• Alex Whorms on stage

    Canadian Music Week is always a great time to see artists you're already a fan of, and discover some new talent. On this night, I went to see my friend Arianna Mae perform with her band, and got the pleasure of catching Alex Whorms as well. This was certainly a night of great talent, and [...]

  • Marlon Chaplin band on stage

    I went to a live music show featuring Toronto-based rocker Marlon Chaplin (check out his stuff, he's great) at the Piston in Toronto. I had my new Panasonic Lumix G85 camera in tow to try out, and used my Zoom H2N recorder to take a signal from the room mixer and capture the room sound, [...]

  • "Love will triumph" written in chalk on Yonge Street

    One year ago, a van mounted the sidewalk in North York on a sunny spring day and plowed through over 25 people, killing 10. The driver was quickly arrested, and the community came together in solidarity to express our collective grief over the incident. During the van attack, I was working from home with a [...]

  • As a member of indie-rock band Beige Shelter, we shared the stage at Sneaky Dee's in Toronto with very talented acts Claire Hunter, Stephanie Paglia, and Wilson and the Castaways. I took some photos of the other artists too. As usual, I used my 85mm F1.8 prime lens on my Nikon D7000 body, which gave me [...]

  • I attended the Song Studio Student Showcase at Hugh's Room in Toronto this year. Song Studio is a week-long songwriting camp in Toronto, hosted by Blair Packham and others. I know several songwriters who have attended and they all say it's an amazing experience. For the week's grand finale, the students put on a show with [...]

  • Bruce Harrott with John Chris Ford

    Once again, I attended a night of talented singer-songwriters in a Nashville-style round, where four performers do four songs each in turn. What makes this kind of setup amazing is when the performers backup each other with guitar or harmony vocals. The performers for the February 9 show at the 120 Diner in Toronto were: [...]

  • performance of song for video

    Through co-hosting the Songwriter’s Meetup and Song Talk Radio, I get to meet many singer-songwriters in and around Toronto. Some of them have written original Christmas songs, including Carmen Toth’s This Christmas I’m Giving You Love and Melanie Peterson’s Santa’s Sleigh. Themes of peace and love tend to come up, as is typical of many holiday songs. [...]

  • I recently purchased a new medium telephoto lens for my camera and put it to the test with photographing a couple of live music events. I enjoyed a "songwriters in the round" event at 120 Diner in Toronto. I already knew three of the performers, and got to meet and hear several new ones. Beige [...]

  • I knew some people participating in the annual colour run, which looked like so much fun I decided to join them for 2016, despite having no interest in running. I only packed my zoom lens, to get close as possible to the runners, and stay as far away as possible from the explosions of coloured [...]