift for his bride to be…what a romantic!

An ivory limousine delivered us like royalty to our second stop, The Manor in Kettleby. This was a gorgeous little spot to tie the knot with rolling hills overlooking a quaint little pond and every so often you’d catch a glimpse of the resident swan sailing by. To top everything else off, the big blue sky made for a spectacular back drop…It really was heavenly.

Although the weather was beautiful and very warm, everyone made an effort to stay cool and refreshed including the bridal bouquets. They definitely managed to withstand the hot, hot heat and stayed perfectly flawless throughout the day.

Everything from the table settings, endless delectable cuisine, charming wedding cake down to the jelly beans that coordinated with the bridal bouquets was planned to a "T".

As predicted, once again Isabelle and Scott were so much fun and a total pleasure to work with. Dave and I had a fantastic time shooting their wedding day!! Hmmm…now with 6/7/8 gone I wonder who will be the lucky couple to book 8/8/8 ??

Dave and I recently had the honour to shoot the wedding of a really fun and fabulous couple…meet Ravenna and Graham!

When Rav and Graham met, they lived on other sides of the country, Rav on west coast and Graham on the east. But soon enough their love for each other would bring them together and now they are man and wife. I just love fairytale stories like this.

We started off the day at Osgoode Hall, a beautiful spot in downtown Toronto to shoot because of it’s unique old world charm. We were so lucky to have gorgeous pink cherry blossoms flowing in the wind it really was enchanting!

From Osgoode Hall, the wedding party hit the streets. Dave and I had a few choice locations in mind but we couldn’t resist the Canada Life Building and the nearby TD Tower made for a few stylin’ shots.

No that’s not a Harry Rosen ad, that’s Graham and his Groomsmen rockin’ it…as Dave would say!

After the shoot we made our way to Canoe Restaurant, one of Toronto’s most exclusive fine dining experiences. It’s located on the 52nd floor of the TD Tower and the views of the Toronto skyline are as spectacular as the food! As the guests were awaiting the Bridal Party, we caught these little darlings doing what they do best…kids just being kids

The little flower girl was soo cute, she loved sniffing her beautiful bouquet during the ceremony. Hmmm, I guess we should all take the time to stop and smell the roses sometimes!

After a beautiful Wedding and Tea Ceremony Rav and Graham were now husband and wife! With so many friends and family along to celebrate the day you knew this couple is loved by many great people.

Because Ravenna and now Graham are such Foodie’s they did not hold out in the cuisine department!! Everything from the hors d’oeuvres to the desserts were absolutely delectable. The details were just as fabulously done…great job you two…and the floral bouquets were absolutely breathtaking.

It was the end to what couldn’t have been a more perfect day. Dave and I loved being a part of it all and to document the union of this really sweet couple. Congratulations you two!!

It’s official - this has to be by far the coolest invitation I’ve ever received for a wedding!

We are shooting Natasha & Kester’s destination wedding in Barbados this September - and we can’t wait!

Since meeting these guys last Summer, we’ve become not only great friends but we’re working on some ideas for products that will blow you away when they’re released in October. The wedding invitations were hand delivered, which made it even more exciting to receive! Check out the photos!!

Amazing work guys! Can’t wait to Meet you in Paradise!

I’m pretty excited to share these shots with you. As I mentioned in the last post, Charlotte and I were down in Las Vegas recently for the annual wedding photographers convention (wppi). While there we met a LOT of very cool photographers…. One of my new friends is Holly Henderson. Holly, along with good friends Tif and Alex, and of course Charlotte and I pooled our resources to set up a really cool fashion shoot.

We looked at lots of locations, and in the end Holly came up with the gold… the penthouse suite of the Red Rock Hotel… I tell you guys, this suite had it all… marble floors, glass walls, 1″ thick stainless steel countertops, stunning photography on the walls and so on.

Totally wicked fun to be in a $20,000 per night suite… wish I were more accustomed to it!

We recently had an awesome trip to Las Vegas to attend the annual WPPI convention… Charlotte and I had the most awesome travel buddies - tif & alex of lifeimages.ca. We had a ball the whole time, met some amazing photographers, took a road trip to the Grand Canyon, and generally “did vegas”!

I’ll be posting more shots soon, but wanted to share this amazing shot I got of my girlfriend, Charlotte.

Dave & Ebony’s wedding on Saturday was beautiful. The forecast was for 38 degrees, which is always a bit scary when you’re getting married in a stone church during an Australian Summer… but a cool change hit during the ceremony, and by 3pm the temperature was reasonable and there was a gentle breeze blowing.

My friendship with both Dave and Ebony goes back many years… our dad’s all lived on campus when they were at university… so we literally knew each other from birth. As you can imagine, it was a real treat to be there capturing their love on film as they committed their lives to each other.

Dave spent several years in London, where he and I caught up during my 3 visits there… Each time we’d talk about how he was missing Ebony and looking forward to being near her to see if things would progress to a new level. So arriving in Adelaide and seeing them so in love was great.

Enjoy the slideshow.

Happy New Year!!!

I writing from Australia, where I’ve flown to photograph the wedding of great friends of mine - David and Ebony.

Their wedding is fast approaching, so today we took a drive up to check out their venues and do an engagement shoot at the same time.

This week has been scorching hot, with yesterday being the hottest New Years Eve in over 100 years… a whopping 44 degrees! That’s 111 Fahrenheit to our American friends.

Dave & Ebony are a very cool, very much in love couple and it was a real pleasure to be out shooting with them today. It’s got me even more pumped about this Saturday! Stay tuned for those early next week : )

Music: “I’ve Just Seen A Face” by the Beatles, performed by Jim Sturgess (from Across the Universe)… awesome film by the way!

Did you know that approximately one in every 65 men and women will develop Leukemia in their lifetime?

That’s a scary fact.

Imagine A Cure for Leukemia are hosting their 2nd annual fund raiser to increase awareness of this valuable cause on June 7th.

We are proud to sponsor this cause by providing photography during the event, as well as offering a family portrait session in the silent auction.

It’s just one of the ways we give back to the community.

If you’re able to make it along to the event, we’d love to see you there, and who knows, you might be the winning bidder for our family portraits!

The gift certificate you’ll receive if you’re are the winning bidder in the silent auction : )

If you’d like to donate any items to this charity, please contact Nara via their website.

If you’re looking for photographic coverage for a charitable event, please contact us via our charitable events page. Thanks : )

UPDATE:

A friend of mine just sent me this :

I just checked out your blog, here’s the latest in leukemia. the guy that did the research is *amazingly* talented and probably benefited from the kind of fundraising that you’re supporting.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/04/27/leukemia-stem-cells.html

Thanks for the link Heidi.