Hanson at the Western Fair, London Ontario

It's no secret that Hanson are my favourite band, and have been since I was 9. You can imagine my excitement when finding out that they were coming to London, having lived in Australia most of my life their concerts were very few and far between before moving to Canada a few years ago. Another great thing about them playing at the fair was that I was allowed to take my camera with a 70-200mm zoom lens, something I had tried to do at previous concerts but had been made to leave it in coat check!!! As I could take the camera and as last summer I was front row at the Halifax show I wasn't too worried about being up the front, so was able to stand back, dance, jump and take lots of photos! Too many probably! Here are a bunch of my favourites in a slideshow to my favourite song from the new album Anthem.

And here are a couple of videos I shot of some old favourites! 

This time around

mmmbop

River Phoenix inspired shoot

A little while ago I started a series inspired by young, dead celebrities 'Gone too soon'. So far in this series I have done Marylin Monroe and James Dean.For this is a shoot we went downtown Halifax with River Phoenix as inspiration. Christian was every bit the professional and brought along the perfect wardrobe for our early 90's look. Next week I'll be posting Whitney Houston with our 80's inspired shoot!

Mismatched and Kitschy

"Jogger girl", thats how one group of people from back home know me, because when we went to a Justin Timberlake concert years ago I was wearing a nice silver top, black shorts and white joggers (runners). My reasoning behind it was because I knew the others would be dressed nicely and we were getting a limo to the concert so I didn't want to be there in a tshirt and jeans but I also knew how much your feet get jumped on at concerts when it's general admission. So I'm pretty mismatched, and if you know me at all you know how much I value kitsch.
When I found Halifax local Molly's etsy shop I instantly knew I HAD to do something with these little wonders. I teamed up with model Jocelyn and headed downtown to some of my favourite shops that were lovely enough to let us take a few photos. If you're interested in any of the jewellery contact me and I can put you in touch with Molly.

Chocolate cupcake earrings at Susie Shortbreads, Dresden row.

Vanilla Ice Creams with a cherry on top

Strawberries on Citadel Hill

Gameboy earrings at Sweet Janes

Ghost from Mario earrings at Sweet Janes

Zelda triforce earrings at Strange Adventures

Pacman earrings at Strange Adventures.

Memory Mondays Week 9

At the end of October last year I happened to see a link on Facebook that Hanson were doing a North America tour. When I realized where I was and that Detroit was 2 hours one way, Toronto was 2 hours another way or, if needed, New York was 8 hours another way I knew that the time had come and I had to see my 3 favorite singing brothers again.

The last time I saw them was in 2005 in Sydney for their Underneath tour and it was like a dream come true so I booked my Toronto ticket and got on a Greyhound at the end of November to go see them. I had a nice day walking around the city reminiscing about the last time I was there about 2 and a half years before with my best friend, I even went to the same sushi place for lunch. I checked out the new Lomography store there and one of my other favorites, Urban Outfitters.

At around 4pm Hanson made their way out of the buses and they held a 'walk' and I walked barefoot around the Toronto streets. A little later- after a very cold wait- we went inside and my camera wasn't allowed in because it was professional, so it was lomography to save the day and I took some film photos but also went on this crazy little thing called the internet after the show and watched any number of videos or saw photos that I wasn't able to take.

Hanson fans really are some of the most friendly people and it was fun talking to people around me, but like at most concerts at one point I had to go and sit down coz I felt faint but other than that it was an amazing show and I urge you to check out their new video 'Give a little' It really is one of the most upbeat songs i've heard in awhile and the video is awesome, check out their kids dancing! I've also written an article on the Lomography site about the new video!

Or, how about, "Cheesed off with cheesy photo session spice?"

Ok, I'm the first to admit it, I like cheesy things. Many of you who know me would know this. Give me a top 100 hits from the 90's mix cd and a pair of platforms and i'll be entertained for weeks. But how cheesy is too cheesy?

For over a year while saving up to come overseas I worked in a family photography studio. A lot of people would come in and ask for nothing posed, nothing cheesy, nothing stiff. Great, these people want something different so lets break out the hula hoops, have a pillow fight, made Dad be a choo choo train and laugh with the kids acting naturally rather than, Ok ready 1.2.3.. SMILE! but you know what, I found even those families who came in wanting the natural photos, would buy the posed, 'lil jonny has the best smile' photos and sometimes like them more than the pillow fights.

Why did I start thinking about this? I've been going through my hard drive and found some photos that I took for a friend last Christmas that we had a lot of fun taking, oozing the cheese and mucking about.. enjoy..

Introducing.. The North boys..

Do you like posed photos or prefer natural ones?

We all get a little bit weird, sometimes..

Everyone has a dirty little secret, or at least something that they wouldn't usually disclose to people when first meeting because you know for a fact that they would judge you there and then.. Well, heres mine.

My favorite band is Hanson. Yes, the kids that looked like girls who sang mmmbop.

What alot of people dont realize is that that was 12 years ago, and honestly, how much have you changed in 12 years? Do you still collect pokemon cards, go to see Titanic 10 times at the cinema while wearing your cargo pants and rocking a 'rachel' haircut.. no, i thought not..

So, like all of us, these guys have changed alot since the mmmbop days. Their 2004 album underneath was a big departure from the cookie cutter world of pop and anthems like "Strong enough to break" got me through my last year of high school and I was even lucky enough to go and see them in concert (the best day of my life thus far.. but thats another story).

The Walk was released in 2007 and they have been doing alot of charity work and making babies with their wives (yes, they're all married with kids) since then. Taylor even did a side project 'Tinted Windows", which when i first heard their song on Triple J I almost ran my car off the road.

So, if you know and love me, or if you're at all interested, check out their new single. I know that this will be the one cd that i will actually go out and buy this year.

I have this photo as a poster on the back of my door back home, much larger than life size..