Earlier this spring, I met with the very intelligent, hilarious, upbeat and creative designers at Canadian owned and operated Stiltskin’s Spindle. They’ve designed an absolutely AMAZING collection of formal and wedding dresses, which I got a sneak peak at while we decided what kind of photo shoots to do for them. I was impressed by their sketches, and we quickly started brainstorming crazy ideas back and forth. We share a similar offbeat view to creativity and humour, so collaborating our ideas was the easy part. Implementing them took more work, but such a vast creative team of people pitched in to help. It took my breath away to see how many people came together to see this project through to fruition. Friends to help with my equipment, beautiful real women to model the dresses, hairstylists, one of whom turned into a last minute model when one woman couldn’t make it to a photoshoot, friends, families and colleagues who owned props we desired (from antique cars to horses and carriage), people who provided amazing FOOD for the army of us on the long days of shoots… wow. The list goes on and on. A huge thank you to everyone who made these creative shoots possible! You each made them better in your own way, with your own talents. We couldn’t have done any of this without you.

And a special thank you to my Mom, Shirley. Moms truly make the world go around – and she flew here to watch my sweet Abbie for me for several weeks. My husband was away on a military course, so she kept her safe so I could travel to work on this project and not worry for her. Thank you so much for your support, Mom. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Is this light even working?!?

Three full 12 hour days of travelling, photo shoots, a forecast of rain for one day (thankfully it didn’t affect us in the end!), a broken studio light, wind that wanted to steal my umbrellas while on stands with my lights, sun that burned our skin, a broken down car, last minute model changes… we overcame all these obstacles and more. WITH our humour intact. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in years – what a great group of people to work with! A constant flurry of activity, refreshing and exhausting at the same time.

...a wardrobe touch up on set

In the end, everything flowed together perfectly. The locations, the people, the hours to shoot, props, the post shoot editing time and painting the digital art for the photos… wow, just wow. Like the title of this post says, it’s a dream job. Unleashing the creative side, laughing with people, collaborating on something bigger than myself. I hope to have many more seasons of working with Stiltskin’s Spindle.

Check out the dresses at the Stiltskin’s Spindle website:

www.stiltskins.ca

Their web designer, Mike, did a great job creating their site, organizing all the photos and putting it all together. Props to Mike!

Check out my favourite photos from the shoots in the new Stiltskin’s Spindle gallery on my website as well!

My straps from Phatstraps (www.phatstraps.com) arrived – in very good time. This blog post took too long to write, but at least it gives me the chance to comment on them, and how well they’ve served me the last few months. They are by far the best accessory for my camera that I could have ever gotten. I managed to restrain my enthusiasm and didn’t attack the mailperson when they brought me the parcel card. Barely. LOL. When I opened the package, I was stunned. The quality is just so, well there’s no other word for it, SUPERB. The pictures won’t ever do them justice – you’d have to feel them, use them, and rely on them just to see what I mean.

I didn’t realize it until I held them in my hands, but these straps are REAL straps that are COVERED with the designer fabric. Which only adds to how durable they are. Some people selling straps just sew the cotton together, and call it a strap. I was a little worried when I ordered them that this would be the case with these ones. But I got the pleasant surprise that on top of being just beautiful, they’re thick and very solidly constructed, so they’ll hold my camera and lens weight with no problems of ripping. I got the standard models – which have quick release buckles on them (If you’re ordering from the company, you have to opt out of buckles if you don’t want them). This gives me the ability to undo the 2 buckles on the neckstrap, and attach the wrist strap in a matter of seconds. Convenient and easy. The buckles are small, I was expecting them to be larger, more like the buckles on luggage. But they’ve held up to a lot of abuse the last few months without a worry, so don’t let that deter anyone from taking advantage of this convenience.

The wrist strap has become my favourite of the two. (For personal reasons, not pertaining to the company or the quality of the product. It’s just that the weight of my camera around my neck is not something I enjoy. As a person who can’t even handle a scarf in winter, the extra weight of the camera gives a greater feeling of choking. So it’s my back-up, or for times when I absolutely have to use it). So – as I said, the wrist strap is by far my favourite. I just slip it on my wrist, and adjust the slider that tightens it to my wrist (those of you who’ve ever played a Wii know what I mean. It slides up and tightens on your wrist so there is no chance it will slip off), and grip my camera. I feel much more secure knowing the camera is strapped in case it slips, and the minky fabric makes it very comfortable on my wrist. I can foresee purchasing a few more of these and modifying them for everything I own… I’m so clumsy at times, the security would be nice. lol. On my drinking glasses… my cell phone… my car keys… my preschooler…

The last few months I’ve been all over the province doing location photo shoots, and these 2 straps have become invaluable to me. If you own an SLR, I know they come with a neck strap, but you should at least consider getting a wrist strap. But be forewarned, once you try it, you’ll be ordering again, to replace the kit neck strap too! The comfort is unbelievable. And with the optional custom embroidery, you could be advertising your OWN company, not just “Canon” or “Nikon”.

A HUGE thanks again to my dear friends Kerry and Chris for this sweet gift – you made my birthday special, and you’re protecting my gear year round! Thank you!!

It was my birthday a few weeks ago. My dear friend Kerry and her family gave me a gift certificate for my birthday – for a company called Phat Straps. They make custom camera and wrist straps, and bags to put various camera lenses in. She admitted to googling ‘gifts for photographers’ to find the idea, but I am just so impressed with the thoughtfulness of it. (Thanks AGAIN Kerry for thinking of me in this way!) I spent countless hours oogling the fabrics and custom add-ons before deciding what I wanted. I was meticulous – it had to be fun, show off my personality a bit, but still look professional.

Fun, personalized, and professional. That’s difficult to do when you’re part of a family of pirates. Yes, you heard me. Pirates. From my grandparents down to the smallest kids in my family, we love pirates. Once a year we descend upon Wolfe Island (near Kingston, Ontario) to a waterfront cottage. We camp out for a week or two, and host “Pirate Day”, where we all dress up, play pirate games for the kids, etc. Last year we even hosted a Pirate Wedding, where my grandparents renewed their vows. The whole ceremony was written in pirate speak, and we were all in our costumes. It’s all in fun, and we enjoy every minute together. How deep does this love of pirates run? Well, last week there was a “Beach Day” at my daughter’s pre-school. She had to wear summer clothing (under her winter stuff of course, until she got there) and bring a beach towel. It wasn’t a ‘beach’ for her unless she could wear tattoos. She ran and got the fake tattoos stashed in her cubby and proceeded to instruct me in the application of 16 different ‘pirate’ stick-on tattoos.

So, when Abbie saw one of the straps had skulls on it she squealed with delight. I just KNEW I had to incorporate that facet of our lives into the straps. Skulls and professionalism don’t always go hand in hand… but I think I found a really nice compromise. The fabric has skulls, but also has other patterns to it, and is tone on tone black and grey, so it’s not something you’d see from 50 feet away. Check it out at: http://www.phatstraps.com/inc/sdetail/2972

I’ve ordered a neck strap and a wrist strap (so handy – pun intended!). Mine will also be customized with a teal (my favourite colour!) soft minky fabric on the inside, to prevent it from becoming too uncomfortable on my skin from the weight of the camera. If I like them, I’m heading back there to purchase some lens huggies – for my pro lenses coming late this spring! I’ll post a review of them later, for other DSLR users out there who may be interested in their quality.

But I digress… yet again…

So – my custom order is finished, and was shipped last week. The poor mailperson has had to endure me waiting at the door the last few days, my eyes aglow, hands shaking, waiting for her to hand me our mail. Even in the blistering cold, I’ll stand there with the door open while she circles our block. I won’t even wait until she’s put our mail in the mailbox near our front door and moves on. That would be wasting an entire 3 seconds of precious time! She must think I’m nuts. But I don’t care. I’m waiting with baited breath for the Canada Post card that tells me the parcel has arrived, to go pick it up at the post office depot.

Any day now… inhale…

I know my family loves and supports me. I know they want my happiness, and are excited for me. But I also know I love them, and should respect that mental privacy, and keep them on a need to know basis. So here I sit at my computer, editing photos in the middle of the night, and an idea hit me. “Hey Dayna! Take the straight jacket off! Write an online journal, a blog… unleash your excitement there! Write about the world through your eyes, or through the lens of your camera anyway!”

Maybe some bleary-eyed insomniacs actually want to read about this journey, this love of all things photography, and how it merges with a normal woman’s family life. Or maybe, more likely, it’s just going to save my family from a lot of one sided conversations.

So here goes… Hello outside world! My name is Dayna. I’m addicted to photography! I’ll either be inspiring you, or driving YOU insane very soon as well!