Growing up, I had the opportunity to live in some interesting places. I thank my parents for that. My father was an academic who preached health promotion around the world before people knew what it meant. He taught me that smoking was bad, exercise was good and Skippy peanut butter was full of sugar.
Moving around a lot as a kid allowed me to meet lots of different people. There was Leonard, my neighbour in France, who’s father was a Jewish American and mother was German. The kid spoke 4 languages fluently at the age of 7! And then there was my extended family (3rd cousins once removed, I think) living on kibbutz in Israel. Man, did they ever dump a lot of sugar in their tea. I thought the abandoned tank, left-over from the 6 day war, rusting on the outskirts of the kibbutz was really cool.
Once we settled, we found ourselves in Nepean, Ontario with an address of: “1 Revol Road”. Apparently, it was originally named Lover’s Lane, but somebody launched a complaint to city hall – too racy. They reversed the letters and called it a day. I still keep in touch with a few of my dungeon and dragons buddies from that street …
Later in adult life, I lived in London, England for a few years. I drank a lot of beer, ate pies, traveled all around Europe and met lots of folks along the way.
Somewhere along the way, I picked up a camera, started taking pics of all those folks and I haven’t looked back. Now taking photos for a living allows me to continue meeting interesting people from around the world. I consider myself pretty lucky. I love my work.
My business takes me to the homes/parks of Vancouver to capture unique family photography and into the studio to capture images used for commercial purposes. Clients such as the Vancouver 2010 Olympic committee have kept me busy over the last few years – showing off my city and the constructions of the Olympic Venues to the world has been a real treat.
Whether it’s a big shoot with make-up artists, stylists and models or a shoot in your home, I take a relaxed, laid back approach to get the most natural people photos possible.
I currently call Vancouver, BC home where I live with my wife and two young boys. They keep me on my toes. The older one begs me to buy Skippy peanut butter instead of the 100% ground peanuts that I pick up from the health food store. He’ll learn with time.