Ottawa Travel Photographer :: Photo journal - 5 weeks in Asia

Ryan and I have been planning to take an extended vacation for some time now. After saving up enough days to take 5 weeks off, we decide to take an adventure across the world to Asia. We did a whole ton of research and after a trip to our local Chinese travel agent, we had booked flight tickets to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bali. Besides the vast difference in geographical location, the culture and language barriers we ran into in China were  the hardest to get used to. ...Lack of queuing, pushing and spitting were the most shocking behaviours we encountered. That being said, the breath-taking views and diversity between the cities and villages made for a  new and very enjoyable experience that I wouldn't give up.  It was an amazing opportunity. Below is an excerpt of photos from our trip. We both hope to continue our epic travels around the world. ...one destination at a time.

Ottawa Lifestyle Photographer :: It's Pake Time!

Pake: (noun)"A delicious pie baked inside of a delicious cake resulting in a delicious, decadent over the top dessert."

Every year for my birthday, my husband makes me a birthday cake. He's been very kind not to laugh at  my odd requests (like when I asked him to make a cake shaped like a cat head :P) and this year was no different. After watching an episode of Drop Dead Diva  I got the idea of requesting a "pake". Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE food...especially dessert. A pake to me would be the perfect bonding between two traditional desserts. It's the best of both worlds - excellent for those that are indecisive! We originally wanted to do a black forest pake (chocolate cake with a cherry pie), but unfortunately, had to settle with chocolate cake and a blueberry pie. Due to time constraints, we decided to construct the pake with Betty Crocker chocolate cake batter and a pre-made pie from Walmart. The pake was topped off with home-made whipped cream and Betty Crocker chocolate frosting. Below are photos to document the construction of the pake! 

1) Separate construction material. Soon to be combined!

2) Making the whipped cream.

3) Assembly time! The key is to pile on the "cement". Mmmm...tasty!

4) Pie has been successfully inserted. Kind of looks like a whoppie pie!

5) All done! We had a few problems icing the exterior. Not the cleanest looking cake, but it's a tasty one.

6) ...and the best part! Eating it! :D

Ottawa Wedding Photographer :: Photo-a-day (Love!)

I'm so glad that the weekend has arrived and that we've finished another week at the salt mines. I haven't been able to pick up my camera lately, so I thought tonight would be a good time to play with some photo concepts. We take shots of  rings and accessories to round out a wedding photo album and it's a lot of fun finding different ways to showcase them! Tonight was fun with  scrabble letters! Maybe something I'll incorporate for my sister's upcoming wedding!

Happy Saturday!

As the saying goes...GG! A non-gamer's account of NASL 2012

Over the past weekend, I went with my fiancé and a few friends to witness an E-sports event in Toronto. The grand finale of the North American Star League tournament, highly touted to be the first ever professional Starcraft II tournament held in Canada. The event collaborated with two other tournaments to hold a 2-day long gaming extravaganza,. The Collegiate Star League, a showcased battle between Canadian universities vying for the top title of best university Starcraft II team, and, Blizzard' World Championships Series, a double-elimination style duel to determine which Canadian player will be given the honour of representing Canada against other world opponents. The "Olympics" of gaming if you will. I wasn't quite sure what to expect being only a minor SC II gamer whose experience with casted games comprised of listening to them in the background while they were being played on another computer. On Saturday morning, we arrived to a packed packed house with hundreds in the audience. Apparently, people had been camping out the entrance since the early hours. You can't tell in the below picture, but this was only half of the room. The other half was filled with standing observers, as the convention centre unfortunately did not provide sufficient seating to accommodate all ticket holders.

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During the duration of the weekend, we had the privilege of viewing 8 professional SC II players duel to the proverbial death for a grand prize of $30,000. When $30,000 is on the line, you fight hard! Even though I was only familiar with a couple of them, they were all well known  within SC II circles. So much so, there were a few star-struck moments from the boys! "OMG!!!! *insert swoon here*" You would have thought Bieber-fever was occurring.

The crowd here was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe how excited and supportive the audience was. The cheers were deafening. I'd say there was more energy in this crowd than at most Raptor's games. :P Observing the audience while waiting for reactions to capture were at times hilarious. Viewers were on the edge of their seats and extremely animated. I caught this priceless moment of Mr. Greenshirt during a nail biting match between two Korean players - Puma and MC.

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The introductions of the players reminded me of those given to boxers before their entrance. It was during one of these entrances that I had a close encounter with one of the players. I was standing on the red carpet attempting to get a good shot of crowd reactions when unknowingly I almost bump smack into MC, who had backtracked and was barreling down the aisle. To provide some visual context, below is a shot of him exiting after winning his series against Puma.

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Gaming concentration was high during matches. Which is greatly required to make moves through a couple hundred APM. Here are a couple of shots of players engrossed in their matches.

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All-in-all, I didn't have a terrible time accompanying the gang to our first-ever live E-sports tournament. I'd have to say I learned a lot about the E-sports dynamic and the similarities they share with other more common competitive sporting events.  We even fit in some taco bell. ...Mmmm....taco bell...