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 )

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.

Kevin Vyse Photography Blog:

Featured posts:

Pittsburgh For The Win!

Denial: Graffiti Artist