Halifax Wedding Photographer Dustin Hall - Serving Nova Scotia and Ontario - Blog

Halifax Wedding Photographer Dustin Hall – Brooke and Reggie’s New Year’s Eve Wedding – Niagara on the Lake

Dustin Hall — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:39:45 +0000

Brooke and Reggie’s wedding is one I had been looking forward to for quite a while. I’d never shot a New Year’s Eve wedding before but I had wanted to. A wedding is usually a party regardless of the day, but when a couple chooses December 31st to get married, you know they’re going to be fun.

The wedding was in Niagara on the Lake at the Hilton with the ceremony and reception both on site. With the ceremony being held later in the day, Brooke and Reggie had me take photos of Reggie and his Groomsmen and Brooke and her Bridesmaids separately before the ceremony. We made sure that Brooke and Reggie didn’t see eachother before the ceremony. The weather was pretty good for this time of year save for the wet ground. It was chilly which was better for the guys than the girls, but they put their warm faces on while we were outside.

The ceremony was by candlelight which was another first for me and I think it went beautifully. Reggie even raised his arms in celebration after they were announced as man and wife. That set the tone for the rest of the night in my opinion.

Instead of the glass clinking, there was a huge die which people had to roll to get the couple to kiss and it was a big hit. At one point I overheard Brooke’s grandmother ask what number she needed to roll to be able to give Reggie a kiss, I thought that was sweet. Then came the speeches. Reggie gave by far the best groom’s speech I’ve ever heard. He had everyone laughing and laughing hard. He may not recall how hard everyone was laughing due to his sleep apnea but that’s alright (if you were there you’ll understand what I mean). Brooke and Reggie have such positive personalities and you could really see the joy on their faces all day.

Once the dancing began there was no stopping it. This was one hell of a party and the dance floor was full all night. Reggie stole the show with his dance moves. The M.C.’s had alluded to the fact that Reggie was likely to remove his shirt and perform a number of his signature dance moves including one they called the back to back. He even did the latter dance move during the mother-son dance. Since the wedding, I’ve heard the song ‘sexy and I know it’ by LMFAO numerous times and maybe it’s a little weird, but every time I hear that song I think of Reggie dancing to the song while taking his short off (as you can see below). I know everyone enjoyed seeing Reggie bust out all those moves on the dance floor. Brooke and Reggie were just so much fun on their day. They were the life of the party on their wedding day and that’s just awesome.

Here’s a little glimpse into the wonderful wedding of Brooke and Reggie:

Enjoy!!!

2011 Favourites – Personal – Dustin Hall Photography

Dustin Hall — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:51:08 +0000

One year ago I posted my favourite personal photos from 2010, a year which I thought was going to be hard to top. I had a few categories of favourites and this year I’ve cut it down to two, photos from personal work or just my life, and wedding related photos, be it an engagement or wedding. This here is my list of my favourite personal photos of 2011 (can you tell I love my puppy?).

At the start of 2011 I was working at a medical gas company in Mississauga. I thought at the time that I would be there for a while. As time went by and the amount of travel increased, I realized that I could not work a day job with travel and continue to grow my photography business so I left that position for a lower paying day job with more consistent hours which would be good for my photography. The company was where Robyn worked, so our commute was easier, especially once the HOV lanes opened up through Burlington and Oakville.

In February I drove out to Halifax and volunteered as a photographer at the 2011 Halifax Canada Winter Games. I met a lot of great people in my extremely busy week and shot a number of sports I’d never even seen live before. It was a lot of fun and something I would love to do again. Prince George 2015, if you’re listening, I’m available.

We had wanted to move to Nova Scotia for a couple years and we decided that 2012 would be the year for that, so we decided to sell our house and move in with my parents. That way we could save a little more money but most importantly, we could be sure that the house was sold before we wanted to move. Our house sold the first day on the market. Within a month, Robyn got a job in Halifax and our move date moved up greatly.

At the beginning of August, my brother and his wife had a baby. Connor is my first nephew, and we love him to bits. We made sure to see him as much as possible in the busy months before moving.

October came and we made our big move to Halifax with a uhaul full of our stuff and the car being towed behind. It was a long drive over 2 days and ended with torrential rains as we arrived in Halifax, a fitting beginning to our Halifax experience.

I’ve since visited Ontario a couple times for weddings and tried to visit with family when I was there. I know it will be hard in the future to have my family in another province, but we will manage. Hopefully we will be getting a bunch of visitors in 2012 and I’ll be sure to take pictures, that’s what I do.

With 2011 being such a crazy year, I’m excited to see what 2012 will bring.

Here are my favourite personal photos of 2011:

Enjoy!!!

Halifax Wedding Photographer – Kayla and Peter – Barrie

Dustin Hall — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:18:04 +0000

Kayla and Peter were married in Barrie, Ontario on December 30th. I flew in from Halifax a couple days before the wedding but I was certainly not coming from the furthest for the wedding. Peter spent a number of years living in in the UK where he made some great friends in the Navy, some of whom made their way to Barrie for the wedding.

Peter himself opted for the traditional kilt for the wedding but not just any kilt. The kilt Peter wore was not just the same as the one his Dad wore when he was married, it was THE kilt his dad wore when he got married just shy of 30 years ago, simply amazing and I must say, the MacDonald tartan is a nice one.

Immediately after the ceremony we went into one of the back rooms at Burton Avenue United Church and took some family photos and a few wedding party photos in front of some beautiful stained glass. The day of the wedding had some typical winter weather with cold, wind and a little bit of snow. We went down by the lake for the rest of the photos with the wedding party and I am glad that as the photographer I get to wear a coat and gloves. I know they were all troopers and put up with the cold. I think the winter boots helped out on that one as did the limo driver parking as close to the water as possible.

After our cold photo session we went to the reception at Fendley Hall and everyone was glad to be indoors. The freezing rain had started and the drinking could commence. The speeches were quite heartfelt and a few tears were shed. The slideshow was awesome and as mentioned by Peter’s sisters (and joint M.C.’s), there was a little foreshadowing in photo of very young Peter. You’ll see what I mean in the photo below.

I’ll stop writing and just let you see some photos :)

Enjoy!!!

My Booth – Atlantic Wedding Showcase – Halifax

Dustin Hall — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:08:16 +0000

January 15th was the Atlantic Wedding Showcase at the Cunard Centre, Pier 23, Halifax. I want to thank all of the future brides (and grooms) who stopped by for a visit and a chat, I appreciate it. This was my first show and I think it went quite well. I met with well over 100 brides to be and discussed weddings in various locations including Jamaica, Italy, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, PEI, Ontario and of course all over Nova Scotia. I really enjoyed being able to have conversations with so many brides and hear about their ideas and expectations for their day. It was also great for me to be able to hear the feedback on the albums and canvases I had on display in my booth. I was thrilled with the positive responses I was hearing about my work from the brides and from other photographers.

Aside from compliments on my work, I had a lot of compliments from other vendors regarding my booth. Having never done a show before I felt that if I was going to commit to a wedding show, I was going to go all out. I don’t claim to be a handy man by any means, so I’m pretty happy with the results. I decided that building a wall would be the best course of action as I needed somewhere to hang canvas prints, so I went to a few home building stores for some price shopping and after Home Depot and Rona, I found a deal on MDF at Kent. I bought 1/4″ MDF and had them cut the boards to 2′ x 8′ and deliver them to my house. I also purchased a bunch of 2 x 2′s and had them delivered as well.

I started by drilling shallow holes in the MDF with the intention of countersinking the screws. The key was to drill far enough to hide the screws but not so far as to go all the way through the MDF. Once all the holes were drilled on a piece of MDF, I screwed the 2 x 2′s to the back around the perimeter. I had to cut the wood for the ends and with my old saw, that took a while and I managed to cut myself twice with the saw.

After attaching the 2 x 2′s I used wood filler and filled all the holes over the screw heads and waited for it to dry. Once dry (overnight), I sanded, wiped clean and painted each sheet with 2 coats of paint (paint & primer in 1). One problem I encountered was the MDF warping out from the 2 x 2′s in my cold basement. I had to add additional screws so the walls weren’t wavy. Building in a warmer area would have prevented this problem.

Next I took baseboards and cut each baseboard to the size of the MDF and attached Velcro strips to the back of the baseboards. I left them off the wall until the show itself.

With the wall sections built and bad weather preventing me from doing a trial setup, I made my way to the Cunard Centre for the setup. I put the wall panels on the floor and screwed the pieces to each other and then used some extra 2 x 2 on the back of my largest wall to add some stability. With the walls raised, we attached the baseboards and touched up any areas that needed some extra paint.

The next day (the day of the show), we came early and hung the canvases and my sign and we were ready to go. After a mere 6 hours of show time, we had to tear down the wall and head home. The take down was much quicker than the construction and the only hiccup was that some of the screws became stripped and took some extra work (struggle) to get them out. After unloading the van and returning it (and picking up dinner), Robyn and I were home watching the Pens game by 7:00.

What would I do differently you ask? Not too much really. I was glad I had Robyn with me as there were times it got quite hectic and I could have used one more person even. After the fashion shows ended it got crazy so we made sure to refill our supplies during the shows. I could have used 2 more chairs as there were often more than 2 people looking at albums at a time, so maybe more chairs are in order next time and maybe one more album would be nice. I had 4.

There’s one big question to be answered still and that’s regarding my Engagement Session giveaway. Who won? From 120 entries received the name picked is………. Jen Flemming!!!!! I will be contacting her shortly to see about setting up time to take the photos. Congratulations Jen!!!

Here are the booth process photos:

Enjoy!!!

I had the space heater going to warm up the room and dry off the wood that got wet during a snowy delivery.Drilling the holes for the screws.A screw, just below the plane of the MDF.The wood filler waiting for a sanding.After sanding.The booth at the Cunard centre with our stuff ready to construct.Robyn wiping down a wallWith the walls constructed and the baseboards on.The way we left the booth before heading home. Note the painted edges of the wall makes a huge difference.I took this shot just before the show got under way at 10:00am.

Halifax Wedding Photographer – Oxana & Kris – Toronto

Dustin Hall — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 03:19:40 +0000

It was quite a while ago, I believe close to a year, that I was approached by one of my mom’s coworkers. Her brother had eloped and they wanted to make sure he got some photos with his new wife. She didn’t have any sort of time frame for when they might want to take the photos and told me to wait for them to contact me. Enough time had passed that I had nearly forgotten. I had moved from Burlington to Halifax and if they were to call me, it would be tricky to schedule something. Just before Christmas I received a call from Kris asking if we could setup a time to do the photos. Since my phone number is still a 905 area code, he had no idea I had moved. Lucky for both of us, I was coming back to Ontario for a couple of late 2011 weddings and I had one free day.

Oxana and Kris were married exactly one year to the day that we scheduled the session for. They had wanted to go to Toronto for the photos and number one on their priorities was a shot with the Toronto skyline in the background. We were lucky that the weather wasn’t too bad, there was a little bit of fresh snow and it was cold but not freezing. I can say that since I was wearing my coat the whole time. Oxana was a trooper and took her coat off and did her best to look warm. She’s from Russia, St. Petersburg to be exact so the cold is not something foreign to her.

From the pier we went to Dundas and Nathan Philips Squares for a few photos and then we went back to the waterfront to get the Toronto skyline at night. Unfortunately the CN Tower wasn’t visible through the clouds and snow, but it was still nice.

Congratulations Oxana and Kris! Here are a few photos from our session together.

Enjoy!!!

Halifax Wedding Photographer Dustin Hall – Brooke & Reggie – Niagara – Preview

Dustin Hall — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:18:10 +0000

Brooke and Reggie got married at the Hilton in Niagara on the Lake on New Year’s Eve. It was a really fun night and I’m sure the full post will be a long one. Here’s one for now.

Enjoy!!!

Halifax Wedding Photographer Dustin Hall – Kayla & Peter in Barrie – Preview

Dustin Hall — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:19:37 +0000

On December 30th, I drove to Barrie for the wedding of Kayla and Peter. It was cold and snowing, as you’ll see in the full post, for the time being, here’s one from inside the church.

Enjoy!!!

Halifax Wedding Photographer Dustin Hall – Kris & Oxana in Toronto – Preview

Dustin Hall — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:30:48 +0000

Here’s a quick one photo preview from my Elopement session in Toronto with Kris and Oxana. I will be posting more soon.

Enjoy!!!

Halifax Newborn Photographer – Dustin Hall – Olivia

Dustin Hall — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:06:48 +0000

On October 15th, I was in Ontario for Jocelyn and Gabriel’s wedding. While I was leaving Halifax I heard that my friends Jake and Heather had a baby. I knew they were expecting, but figured I wouldn’t be around for it. I offered to take some newborn photos for them. They knew that I didn’t have my usual newborn photography equipment with me, so I was working with just my wedding gear.

Olivia was so cute when i got to see her at 4 days old. She is the youngest baby I’ve had the opportunity to photograph (aside from my nephew Connor, but that was in hospital so it doesn’t really count). We took a photo with each of Jake’s favourite team jersey’s; Dutch soccer, Patriots football (Tom Brady jersey which Olivia didn’t like) and a Canadiens jersey. Jake and Heather are a bit of a rarity in that Jake is a die hard Habs fan and Heather a Leafs fan. Only time will tell which side Olivia gets drawn to, but if I know Jake, he will make sure she’s a Canadiens fan.

I personally like black and white best for newborn photos (well most photos for that matter) so I decided I would post only black and white photos today. Here are a few from our afternoon together. I hope Olivia enjoys her first Christmas coming up :)

Enjoy!!!