Hey people! Thanks for stopping by! I'm Phillip Mackenzie, a wedstyle (WEDding/lifeSTYLE) photographer based in Pennsylvania. I've been doing photography for quite a while now, but I'm just starting out in business and trying to make up for lost time! This blog follows everything I'm doing...from learning about business and marketing to what I do during the rest of my time (namely, music!) I'm still working on my portfolio site, but please check this blog often until then! I'd love to network with other photographers, and if you're local, it'd be great to meet for coffee. Please leave comments! I love to chat, so just email or instant message (AIM: phillipmackenzie) me! You can also find me on Facebook (add me as a friend!). Add me to your Technorati favorites and I will do likewise!
Scarlett Lillian (a big inspiration and one hell of an incredible photographer) has a contest on her blog for someone to win a custom blog from Flosites…and she’s letting her readers decide, so go vote for me, entry #13 of today’s selection.
Here’s my entry…now go vote!
I did some shooting for a friend a few weeks ago, and here are a few that I’ve finally had time to give some photoshop lovin’ to! It’s pretty amazing what kind of awesome backdrops you can find if you just stop and turn your head while you’re walking down the street! One of my favorites:
Fire escapes come in handy for more than just an escape route:
I love this one:
Also love the grittiness of this shot:
Unless you’ve been traveling the galaxy for the past few months, you’ve undoubtedly heard that the iPhone 3G is coming out on July 11…tomorrow! People in New Zealand have already gotten theirs, and we have our own camper here outside the AT&T store (no, we sadly do not have an Apple store downtown here…yet).
It also just happens to be Arts Fest this week here, so literally slammed up against this guy’s tent was a large water-dumping station for the kids to play in. Here’s the setup on the main strip downtown right now:
In case you’re wondering, the AT&T store is up behind the landscaping on the left side of the street. Stay tuned for my photos from our trip to Pittsburgh and more from Arts Fest!
Well…maybe not a voyage, just a car trip. But since it took us more than $60 to fill our tank for the first time, it felt more like the cost of an ocean crossing!
We stayed overnight with two of our friends, Wes and Kristine, who live just a stone’s throw from one of my favorite stores, Trader Joe’s. They took us to a fabulous cupcake bakery for dessert simply called “Dozen.” I only had my iPhone with me:
They had the most delectable cupcakes there that I think I’ve ever eaten. If you’re ever close, you must go…it’s totally worth a detour!
The next morning, we went to an authentic French bakery that at least ten different people have mentioned to me on multiple occasions. We may have been a little skeptical at first, but one bite of the croissant and it was like food nirvana. It distracted me so much I didn’t even get a photo. But visit his website and you’ll see plenty. Amazing food. Just amazing.
Next, of course, we went by my dad and stepmom’s house, where we brought my little sister some clothes for an early birthday present. She was totally obsessed with taking them out of the bag, and then stuffing them back in. She finally posed…doesn’t she look like she’s a Baby Gap ad?
And then down to Shadyside to visit my favorite fruit store:
Followed by lunch at a little Peruvian café, after which Emily decided to model on the staircase:
Afterward, I went down to Pitt’s campus to take a few shots while Heather and Louise took Emily to a knitting store. I did some experimenting with vertical 180-degree shots…I’m calling them “vertiscapes.” Here’s one of the Heinz Chapel and Cathedral of Learning:
And another of the inside of the chapel (it’s really quite beautiful):
The rather imposing Cathedral of Learning (I swear it could look like something out of Gotham City from this angle):
And this curiosity outside the Carnegie Museum, hand-painted with all the letters of the alphabet:
I’m really only now beginning to fully understand the photographic possibilities of almost any place at all, and I’m now fully appreciating the ability to experiment and come up with something that I haven’t seen anyone else do before, particularly with an oft-photographed landmark!
A great and relaxing, though short, trip. More soon from Arts Fest 2008!
If you can’t tell from the outrageously awesome bokeh in this next shot, I just got a new Canon 5D! I was so excited I had to start taking photos with it right away…and one of our cats just happened to be near me, and he graciously posed for me:
We’re off to Pittsburgh for a few days starting tomorrow, so I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! More soon!
As I was laying on a bench on an absolutely beautiful summer afternoon today, reading Octavio Paz, I looked up and saw this:
Perhaps it’s just that Paz put me in an surrealist and existential mood, but I found myself pointing my iPhone’s little camera up at the sky, and wondering as I’ve often wondered: beyond that lamp on the sidewalk is infinity. You can see it more clearly if you come back to the same place at night and see only stars. It’s an incredibly awesome feeling to know that the lamp only feet above you is the last earthly object between you and the universe. Infinity.
Is that infinity? Or is infinity seeing something that your eyes cannot; something beyond what you know is there? Some people seem to be able to see infinity, or it might be easier to call it the “future”…just think of the geniuses behind the iPod or Google, or countless other innovations. There was one day when a google was nothing more than a numerical value. Now I doubt it anyone knows it has any other meaning. Apple didn’t invent the idea of portable music, or even the mp3 player. But they turned it into something that everyone desires. What an incredible marketing job they did. In Rich Dad, Poor Dad
And if you haven’t read Rich Dad, Poor Dad
