One of the many delights of my work is being able to spend time with a small group of dedicated entrepreneurs and business folk while performing my function as a photographer capturing their portraits and other aspects of their enterprise.Post-shoot, I typically like to highlight the individual or company on LinkedIn to express my gratitude for their collaboration and cooperation in helping to make for an incredibly successful photography session. And what can we say about HydroEQ’s David Dockman, their Geologist, who helped us hump our gear to our vehicle that I mistakenly parked too far away! Thank you, David! Above and beyond, for sure!So rather than try to condense the merits and focus of their company using my own words, I figure it would be far better to borrow from J.P. Bechtold, President & CEO, of HydroEQ, LinkedIn’s site, as follows…“HydroEQ Inc. is …an environmental consulting company dedicated to addressing water issues in the mining sector. We created this company to make a difference and help achieve a sustainable balance between economic prosperity, environmental protection, and societal health. We are client-focused and provide effective and practical solutions to …

I am not quite sure how long we have been providing photography for Kristjan Thorsteinson, who is the President and CEO of Essential Meetings + Incentives, and a founding partner, but it must be approaching a very satisfying decade that always finds us filled with excitement for every opportunity to photograph him and his fun, super engaging team. They have moved into a larger, more accommodating space and we can’t wait to see what it will offer for photographic possibilities And to offer a quick blurb on this fantastic enterprise….’Essential Meetings is a performance improvement company whose sole priority is to improve their clients’ business results. Since 1999, they have designed and delivered Incentive Travel, Merchandise Rewards and Loyalty Programs, Meetings & Conferences, Corporate Retreats, Continuing Education, Employee Engagement initiatives and Site Selection services to some of Canada’s largest corporations.’ It’s great to be able to ‘toot the horn’ for our incredible clients to whom we provide our photography services! 

Last month we completed a fun photo session using the famous King Eddy Hotel in downtown Calgary, Alberta to photograph Ted Fleming, the founder of Partake Brewing Partake Brewing When Ted needed a great tasting NA (non-alcoholic) beer to enjoy with friends and fit in with his dialed-in life, he rolled up his sleeves and invented one himself. He had a clear vision to create a NA beer that achieved the best-flavour with the lowest calories possible. This hadn’t been done before and to my knowledge hasn’t been replicated since. The result is an award-winning beer known by fans today as, ‘Partake’. Today, Ted continues to share his award-winning and boundary-breaking NA creations with the world. Ted makes every day count. When taking a break from brewing his great tasting beer, you can find him winning a national squash championship, being in total Dad-mode, or scribbling down some new business ideas on the back of a napkin (or coaster). Ted was a fabulous person to photograph throughout our session, which was interrupted by a large city-wide power outage (thank goodness for our power packs!) was engaging, cooperative, generous and all …

I greatly enjoyed photographing McDonald’s new 2-story restaurant on 17th Ave & 14th St SW, Calgary that showcases an outdoor patio, upper and lower-level eating areas and with the upper level accessed through elevator or stairs. There were some interesting aspects such as intermittent dark shading on tables and chairs along with two rows of bar type seating in the main area. The photography required two visits to capture both daylight and nighttime ambient lighting and of course to work around last-minute contractor touch ups and schedules! Rockyview Aerials beautifully took care of the drone work while I obtained all the ground level exteriors and interior shooting. I’m not entirely sure, but I believe this is McDonald’s first 2-story restaurant in Alberta. Koralta Construction were the incredibly capable builders.

In a word – Exposure. Before visiting a new restaurant, we not only want to know how good the fare is but what does the restaurant look like? The images will speak to the viewer in several ways; basic, fast food? – casual dining? – fast casual? – contemporary casual? – greasy spoon diner? – fine dining? Often, the restaurant’s visual presentation can be a great indicator of the quality of menu and service to be expected. And please feel free to counter my opinion on this, a restaurant with visually unappealing image display on the restaurant’s web site does little to instill confidence in the food and service to be found by prospective customers. My client, Shoku Sushi & Grill, recently opened in Calgary’s Aspen district, offers outstanding food and service and I believe has one of Calgary’s finest sushi chefs in Chef Moon; her presentation and sushi is fabulous! It was a very satisfying opportunity to be able to provide the owner with several architectural style images to assist in the display of their very fine neighborhood restaurant, and I trust will go …

It began with an email inquiry from a new client in Calgary whose Houston headquarters had expressed interest in obtaining photographs of their field sites north of Calgary to boost their marketing and in-house collateral. They had suggested another Calgary photographer, however, my initial contact was intrigued by my style and experience in this area of photography. Well, I quoted for the contract, the Houston executives and their London, England design team viewed my portfolio, and the wheels began to determinedly move forward. Soon we had an excellent drone operator, Rockyview Aerials on board who we regularly collaborate with (still photographers need to leave the drone operations to the drone photographers and vice-versa!) The next phase required an ongoing email exchange of ideas, planning and preparation, conference calls, and yes, we concurrently planned a 1-day corporate session…. as well, much excellent logistical planning with field workers and then the patient wait for the perfect, winter, weather which can always be found with our wonderful chinook inspired climate that finally came through for us in late January. Yup, the stars aligned, as they had through the …

There is a reason for the old adage that a picture can be worth a thousand words. It was very dark in this manufacturing plant hence this being shot at ISO 1600 f3.5 1/60 sec with my trusty Nikkor PCE 24mm on Gitzo Systematic III tripod, allowing just the perspective I was seeking. This was a busy plant that allowed no time for posing and only the use of a single Profoto on battery pack to provide light just where we wanted it.

I am so pleased to see my client, Melanson Homes & Renovations, Leslie-Ann Melanson project put forward as a finalist in the CHBA Awards, Best Custom Home and doubly gratifying to have had the opportunity to photograph this gorgeous, Millarville, Alberta home. A special thank you must go out to the homeowners who so graciously not only gave us the time to photograph their home but went to incredible effort to ensure the home was in pristine condition and perfectly staged. Amazing talent was very much in evidence on her part!

The new Calgary Cancer Centre, scheduled for completion in early 2024. I recently photographed the exterior for a client working on the project and it sure hits home just how fortunate we are in Alberta to have available so many incredible health services.

With my days of parenting children being long past I had no idea that Canada has had for over 20 years an amazing private school option for children of ages 1 to 6. This was all discovered when I was contracted to photograph Calgary’s newest CEFA school that was recently built in the location of the previous Royal Bank building, right smack between Home Depot and Costco in Beacon Hill.