Z's Bat Mitzvah!

I adore photographing Bat/Bar Mitzvahs because I adore thirteen year olds. It is such a fun age to capture. Z's big day was held recently at the Faculty Club at University of Toronto. The event included great food, dancing to a fabulous live band and lots of karaoke!

War Child - Busking for Change

On Tuesday War Child held an event called Busking for Change. They had a bunch of bands busking all around Toronto to raise money for the organization. It was a lot of fun to photograph the bands as they rocked out amongst people running to catch their trains at Union Station. The bands that I photographed included Brian Melo, The Beauties, Low Level Flight and Hollerado. I then managed to catch a last tune by the Arkells who were performing at Commerce Court. I love this city.

The Palters are Moving

One of my favourite family's is leaving Toronto for, uh, colder places! I was happy when they contacted me to photograph them once again but sad when I learned that they were moving! The Palters hired me to photograph a BBQ that they hosted at their home as a Good-Bye Party to all of their friends and family. Palters, I wish you all the best on your new adventure!

Oolagen

In April, I was honoured to be asked to photograph a special event for a great organization called Oolagen. Oolagen Health Services is a Children's Mental Health Centre that provides support and programming to assist youth and their families. At the end of April, Oolagen welcomed their first patrons - the very funny Canadian power couple - Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath. You may recognize Colin most famously from Who's Line Is It Anyway and Debra from Little Mosque on the Prairie.

The always delicious Urban Source did the catering for the event.

Markos' Baptism

I was very excited when Paula emailed me a while back asking if I would be available to photograph her and Scott's son's baptism. I had photographed their wedding back in October 2005 so it has been a while since I have seen them and I could not wait to meet little Markos! I got to meet him before the baptism at Anastasia + Bill's wedding on June 1st. He is such a cute li'l man! The baptism was held at the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary-Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto which is the same location that Paula + Scott were married at. Everything went well and Markos behaved himself perfectly! Afterwards everyone headed to their home for cake and drinks. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Suzanne + Brad are my original clients from way back in the day! I photographed their awesome wedding that took place at Balzac's in the Distillery District. Since then, they have sent many client to me, including Paula + Scott and Anastasia + Bill. I love this couple!

Anastasia, Bill + their wee daughter were also in attendance!

Arielle & Noah's B'Nai Mitzvah Par-tay!

I had such a blast photographing Arielle & Noah's B'Nai Mitzvah par-tay! It was truly over-the-top and I loved every bit of it! Their reception was held at the amazing Granite Club on Bayview in Toronto. The theme for the night was the Oscars with everything all glam-ed up. Arielle & Noah are two popular kids - there was about 120 twelve- and thirteen-year olds running around the room. They were such a fun bunch and knew all of the moves and lyrics to every song. The entertainers for the evening were the Magen Brothers and they did a fabulous job of making sure nobody sat in their chairs for too long!

Arielle & Noah :: B'Nai Mitzvah!

I love shooting Bar & Bat Mitzvahs! The energy of the kids is always a lot of fun to capture. This past weekend I met up with Adrielle and Noah at the Beth Torah in Toronto for their B'Nai Mitzvah rehearsal. The sibling duo decided that they wanted to go on this journey together which I think is fabulous. On Saturday I am photographing their big party so stay tuned for the photos from it!

The parents watch on... Somehow their Dad managed to find a yamaka of his favourite football team - Manchester United (and yes, they won that day - best of England!).

Of course we had to do a few photos of Mom & Dad. Four kids later and they're still going strong! ;)

Lost at Sea

Daniel's Bar Mitzvah Rehearsal

Last week I photographed Daniel's Bar Mitzvah rehearsal took place last week at the beautiful Temple Emanu-El. The rehearsal went well and his parents were definitely proud of him on Saturday!

Daniel's twin siblings were also a special part of his big day!

Joseph & Hannah's B'nai Mitzvah Party

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Joseph and Hannah's wild B'nai Mitzvah party that took place at the Great Hall in Toronto which is one of my favourite venues in the city! Joseph and Hannah have gone to school together for the majority of their lives and have always been great friends so they decided to hold one big party together to celebrate their journey into adulthood. The party had a lot of different elements that made it fun including a sushi booth during cocktails and feather boas for the kids to dress up in. B'nai Mitzvahs are always a lot of fun to photograph; the energy of them is always so great since there seems to always be kids running around everywhere.

The photo that Hannah is hold is one that Joseph's Mom, Debra Friedman, took a few years ago of them. The photo was incorporated in the invite for the night so we had to take a portrait with it!

Joseph's little brother and Hannah's little sister gave a speech about their older siblings. It was adorable!

The Moms & Dads watch on.

Joseph's Bar Mitzvah

One of the hardest things for a photographer is photographing an event for another photographer. This becomes especially difficult when you are photographing the event not only for your old University professor but also your thesis mentor, basically the woman who taught you how to photograph people. On Thursday I had this task when I photographed Joseph's bar mitzvah rehearsal. Joe is the son of the lovely and very talented Robert Burley and Debra Friedman. The ceremony was held at the Beaches Synagogue in Toronto. As I arrived there was a fabulous sky so I forced Joseph to head outside for a few portraits before the rehearsal began! Stayed tuned for images from the reception that was held on Saturday.

Maddy's Bat Mitzvah Reception

This past Sunday was Maddy's Bat Mitzvah Reception that took place at the beautiful Vaughan Estates which is just off of Bayview Avenue in Toronto. We did some family portraits before the guests arrived for the celebration and hora dancing!

Maddy's Bat Mitzvah Rehearsal

On Tuesday I met the beautiful Maddy and her family at the Temple Emanu-El in Toronto to photograph the rehearsal for her bat mitzvah that is taking place this weekend. After the rehearsal we did some family shots that included photos of her adorable four-year old twin siblings, Benny and Ella.

Benny and Ella go to hold their own little torahs.

Patricia Duffy

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big music fan. I love music and rarely travel anywhere without my iPod that is chocked full of everything from Hot Chip and Arcade Fire to Mos Def and K'Naan to Shakira and Manu Chao to Johnny Cash and Elliott Brood. I love it all - seriously! When I was a kid I took piano lessons for a number of years. I think that I got up to grade five in the Royal Conservatory of Music. Then I moved onto the alto sax and played for seven years. I loved it.

I was very thrilled when Patricia Duffy contacted me last week. Patricia is a jazz singer and songwriter in Toronto. She was looking for some moody black and white images of herself and a band while they recorded her new CD. On Monday I met them at a studio in north Toronto and not only did I get to experience them all coming together musically, I got to record the session photographically. So here we have:

Vocals - Ms. Patricia Duffy
Bass - Dr. David Bell
Drums - Archie Alleyne
Piano - Rob Botos
Sax - Jeff King

The band listens to one of the tracks that they had just recorded.

Inside Patricia's sound booth.

Archie and his drums were in a separate room from the rest of the musicians.

I loved the sax with the Tim Hortons coffee.

The engineer really did not want any photographs initially but I think he warmed up to me by the end of it. Here he is, working his magic while the band plays behind the glass.

His Worship Mayor David Miller

On Monday I photographed my last day with Reel Canada for this round of screenings. We had a very special guest for the morning, his Worship Mayor David Miller. I have never met his Worship before but upon first meeting him, you feel as though you have been friends for years. He is a genuine, everyday person who just happens to be the leader of our city. He is a great supporter of Reel Canada.

His Worship chats with the crew from the documentary EMPz 4 Life.

EMPz 4 Life

Another film that has been screened this past week as part of Reel Canada is the documentary EMPz 4 Life. EMPz is directed by the great Allan King. The film focuses on four young men who live in Toronto's Malvern Area. It is about their struggles with prejudices, attempting to follow their dreams and working with their despairs. This documentary is as real as it gets in showing what it is like to grow up in any desolate neighbourhood. The film was screened twice last week at two different high schools. For the first one, I had the pleasure of photographing the crew of young men that the film focuses on, along with their mentor Brian Henry. For the second screening the director Allan King was there to answer questions from the students.

More of Reel Canada

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of shooting more for Reel Canada at another Toronto high school. The special guests for that day's screenings included: Paul Gross who wrote, directed and acted in the film "Men with Brooms"; Stephen Mchattie who acted in "The Rocket" which is a film about the great hockey legend Maurice Richard; and the lovely Devyani Saltzman who is the daughter of Deepa Mehta and who wrote a memoir about the filming of "Water" called "Shooting Water".

Director Deepa Mehta

This week I have been working with Reel Canada which is a program that is essentially a Canadian film festival that travels around to various high schools in Toronto. Films are screened and then the directors, actors or other people who play a role in the film take part in discussions with the students after the film is shown. It is a great way to introduce students to Canadian films and to show them that this country produces some pretty fabulous work!

On Monday I was very excited when I found out that I would be photographing one of my favourite directors - the lovely Deepa Mehta. She was there to discuss her film "Water" that has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. It is also the film that opened the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. "Water" is part of Deepa's trilogy of films that also included "Fire" and "Earth". "Water" was special in that it took her six years to film. She had originally began shooting it in India but since the film was dealing with some pretty controversial issues, violent protests began there and she was basically forced to stop. Six years later, she began the film again, this time shooting in Sri Lanka. Deepa was not prepared to take "no" as an answer. She felt that making this film was something that she needed to do and she let nothing stop her from creating such a beautiful story. I feel honoured that I was able to meet such a great human being and I know that the students who met her that day left feeling just as inspired as I did.

Corporate Holiday Party

At the beginning of December I photographed the holiday party of a large corporation in Toronto. The party was held at the Design Exchange on Bay Street. My assistant and I took candids of the event, as well we had a photo booth set up for couples to get formal portraits done.

The Black Star Collection At Ryerson University: Highlights

Last night was the opening gala for the highlights from the Black Star Collection. This collection of photographs is internationally renowned and was a gift, from an anonymous donor, to Ryerson. It contains almost 300,000 black and white photographs of great historical and social significance - including images that capture the Civil Rights movement, early space exploration and portraits of everyone from Andy Warhol to Marshall McLuhan. I was honoured enough to be asked to photograph the opening gala for this exhibit that is taking place at BCE Place until May 27th. You can read more about the collection here.