On Thursday evening I headed out with Jordan and Laura for a fun little shoot, mostly around uptown Waterloo, with a few stops in Kitchener. Here’s a few of my favorites from the day:


The story didn’t actually start here, this was just my favorite. It was taken on the back step of a Cantonese place in uptown..that bag to the left is full of eaten lobster claws. We were all a little awkward/jumpy around these shells..I’m unsure why.

Train tracks near Victoria Street. We stopped to snag some shots on the train cars, but I liked this the best.

Back to the Cantonese place.

Cliche orange wall.

Opposite the orange wall.

Alleyway behind the Vault.

Sketchy building.

In the parking lot of Home Hardware…what?  The lighting was awesome.

So I went on a bit of a trip on Tuesday/Wednesday – a lot of cities, in a short amount of time. Well, it was a little more than 48 hours, as we arrived at 11pm the Monday night, and flew out 6am on Thursday.

We flew into Las Vegas (in retrospect…we probably should have just flown into LAX) drove to the West Coast, stayed the night, drove back, and flew home.
Tuesday – had a room at the Monte Carlo, beside all the L.V. City Center construction. All the big lifting, and loud noises have pretty much come to a halt (they’ve been workin’ on this thing forever) and after checking in, we went out for a wander. Won a little bit of money, saw some cowboys, etc.

After 3 or 4 hours sleep we grabbed a rental car, and headed to the L.A. area. First stop – Baker. If you’ve seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas…you’ll be disappointed with real life Baker. I was looking forward to a city falling apart, and possibly Tobey Maguire with slicked back blond hair. No luck. We did find an old gas station though.

We took a random road and drove a few miles into the desert. There we found a beautiful abandoned fridge (as well as washer, and dryer). They each had a few shotgun wounds, but were good for a photo-op.

We hit the road again, past Barstow and onto L.A.

First stop was Walgreen’s on Sunset for some sunscreen. Second stop was Santa Monica pier. Parking was $1, and free after 6. Toronto has a thing or two to learn from CA.

From there we packed up and headed to Malibu. Free parking lined the streets, and surfers lined the ocean. No one was surfing…just floating, waiting for the waves to pick up.

There’s a great Jack In The Box on the Pacific Coast Highway…it’s beautiful, and right across from the ocean. Almost makes fast food seem good for you.

Parked outside a CVS, and ran up on the bridge for this shot. This is my favorite from the trip.

From there it was back to West Hollywood.

Hollywood in general is a slew of gated communities, gated mansions, and traffic. But…free parking! We went out to a restaurant right beside Ketchup (Lauren & Jason accidentally end up there with Heidi and Spencer in Season 3 of The Hills…that’s right, I know that off hand.)

The next morning we went out for a hike in the Hollywood Hills. They’re taller than you think.

(the Hollywood sign is that white spec in the distance)

Here’s a quick zoom of the smog level around downtown.

We packed up, and headed back to Vegas. Stopped at In N Out along the way. It was delicious. I really enjoy their menu system. You have your choice of 3 different burgers, fries or onion rings, and pop, milk, or a milkshake. That’s it. It’s like a Mac fast food joint.

We spotted a ghost town by the name of Calico, and popped off the highway.

I have a compelling desire to stay at this hotel.

Stopped outside of Baker again.


And then back to Vegas.

We stayed at the Excalibur as a joke. Common, it’s a castle..it looks ridiculous. And they upgraded our room to a full suite for free. (Thanks to overbooking)
For that…I may consider staying there again.

In the morning, I had a few hours to kill in Denver, then it was back to Toronto.

And that…was my trip.

There’s a great new dress shop in Guelph by the name of Ladybug Bridal – 259 Grange Road, Guelph – (519) 265-8265

Yesterday evening I headed over there for a fun little fashion shoot with Kate (the girlfriend) and Katie (featured on a Vegemite post a few below this)
Christine from Pure Potential Weddings (wedding planning/coordination) stopped by, as well Anne from The KW Wedding Ring.
Barb, the owner of Ladybug was there to help us pull dresses, and my friend Marshall Angus also came to help out.
It was a full house. Anne and Christine even tried on wedding dresses for the camera!

Here’s a few of the images:
Guelph Ontario Wedding Photography

Waterloo Ontario Wedding Photographer

Guelph Wedding Photography

Guelph Ontario Wedding Photographer

Ontario Wedding Photography

Kitchener Ontario Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

Wedding Dress Fashion Photographer

Bridal Shoot

Wedding Photographer

Behind the scenes of a fashion shoot
Fun little behind the scenes shot if you’re wondering how we did it. Grey paper roll, taped to the fall outside of the fitting rooms at Ladybug.

I’ll post a link to the Ladybug website when it comes online. It’s in the works, and with these photos, it should be just about ready to go.

Oh, Sunday was Baby Ben’s first birthday. He ate some cake.

It’s not often that I’m contacted by the groom first. Sure, it happens, but it’s not every day.

Chris contacted me in 2008, and we got talking – turns out he is quite the photographer himself. Before he moved to Ottawa, he was the music photographer in the 519 area. He sent me a link to his old work, and sure enough, I’ve seen many of the photos posted on light posts promoting upcoming shows.

Heather assigned a few of the weddings tasks to Chris; photography was one of them. They managed to land the Centre in the Square as their venue, and I’m really excited to see what we can create there. I’ve never had an A/V tech at my control wedding day before.

I’ve just started editing through the photos, but so far this one here is my favorite – it just has a fun, playful charm to it.

engagement photography waterloo ontario

  • Stephen Harper - Best wishes Chris and Heather.

    R.Hon Stephen Harper

I went for a quick engagement-session-walk around Waterloo with Emily and James today. They’re super easy going, and I’m really excited for their wedding at the end of May.

Here’s one shot from their session for now:

  • Emily - Hey Taylor! Beautiful work. Thanks so much for a fun afternoon…though it took us a while to channel our inner ‘top model’! I can’t wait to see the rest. Cheers!