Our list of the top ten albums of 2016 is finally here. Simone was shocked by some of my selections as I was by hers and so we needed to expand the top albums once again to satisfy both of us. This time we thought we would list the top 30. So here they are…

1. David Bowie Blackstar
2. Polica United Crushers
3. RY X Dawn
4. Blood Orange Freetown Sound
5. Tindersticks The Waiting Room
6. Ben Watt Fever Dream
7. M.Craft Blood Moon
8. Bon Iver 22, A Million
9. Andy Shauf The Party
10. Jim James Eternally Even
11. Michael Kiwanuka Love & Hate
12. Dylan Leblanc Cautionary Tale
13. Hope Sandoval Until The Hunter
14. Ray Lamontagne Ouroboros
15. Aiden Knight Each Other
16. Woodpigeon Trouble
17. Jamie Isaac Couch Baby
18. Maxwell blackSUMMERS’night
19. Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool
20. Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker
21. Norah Jones Day Breaks
22. Lambchop Flotus
23. Porches Pool
24. Young Hysteria Young Hysteria
25. River Tiber Indigo
26. James Vincent McMorrow We Move
27. Lumineers Cleopatra
28. Dan San Shelter
29. Benjamin Francis Leftwich After The Rain
30. Matt Holubowski Solitudes

Another great year in new music (I know…I say this every year) and once again Simone and I wanted to share our favourite albums. Selecting our top ten in 2015 was a bit harder so we decided to grow the list to our top 20.  Here they are…

1. Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell
2. Villagers Darling Arithmetic
3. Aero Flynn Aero Flynn
4. Tobias Jesso Jr. Goon
5. Seoul I Become A Shade
6. Jose Gonzalez Vestiges & Claws
7. Bob Moses Days Gone By
8. Tame Impala Currents
9. Lana Del Rey Honeymoon
10. Beirut No No No
11. Laura Marling Short Movie
12. The Amazing Picture You
13. Richard Hawley Hollow Meadows
14. Kurt Vile B’lieve I’m Goin Down
15. Maribou State Portraits
16. Twin Danger Twin Danger
17. Destroyer Poison Season
18. Etiquette Reminisce
19. Majical Cloudz Are You Alone?
20. Half Moon Run Sun Leads Me On

Here’s a couple of Simone lounging around the house as I continue to fiddle with my Fuji X100T. I love this camera!
Soundtrack for the afternoon included Lana Del Rey’s great new album, one of Simone’s favourites, Honeymoon.

It has been a few years since I last bought a camera although I have bought numerous types of camera equipment. I have been satisfied with my ancient D700 and my aging D3s although I’ve always wanted a smaller, rangefinder type of camera to join the family. There just hasn’t been a camera in the last few years that has the whole package, consisting of size, build, price and specs. Until now…I recently bought the Fuji X100T and love this little camera for all those reasons just mentioned.

Here are my not so scientific opinions regarding the images I have shot thus far. Remember these are JPEGs compared with my D3s RAW files. The images from the X100T are a bit soft shooting at 2.0. At 2.8 it starts to get very sharp. The macro feature works well getting close to subjects but don’t shoot macro wide open. Focus is good, especially in good light. Great optical and electronic hybrid viewfinder. Both work well and I can definitely see a need for both. Cool features with manual focus as well with this hybrid viewfinder. Pixel peeping with JPEG resembles film like quality. I’m used to Nikon files that are tack sharp with smooth gradations. Fuji files are slightly muddy although I would never know unless I was zoomed in over 200%. Again this is shooting wide open at ISO’s between 800 to 2500 and again JPEG. Great high ISO and I think (a final verdict after editing a RAW file) I could use 6400. Can’t comment on the colour yet until I shoot a wider range of subjects and settings but come on, it’s a Fuji, you know the colours are going to be great. I just have to try the many film simulations available in camera. No comment yet on the flash but strange that it wouldn’t fire if the camera setting was on silent? Love the easy file transfer via wifi to my iPad and iPhone. Hello Snapseed…Excellent build quality and the buttons are laid out nicely and I’m able to shoot and change settings while keeping my eye in the viewfinder. I did find the camera a tad small and may get the added grip. I wasn’t a fan of the strap so I picked up a nice Gordy’s wrist strap. And for added bling and functionality I picked up a soft touch shutter button and thumb rest from Lensmate. Time to get out and shoot to further test the camera. Plus I’m getting tired of shooting Simone and she’s really tired of me shooting her. I will be going on a trip to the Grand Canyon at the end of July so I should have more to report. Stay tuned.

Great couple of hours shooting the beautiful and talented Colette Stevenson at the home studio. Colette needed some new headshots and this is my favourite from the session. Shot using afternoon light from my favourite window, with a bit of fill.

Music for the shoot included Tropics album Rapture.

Long day in the studio shooting products for a client only to have Simone terrorize the seamless paper. Thankfully I was pretty much done shooting when Simone, who had been watching quietly, decided she couldn’t help herself. I was tethering to my MacBook and had my camera on a tripod so I wasn’t set up to catch her movements but came up with a few funny shots. Maybe one day I’ll actually shoot her in the studio…

Music for today’s shoot included Father John Misty’s new album I Love You, Honeybear.

Fun day trying to control 3 dogs for a pet portrait. I assisted Colette once again and yes I had to get a few shots of my own. A noisy rubber toy, a whistle, my own funny noises, treats and silly doggy conversations got their attention just enough to get the shots needed. Man that’s hard work!

Colette had set up a headshot gig at one of our favourite outdoor locations and I of course couldn’t help but take a few shots myself. With Karl being a cool and very chilled dude (hungover perhaps) the shoot was comfortable and fun. We had some good laughs and got some great shots as well.

Fun day shooting headshots for the team at Proactive Pelvic Health Centre. There was little room to work in their location but I had scouted it out an earlier date to figure out what I needed. One Elinchrom RX600 with the Elinchrom beauty dish set up with a storm grey background paper. Pictured here is Carolyn, a Practitioner of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Thanks to Ange.

Thanks to Colette for her assistance.

Fun morning shooting some corporate headshots for Carolyn.

Soundtrack for the shoot was the Ultra Chilled Compilation Volume 6 to fit the mood.

Colette and I decided to do some portrait work at a great location near our studio. We shot once before at this urban type park under some bridges and thought we would give it another go. We were also looking to fine tune this location for future shoots with clients. After picking the best spot and a quick set up (one speedlight with umbrella) we worked quickly and efficiently and this was my favourite from the day. Another gorgeous shot of Colette to add to my portfolio.

Soundtrack for our shoot was Junip’s self titled album. This album is so good!

I picked up lots of great music this year and thought I would share my favourite 10 new albums from 2012. Like selecting your top ten photographs for a portfolio, you know how difficult this can be. Regardless, I had Simone help me out with the selections.  Without further ado…

1. Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls

2. Lambchop Mr. M

3. Tindersticks The Something Rain

4. Sharon Van Etten Tramp

5. Grizzly Bear Shields

6. Cat Power Sun

7. Damien Jurado Maraqopa

8. Calexico Algiers

9. Chromatics Kill For Love

10. Of Monsters And Men My Head Is An Animal

Great day assisting Colette with some pet portraits. Of course I had to sneak some shots of my own…how could you not with a dog as cute as Bella.

Fun shoot today capturing images of Leo at the home studio. Leo needed some headshots for his agent and he was “on” as usual. I’ve mentioned Leo in previous blog posts and you really can’t miss a shot with him. A natural who is super comfortable in front of the camera and super funny too. He had me laughing with some outrageous faces but of course we got some great headshots as well. This was one of the favourites from the day.

Great job Leo and hope to see you on t.v. soon!!

Thanks to Craig and Colette for holding up the background paper as I left my stands at the studio.

Soundtrack for the shoot was the awesome Red Hot + Rio 2 album, Nova Tropicalia.

Here is one of my favourite shots from my last visit to New York. Colette and I usually do one touristy thing every time we go to New York. Well this time it was the Empire State Building. Oddly, neither of us had ever been in it and it was the perfect night to view the great city from the top of this landmark (we got some great shots of the city scene). On our way down I had a quick chat with the elevator man about the antiquity of the elevator controls/buttons and in a typical NY way he talked about them with great enthusiasm and fascination. His own antiquity made me laugh a little as he spoke and I knew I had to get a photograph of this character and I didn’t have much time to accomplish this. I interrupted his storytelling with “You know who you look like? Elvis Costello”. He stopped mid sentence and looked away flattered…I think, and then smiled proudly with a bit of attitude and said,

“Yeah I get that but you know who I really look like? Robert DeNiro”.

I already had my camera up ready to shoot as I asked if I could photograph him not waiting for his response.

Don’t get fooled by her cuteness.

Another picture, another nick name.

La Vandal.

Soundtrack to this shot was Beach House’s album Bloom.

Another great shot of the beautiful Colette to add to the collection.

Soundtrack for the shoot was Esperanza Spalding’s album Radio Music Society.

Fun late afternoon family portrait of the Montanos. It was difficult to schedule everyone for this shoot and the only day that worked just happened to be the hottest day in Toronto thus far this year. 38 degrees celsius without the humidity…wow!!! The best part is once we got some formal shots out of the way we decided to have some fun and do some with them jumping. 20 shots later and with some serious sweat coming down, I think we nailed it with this one. Troopers, all of them! Btw, I think this was the first time I had to retouch/edit sweat beads from a portrait.

Thanks to Colette for her assistance.

Great day shooting Seun Ola, designer and owner of Bravomoda. Seun needed some portrait/lifestyle shots for his publicist in Miami as he prepares to enter that fashion market. I previously shot Bravomoda’s latest lookbook and, knowing each other’s style and work ethic, we were super efficient on this day. 7 looks in 3 different lighting set ups all incorporating some of his designs within an hour and a half. Nice!!! I thought these two portraits caught Seun’s personality best.
Soundtrack for today was Seun’s iPhone mix of techno and r&b.

Thanks to Colette for her assistance.

At the home studio today shooting some head shots for Chris, a talented and hilarious writer/author from Toronto. The photos are for a local print magazine where he is featured and will be a regular contributor. There were many laughs this afternoon to the soundtrack of Alabama Shakes’ fantastic album Boys & Girls and we were able to get the shots needed.