So… regarding my Eggplant Parmesan video prior to this post… does the recipe help induce labor?

Let’s just say twelve hours later we were holding the most precious thing in the world: Olivor Michael Wachniak. Weighting in at an astonishing 9.5lbs, this little man stole our hearts before he even got here. Everything went EXACTLY how we wanted it. Homebirth, waterbirth, short labor, healthy mommy and very healthy baby. We cannot thank the ladies at Sage Midwifery enough for their support and helping hands with our baby. They truly went above and beyond and I recommend them to anyone and everyone wants to have a midwife on their side (and believe me, you do!).

Many more pictures to come, once we get some rest. :)

Have a freakishly amazing Saturday everyone!

Michael

Like Daddy, Like Son :)

So we are now officially 5 days passed our baby’s due date. This apparantly a very normal thing for first time mommies and daddies, but Grit and I have been looking around for ways to help the baby along. Grit heard about a restaurant in the states that was famous for their ‘labour-inducing’ Eggplant Parmesan.

We found the recipe. :)

The following video is not in any way related to photography or weddings. But it is directly related to an 11 minutes peek into a day in my life. This is who I am. Not ALL the time, but this is me. The real me. :)

I’ll let you know if this ‘miracle recipe’ works!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Michael

…any day now. :)

Its my Birthday today!!! (well, for the next 10 minutes anyways!)

The big 3-1! Holy Moly, when did that happen?! ….well, this morning at 12:00am I guess? (After a hard day’s work that was my humble attempt to be funny).

Today went by in an absolute blur, I shot an totally gorgeous wedding and then came home to a plethora (yes I just said plethora) of gifts. Tomorrow the family is having an un-official birthday BBQ and I am making my famous Dr. Pepper Ribs, so before I relax and put up my feet I have to get them ready tonight so they can marinate in all their marinated glory.

Pics will most likely follow, but for now I leave you with one of me as a kid. In fact the shirt I am wearing says “The Kid”.

Yup thats me. To my soon-to-be-born son: Don’t worry. You’ll be cuter than this. :)

P.s. can you believe my sister’s hair?! what kind of animal IS that?!

So I have been running around all day today getting ready for Mexico tomorrow (will be back in the office Wednesday May 19th)… it always seems that no matter how prepared I am for travelling, I always end up feeling rushed! (I was sitting down eating supper tonight, and felt like I was wasting time haha). Yup, I’m odd like that.

Anyhoo, Grit has decided to make a lil’ somethin’ for baby boy, and I can’t wait to see it when it’s done! I pulled out the camera and did the ‘daddy documents everything’ thing, and thought this pic was pretty cool.

I will be checking emails as often as I can while in Puerto Vallarta, so any questions/concerns should be answered within a day.

Cheers,

Michael

Hey everyone! I’m just getting ready for my first Vancouver wedding of 2010! I. AM. STOKED!

I can’t wait to show you! Until then, here is a quick frame from last week in Cabo, Mexico!

P.s. Am I the only one that can make an absolutely PERFECT omelette rrrrrrright up until the point where I *think* I can flip it in the frying pan?     Yup… Scrambled eggs instead. Dammit.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Hey Everyone!

Its been an amazing experience this past week in Vegas at WPPI (Wedding Portrait Photographers International). I am exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually (we’ll get to that in the next post, but its all good things friends). I am definitely ready to come back home. I cannot wait to hold Grit in my arms, and sing to her pregnant belly. (hee hee)

The week of infinitely long walks through smokey casinos, and cramming as much into your brain from the plethora of classes and tradeshow booths is enough to wear anybody down. The funny thing is: as exhausted as I am, I am so excited and inspired to get working on what I have learned and experienced that I could probably run home from Vegas to Vancouver.

For the moment I leave you with this image of the view from my 27th floor room at MGM Grand (for the record New York, New York shown in the image is by far my favorite looking hotel). The technique used on this image was HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging) which involves the combination of various images shot at different exposures. I have never really liked the look of this form of imagery, but today I did what I loved to do. I explored. I played and did something different (for me). Please enjoy.

Until next time my friends,

Michael

On Saturday I headed out with my good friends Nick and Deb to Holland Park in Surrey for the Wide Mouth Mason concert. We had an awesome time, this was my 6th time seeing WMM live and they never cease to amaze. I thought I’d share some of my favorite images from the night, hope you like em!

Also be sure to check out the music for yourselves at WideMouthMason.com and also take a look at some of the great charities and causes the guys support. Happy Tuesday everyone!

Ladies and Gentleman, this is my son. :)

This is going to be one of those ‘wow, this dude loves to type’ posts… my apologies for the ramble I’m about to unleash onto you, dear Interwebs… I felt that a blog post was long over due. Also, for those of you that are looking for a photo or image to go with this post (after all, this is a photographer’s blog), there isn’t one. For that, however, I do not apolgize. From here on in, I will be using the blog as not only a way to show the world my current and most up-to-date work as a photographer, but also as a place where I can jot down random thoughts and insights into who I am as a person. I want everyone that takes the time to come here to my blog, whether they are potential clients, existing clients (aka “friends”), family members, or anything else for that matter to know who the person is on the other side of these ‘zeros & ones’. (binary reference…that’s how I roll). No images of boquets or rings today. Just me. I’m gonna start typing and see what happens…  *cracks knuckles*

Today’s first ramble is on ’Moving’.

We are finally moved in to our new place! It’s so funny how even though it was only a move 4 blocks away AND we had all month to move at our own pace, we discovered this gnarly lil’ fact: A move is a move is a move. It could have been next door and 2 months to move in at our own pace… you still have to:
1) box your things up…wait, first of all FIND boxes…THEN
2) box your things up
3) play the ‘do I really need to take this with me?’ game (which usually ends up renaming itself the ‘I will just put it in storage, only to play this same bloody game again NEXT time’ game!)
4) move all your personal things into multiple friend’s/family’s vehicles (creating a convoy/parade AND a show-and-tell all at the same time!)
5) bang and bruise EVERY piece of flesh and bone you possibly can on the way
6) bring everything inside your new place and unpack only to come to the realization that even though your new place is larger, you don’t seem to have any more space. Why is that by the way? I didn’t go on some shopping spree since we left the old apartment, so why does it seem like we have about 50% more boxes than when we left?! It never fails! sheesh!

So ya, on that note…we’re moved in and slowly (but steadily) mowing through our material things and making this place a home. Which brings me to the next lil’ diddy I wanted to chat about:

The Baby.

This week marks the 20th week (aka halfway point) of Grit’s pregnancy, and tonight is the last night The Baby will be known as ‘The Baby’…for at 1pm tomorrow (today actually, Friday) we will be getting an ultrasound to determine the sex. So in… 12 hours and 57 minutes (ish), ‘The Baby’ becomes “he” or “she”…

O….M….G….

Grit said she is so excited she might not get to sleep tonight, which is ironic because as I lay here in bed, Captain McSnorey-pants is beside me, fast asleep and cruising off to dreamland…leaving me to my thoughts on future daddy-dom.

My WHOLE life I have had a serious case of baby-fever, you honestly have no idea. Now its finally here…(well, July it will be here, but ya…close enough, let’s not get technical). I have so many thoughts going through my head, and every time I think about it, the more real it gets and the more excited and proud I get! Every day my mind fills with a million silly questions like: Right handed or left? Will they like the Stones more or The Beatles more, or neither? Will they be an athlete, an artist…etc? Will they love Disney movies as much as I do? (don’t laugh, it sounds like an easy question considering we’re talking about a child… but you have no idea how much I love Disney movies… its kinda embarassing)…. and I know all of these questions really don’t matter even the tiniest bit (maybe the Beatles/Stones one…but thats it), but they pop in my head every chance they get! Even as I type this, my brain is whispering “What will their favorite color be?”… and even though this constant nattering in my brain is really beginning to get on my nerves?

I wouldn’t change even a nano-second of it for the whole world.

So, boy? Girl? This is really the cheesy-typical answer everyone gives, but to me, I am happy either way. And the best part? I understand what everyone means when they say that now.

Daddydom.

hoo-rah.