As a kid, reading was a fairly common activity in our house. Mom and Dad would take us to the library every few Sundays and we'd pick out books to read together. Of course, before I was actually old enough to pick out books for myself, we did have a collection of books that I tended to gravitate towards. My favorites included Richard Scarry's picture books, The Speedy Little Taxi, and Mr. Little's Noisy Car by Richard Fowler.
If my Jeeves and the Jaguar site or some of the very first video footage of myself hasn't proven it, my affection for cars has pretty much always been there. It's what makes this clip even more special in a way. I've held onto this cassette tape of my childhood recordings since I was a teenager, but until now haven't ever really shared any of it.
I found the original Mr. Little's Noisy Car book at my parent's place and thought it would be cool to sync up the recording I have from 1986 of me reading through that book with my parents (when I was 2 years old), with me flipping through it now. Seeing as I couldn't read much yet, you can tell how many times we'd looked at the book before as I know all the parts by heart. The book also has a bunch of flaps to open, which made it that much more fun to go through as a kid.
Without further ado, here's a little bit of my childhood.
This is an additional series of shots from a photo set I snapped in the summer of 2007. After reviewing the first post I made from this collection, I realized that there were more pictures worth sharing. In case you were wondering why I'd bother shooting all these pictures to begin with, the University of Regina was where I attended film school and I wanted to capture the campus that summer as I embarked on my final year there.
As of late I've been cleaning house (so to speak). I've been reorganizing my blog, creating photo sets on a new flickr account, rebuilding my reel, and casually working out ways of adding more punch to my portfolio site. All of this personal rebuffing may seem a bit indulgent, but I feel like it's already helping me expand in new ways.
Recently my Around the Hat photo series has helped me get a bit of local traction. When I kicked off the series with a set around Medalta Potteries, they were kind enough to give me a shout out on their facebook page. More in line with what I had been hoping the series might do, it actually gained me a new contact with prospects for future video/photography work. Work hasn't been in short supply these days either.
Last week I had to turn down a New York production company who contacted me to shoot some behind the scenes footage and photography of an event for Glenfiddich Whiskey in Calgary. It was a two day shoot and I just couldn't make it work with my schedule. Although, just getting the offer was pretty flattering considering that it came directly through my portfolio.
I feel like I'm at an interesting point in my career. I'm on the hunt for new challenges, and ways to reinvent or diversify my approach to the kinds of videos I'm already doing. While making more money is always nice, I think what I'm really striving for is even more freedom in my schedule and maintaining the variety in the projects that I undertake. Making some of these things a reality is going to require that I cast a bigger net, and I think that's what I've started to do.
