welcome to james day photography

The starting date of the Smog Games, and also the wedding date of Thu & Kelly here in Calgary.
For the last time this year, I shot another wedding with Perry. It was really sad to leave! Perry is a generous, loving, amazing guy, who has been a great source of inspiration, a great friend, allowing me to stay at his studio (which has a bedroom set up!) and shoot weddings with him while I’ve been here.

Thu and Kelly were married at the Delta Hotel in downtown Calgary, with their proud families and supportive friends there to make it official! Thanks for letting me hang with you guys for the day.

I was only in attendance for some of the day, but they had a tea ceremony that Perry shot (I’m so jealous!) and they wore their traditional chinese outfits. Then they had an outfit change, & into the outfits you will see them in here. After the formals, then it was time for the ceremony. I left Perry as the reception started, and he tells me that it was quite a party!

JD

They met on a blind date. Mike hid as he walked into the restaurant, took a good look at her before he let her see him, and said to himself, “She’s hot”.. and took a seat.
Now they’re married!

Michael Shandro invited me to Edmonton to shoot with him for the day and boy did we have fun. Second shooting is always difficult.. finding that fine line between taking over, and just being plain useless. We both decided to take turns.. and just share the shooting.. and it made for a creative, non stop fun day for us and the client.

I shot a wedding today with Perry… on a very special date in history.. 08 08 08. I’ll share those pics with you tomorrow! Also.. today I just felt like I “oh ate, oh ate, oh ate”…I need to go for a run tomorrow I think!

JD

In August 2006, alot of you know that I spent around a month in New York City, staying all over the place.. at one point I even dared the hostels! When I stayed in the hostel, I met a swedish guy named Jonas. We ended up hanging out together.. seeing the sights of New York with a blonde haired blue eyed swedish… GUY! Oh well…
He then introduced me to Jenny who was from Toronto, but visiting Jonas in New York because Jonas and Jenny had met while on an exchange in Japan previously. Anyhow.. we all spent some time together… then off we all went to Toronto… I was totally random back then..nothing has changed. After going to Toronto, I decided to check out Calgary.. where I met my number 1, Lauren!
So.. on the way back from New York a few weeks ago, i decided to drop in on Jenny and her family and while I was there she asked me to do a shoot of her. Sweet!

We all know that I fully love my couple shoots.. but having something else thrown in the mix helps me keep it fresh.. Enjoy these images.. Edited using the new TRA2 and my own mix of stuff!

JD

Justin Demers (justin demers photography), John Edgar (still-motion) and I hung out while I was in Toronto! What a fun time. Justin and I went shopping for furniture and I also bought a gift for Lauren which I left in the toronto airport. How freaking annoying!
That night Justin, John and I went out for dinner, ate donuts (without justin as the smell of donuts makes the poor boy sick) and then went back to the still motion studio to play xbox.

Anyhow.. as Justin hid every time I camera came out.. here is a photo field trip John and I made to krispy kreme. Funny as.. especially when Justin begged us to go quickly because he needed to get back to his new wife! Oh.. and editing these pics made me crave donuts so badly.. and to just make it worse, someone just walked past me with donuts!

JD

On Sunday, I had the absolute pleasure of tagging along with Rob and Lauren to photograph Brian & Jolene’s Wedding. I’m blogging slightly out of order.. because I actually shot a wedding on Saturday with the super goofy Michael Shandro, which I will share with you later in the week.

Brian & Jolene’s Wedding was more fun than I could have ever imagined.. between the tea ceremony, dress changes and crazy photo antics with Rob and Lauren, this is definitely a wedding day that will take some beating.

I was caught sending text messages to (my) Lauren all throughout the day telling her how I have all these great ideas for our wedding.. and how I’m leaving her for a chinese girl so I can have all these great traditions and wicked family orientated things at my wedding. I loved how there was a huge sense of respect between everyone. From serving each other tea, to individually welcoming the family members to the reception.. it was just my kinda wedding. I am totally on the hunt for Chinese weddings..Sydney watch out! I’m coming!

& Here’s a hot tip for you… Rob & Lauren.. after watching them shoot I’d have to say they’re the most incredible photographers ever. Big statement I know.. Wait till they blog their images.. I saw what they got.. and WOW.. I could only ever dream!

JD