Summer of 2020

2020 has been a great year, and a devastating year at the same time. Despite losing my full-time job, in film production, not being able to fly home to see loved-ones, I’ve spent the time investing in my skills as a Toronto wedding photographer and a wedding videographer or as I like to call it, a wedding filmmaker. Plus, I had one of the best summers in the past 10 years, ever since I left film school, NYFA 2007. I got to do the things I missed from last year, go swimming in the lake, chill-out on the Islands, rent a cottage, go to my favourite place in Ontario, Muskoka, go on road trips, discover new locations that I’m going to go back and visit in the new year when all of this is behind us all, and lastly most importantly, catch up on my Netflix.

Besides sitting on my backside, this past year I have been so lucky to shoot so many engagement photoshoots and on top of that, to have produced a few wedding films for clients as well. I also dabbled in live streaming weddings for the first time and it is something I will definitely look into providing down the road. It can be very overwhelming with the amount of technology needed and the obstacles that are required to overcome for a live stream to be successful. My two live streams took place on a farm in Hamilton and in a church at the University of Toronto during the Pandemic.

Last September I decided to return to school, to better my skills in Photography. I have been attending Seneca college and will be for the next year and a half, where I hope to learn the necessary skills to open and run my own photo and video studio here in Toronto. On top of that I hope to return to film production but as a Unit Photographer. I absolutely love being on set and combining the two will be a match made in heaven. Pun intended.

So, what happens next year? Well that is a question that is on many people’s minds, including my own. Now that we have a cure for Covid-19 and that the Trump dictator(clown)ship is coming to an end, 2021 will be a great year for all. Everything (in due course) will go back to normal. We will be changed forever though, having survived a world-wide catastrophe, but as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill us, will make us stronger. 2021 will be a year to remember. Just as long, as we stay positive and be nice to one-another, with respect, no matter our differences, colour of our skin, our sexuality, or what religion we follow. Let 2021 be a year of reflection. I’m happy to have done my part, be a hermit and catch up on my binge-watching.

Here are some examples from my engagement shoots, as well as some of the weddings I shot during the world-wide pandemic of 2020. Enjoy!

Wedding Videography

It’s truth to be told that no matter what side of the ocean you are on, living in or visiting a different country, you can’t help but feel inspired by the setting of a wedding day. Though Ireland has some really amazing locations to have your wedding at, Canada has some stunning locations too. Toronto, being the city I currently reside in, is where I met the two new found loves of my life. The first you know about, Toronto and the second one, my girlfriend, my partner in crime and well fingers crossed, maybe I’ll go down that route someday, who knows? What makes a great wedding? A fancy castle surrounded by rolling hills or a hipster art house in the down town core? From my experience, nice locations are just backdrops, the couple, their family and friends in one room and the celebration, is what makes a great wedding.

I started my Toronto wedding videographer journey back in 2018, but I never intended to go back into it full-time. One of my goals when I came to Toronto at first was to take a break from it all, especially after being really busy and successful in Ireland, previously. Being isolated in the cutting room after a long wedding day or weekend can take it’s toll, so I needed a break from it all and decided to take a year out, so I went back to my roots in film production. Though working on film sets can be very exciting, it does have it’s negative sides, very long and odd hours, it can be very taxing on your physical and mental health for one, but worst of all, can really put a dampener on your social life. Luckily for me I fell back in to shooting weddings here in Toronto only by chance, a recently engaged couple had found my work through my old Facebook account and one of my posts highlighted that I had moved to Toronto, so they reached out to me with a very heartwarming email of why they wanted me to be the one to film their wedding day. I simply couldn’t say no.

So here we are two years later and I have accumulated a nice number of weddings under my belt under a different moniker, Maple and Clover. One that I’m proud to call my own, to build into the studio that I have dreamed of one day, a name that represents my birth country and a place that I one day will be a citizen of. Canada has been great to me and I have so much more to give back. I look forward to seeing where my work will bring me and meeting the many new clients I will work with down the road.