I'm A Photographer

In this day and age we hear this all too often, "I'm a photographer" or even better when someone is looking to get wedding photos taken, "My Uncle/Friend has a really good camera" I don't doubt that they do have a good camera, anyone can buy a good camera these days, they are becoming very affordable for everyone, but the truth of the matter is, it doesn't really matter what kind of camera you or your uncle or friend have, if you they don't know how to use it you still won't get great photos.
I decided to put this to the test while I was in Vegas last week... all the photos I posted below from my trip (with the exception of the cell phone pics) came from my wife"s point and shoot camera, but I thought it would be really great to put this to a real test. As we were walking through one of the many hotels I came across a really neat looking little fountain, so I gave the camera to a random person in the mall and let them take a photo of the fountain....



After that I took the same camera, still a point and shoot, and used it to it's full potential and created the photo below...



I think it's pretty safe to assume that this demonstration proves that the camera does not make the photo, you still need a photographer to turn the images into something that will take your breath away.

The question....

... how do you know that someone loves you??? Among many other things they buy you an iPod Touch for your birthday :) That's what my wife and family got me for my birthday... I was totally surprised by this, what an awesome gift. Thank you!



Now incase any of you out there were going to buy me something for my birthday it's not for a couple of weeks yet :) but we celebrated my birthday along with my niece's and sister-in-law's birthday on Sunday.

I think I should be pretty much caught up with my blogging now for the day... wow... 3 posts in one day... or was it more? I lost count.

A Few More

Here are a few more random shots that I got this last week, the photos of the colorful "buttons" are the front of Planet Hollywood... turns out I really liked these, I had like a hundred shots of these when I got home. What can I say I like colorful shiny things I guess :)





The last day in Vegas we rented a car and drove just out of Vegas to Red Rock Canyon, only about 20 mins outside of the city. These shots don't do it much justice, especially the small panoramic photos... you really need to see these large to get the best view of them.

Le Burger Brasserie

It's been a while since you've heard from me, I ended up coming home from Vegas being sick and slept pretty much all weekend and am just starting to feel better now... not the best way to end a great trip.

So a few stories and photos to catch everyone up on things, Tuesday afternoon I went for lunch with a couple of friends and we went to Le Burger Brasserie in Paris Las Vegas, a great restaurant the features all sorts of burgers and fries, but not just your ordinary burgers. I was looking through the menu and found the '777 Burger' which was priced at a reasonable $7.77, which being the frugal person that I am thought was a great deal. After we finished the meal our waitress brought us our bill... I guess I had misread the menu the '777 Burger' was actually $777.00, so I did the only logical thing I could think of ... I offered to arm wrestle the waitress for the bill... I lost...



Haahaahaaaa Well okay so I didn't actually order that burger but it did exist on the menu and I definitely would of lost an arm wrestling match to our waitress as well .... YIKES!!

Quick update

Sorry I haven't posted any updates the last couple of days. The seminars have been running late and starting early so I haven't had the time to post more updates. I'll try to get something more up tonight if time allows. I'm heading out to watch Stomp tonight, I'm sure that will be awesome and possibly walking the strip for a bit after that. Tomorrow I'm planning to head out of Vegas for the day and go to Red Rock Canyon. I'll be posting more images when I get home, I've got some great ones you're gonna love. Well back to relaxing around the pool have to enjoy this weather while I'm here.
-
Steve Hiebert
Personal Expressions Photography
Website: www.personalexpressions.ca
Blog: www.personalexpressionsphotography.blogspot.com

--sent from blackberry mobile device--

A couple of shots

It was great to spend a day out on the strip... and it was a long day, my feet are killing me right now, but on the up side I think I might of got too much sun today, my face is feeling pretty warm. I had some fun just doing random shots around Vegas today... I felt like a real tourist though hold this little camera up in front of me... oh well I guess I am a tourist. Here are a couple of the photos that I got.





We also wandered into the Fashion Show Mall where I found the most amazing chair you'll ever see. It was a masasge chair, now I've seen and tried many different massage chairs, some of the high end chairs running at $5000.00 pluss dollars, I have to admit they were nice but this chair made all the past chairs disappear from my memory... WOW what a chair. It's one of those things that you just have to experience it yourself to fully appreciate it. If you ever find your self around The Sharper Image you have to stop in to check out this chair, and the staff there was amazing as well, what a great place.

We made it

Well we made it Vegas after waiting at the airport for our shuttle for almost an hour last night. We've got a couple of short sessions today and other than that we're walking strip taking in the sites.
I also need to apologize for the poor quality of these photos but the cell phone cam is the quickest way of putting these up here. Have a great weekend.
-
Steve Hiebert
Personal Expressions Photography
Website: www.personalexpressions.ca
Blog: www.personalexpressionsphotography.blogspot.com

--sent from blackberry mobile device--

A parting shot

Anita and Kai just dropped me off at the airport. We walked around a little and found this super cute hat that was even cuter when we put it on Kai's head. Oh wait I think everything is cuter on Kai ... Hahaha. I miss you guys already, love you peanut.
-
Steve Hiebert
Personal Expressions Photography
Website: www.personalexpressions.ca
Blog: www.personalexpressionsphotography.blogspot.com

--sent from blackberry mobile device--

Vegas Baby...

We're off and running to the airport... check back here through out the upcoming week as I'm gonna try to post updates as to what's going on at the convention. Talk to you all soon.

Vegas Here We Come...

Only a couple of days till we leave... I'm so pumped about this. We're heading down to the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention in Vegas, starting March 14th. We went last year and just had to go again this year and am thinking this should become an annual thing... unless I loose all my money in the casinos or buying new toys :-) . It's the largest photography convention in the world, more than 10000 photographers from around the world, with the very best photographers in the industry conducting classes through out the week. This should gives us lots of great ideas for this coming years work.
I'll be out of the office until after the Easter weekend but will be checking my emails while I"m gone, so the best place to reach me will be by email at personalexpressions@gmail.com

Honesty

I got a cheque for a scheduled payment from a client of mine the other day... a couple of days later I got another check from her, same amount... there wasn't another payment due for a while, so I found it rather odd to be getting a second check from her only days later. Before I went to deposit these cheques I figured I should double check with the client to see if this was her intention to make an advanced payment or something. When I called her and asked she kinda laughed, "Well I guess there are still some honest people out there." was her response.
Turns out she had lost the cheque she had written out to me on the street while walking through Osborne Village the other day, somebody found the check and mailed it to me, this person even put the clients return address on the outside of the envelope. They must of looked us up online and found our mailing address and sent it off to make sure the payment came through to us on time. If the person responsible for doing this is out there somewhere reading this, let me say THANK YOU! It's great to know that there are still caring honest people like you out there.

Fresh from the studio

I have to admit I'm terrible when it comes to getting my own daughter into the studio for photos. I have certain clients come by and I'm like Oh yeah I guess it's time for pictures of Kai :-) Anyway this was one of those times where we ended up in the studio, actually I think she was the one asking to go into the studio for photos. I played around with some available light shots, I just love the look you get from them.

Anders & Marla

I had the privilege of photographing this great family yesterday, we had a lot of fun, some fast paced shooting which is always the case with kids involved.







I love these shots but my favorite of the day had to be this one...

Take your best shot

So I did this awesome photo shoot today of a beautiful model... it was great to get away from the cold for a while and have some fun on the beach... well okay so maybe I didn't leave my office. This site is hilarious... I came across it today and figured I'd share it on here. You become the photographer and can virtually take photos of this model ... check it out for your self.