First Things First

Being a commercial and architecture photographer is a lot more than just snapping cool shots of buildings and places. These photos are the result of a process that is similar across most types of photography.

First, you figure out what you want to shoot. In my case, that’s usually something urban or maybe a specific building. Next up, deciding the best time to get exactly the shots you’re after. Photos are literally recordings of the light at that particular moment, so timing things just right is crucial to taking what you’ve envisioned and making it a reality - especially with fast-fading daylight in the later months (we see you coming, December). Thanks to modern technology (Lightroom, mostly), you can always adjust things in post, but I still strive to get it as close to perfect as possible when shooting.

Once you’re out shooting, you’ll spend some time figuring out the best composition and angles. Sometimes, you have to be patient and wait for some clouds to pass (they’re always slower than you think) - or a delivery truck to move out of frame. Some days, if things just aren’t looking the way you expected them to, you might decide to head back home and try again another time. But - if everything goes according to plan, you start hitting that shutter button, check the little screen on your camera, adjust, and try again, and again, and again. 

You come home, pop your memory card into your computer and start reviewing. Everyone’s style is a little different when it comes to editing, but I like to edit a few shots quickly to get an idea of what the final image will look like. Usually you’re excited to go through the rest - but if it was a long day of shooting your eyes, mind, and/or body are probably tired and you come back to them the next day, well rested.

This cycle continues every time you step outside to take new photos, and if you’re me - that’s often. I have amassed THOUSANDS of images in my archives that I’ve never even edited, let alone posted online. You can drop me and my camera off at any point in Waterloo Region and I’ll happily walk around for hours, adding many gigabytes of photos to my collection. But how do I edit and share all of them?!

Social media is a great tool for sharing a few photos a day. I’ve always used Instagram and Twitter to show my work to folks local and beyond, but even if I post multiple times a day - I’m often sharing a small fraction of my newest work, and not making much of a dent in the backlog. So now I’m starting a blog.

I started taking photos almost a decade ago because I couldn’t find many existing images that I felt did justice to our (at the time) smallish cities. I wanted to show off the unique places and cool things happening in Kitchener-Waterloo, and if I failed at that, I wanted my images to at least help people look at this region through a new lens (haha, get it?).

So here we go, a blog. I want this to be a place where I can display more of my work than what the algorithm shows you. I want to continue to show off our region, how it’s changed, and what makes it special. I want to add context to the images I post, and have fun posting themed sets, some of my favourite recent shots, and perhaps even some tips and tricks for the folks who are just starting out.

I’m not sure exactly what’s coming to this space, but I can guarantee there will be many, many photos - and I hope you’ll follow along.

For now, here are some of my favourites from January to September, 2021.