Documentary Photography: An Unrealized Ambition

I hate when people ask me if I’m a photographer. Sometimes it’s the gear that prompts this. They see the expensive looking camera, or maybe pick up my kit for a moment and are taken aback by how heavy it is. “Whoa! You must be a photographer.” Maybe it’s the final shots that have them whoa-ing, but the gear still takes centre-stage: “You’re camera takes great pictures!” But no, the reason I hate when people ask me if I’m a photographer is because I’m not sure what to say. On the one hand, I most certainly am. I’ve shot weddings, portraiture, and used my photography as the foundation of several paid graphic design projects. I’ve been paid money to shoot. Simple. But on the other hand, I feel like I’m not really a photographer at all. To date, photography has only been a small part of what I do, and after…Continue Reading

Some complementary photos

After reading Laura’s account of our first day in London, I thought I’d put up a few of my favourite shots from the day to complement her narrative.  

We Walked: 14 Kilometers Through London

Walking: the profession of Chris and Laura Beauchamp, our new full-time job. The morning air was cold and a thin layer of snow covered the ground. We headed for the British Museum but it was 8:15 am and it didn’t open until 10:00 am. Instead we walked to the Covent Garden Market. The market was just starting to unravel. Again, we were too early. So, we walked. We walked towards the river, along a place called Sommerset House, which was also closed and we kept walking up a street full of theatres with huge billboards and signs that would probably be flashing with life and entising the crowd, but they too were closed. So, we walked. By now we were already quite cold. Chris didn’t have mittens or a scarf, but even with those I was getting chilled to the bone. To warm-up we found a coffee shop in front…Continue Reading

Fish and Chips

For the past two days I’ve been hungry every three hours. They only fed us twice on the Thomas Cook flight from Vancouver to London, so by the time we got here in London we were famished and hadn’t slept all night. I could tell this was going to be one of the longer days of my life. We landed at Gatwick Airport, which is a good 40 minutes away from the center of London. After a few minutes of confusion trying to buy a train ticket in a country where they speak the same language as us, we couldn’t help but chuckle at our rusty travel skills and the thought of doing the same thing in Turkey or India. 24 pounds later we were on the train. 40 minutes later we were at Victoria train station in London. We started walking in the direction of our hostel and the…Continue Reading

We’re in London

Hey all, Just a quick post to let you know we’ve made it safely to London. My battery is about to die. I’ll post some photos of Vancouver soon. Chris