I’d like to share some pictures from my recent trip to Africa. It was an amazing experience. I had no phone or internet connection for most of the trip!  At times I’d put down my camera and just immerse myself in their lives. That allowed me to learn more about the people and their traditions. Living with them definitely helped quite a bit in capturing some of these photographs. Sharing meals,laughs;learning how to sing and teaching them my awful dance techniques were some of the highlights of this trip.     Not to mention pancakes made from a root of a banana-like tree that were fermented in the ground for 7 months!! Yummy!!

I made notes under many photographs so that you can understand a bit more about each photo and what it represents.   Please note that there’s some nudity. Many tribes walk around naked or topless and for many of us it’s a bit of a taboo. I’ve cut down on those pictures as much as I could (I posted about 80 out of  a total of 400 images)

The conditions some of these tribes live in is really hard to call “livable”. Many times I wondered how they are still alive. Mortality rate is extremely high yet they’ve adapted themselves to the harsh conditions very well.   Even 2 of my DSLR cameras did not survive the trip…

Enjoy!!

Portrait of a Mursi woman. Mursi are one of the most unique tribes in the world. They are mostly known for wearing lip plates. Among the other tribes they are known as the most fierce warriors. I enjoyed dancing,singing and trying to communicate with them. We are unique to them just like they are unique for us.

At around puberty females cut their lower lip and install a clay plate in the opening. As time goes by they stretch the hole and put a bigger disk in it. Those plates can easily reach 7 inches in diameter!Lower teeth are often removed to make the lip plate sit comfortably in the opening.

The larger the lip plate, the more cattle her parents can ask for her when it`s time for her to get married. All marriages are arranged by the parents. How do they kiss you may ask. Well, they don't!

Life is not easy. This is just an example of a female who is traveling from the market where she made a purchase.Chances are, her home is many miles away. There's isn't much water during the dry season in many areas and women and children have to walk up and downhill for many miles to the water source to fill up a water container.

I have no idea how they do it,but they are very proficient at using their heads to carry heavy articles . There are no horses,cars or even bicycles to help them.

There are a lot of kids everywhere. They tend to know 1-3 words in English

Kids help their parents with the younger siblings. You could see a lot of 4-6 year old kids carrying their brother/sister in their hands or on their backs.

Guns are owned by most if not all men in all the tribes. Kalashnikov AK-47 is a weapon of choice. You have to have a gun and at least 30 cows in order to get married. The cattle is given to the parents of the bride.

Suri's gazing lands are under intense competition. They often have to battle with the neighboring tribes who bring their cattle on their lands during the dry season. Suri also have to protect themselves as those tribes do raids on their territories and steal the cattle.

Shoe shining is quite popular in bigger cities!

These girls are from Hamer tribe. Note the hair style. This is a typical hair style for women in that tribe

Often kids take care of the cattle. Because there may not be enough grass around the villages, sometimes the cattle is taken many miles away

Average life expectancy in Ethiopia is 45 years. Finding old people to photograph was a real challenge!

Here's a woman with the lether ring around her neck. It indicates she is the first wife. No other rings are visible. That means she is the only wife he husband has.

Hard life and harsh environment made it impossible to tell her age. She could  very well be about 55 years old… Note the 2 rings on her neck that indicates that she is one of 3 wives. Each ring indicates a number of wives her husband married. First wife would wear 2 rings(if I am not mistaken)indicating that there are 2 more plus 1 leather-type ring(shown above this picture) on top of them indicating she is the first wife. “Secondary” wives at time can be like slaves.

All the villagers always take care of the elders and help out as much as they can

 

This photo is from a market where these women were selling potatoes and onions

A woman is sitting beside her house. Typically a house is divided into 2 section. 1 section is for the animals and other section is for the family. There are no real doors between the two...

These girls are standing where it used to be a river. It's the dry season and there's no water there right now. Often they have to dig into the ground to get some water!

Mother is trying to calm her child. Behind is her house. It may not seem big,but that's where her family lives.A 60 sqf house for the whole family!!

In some areas you can find kids on the side of the road dancing and doing tricks. All they want is an empty water bottle. Ignorant tourists feel sorry and give them money,bottles and other gifts. They don't know that these kids are skipping school with the idea that they rather do this and make money(they sell the bottles) than study. Empty water bottles are sold in markets!

These stones(in the shape of men's genitalia...) were built many many centuries ago. It's believed these were built for the fallen warriors

The scars are from the bull jumping ceremony. Women let their man whip them with sticks inflicting deep scars. If I am not mistaken they also put oil or butter on the wounds to make the scars bigger. Every woman has to go through this ceremony. They are very proud of their scars!

Adults often mix cattle blood with milk for drinking

A woman is preparing a mix which she will later cook

This is how coffee is made in Ethiopia. Beans are roasted right in front of you. Then they are crushed and hot water is added. I am not a coffee drinker,but I had it almost every day! You won't be able to drink Starbucks after trying this coffee!!

Many tribes eat raw meat...They claim it tastes better than cooked!

Women are doing their hair as part of their regular routine.

Many men and women take a good care of their hair

It took me a week to find these really old men

All the beads and decorations are worn by all the tribes on daily basis. These are NOT for tourist attractions like in many other countries where underneath the traditional clothing you can see jeans and t-shirts.

All of these decorations are to show what tribes he/she belongs to.Beads are used in prayers to count blessings. They also believe that beads bring peace,health and prosperity to the wearer.

Young people sometimes put on "everything they have" when they go to the market to show off themselves to the ladies

Decorative scars. Many tribes practice Animism as their religion. Voodoo ceremonies are common as well

Traditional Evangadi dance

A school at one of the villages. Kids are so excited to see something different for once and not eager to listen to their teacher who had to use a stick to calm a few of them down

In case you've never seen it, here's $50 BILLION dollars from Zimbabwe. You'd think you can buy a country with it,yet this is barely enough to buy an egg...

I’ll finish this with a few safari pictures

These are also sometimes called McDonald's Antelope. Because the letter M on their butt. Plus they are an easy snack

:) This was a little scary yet a really cool experience!

Happy Holidays everyone! 2011 was an amazing year and I am so grateful to all the past and new 2012/2013 clients who’ve put their trust in me!!  Right now I am doing a personal assignment in Africa and will be back home in January to start another awesome year.

This wedding was held on the same day as  the  Toronto Polish Festival. The church was right in the middle of it and getting to it was not easy. After the ceremony we drove to UofT for some photographs with the bridal party and the couple, before heading off to Paradise Banquet Hall.

In case you are wondering about the mascot and the marching band… Well, we were taking pictures and they just swarmed around us and gave us a good show. 

All that was followed by a night of dances,laughter and some happy tears. Some involuntary stunts were performed by the single ladies and boys, trying to catch that bouquet and garter and be the next to marry 

Elvis impersonator was certainly a nice touch and I must say he was better than some of those in Vegas!

Charlie and Lorraine got married at Colborne Lane in Toronto – one of the top restaurants in Canada. The food(more like art, taste and presentation wise) was simply amazing!

Getting ready shots were taken at their condo in downtown  and then we just walked to the restaurant, taking pictures along the way.

I guess you are seeing by now that this wedding is not very traditional. And did I mention the cool custom made short wedding red dress?!

Another really cool fact about this wedding is that they made their rings themselves from scratch by taking a jewelery making workshop!!

So many really amazing weddings and I wish I had time to showcase ALL of them! I’ll try to post at least 1 more before the end of December.

I have a few minutes to spare and I am posting another amazing wedding (yay!)

This wedding took place at Riu Palace Punta Cana, a magnificent resort located in the Dominican Republic.

Here are a few photographs to highlight the wedding day and a trash the dress session a morning after.

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On the other news,   I am only taking 3-4 destination weddings for 2012 and only 1-2 spots left for the year!  If you are planning to get married outside of North America, now is a good time to give me a call! 

Irene and Eugene live in Edmonton, AB,  but decided to get married here in Toronto.

Due to the distance, all communication was via email and we only got to see each other a few days before the wedding day. After they arrived here we  had a chat and then spent a great evening outside taking their engagement pictures.

Wedding itself was held at Hilton Suites Hotel and evening reception was at the adjacent Empire Court Chinese restaurant(great food!)

Amazing day with lots of laughs, happy tears and moments to remember.

Last fall I spent a full day photographing a great family at Bigwin Island located about 2.5 hours north of Toronto on the Lake of Bays. It’s one of the most gorgeous places I’ve been to!

I arrived early in the morning to the private parking lot at the Lake of Bays. From there a 10-minute boat ride took me right to the island.

My idea was to photograph a family session with a mix of portraiture,journalism and show things in a more relaxed way.  To make things more real and memorable.

And although it was a bit chilly and rainy, we manage to fit a lot in just  1 day of shooting.  I can’t help but smile at most of these images as I had so much fun too!!

Enjoy

Not often do I get to shoot themed engagement sessions. This one had a really cool retro theme, with a neat old car and matching clothing.  It was definitely a lot of fun to photograph!

It was a little bit rainy on that day and at first we even thought of changing the dates, but I am so glad we didn’t!!

Here are a few of the shots that I personally liked:

Had a chance to photograph a beautiful wedding that took place in Mexico at Omni Puerto Aventuras resort.

First day was the wedding ceremony and reception with some images before and after.

On the second day we went into the town for some photographs,then the golf course for some fun(groom is really into golf) and then we finished the evening at the beach, with some real trash the dress shots. 

Here’s a video sideshow with about 90 photographs and a few more down bellow.

This wedding took place at 111 Queen St West in Toronto. A venue with countless doors,stairs and corridors.  Getting ready started at the Sweet Grass Spa and beautiful The Ivy at Verity boutique  hotel and reception took place at the George Restaurant; all under 1 roof!  It is very beautiful inside and allowed us to take all images on the grounds.

It was a  joy being there and celebrating their special day with their family and close friends.

I’ve been meaning to post this wedding for months now. It was quite an amazing experience from start to finish.

Dancing started since I arrived and continued through the whole day.

Reception took place and the  Liberty Grand which was beautiful as always.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your special day

I would like to share some photographs from my recent journey to Antarctica. It was a truly once in a lifetime experience, though I’d be happy to go back there any time.

I’ve traveled to quite a number of countries and places and none of them left me speechless.  There, many times I’ve found myself just sitting and admiring the beauty of this place. I just have no words to describe it. YOU HAVE TO SEE IT FOR YOURSELF!!

All the wildlife was right there,with penguins walking around just a few feet away.

And I even had a chance to take a swim in the ocean twice during the trip (last picture of this set…)!

It took me 2 days to narrow 370 images from this trip to my favorite 75.  Enjoy and I hope these photographs will persuade you to put this place on your bucket list

Antarctica 2010-2011 Pictures

Happy New Year everyone!!   2010 was a busy year and it was finished with an expedition to Antarctica, from which I just return home.  Before I post those pictures, here’s one of the most memorable weddings from 2010.

When you think of destination weddings, most would think of an ocean and sand. This couple however decided to do something a bit different and they got married in Costa Rica,  La Fortuna @ the Springs Resort and Spa ,  near a live volcano & rain forests.  It does rain quite often in the area,but we mostly managed to avoid it over the course of 3 days of photography.

If you like animals and birds, Costa Rica is probably one of the best places on earth to experience those up close. There’s no need to drive for hours with binoculars in search of something as it’s all right there in front of you! Sometimes you just need to slow down and look around you.  Chances are you’ll see dozens of birds,monkeys, spiders,frogs and snakes.  If you are staying in La Fortuna area near the volcano, you can also indulge yourself in the mineral hot springs or do some surfing in a nearby province.

Here are some of my favorite photos from those 3 days

Costa Rica Wedding Photography

Another great wedding to show from earlier of this year. It was definitely one of the most colorful events of the summer; filled with rituals, vibrant colors and laughter.

A few wedding day highlights are shown bellow.

Enjoy

Autumn is a very popular season for engagement sessions. The leafs are falling and the colors are vibrant.   I’d like to post one of many engagement sessions I was privileged to photograph this Fall.

This particular session took place hours away from Toronto in a small town