Experience

JUDAS PRIEST WITH SAXON & BLACK STAR RIDER

March 29, 2018

When I heard Judas Priest was coming to London there was no doubt in my mind I was going to apply to photograph this concert, it was however a doubt in my mind that I would get approval, but thanks to the beautiful people over Live Nation, approval happened.
Not really knowing who Black Star Riders was Google educated me a bit and a few of the members were in the band Thin Lizzy, which is pretty awesome. Black Star Riders hit the stage as the openers and were amazing! great sound, loud and all metal. Next up SAXON... UK's massive Metal band formed in 1977 with multiple hits.. let me tell you, they ripped the stage up with so much power, so loud and so much energy. I will be the first to admit, I did not know much about SAXON as I don't really listen to that kind of music but being there and seeing some Metal Music History still rocking out and sounding exactly like they did back in the 80's, just incredible to witness and photograph.

JUDAS PRIEST: Standing stage side listening to random people yell, scream and whistle out waiting for the band to hit the stage, I wasn't to sure what to expect. Honestly the first thing I thought about was " There's a massive sheet covering the entire stage and I know it's going to fall... do we go in the pit before it falls or after? if before is it going to fall on us and how long will it take for them to remove it before we can see the band and shoot " .... We were told we can go into the pit.... the sheet had not fallen yet.. hmmmm... ok so the lights dim, you can see colours changing behind the sheet, I could hear movement... guitars ring out and BAM!!!! the sheet drops then somehow blows off to the side of the stage very quick.. barely even touched me except for the tail end that slapped me in the face lol. There they were, Judas Priest right there on stage rocking out. Standing there taking pics, now the only thing going through my head is how many of the old great concert photographers have been right in this spot taking these images... on film.. which is insane to think about.. and now here I am doing the same thing, it's incredible. This show had amazing lighting, so much light it was tough finding exposure with it constantly changing. One guitarist with aviators on was all over the place, back and forth, up on speakers, throwing the guitar around quite a bit, so much fun to photograph and I'll be honest here, he was my main focus just because of how much action he was throwing out there. Over all this was an incredible experience, great performances by all 3 bands, I was thoroughly captivated by each band and what they were putting out for everyone. So if you're thinking about hitting one of the tour dates on the rest of this tour... don't think to long, you won't be disappointed. GO!

Big thanks goes out to Live Nation for the approval, allowing me the opportunity to photograph this concert. Also, big thanks goes out to Budweiser Gardens in London On. Canada for the great as always hospitality.

- Shutter Click.

JUDAS PRIEST

SAXON

BLACK STAR RIDERS

OUR LADY PEACE & MATTHEW GOOD

March 11, 2018

Off to the stage with 4 other photographers, hearing the buzz of everyone in the building chatting, music playing in the background, house lights half on.. that anticipation building, going over camera settings in my mind, wondering what the lighting will be like. In that moment, the lights go out, complete darkness except for a few small, dim stage lights, the crowd roars, whistling, cheering, clapping and screaming while the band walks out on to the stage .. nothing but Silhouettes.

Our Lady Peace was a staple in my upbringing, yet, it's taken me 36 years to finally see them live. When photographing bands you only get a taste of the performance as most cases you can only photograph the first 3 songs of each band. Regardless, even the first 3 songs are usually a great time, there's always one good song that everyone knows.. for OLP, for me anyways that song was 'Superman's Dead' and it was done to perfection. OLP fired it up right out of the gate with high energy, some pretty unique lighting, which was a bit challenging as there were some strobe effects going on that made timing a bit tough, but it was incredible and I am complete thankful for the opportunity which was provided to me by Live Nation.

Matthew Good was another one of those 90's staples for me who I've always enjoyed listening to. I've only seen Matt one other time and it was maybe 2 years ago at Rock The Park in London ON and it was good... but last night's performance topped it 100%. Same deal, we only get to shoot the first 3 songs, but the first 3 were incredible and standing that close shooting made it even that much better.
After being escorted back into the photographer room, it sounded like the crowd was really enjoying the show as you could hear the screaming and clapping echo through the back halls of Budweiser Gardens. Overall, what a fantastic night. I'd like to thank Live Nation again for the opportunity to photograph this show and Budweiser Gardens for being so accommodating for the night.

until the next time
-Shutter Click!

OLP (Our Lady Peace)London ON, CanadaBudweiser Gardens — OLP (Our Lady Peace)
London ON, Canada
Budweiser Gardens

MATTHEW GOOD

Photography. Travel. Time

December 28, 2017

It's amazing from year to year how much things change when you put your time into something you love and strive to always get better.
A few years ago I was asked, last minute, to get in a Ford F-150 with a buddy of mine who was going back out west to British Columbia after being home, here in Ontario visiting with friends and family. I had just taken vacation from work but had zero plans, so I figured why not? There is another blog on here called " The Great Canadian West " which covers that whole adventure.. you can think of this one as kind of a second part to that entry.

Long story short.... today I went back through some of the images I took from that trip, images which I thought were garbage but I had kept the RAW files as I normally do. Since that trip, I have spent a lot of time shooting, a lot of time studying, doing editing tutorials, paying for tutorials and teaching video's.. really learning whatever I could. Turns out, a lot of the images from that trip are still very usable.. it just took time for me to develop more skills, editing techniques.. even a new eye (way of looking at things).
Moral of the story here.. the message I'm trying to convey is, even though you don't see it now, you may in the future. Do not give up, constantly learn, if you love it keep trying, keep building.. strive to be better every day and you will see improvements!

Here are some of the images from that trip that I had discarded thinking they "were no good", "unusable", " There's no picture here " ........

© Kevin Vyse PhotographyAll Rights Reserved 2017 — © Kevin Vyse Photography
All Rights Reserved 2017

A Night With Colin James

August 20, 2017

Colin Freakin' James!

Colin was brought to Woodstock last year for the Cowapalooza Festival in Woodstock Ontario, Canada, but sadly.. he never made it on stage because mother nature decided to flood the park with a torrential down pour. Summer 2017, Colin James was asked to come back and come back he did! With clear skies, a beauty summers night, stars out and all, Colin hit the stage with powerful guitar solos, deep bass lines, technical drumming, some outstanding keyboard work and of course some powerful, strong vocals that blew me away.

With no media pass (which wasn't required anyways because it was a FREE, yes.. FREE concert in a public park ) I had to shoot from the crowd which was fine at first.. but pretty much after the first song everyone moved up and it got tight quick. Bobbing around peoples melons Colin made it pretty easy to get the shots using up all areas of the stage to put on an amazing performance. If you haven't seen Colin James, haven't heard of him even.. get out to a show, you won't be disappointed at all. - Shutter Click.

Colin JamesCowapalooza Festival 2017Woodstock On, Canada. — Colin James
Cowapalooza Festival 2017
Woodstock On, Canada.

Cassidy, Ben & LUCA!

July 07, 2017

Luca turned 1 ! ... unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the little man's birthday, so we decided to do a family portrait session.

6pm, the sun was out and getting lower in the sky, it was nice and warm with a small breeze.. perfect conditions to get out and shoot. If you follow my work you've seen Cassidy many times through out my portfolio, she has been a HUGE help to me and my photography. You may have even seen her Maternity photos.. in fact, I KNOW you have seen at least one of those images because it's the first image to see when you come to my website. Well little Luca is here! .. he's actually been here for a year, as he just had his birthday, so we wanted to get together and photograph them as a family. Our session started at Cassidy and Ben's home in London Ontario as they have a big backyard that always has some nice light. Luca had just woken up from his nap and he is teething so he was a little unhappy at the start, which is a bit unusual for him because he's always so happy, but who wouldn't be upset when you have big bits of calcium busting through your gums?!

   Our photographic adventure took us to a part of Western University, where there are some trails and a forest with a river, which always makes for great light and over all amazing images. Hiking through the forest as the sun dropped the light was glowing from everywhere, and in a field not far from the path we were on there was a herd of dear grazing in the shade. With their small velvet antlers looking all innocent and cute, we immediately dropped everything (accept the camera's of course), and started to shoot with the deer in the background.
   Getting deeper into the woods we reached a point where the path drops down into a gully, surrounded by tall trees and this amazing orange/yellowish light beaming in from in front of us. There was a small patch of light with this green moss growing in the light, and I knew we had to put Luca down in this light and get a shot.
   From here we made it down to the river where we had some shots of Cassidy feeding Luca and Cassidy, Luca and Ben all sitting on the edge of the water in some tall grass cuddled up with one another. I had Cassidy take Luca out into the shallow parts of the water (ankle deep) so we could get some nice shots of them in the river with the amazing filtered light shining down on them.

Over all this was a fantastic shoot, great way to spend the day/evening and make some phenomenal imagery for some amazing people!

-Shutter Click!

Natalie & Sergio Maternity Fairy Tale Shoot

April 29, 2017

Natalie & Sergio: Maternity

ICELAND 2016: A Solo Adventure

September 21, 2016

I remember when all of a sudden, 6 months had flown by. I was at home packing my bags, not sure what to take, freaking out over weight and size of luggage for the trip. I woke up and it was time to go. Drove over to my parents house, parked the car and they drove me up to Toronto to catch my flight on WOWair. I was all excited and nervous all at the same time, worried about getting everything on the plane and what I was going to struggle with once I got to Iceland.

Landing at the Keflavik International Airport in Iceland I was so tired. My flight left Canada at 7:30pm and I arrived in Iceland at 5:30am, and you might think that means the flight was 9 hours.. but it wasn't. Iceland is 4 hours AHEAD of Ontario, so it was a 5 hour flight. My first issue, was that the camper van company I rented through didn't open until 9am, so I had 4 hour wait for them to come pick me up at the airport. I ended up going to a sweet little place called Joe & The Juice in the airport which is a small cafe that was fantastic; the food was delicious, people were nice and they played some pretty good music too. 9am came and a girl came walking through the doors with a sign in her hands, on it was the Kuku Campers logo and my name... we were off!

Once at Kuku Campers we went through all of my options, extra insurance, whats included, my Itinerary.. everything, they were so nice and helpful which was a stress reliever. Next, it was time to go check out my ride!

My sweet ride for 9 days in Iceland... she was good to me!

Ok, lets get into the trip!
My first stop was in Reykjavik ( Iceland's Capitol ).. I didn't realize how close it was to where I picked up my camper so I kind of lost a day there because I had rented a wifi box from Reykjavik Camping Equipment for the day AFTER I arrived in Iceland. Driving in the city was a bit tough.. I didn't understand some of the signs .. a couple I thought were saying I was on a oneway street going the wrong way, which I later realized they just meant no parking. Also, they drive pretty aggressive in Reykjavik and all the damn double lane round-a-bouts just about killed me. I used the GPS I rented with the camper to find my way to the one and only Reykjavik campsite which all the websites referred to as " Reykjavik Campsite " ... when really it's called Tjaldsvaedid-Laugardal Campsite... or thats what I had to find in the GPS to get there because it didn't recognize "Reykjavik Campsite ". This campsite was awesome.. one of my favs on the whole trip.. loved it so much I spent two nights there at the end of my trip.

Now, into the good stuff! Iceland is an amazing, wonderful, beautiful place with ever changing landscapes... this has to be said! Blown away, it's been almost two weeks since I've been home and I still can't stop thinking about it and missing it. My trip took me from the West to the East along the South Coast... back from the East to the West then along the West Coast up toward the north. Let me put this out there first though.. I screwed up the trip. I didn't realize that I had enough time to complete the ring road ( the road that goes along the entire outside edge of the island in a big circle ) so once I got far enough East.. I went back West.
Lets start with Skogafoss... this waterfall was my love. I saw this waterfall online 6 years ago and instantly fell in love with it and that started my love for Iceland and the want to travel there. A mass waterfall surrounded my mountains and a staircase that takes you up to the top of this giant. Be warned.. the staircase is TOUGH... it's steep and long but once at the top it's an outstanding view! Once I had defeated Skogafoss I decided I would push on to the next stop. Plans changed as soon as I saw how close the black sand beach was which was the home of the crashed DC-3 Aircraft that crashed in the 1970's. This stop was about 15 mins maybe 25mins from Skogafoss, so once I saw all the cars parked along the side of the road and everyone walking out into the nothingness, I knew what it was and that I had to do it. WARNING... this hike is a killer! hahah maybe I'm just really out of shape.. but it's about 5K out and 5K back on black sand and rocks. I did this hike later in the evening.. maybe around 5:30pm with a big winter jacket and a 15lbs camera bag. My legs and hips were dying on my quick but it was so worth it once I got out there.. this was another MUST on my trip and I couldn't believe it once I was out there standing in the shadow of this gutted aircraft in all it's weathered glory.

Travelling the roads of Iceland is beautiful no matter where you are. One side of the road is all mountains and volcano's, waterfalls and farms. On the opposite side of the road flat as far as you can see or the Ocean.. it was quite crazy to see. As you drive down the roads there are times where the road looks like it's going to run straight into a huge mountain side, but then veers off to the side and around it. I saw countless waterfalls, big and small.. some really close to the road, others up the side of a mountain trickling down.. there were giant Glaciers.. horses and sheep everywhere.. the sheep were all over.. my eyes constantly scanning the roads for them as they just roamed where ever they please.. up high in the mountains, right beside the roads and often right in the middle of the roads.

I'm just going to focus on some of the highlight places of my trip as you can see this is already quite a huge post.. if you've read this far... i'm impressed with you!

VIK: Also another big, but small town, I wanted to visit! it is the Southern most village in Iceland located on the ring road (Road 1 ). This village is right on the Ocean and full of black sand beaches and cliffs. While there isn't much to the village at all.. it's still a beautiful place. You drop down into it with a mountain side on your right, mountains in the distance and the ocean as well as up high on a hill sits this Red and White church overlooking the ocean.. it was amazing.

JOKULSARLON: Also known as the Glacier Lagoon is a must see! I personally have never seen Icebergs before, so I had no idea what to expect. I parked where I saw everyone else parking and saw these little trails through these small sand/grass hills.. you couldn't see anything really but some mountains way off in the distance. Out of nowhere you go up this little hill and BAM you're looking out over the ocean with all these white and blue icebergs floating in the water.. my jaw dropped.. I stopped walking... took a minute to take it all in, then raised my camera to my face and snapped a shot in amazement. I spent about 2 hours just walking around, getting down to the water and seeing the icebergs up close.. watching some of them flip over and piece breaking off, splashing down into the water. I also saw a seal swimming out in the water.. it was far out and I had my wide angle on at the time so I couldn't get a pic.. wouldn't have been much anyways as it just popped it's head out from the water every now and then.

You know what... I know no ones going to read all of this, so i'm just going to let the pics speak for themselves... If you're thinking about going to Iceland.. stop thinking, book your flight... it's a life changing experience and something everyone needs to see. Get a camper.. it's the cheapest way to do it... grocery shop at the BONUS grocery stores that are in every bigger city and spend the night at campsites.. they average $15 (CDN) per night most have showers with hot water, nice bathrooms and Wifi. Almost every city has Geothermal Pools that you can pay a small fee to swim in all year round.. the people are so nice and helpful and everyone speaks english... it's the safest place ever.. there's no crime so it's so safe for people to travel solo.. there are hitch hikers everywhere and they always get picked up because everyones so honest and nice... it's so safe! GO GO GO!!!!!!!

Skogafoss - the water giant from far... spent my first night in the camper van here at the base of this monster as it sang me to sleep.

Another shot of Skogafoss up close just before I started to climb the stairs to the top.. there's a bird in this image near the middle.. these birds are constantly flying around and hanging out on the ledges and cliffs.

Skogafoss from the top... what a view.. after I caught my breath I could enjoy it.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall is one of the first waterfalls you see when you head east.. it's so amazing because you can walk right behind it.. you will get wet, but it's worth it.. and it's pretty huge.

Down the river from Skogafoss are these river side sleeping giants.. as the sun set lower behind a mountain the fog started to roll down the hillside.

As you drive road 1 (The ring road ) you get to flat points where the land has all these rivers flowing through it.. in the distance are some mountains sleeping in the sunlight.

When you get close to the Ocean you can see the mountains in the distance and the fog settling at the base of them.

The Crashed DC-3 Aircraft out in the middle of no where on the black sand beach by the Ocean was definitely a highlight for me. It has been weathered and gutted.. the sound of the wind whistling through it still goes through my mind when I close my … — The Crashed DC-3 Aircraft out in the middle of no where on the black sand beach by the Ocean was definitely a highlight for me. It has been weathered and gutted.. the sound of the wind whistling through it still goes through my mind when I close my eyes. a 5K hike out and a 5K hike back on black sand and rocks with very strong winds made this the biggest challenge but once you reach it, it's all worth it. <3

This is my favourite image.. you can almost see the time and pain of the aircraft.. so forgotten, yet seen daily.. people were everywhere, it was hard to get a shot with nearly anyone in it. Unfortunately, travellers have wrote on it.. broke pieces … — This is my favourite image.. you can almost see the time and pain of the aircraft.. so forgotten, yet seen daily.. people were everywhere, it was hard to get a shot with nearly anyone in it. Unfortunately, travellers have wrote on it.. broke pieces off of it and climbed all over it.. who knows how much longer it will be in the shape that it is.. I'm so happy that I was able to see this beauty.. crashed in the 1970's ... some of the locals say that the reason for the crash was never determined, but most say they simply ran out of fuel and had to ditch it... amazingly, the entire crew survived the crash.

Iceberg Lagoon ... just an amazing jaw dropping site.. To see these giant pieces of ice floating in the ocean with mountains/volcano's surrounding them.. the colour of the blue's ... wow.. just wow...

What do you see when driving the roads of Iceland.... this... it's beautiful! it gets a lot better than this too.. roads through mountain sides.. through the ocean.. it's mind blowing.

Horses everywhere.. and sheep.. but this horse was my first friend in Iceland. I stopped and approached the fence and none of the horses seemed to care. I put my hand over the fence and this beauty walked right up to have a sniff then put it's head … — Horses everywhere.. and sheep.. but this horse was my first friend in Iceland. I stopped and approached the fence and none of the horses seemed to care. I put my hand over the fence and this beauty walked right up to have a sniff then put it's head right against my hand letting me pet it's nose. Shortly after all the other horses made their way over to say hi. I call her White Lightening

Mars Mountain I call this one. I went through a section that looked like mars... like I said.. the landscape constantly changes.. you think you're on another planet!

On the flight home, the pilot took us over Greenland, which was a great way to end the trip.. what a beautiful sight from the plane.

NEW YEARS 2015/2016

January 01, 2016

"When he woke his, body was covered in coke fizz ".

SLOAN!!!! SLOOOOAAANNN!!! was being chanted by the crowd in Victoria Park - London Ontario and when they took to the stage the crowd went wild. Playing many different songs of many albums, Canadian Icon rock band SLOAN put on an amazing show despite the -4ºC weather and the bit of snow. Once the band started to play, it was like the cold didn't matter, no one cared, people were singing along, jumping around and dancing having a great time.

Ivory Hours is another Canadian band from London Ontario who is now getting national attention. This energetic band with an original poppy sound came out to open for Sloan and were a fan favourite as many people knew their lyrics and the band mates names, constantly yelling out " LOVE YOU! " "PLAY " so and so song... also chanting for an encore at the end of their set.

Once Sloan hit the 30 min before midnight mark, the countdown clock popped up on a screen behind the band on stage. They filled the 30 mins with a few hit songs including " Money City Maniacs " complete with the siren, which told everyone what song was about to be played and made the crowd lose their minds. At the 29 second mark everyone started counting down, when 1 second hit, the fireworks went off on top of the London Life building. Sloan's lead singer and bass player disappeared off the stage and their guitar tech jumped on bass as the band started to play AULD LANG SYNE ( the New Years Song ). We could hear the lead singer singing but no one knew where from until the band pointed out he was behind the crowd on the ice rink skating around with a wireless mic singing... how Canadian is that?, EH! What a great way to ring in the new year. Happy 2016 to all! - Shutter Click.

Oh PS. I didn't think I would be able to get as close to the stage as I did, seeing as how I read that last year there was 10,000 people attending the event, so my lens of choice was my 70-200. This lens is quite long and with me being so close my images had to be individual members. If I would have backed up to get everyone the crowd was so dense that it would have just been band members heads so I stayed where I was and did the best I could with what I had.

© Kevin Vyse Photography All Rights Reserved 2015 SLOAN — © Kevin Vyse Photography
All Rights Reserved 2015

SLOAN

IVORY HOURS

BOHEMIAN PICNIC

July 18, 2015

She's the kind of woman who loves life, nature, travel and experiences life to the fullest while being thankful for her experiences.

Flower crows, nick nacks, dresses, jewelry... this was the back bone of our shoot. Bohemian Picnic was the theme and our location was in a big backyard which was set up as the bohemian picnic. Cassidy is a good friend of mine and a fantastic Hair Stylist, we have worked with each other for all kinds of different shoots as I'm sure you've seen before in past blog posts.
Not only is Cassidy a wiz with hair, but she was the one who set up this fantastic set to photograph on with all of her own personal Nick Nacks. Weather wise, we were a little worried as it was pretty cloudy and the forecast called for rain, but that wasn't going to stop us. Lucky enough for us it started to clear up and the sun was diffused through the clouds, giving us some nice soft even light.

With music blaring, some wine flowing and the creative juices fired up we started off with the shoot. I wasn't to sure if I was going to use lighting or not, but after snapping a few shots and seeing that the sun was out enough to cause some tough shadows, the lights came out. We wanted to get a bunch of "Hippy-Flower Child" images as well as some creative portfolio work that I had in my back pocket ( The bike shot with the crazy chunky cloud sky).

We had a ton of fun on this shoot along with Cassidy's sister who was on set to help out and watch the shoot go down and see how it's done because she is thinking about doing a shoot of her own in the near future. This shoot lasted about 4-5 hours, it was more of a hang out and shoot kind of thing, just having some fun, getting great shots and experimenting with lighting and different techniques. Hope you enjoy the images from this shoot - Shutter Click.

BOHEMIAN BEAUTY© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — BOHEMIAN BEAUTY
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

BOHEMIAN WOODS © Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — BOHEMIAN WOODS
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

IN GOOD LIGHT © Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — IN GOOD LIGHT
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

NIGHT RIDE© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — NIGHT RIDE
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

BOHEMIAN BIKE RIDE© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — BOHEMIAN BIKE RIDE
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

FLOWER CHILD© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — FLOWER CHILD
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

BOHEMIAN LIFE© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — BOHEMIAN LIFE
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

PORCELAIN QUEEN© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015 — PORCELAIN QUEEN
© Kevin Vyse Photography 2015

Pittsburgh For The Win!

May 11, 2015

Ever feel like you just need to get away? you're sick of being in the same place all the time and working and feel bored on weekends?

I get like this from time to time and once it all builds up over a couple weeks, I need an escape. An opportunity presented itself to me through my good friend JMAC, who was going to be taking off to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to meet up with a friend of his who is a Marine, to open up a new branch of his Charity PTSD Battle Cry. JMAC asked me if I'd want to go with him and see Pittsburgh for the first time, how could I resist an adventure? a chance to photograph a new place I've never been before? ... exactly! I couldn't.

We hit the road, bags packed, camera gear all charged up and ready to shoot. Scott ( JMACS friend) put us up of the two nights we were there and was also our Tour Guide lol. Scott is a stand up guy who showed us all Pittsburgh has to offer, introduced us to a lot of amazing people who were so welcoming and friendly, took us to some world famous places to eat and of course, helped spread the word about PTSD Battle Cry (www.ptsdbattlecry.org).

Once it Pittsburgh we got right to it, hit up the city for some sight seeing and some food + beer.. lots and lots of beer haha. 7pm we had tickets (thanks to Scott) to head on over to PNC Park to see the Pirates take on the Cardinals, which was a huge treat for me as I've never been to a baseball game before. To my surprise, I was actually allowed to bring in my camera with me 70-200mm lens (big zoom lens), which would NEVER happen here in Canada. I shot a bunch of images of the game, we ate some food, had some more drinks and out of no where, who do we see? Geno's Malkin (Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Penguins hockey player's dad).. so of course JMAC and Scott had me take their picture with him, which you will see in the images below.

Day 2: Was all about tourism. We took to the streets yet again, all different areas of the city to experience and shoot as much as we could. We hit up Pamala's for some world renowned Pancakes, even President Obama eats there.. there was a signed picture of him on the wall, and let me tell you.. those pancakes are something special! We hit everything from a huge candy store to a Pittsburgh Pirates gift shop, to some little pubs/bars for drinks to a Bottle Shop and bar named Hal's which was amazing, my favourite place, we went there a few times. One of the best sites was Mt.Washington.. riding the trolly up the mountain side was fun, but the view at the top was breath taking. You could see all of Pittsburgh, the yellow bridges, the city, Point Park, and the split in the river.. amazing... but enough talk about it, I will let you experience it yourself through my images. Enjoy - Shutter Click.

Pittsburgh from on top of Mt. Washington.

Pittsburgh from the Mt. Washington look out.

While inside PNC PARK during the game with down town Pittsburgh as the backdrop.

JMAC & Scott, Opening of the PTSD BATTLECRY USA!

Scott PTSD BATTLECRY USA Branch Manager.

Scott and JMAC with Geno's Malkin ( Evgeni Malkin's Dad )

Denial: Graffiti Artist

July 15, 2014

To anyone that follows my Facebook page, you know that I recently did a fashion shoot in Windsor On this past Sunday. For those of you who don't follow my Facebook page and didn't know.. now you do! and ps, you should go follow my Facebook page, just type Kevin Vyse Photography into the search and it will come up. What you didn't know, was that while I was in Windsor I was lucky enough to meet an amazing, mind-blowing graffiti artist who's world renowned, his name DENIAL. <--------- just click his name and you will magically be whisked away to his website... and I urge you to check it out because his stuff is the bees knees.
Honestly, I had never heard of him before I went to Windsor.. I had seen his Coke Can recreation before but didn't know anything about it or understand it. Luckily, the make-up artist and friend from the shoot, Melissa, knows him, and model Mindy from the shoot, her boyfriend works for him. So of course, we all got VIP access to his studio which was fantastic.

In order to get to the studio, the back way, we went down this alley which is full of graffiti and most of it, if not all of it, is Denials. It was quite a treat to see some seriously good Graffiti, in my home town it's a bunch of kids with standard nozzle spray cans from some store spray painting swear words and Penis' all over buildings.. Bravo ya idiots...

I was blow away by the detail Denial can get out of these cans. I saw everything from a Heman character wall spread to a skeleton hand and route 66 sign art piece. Not only does he do these massive wall pieces, but in his shop he uses masking tape, spray paint, rulers, measuring tapes, scissors and all kinds of other things to make these amazing pieces of wall art. He masks out different parts of the image while exposing other parts to make layered pieces, which was cool for me to see because as a photographer, I do the same kind of stuff in Photoshop.

Anyways, I won't drag this out anymore.. but again.. I urge you to click on the link I put in this blog and check out this guys work... it's amazing and some of it is pretty hilarious as well. Here's a few images I shot while we were there. I wish I would have got a portrait of him but we had 3 hours of straight shooting in the club and I didn't have the equipment with me I would have wanted to have to do an awesome portrait. - Shutter Click.

The many spray cans of crazy colour Denial uses to make his masterpieces.

A pretty well known Denial Piece, one of the first images I ever saw of his... sitting there along with a few other pieces of art.

A few of art pieces from Denial maybe a few from other artists he likes as well.. I know he said there were some pieces around the shop of other artists who's work he really enjoys.

A few pieces sitting on the table which are works in progress.

where all the magic happens and the art comes together! Work Station.

Two giant Denial pieces in the Graffiti Alley behind the shop, such amazing work.

Stairway down to the merchandise shop.. T-shirts, Spray cans, Nozzles, hats and more.

One of my fave pieces: Enjoy Denial, a coke can parody. Great piece.

And..... just because I shot it while I was there right after the visit with Denial, Detroit! I honestly had no clue that Detroit was THIS close to Windsor... I knew they were close, just not THIS close.

RAWartists: PANORAMA showcase

June 24, 2014

June 19th, 2014 I was a part of the RAWartists network in Toronto On. displaying my photography. RAW is a group thats all about art, all forms of art (painting, live performances and music, photography, jewelry making, drawing etc... any art form). They come together all over the world allowing artists to apply and show off their work and network. You can sell your work at the show and they do not take a commission, which is pretty awesome of them. If you're interested in becoming a RAWartist or simply just want to read up on them to see what they're about, here's a link to their site: www.rawartists.org

I wasn't to sure what to expect from RAW.. I was new to it, had only heard about it through another photographer on Facebook from my area a few weeks before I decided to go for it. I'm a quiet, shy kind of person, I don't do well in large social interaction, but 2014 for me was all about stepping out of comfort zone, putting myself and my work out there, meeting new people who love what I love and RAW showed up in my path, so why not jump in?!
   Let's skip ahead to the night of the show. I had to be in Toronto by 2pm to set up my display, it was a 2 hour drive, but I got there fine and on time, actually about an hour early. I went inside and saw the fencing where I was going to be displaying my work, excited, nervous, anxious and a little tired as I didn't sleep much the night before... I took my work out of the box I had brought it in and started to place my work. After an agonizing 15 minutes, my work was up and looking quite good if I do say so myself!
   I took a minute to check out the work that was hanging to the right and left of me and on my right, who's work was hanging there? None other than Tina Picard - Toronto based fashion photographer! I was blown away because I just found out about Tina maybe 3 weeks prior to the show and fell in love with it right away. I couldn't believe that my work was displayed beside hers, I was pumped but also feeling a little unworthy. I want you all to check out Tina's work, it's outstanding: TINA PICARD: FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

7pm: It's show time!
   Ok... so I was a little late for doors open ha! but you have to be a little fashionably late, right? Actually my buddy Jeremy and I took off down town T.O. to hit the Ripley's Aquarium and get some food, it took a little longer than expected because it was such an awesome place to look around and get some shots. We made it back, I went to my show space and hung out for a bit until Tina walked up :) .... eeeeek, we talked for a bit and then people starting coming in and looking around. Right away I was in deep, talking to random people I didn't know, asking all kinds of questions about my work and style but surprisingly, I did alright.. I didn't throw up on anyone which was my biggest goal of the entire night.
I was actually surprised at how many people showed up to the event, the place was packed. I lost track of time, but not to long after people came in and looked around our RAW presenter jumped up on stage and got the show started. We had: 3 live fashion shows, a hand full of live bands, a guy who spit fire all over the place ( which was amazing.. I could feel the heat on my face and I was about 20 feet from the stage)... such an amazing display of talent.
Anyways.. i'm sure you just want to see pics.... and to those of you who actually read all of this... you're an amazing person lol..... oh PS, the images aren't amazing... I was there to show my work not shoot the event.. I just took these shots to give you a little feel of the night. - Shutter Click.