Alex Black Photography - Blog

My New Personal Blog: blog.alexblack.ca

You might not know this about me, but photography is a part time profession for me. My full time career is in software development. Back in 1998 (while still at the University of Waterloo) I started two small tech companies with my friend Chris, and we worked our asses off trying to build them up fulltime for 7 years from 2000 to 2007. At our peak we had 15 employees, and over $1 million in revenues, most from consulting work under BrightBlocks, but some from multimedia yearbook sales through Booksoft. By 2007 it was clear that Booksoft's multimedia yearbook product was not gaining much traction, at our peak we had 50 schools and organizations using our products and services, but we didn't make much money off each one unfortunately. (Looking back, we had an online community that was included with each CD-ROM yearbook, much like a very early and simple facebook... Damn, if only we'd done online yearbooks!). Later that year our main consulting client defaulted on payments leaving us hanging, so we then shut down both businesses.

I'd been interested in photography for years, and so when in 2006 I got married something awakened and I started to persue wedding photography at first as a hobby and then as a 2nd career. In 2007 I was the most serious about I've been and photographed 17 weddings that summer. After that summer though I realized it was too much work for 2nd career, so I had a decision to make, should I make it a fulltime career or scale it back? My first passion is in technology, and honestly I'm better at than I am at photography. The parts of photography that I am best at in fact are the technology skills (lenses, flashes, settings, photoshop, etc). So after losing my entire summer to wedding photography, photographing weddings every weekend, editing photos all night during the week, and working days at my day job, I decided to stop seeking wedding photography clients, instead I now photograph 1 or 2 weddings here and there for friends.

I've just recently quit my job at Primal Fusion where I was Director of Platform Architecture to start a new company. I'll be blogging about this new company and other news at my personal blog. Please follow me there!

http://blog.alexblack.ca

- Alex

Wedding Photos: Virginia and Jim

Virginia and Jim got married this past Saturday just outside Port Elgin, it was a wonderful day. The ceremony was at a quaint church in nearbye South Hampton, followed by a reception at their cottage near the lake. The back yard was setup beautifully, I loved the lights on the tent as the evening progress. Congratulations you two!

- Alex

A Friend's Wedding: Michael and Zuzana

Back in June, Melinda and I attended the wedding of an old friend of mine Michael Ekers and his now wife Zuzanna. Here are a couple of shots! The ceremony and reception were both on Toronto Island, which was really nice. The church was small and quaint, and the reception near the lake was very elegant. Congratulations Michael and Zuzana!

- Alex

Cliff Mautner Workshop: Day 2

Day 2 of the workshop with Cliff Mautner. Really awesome stuff so far. Today we shot at the gorgeous La Hacienda Sarria, in Waterloo. (It doesn't seem to have a website). La Hacienda is a renovated old factory in an industrial part of Waterloo, and is an incredible place for photography. It has a large interior courtyard with a glass roof above it, and stone pillars all around it. The interior decoration is very lavish and spanish in style, full of wonderful stone and metal work, tiled floors etc. This would be a great place to get married!

Today Cliff was showing us how to find and use light for dramatic effect. The beautiful location along with some great models made it hard not to get some nice shots. But wow, Cliff really finds beautiful light, everyone was taking such incredible photos, I thought mine were nice until I saw the rest of the group's shots!

Cliff Mautner Workshop: Day 1

This week I'm attending a 2 day photography workshop with Cliff Mautner. Here are some photos from our first day. The main focus of the first day was shooting in harsh sunlight, something I would normally avoid at all costs!

Wedding: Andrea and Dean

Brrr... Here's a sneak preview of photos from Andrea & Dean's wedding yesterday in Ancaster. Andrea is a friend of my brother's from high school, so I was very excited to photograph her wedding. The church where they got married was just beautiful, it has huge ceilings, grand arches, and lots of room for photographers to move around in. The weather before the ceremony was cold but relatively nice for a canadian February, but as we left the church we got surprised by a light christmas-like snow fall! Luckily Andrea was up for some outdoor photographs despite the snow and cold.

The ceremony was followed by a reception at the Ancaster Old Mill. The mill is very pretty, both inside and out. The room we were in is right beside the waterfall that passes between the buildings of the mill. The whole night was full of fun, from the wedding party dancing in for their entrance, to Dean's father playing some beautiful music later on.

- Alex

Reception Photos: Shailesh and Shilpa

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Shailesh and Shilpa's reception, it was a action packed evening full of entertaining speeches, intricately choreographed dances and performances, fantastic food, and a packed dance floor! This was just their reception since Shailesh and Shilpa were married this past summer in India. One day I have to find someone to fly me to India to photograph a wedding... Seriously. :)

I've known Shailesh for a number of years now - it was great to be able to photograph him and his new bride, and to get to meet some of his family, and hang out with some of his friends. I have to say though, Shailesh and Shilpa just radiated energy and happiness all night, what a great pair.

Wedding: Kathryn and Alan

Kathryn and Alan got married just yesterday at the beautiful Holiday Gardens. Alan is younger brother to one of my best friends AJ, so I was super excited to be the photographer for his wedding. Once again the weather looked ominous in the morning, but by the afternoon things cleared up and we had blue sky and sun. We did photos before the ceremony at Cullen Gardens which was a very relaxed way of doing the photos.

One of my favourite shots of the day is the first one below - a shot of their wedding bands in the peanut M&M dish (which was right beside the chocolate covered almonds dish, mmmm!).

Congratulations Kathryn and Alan, I hope you have a wonderful honey moon!

- Alex

Wedding: Kristin and Justin

Kristin and Justin got married recently at Eaton Hall. I love weddings like this - amazing couple, beautiful location, fun family, crazy guests (including Mr. Dance Machine below!!). The rain threatened on an off all afternoon, but Kristin and Justin knew they were going to have the ceremony outdoors no matter what and it was perfect, the sun even came out. Congratulations!

- Alex

Wedding: Jennifer and Craig

Last week I photographed Jennifer and Craig's wedding at their house here in Kitchener. The ceremony took place in their lovely backyard, surrounded by trres and flowers. You might remember last Saturday, it poured in the morning, and poured in the afternoon, which I hear is lucky for a wedding day? The rain appeared to hold off just after 3, so the ceremony began, but just as things got underway the rain came down again. Everyone was prepared though, and the ceremony continued, umbrellas galore!

Congratulations Jennifer and Craig, I'm glad you were able to have the ceremony at your place despite the rain, and the clouds made getting great shots even easier. Ironically the sun came that evening during the reception at the Pavilion in Victoria Park.

- Alex