April 2012

April has proven to be hit or miss in Saint John for getting out and taking pics. The days have been looking nice until you go outside and then brrrr its cold. But I was able to get out a couple times. Once with the fam and the second time we had to get the winter tires off and so I brought my camera.

First we took a few hours to go and take pictures at Rockwood Park. We have a 2 year old so he would just love to see the animals. We did the usual and that’s to stop at the Duck Pond. And then drove further in to the stables where they have goats, pony’s and Horses. Here are a few pics of our outing.

 This is along the Duck pond. I really didn't know what I snapped until I got home and dumped them onto my computer. As soon as I seen it I thought "On Your Mark" hehe it fit so perfectly.

What they were doing is as my youngest boy was approaching them they were getting ready to jump into the water to escape him.

 This is a picture of my wife and my youngest. I Love the Black & White setting. I always shoot in colour and then convert it to B&W.

 A Picture of my wife. The setting is very nice for Family pics or individual pics. This is further into the park. Just keep following the road until you get into the Bridge.

Here is a pic of my oldest. I really like this pic. The Background isn't so nice but overall the pic is decent. .

Here is my little boy. He was having a blast here. Especially with the goats. He kept trying to put his head through the fence. I think he even gave one a kiss...I don't know.

The good thing about Digital photography is you can snap and snap away and not worry about film and taking up a small amount of pics. This was one of those snap many photo's pics. 

2 weeks ago I drove to work and my car was sound odd on the rear driver’s side so when I got to work I looked and I had a flat tire. I chalked it up to Friday the 13^th luck. So I left work early to and I had to slowly drive up to the Irving to pump up my tire so I could get home and figure things out. So I got to the Irving and I was so thankful of how they were there for me to help me in my time of need. They Charged me a DOLLAR to turn on the air hose so I could pump up the tire. This of course added to my annoyance.

Anyways I got home and I decided to get the winter tires off. So we drove quite a ways out to Hunter Lake Tire. So I decided to make a morning of it and bring my camera as well. Here are some shots from that outing. 

 This is at Hunter lake in Saint John, NB. While our tires were getting fixed my oldest and I took a walk and snapped a few pics.

 We decided to walk into someone's yard and get to their doc. That is the house hidden on the left. The clouds add so much to the picture.

This one here is my fav pic of the year so far. Large format this looks incredible (Fell free to click on it to see a slightly larger image). This picture has it all. Dramatic clouds, Reflection in the water, Beautiful home. I was so happy with the finished product. 

Well that's it for now. I am starting to see some trees budding so I can't wait to get out and snap a few shots of true spring flowers. Anyways thats it for now. 

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share, like it, leave comments or whatever. 

Spring Time Is Here.

Spring time is officially here and I can’t help but get excited for the nice weather. The sad thing is where I live you get Snow storms when you don’t expect them like we did on Sunday. It’s kind of demotivating. After being cooped in the house for song long I can’t wait to get out. I guess I just have to wait a bit longer. Though I did get the Opteka T2 T-Mount Lens Adapter for Canon EOS. That means I can hook up my camera to my Telescope and get some great shots of the moon. I am super excited for that!! I am not sure if I will get this Moon Transition but I will get it soon.

Also I have started noticing the trees budding and getting ready to bloom which makes for amazing pics. I love taking pics of flowers and landscapes. I am still looking for that Elusive Sunflower field but I will be looking out for it.

Saturday I had Pictures with a young family at Rockwood Park. The weather was not too bad but overall it was kind of windy and chilly. Here are a few samples.

 This one here is one of my fav pics of the lot. Only from a Creative sense. This is a HDR pic but not an over dramatic shot.

 I like putting quotes and wording on some of my pictures but sometimes its hard to come up with the right ones. So I did a search for "A Father's Love" and a song by George Straight came up and I used some of the lyrics from it.

 This one is funny because of what you didn't hear. I asked them if they wanted to do some "Smoochy" pose and immediately she backed away haha.

 Overall the baby did great. even though it was a bit Chilly and very windy at times he was a little trooper.

I am very happy that he was looking at me when I got this shot. 

Well that's it for now. I will be posted more on here for sure. I have been neglectful to this blog. But I hope you enjoy what you read and what you see. Please feel free to go to my FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Paul-Photography/216823158338700 also feel free to leave some comments below.

See ya soon

Thanks for looking at the world through my eyes. 

The Shephard Family & a bit of Creativity

Oct 29^th saw us going to Rockwood Park for another Photo shoot.  Only this time I decided to express some creativity. This is something that we haven’t done really. I usually go to a site and whatever I come up with on the spot that’s what I take. There was a little bit of that this time but Ryan and Trisha are allot of fun and I knew they would indulge me.  

Let me first say that it was a chilly morning. And when we got into the wooded paths it got chillier. But that didn’t stop us. We stayed at the first part of the path then we went to the big playground at Rockwood park which was a great spot for some kid pics.

Here are some examples:

 This picture is super cute. Ryan & Trisha in the BG with Annabelle Peeking through the frame. My wife is holding the frame and Annabelle just did that on her own. I am glad I captured it.

 We saw this on a site and loved the Idea. My wife's penmanship is excellent.

 As you can tell it was cold due to Trisha's sleeve over her hand hehe. I didn't even catch this when I was taking the picture. I am a slacker.

 This would have been an awesome picture if I had a better Superman shirt which I will find. So I am not done with this pose yet...

 Another Idea we came up with is taking a picture from this series and put it in the frame. This took a little while but I like the outcome.

This would be my fav of the creative side of things. As you can see Ryan is a brute to be able to hold her up like that. They are great sports and I thank them for allowing me to capture their family with my Lens. 

Well we are headed out to Rothesay tomorrow for another photo shoot. The leaves are pretty much gone due to the winter blast that we had. So it will be super cold her on out. Stay tuned for the update :D

Thanks for looking at the world through my eyes!

The Gallant Family

Yesterday I had pictures in Grand Bay-Westfield at Unity Park with the Gallant family. I have never been at that park before and I must say it was a beautiful small park. They have a huge Gazebo, Trees and large rocks. A Very nice place.

We started off at the Gazebo and had some fun there. We also went to some Train Tracks which was fantastic. I have always wanted to shoot at Train tracks and I finally did. Once we were done at the train tracks I took them to the brook that was behind a house.

The yard that we walked through was the house of one of my good friends growing up. I hadn’t seen it is 17 years. The only issue was walking down to the Brook. I didn’t even notice until they were sticking into my flesh and that was Thorns!! Lots of them. So we plowed through and made it to the brook. With stinging Bleeding legs I captured what I wanted to and then we were finally done.

Overall the kids did fantastic. They were good from the get go. Here are some samples.

 I know allot of parents want that perfect smile from their kids and that's fine. But there are sometimes that the serious natural looks are the best and with these kids I was all about it. They look great.

 Caleb is a very photogenic. The fallish trees in the background really compliments the style that I added to this picture.

 I really like this Gazebo. Very nice!!!

I really like this picture. His expression is very serious. I was lying down on the train tracks to capture some of these hehe.

 Also lying down on the Gazebo. If they are going to get dirty I might as well too.

 The colours that she was wearing really stands out from the picture.

 One of my Fav pics of the group. She has really bright Blue eyes so I couldn't help but turn the picture B&W, tone down the Clarity and bring out the color of her eyes.

I captured several of these fun pictures. again I am not one to have that Perfect shot setup. I want people to be as natural as can be for most of the pictures.

 Diane had tons of ideas that she found on the internet and this was one of them. I love this picture. Larger format this picture looks excellent.

Jacob, the oldest of the three. He is also very photogenic. 

Thank you to the Gallant family for allowing me to capture your family through photography. I had a great time and the kids did excellent. 

Well for me It's looking like this weekend is clear so I get to relax some with my fam. My wife and I are starting the creative side of photography and we are starting to gather resources. I am excited with some of the Ideas that I have and I just need some Brave souls that are willing to brave my Shenanigans.

Well thanks for looking at the world through my eyes!!

Photoshoot - Oct 22nd ~ A Perfect Fall Day ~

This weekend was beautiful for pictures. The weather was perfect and excitingly I had two appointments. Both appointments were at Rockwood park and it was one right after another. So off to Rockwood Park we all went. Now 99% of the time my family comes with me. I like it that way.

Our first appointment was with our good friends the Yerxa Family. A family of 5 with young twins. The kids were excited and just loved being in the woods. Their oldest Cameron and My oldest Isaiah are good friends so they got to hang out some. They Mostly use sticks as guns and go hunting in the woods some. Nutbars…haha

Here are some samples:

 HAHA Here is Noah. This is one funny kid. He didn't like being perched up on here but when his mom spoke to him this is the look she got. I did get him smiling but I thought this was priceless.

 Twins: Gabby and Noah. Happy to be in front of the camera.

 Here are Cameron, Noah & Gabby walking down the path. I do like capturing this type of picture. Not sure how Real it is though but it looks good. Unless Cam is an awesome big brother and he is more than happy to hold their hands and walk with him. I will say he did everything he was told too :)

 Here is Ben and Becky. The smaller picture doesn't do this pic Justice. I turned it Black and White. Sharpened it and turned up the contrast. I Liked the finished product.

 Here is Gabby and her Thinker pose.

 This picture is Priceless. Gabby is hugging Noah so tightly that the look on his face of desperation and help is awesome.

 The Big Brother Cameron.

And here is the full Yerxa family. I did allot of Black & White pictures for them. Sometimes B&W just adds so much more character. Thank you folks for allowing me to do your pictures :)

My Next appointment was with the McElhinney family. I use to work with Jordan before he moved on to Bigger and better things. I have taken there pictures before and I am glad they came back. Like I stated before gotta love returning customers.  

Now I must say that this session was very Unique. And what I mean by that is Katrina came prepared and knew exactly what she wanted. All too often people want pictures taken but they have no clue what they want. When I ask them what they are looking for I usually get “I don’t know, you’re the photographer” haha. Not Katrina, with a carrying case in hand a list of shots that she wanted we were ready to go.

One of her Ideas I found to be fantastic was when she pulled out a Chalk Board! She wrote Merry Christmas on it and they had family pics with it. Next she had 8 x 10 Chalk board Frames and she wrote out an individual letter of the word LOVE and each family member held up a specific word. It was excellent.

Here are some samples of the photo shoot.  

 So here is that Idea I was talking about. Excellent!!

 Another one of Katrina's Ideas. The kids even enjoyed this as well.

 I have never done this pose before and I saw it last week. I really liked it.

 This is Faith. A Very Cute little girl. I really like getting close with the camera to capture just the face. You can do so much with it.

So here is a quick collage that I did up with the four pictures. As you can see this is a great picture and an awesome Idea.

 Here is Isaiah Snuggling with Mom.

This is another quick collage I did of the the kids. With all honesty I am not a fan of this. I could have done better. I just wanted to try this and see what it looked like. Thank you guys for allowing me to take your family pictures again :)

Well there you have it. What's next for John Paul Photography? I am headed out to Grandbay-Westfield on Wednesday and then I have another appointment at the Irving Nature Park on Sunday. I am hoping that the weather holds up. It is looking Sketchy for this week. But I am excited for Snow on Friday :D

Here is a link to my Photography site. "John Paul Photography"

Thanks for Looking at the world through my eyes...

Photoshoot - Oct 15th ~ Gale Force Winds ~

This past weekend I had 3 picture appointments. Sadly the weather didn’t work out for 2 of them. The one appointment that Mother Nature would allow me to have was out in Meenan’s cove. I just want to say that this is an awesome place in the fall with all of the leaves all over the ground.

Also on Friday I picked up my new Camera the Canon D50. I have been using the Canon Rebel Xti for the last 3 years and so this was a big step up. Not only in weight, size, Picture size (Cause I shoot in Raw) but picture quality as well.

Pictures were with the Noftell family. Dad, Mom & two daughters and I must say this was a fun family. Let me first say that the wind was incredibly powerful. It was gale force winds. I’m not kidding. The nice thing was that it wasn’t a cold wind or the fun factor would have been ZERO!

There is a path at Meenan’s cove that I take people around that has so many photo op moments. And finally some of the tree leaves are turning a bright orange which is beautiful. This was a fun family and the daughters seemed to have had a good time. You will be able to tell by the candid pics I got.

Here are some samples:

 So here is a little Collage that I did. There is a wooden fence across from Meenan's cove that looks awesome. My wife said to me that I should take their pics there. Great Idea!!

 This was during one of those Gale Force moments. It was just starting to die down at that moment. Nice capture.

 Ok so this is Miss "Love the camera" She was allot of fun. Loved having her picture taken. She has a great personality

 Some leaves on the ground. We were just starting out the session so they were a bit reserved though you cant tell by this picture.

 Not only are the leaves beautiful in the background this is a nice looking picture as well. Fantastic couple!

 This was another one of those GOTCHA moments. I know people like posing and being told to sit here and do this or do that. I do do that (Yes I said do do hehe) but I would rather have the people do whatever and I capture them. so with this I told them to walk up and down the path and not even look at the camera. And this was one of those shots.

 This is my wifes fav shot of the group and the Noftells are printing a 20 x 30 of this. Its a really nice capture of all of them. Beautiful Family

 I should have named this "Tales of Tay Tay & Kales" I took several Sister pics and put them together. As I stated before these were great kids and allot of fun. Thank you girls!!

 A little HDR action. So every year their mother gets them to do this pose and she captures them. Well I decided to get a better angle so I decided to lay flat down on my stomach so I can be almost even with them. This shot isn't bad. I have better ones of this pose.

So here are the crazy kids again. They were having allot of fun. See getting your pictures taken doesn't have to be that bad  ;-)










So that's it. Today I have my own family pics to do so that will be exciting. And then a few more appointments this weekend. Looking forward to it. If you are looking for more of my work check out my FaceBook page here John Paul Photography

Thanks for stopping in and seeing the world through my eyes.