New Site, New BLOG: www.26mertonroad.com

OK, so my plan to upload a new image every day for the entire summer (while living abroad in the UK) has not happened. Not for lack of trying…it’s just that I leave my house at 6:45ish, walk 20 minutes to the tube, take the tube for, on average, an hour (EACH WAY), stumble around after leaving the tube trying to juggle a coffee, my A-Z and moleskin that has the address of the studio scrawled on one of the pages…and then do all that again (minus the coffee and map) on my way home. And I only get home likely around 9ish…as I’ll grab a drink at the pub with a friend or two after we have cleaned up at the studio for the day.

So I get back, have dinner with my “family” and then bath, hit the sack and then it starts all over again the next day.

I am so tired I can barely function…but SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY I CAN’T EVEN BEGIN TO TELL YOU.

Looooooove it here. Love who I’m living with, love where I live (yes, I’m a North-of-the-River girl), LOVE WHAT I’M DOING, love who I’m meeting, (did I mention that I love who I get to meet and work with every single day?), love what I’m learning…I guess you can say that I am one happy girl.

And to top it all off…this lovely creamy icing on my cake…I have a new website (I worked with the outstanding Relish Design group in getting this designed and up and running…best people you could work with) and blog. What does that mean? Well, when I actually get time to function, I will be posting blog entries on my new site (blog and site are now one) here: 26mertonroad.com.

So if you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think!

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Cross Processed Film – Christie & Evan continued…

I used my Holga with slide film and processed it like prints…and voila.

Quirky perfection!

Christie & Evan = MAGIC

No words for these two…well, ok, that’s not entirely true…I feel as though I have loved Christie since before time and because of that, have fallen head over heels for Evan.  Can’t even begin to explain the adventure of last Saturday with these two.  It began with Christie calling and wondering if she should bring some props (which of course I jumped all over and said YES) to them picking me up for the drive outside the city – I could BARELY cram my 6 foot long body in their back seat because Christie, bless her soul, had FILLED the ENTIRE car up with props.

Gotta love that girl.  Never met anyone quite like that gem…

Anyway, we cruised out to the country, drank tea, giggled, threw rocks in the water, had wardrobe changes (!!), bathed in bug dope, SCALED THE SIDE OF A TALL BUILDING (I thought the end times had arrived), met a really neat artist who coached me up further and further…”DON’T LOOK DOWN, JUST DON’T LOOK DOWN” and ended up with these…

Father’s Day

How can you tell my family is ALL about the meat?

Here’s to all of you who need a visual step-by-step guide to cleaning fish and grilling steak over the open fire (courtesy of my dad and brother).

*Cheers to you dad, for being so wonderful and lovely…and for putting up with the craziness of your kids! We can be quite the handful…someday you are going to have to tell me how you manage to stay sane with 3 VERY strong willed children just an hour and a half away!*

There is nothing like a slab of red meat to shake things up a bit

in case you are wondering, i am not a vegetarian.  don’t get me wrong, i dig veggies BIG TIME…but red meat makes me salivate no matter what time of day.

here we are shooting the steak section for ANNA Magazine (www.annamagazine.ca), desserts and few other gems along the way.  looooong day, but wow. tons of fun…and of course, we got to eat it all the end. marisa, you can cook for me ANY DAY of the week.

Fresh Halibut and Olivado Oil

monday was spent photographing halibut drizzled with olivado oil – and the best part? DEVOURING it as soon as we called it a wrap.

best fish i’ve ever had. hands down.

below shows how we get that “perfect” shot…positioning and then re-positioning and then tweaking and then changing it all again. only at the last minute do we actually add the feature of the shot. fish gets prepared to perfection, shot is prepped and ready and then it’s go time! we have literally seconds to take the shot and make sure it’s mouth-watering.

…and yes, we nailed it.

we also got in a new shot for our pork ribs……can i say, UNREAL? unfortunately my diet restricts me from eating loads of yummy things like this, but who’s to say that i can’t have a treat every once in a while, hmm?

‘MIA Born Free’ inspired model shoot

Just back from the shoot and wanted to get a few of these bad boys up before the end of the day – more to come folks!

3 beauties.

Hair & makeup | Freshair Boutique
Styling | Tony Chestnut
Photography | 26 Merton Road

(I love my job)

Is it not the best…

when you find a gem, hidden amongst the busyness of the city, all by chance?

I was just in Denver for meetings (part of this working group of professionals representing different parts of the world, building a business plan for a retreat center being built in the Congo as well as planning a photography trip to document in a coffee table book the reality of village life in the Congo) and as soon as we adjourned Sat night, myself and two other attendees took our rental car and headed into the city.  With not a clue as to where we were going.

This is where we ended up…

I had to shoot this in the bathroom…love the mirrors in vintage frames!

Maple Grove Tea Room and Second Hand Shopping

Two of the best things in the world: tea and vintage finds.

Had the pleasure of spending a few hours with my girl, Lors (El Dee as some like to call her), putzing around north of the city. Happened to stumble upon a neighborhood car boot sale (you Brits will know what I mean) so of course had to SLAM on my brakes, whip around the car and drive into the mud filled lot (which of course didn’t work well with my choice of shoes) just so we could partake.

And partake we did…check out the gems I found…

And then to top off the best day ever, we stuffed our faces with soup, quiche, sandwiches, bread and pie. YUM.

IISD – New President and 20th Anniversary

What an honor to be asked to photograph this momentous event.  When Sue Barkman emailed me (through facebook no less!) a few months back asking if I would be available for this party at the Fort Garry hotel I didn’t even have to check my schedule – of COURSE I’d photograph it for you!  Of COURSE I’d move mountains to be there…

Met some unbelievably interesting folks while working the crowd and found that as the night wore on, I was getting more and more inspired to somehow be part of this group – how can I help sustain the planet we live on? What part can I play in this? Who knew just how much IISD has already done for us? I left feeling both inspired yet ashamed…I really can do more than just recycle boxes and plastic bags.

I just need to be creative with how I approach it…ideas anyone??