I had mentioned a couple weeks back about my dear friend Tammy and her water project in Haiti. She is currently there in Haiti attending the ground breaking for the project and overseeing the first phase of construction. And as  serendipity pops it’s head up from time to time, she found herself in a position to make even more of a difference for Haiti by teaming up with the Brazilian U.N. They have asked her to put together a couple of projects to help the community.

Her first instinct was “Medical Center!”

She told me about the great news on Facebook chat, and since my education and a good portion of my career has been dedicated to Architecture, my first instinct was “You need some plans!”

We spent the next ten minutes discussing the parameters and method of construction she would need. Then I hopped on AutoCAD and had a working plan to start from in about an hour and a half. It is initially to be a 2 story medical clinic with a triage area on the first floor and a second floor for additional medical treatment.

I’ve included the first floor plan below.

This goes to show that you don’t need to have money to donate to causes you care about. I believe that it is important to give back to the world. We are pretty blessed to have the things we do in life, and not everybody has the opportunity to even the basics of fresh water or medical treatment. And while I would love to be back out in the field getting my hands dirty working on buildings, I can at least make a difference for someone while sitting at my computer 5,000 miles away.

Click here if you’d like to see if you can contribute to Help Tammy Help Haiti

Hello all,

I wanted to announce an important new change to my wedding photography pricing structure. As well as a change in the philosophic thinking of what a final product really is for a couple getting married.

From now on every couple will receive an album when getting married. This of course raises my prices. However, I feel that it is paramount for every couple to have a tangible product to hold and share with family and friends. It is too often that I find that people have not been served by merely having a handful of loose prints or a disc of images on the computer.

My intention is to create a unique and beautiful viewing experience that is equal to the experience of your wedding day for you, your friends and your family. And this level of exaltation can only be acheived by an album that will last for more than 200 years. This is obviously a more desirable product to pass down to your children and grand-children.

I use Leather Craftsmen exclusively and provide a lifetime guarantee for each and every album.

If you have questions, would like to see a sample album or discuss your upcoming wedding, please feel free to contact me.

I’ve had the good fortune to meet some pretty amazing people through volunteering in Thailand. And a lot of times you tend to lose touch with most of them. It’s often a shame because they are such good people, and they have made quite an impact in your life.

I’ve had the good fortune, though, to connect with one of the old bunch from the Thailand days, and she’s working on a remarkable project. She will be bringing fresh water to an area of Cité Soleil in Haiti.

Her name is Tammy Babcock and she lives in Kingston, Ontario. After visiting Haiti, and the conditions there, she’s been on a one-woman mission to bring Cité Soleil a fresh water tower. The goal is to break ground later this month, the project should take about 3 months to complete.

I highly urge you all to take a few minutes and take a look at her site ( www.helptammyhelphaiti.com ) to see what the project is all about and why it means so much to her and the people she’s helping. While you are there, consider making a donation to further the people of Cité Soleil’s future. Even $5 or $10 helps to get to her $15,000 goal.

And if you would like to get something out of it in return, you can purchase one of my Signature Fine Art Photo T-shirts, and I will donate half of the profits on all sales through April.

It’s important to remember that even in these tough economic times, we enjoy major conveniences like fresh running water that we can count on every day. You can help bring these people a greater standard of living with just a few bucks!

Thanks for reading,

William

Well, I have been going on and on about the new Super 8mm cameras I’ve been playing with. I’ve even put some test footage of the dogs up. And now it’s time to unveil the results from the last wedding I did.

For the technical people out there:

Still cameras used: Nikon D300, Fuji S2 Pro
Super 8mm cameras used: Bell & Howell
Film: Plus-X, Tri-X, and Extachrome

Photo slideshow was created in Keynote and exported to Final Cut where it was combined with edited clips from the Super 8 footage. My good friend Humberto Perez came up with the work flow process and did the editing in Final Cut.

First clip is from the Bridal Session, and the second is the Wedding. Enjoy!

Marlene Bridal Session – William Bay Photography from William Bay on Vimeo.

Marlene & Brian’s Wedding – William Bay Photography from William Bay on Vimeo.

I sent off for my Leather Craftsmen sample albums a month ago and have been eagerly waiting for them to come. Well they just got in the other day and I’ve had a chance to take some pictures of them today.

The first one is my Portrait examples book, a 700 Series with Rustic Brown Leather, an Outset Window on the front and Spine Hubs. Everything about this book was custom, because my portraits are always panoramic.

The second book is more modern, a 3500 series, with a very sleek black leather, flush spine and flush photo on the front. It is a flush mount style where the photos are the page themselves and each spread is one design rather than having one photo per page.

I have always heard the level of quality of Leather Craftsmen was un-paralleled and I can now see for my own eyes that it is absolutely true. These albums are works of art by themselves. There may be cheaper albums out there, but I can’t see using anything else now.

Have a look below and let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks for reading.