Summer Update 1.0

Ah summer. That blissful time of long, hot days spent frolicking on the beach, and lounging in the shade beneath a tree. That time of late evenings spent with friends and family, gathered together outside on patios, and in mosquito-filled campsites. That time of early mornings spent wishing you could get back to sleep at five-thirty AM, but you can't. The sun is peeking through your curtains, always managing to be in your eyes, and the birds outside won't stop squawking.

Ah, summer. I'm glad it's finally here.


In news related to the nature of this blog (namely, photography) I have some photographs to share with you. I shot a wedding a few weeks ago, and have finally managed to finish editing. I'd like to once more offer my congratulations to Felix and Ojis, and wish them all the best in their life together. So with the proper sentiments now out of the way, and without any more stalling by steadily increasing the length of this already rather lengthy, lengthy, sentence by adding word after word after word, here are a few of the photographs from the wedding:

And of course, hi-res versions and prints are available from the gallery on my website, which can be found here: http://www.rmkingphotography.com/Galleries/Weddings/Felix-Ojis

In other news, I have a couple of concert bookings coming up this summer that I'm quite excited about. I'll have photos and more information on those in the next update.

I also have another wedding booked for this September that I'm greatly looking forward to. The ceremony venue just so happens to be the Burnaby Village Heritage Museum, which I think is really cool. I can't wait to get to do some wedding portraits there, surrounded by old buildings and artifacts from the past. It feels like the perfect merging of my passion for photography, and my degree in History. Sort of like a, hmm, what's the right word? Marriage? Yes, that's it. It's sort of like a marriage of my skills and interests.

And so with that I'll take my leave of you once more. Next update should be in about two-three weeks. Don't hold me to that though.

Spring Update Pt 2: The shorter sequel.

So it's been a little over a month and a bit since my last update, and I'm okay with that. I hope you are too, if not, well, here's an update for you to read.

Since the last post, I've shot another concert, and done a lot of work with my local youth group.

The concert was at Pat's Pub in Vancouver. There was a few different bands that played that night, all metal, all great. Everyone put on a great show, and the crowd was good too. It got a little rowdy during Chapel's set, but if you've ever heard Chapel before, you'll understand why. Unfortunately the show went a bit late, and Funeral Circle's set was cut short, but I still managed to snag a few shots. So in order of appearance, here's Steel Chariot; Stryker, Chapel, and the last two shots are of Funeral Circle:

As far as my work with Lighthouse Youth goes, the weather is finally getting nice (about damn time too) and we were blessed with a beautiful evening this past Tuesday night. So we did some crazy things. We played such classic games as "Fetus and Scoop*" and the ever popular, "Stuff on Your Face". Here's the resulting trainwreck for your viewing pleasure:

 

As you can see, a tremendous mess was made, but a good time was had by all. Presumably.


*No fetuses were harmed in the playing of this game. Unless you count unfertilized chicken eggs as fetuses, in which case you may need to find the proper definition of the word.

Spring Update!

Wow! I just realized I haven't updated this blog since September of last year! My deepest apologies to anyone who actually takes the time out of their day to look at this blog, and has been expecting a new post since then. Truly, I apologize.

Well, now that we have the obligatory apology out of the way, let me just say that I'm excited about the arrival of spring! Spring brings a wide range of things that make my job as a photographer easier. Chief among those perks is the increase in overall temperature. Seriously, it makes a significant difference. Nobody enjoys standing around the cold huddled behind a tripod for hours on end while taking winter shots, and I certainly doubt that anyone enjoys standing in front of my camera while the thermometer reads 2 degrees celsius or lower. Plus, it means that summer is on the way!

If all goes according to plan, this summer I'll be working with another photographer doing a few more weddings, gaining some more experience and doing some serious networking and promoting. Needless to say, I'm quite simply, well, pumped at the idea of getting to do some more wedding work.

Speaking of work, what have I been doing for the past seven months you may ask? No, you didn't ask? Well that's alright, because I'm going to tell you anyway. The website has been updated and galleries have been moved around. New photos have been added too. I've been shooting more fine art work, and doing a few concerts here and there as well. Here's a few sample shots from a show I shot back in February:

The band in those shots is a local Vancouver metal band named Ancient Obliteration. I highly recommend them to any fans of metal music, especially fans of weird, avant-garde stuff that defies genrefication. No, that's not a real word, but I'm using it anyway. Here's a link to the full gallery of high-res images.

I've also been taking the time to work through some of my older images and rework them now that I have more editing skill, and better tools for editing. Here's a recent edit of an old favourite of mine:

For those of you interested in comparison and contrast, here's a link to the original too.

And with that I'll leave you for now, hopefully for less time that seven months.

- RMK

News (and a few photos)

It's hard to believe summer is gone already. Seriously, where did it go? The last time I looked at my calender, it was mid-July.

I've got some news (Facebook followers know all this already):

I have a new website, which can be found over at www.rmkingphotography.com

There's full galleries up there, covering the full spectrum of my photographic work. Weddings, engagements, concerts, band shoots, fashion, and fine art. There's prints available of everything, ranging in size from small to absurdly big - available in everything from glossy to matte to metallic to canvas.

I've been working too. Here's a few shots from David and Jennifer Shipley's wedding back in June:
(I was the best man, so there's no photos of the ceremony in my work, it's surprisingly hard to pull double-duty at a wedding)

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The full gallery is available on my website at:  http://www.rmkingphotography.com/Weddings/DavidJennifer

 

Here's a few shots from Katie and Corey Hnatiak's wedding in July:

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I could regale you all with tales of my summer exploits, but I'll save that for another post, another day. And with that, I'll leave you with a final photograph, my favourite from my summer vacation, simply entitled Solitude:

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Update

It's been a while since I updated this blog, and you have my sincere apologies. May was a busy month, both in terms of shooting and simply living - there were concerts to attend, and bachelor parties to survive.So now we find ourselves in June, deeply anticipating the coming summer. Although if the current weather is any indication, summer feels like it's ages away yet.

But you're not here to listen to me lament my lack of free time, so here's some new photos from a show I shot last weekend at The Red Room in Vancouver. The Lord Weird Slough Feg was in town, and local boys Funeral Circle opened up the night for them.

Funeral Circle unleashed a pounding, tortured set, featuring a new line-up, and some classic Doom Metal with a cover of an old Witchfinder General tune. Here's a link to the full set of Funeral Circle photos over on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmking/sets/72157624050161311/

The Lord Weird Slough Feg followed, pumping out the classics from albums such as Traveller, Down Among The Deadmen and Ape Uprising for their 20th anniversary tour. Mike Scalzi's vocals soared, drums were pounded, and guitar leads and solo's were thrown out so haphazardly that the only analogy I can use to describe the situation is that it felt a bit like watching a parade go past, with tantalizing sticky sweet bits of candy being hurled at your face in rapid fire. Only rather than having said candy stick to you, it instead melted your face, because with solos being in such abundance, well, faces were bound to be melted.

As you can clearly see in that last photograph, faces were, indeed, melted. Here's the links to the full set of Slough Feg images over on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmking/sets/72157624189749508/

And with that, I leave you until next time, which I promise won't be nearly so long as my last absence.

Hard Rock & Heavy Metal

I had the good fortune of being able to attend not one, but two - that's right, multiple - concerts last week.

First was another Divided Symmetry show. In my humble opinion, their best one yet. The sound was great, and the music was fantastic. The venue, ehhh, it was alright. The Princeton Pub isn't exactly a shining beacon of pubby goodness, let's just say that. The lighting was atrocious, and I only managed to get a handful of usable photos out of their whole set. So here's a select few of those far too few good photos:

The second show I went was a little different than the hard rock/progressive sound of Divided Symmetry. I went to see Begrime Exemious and Death Toll Rising - two death metal bands hailing from the frozen wastelands of Edmonton. Both bands put on a great show. The stage was too small, forcing them to play on the floor, with the mosh pit becoming a living, breathing organism, feeding off the energy poured forth by the bands, becoming ever more intense. This growing intensity fed back into the bands, spurring them on like some sort self-fueling machine of metal fury. Needless to say, I got knocked around a bit, feared for my camera gear for a bit, but it was a ton of fun, and resulted in some great photos.

Begrime Exemious:

Death Toll Rising:

The rest of the photographs can be found over at my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmking/