As I type this note I’m sitting at my desk eyeing the clock. It’s just before 8:00 PM and in two hours my latest dreams of owning a (second) medium format camera will be shot.

I’ve had my eye on picking up a twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera off of eBay for weeks now, and I found the perfect one a couple of days ago, but the problem is it’s now ridiculously over-priced thanks to one person’s bid. There are a few others I like, but this one came with a pile of goodies, and it was located here in Ontario.

Of course, I can’t whine too much about not getting a second camera. The only reason I want another one is because the first one I bought is huge, and weighs a ton (it’s the awesome Mamiya RZ67 though), so it’s not ideal for travel.

There are some amazing medium format cameras coming up on eBay these days, but it seems to take a lot of patience to find one that isn’t getting heavy bids, and yet still comes from a reputable seller.

What’s funny is that I still get a lot of funny questions when I say I shoot film. It’s not like I’m only shooting film, my main camera is digital, but there is something very rewarding about shooting on film. It feels right, it even sounds right when you hear the shutter.

Medium format also offers a huge amount of resolution with the right scanner, and if I shoot black and white film, I also develop my own negatives.

Anyway, I’m going to keep hunting for a new camera, and see what comes up. My only other complaint is that I wish there was a store in Toronto that I could walk in to and look at these cameras before I buy one. Since these TLR cameras are getting scarce as collectors pick them up though, that seems fairly unlikely.

Wish me luck! If I find the right one I’m going to be taking it to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival to get snapshots and hopefully a few portraits.

Before I run out to check out the Indie Awards for this year’s Canadian Music Week, I wanted to drop a couple of photos from last night’s CHUM Fanfest at the Masonic Temple.

With the venue packed full of fans who won their way into the show, some of the station’s main DJs were on hand to introduce the performers for the night, which included Danny Fernandes, Headley, Girlicious, Faber Drive, Karl Wolf, Joey McIntyre, and Daughtry.

I’ll be posting more from the night shortly, but until then here are two photos – the one above is Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard, and the other one below features the ladies of Girlicious, Nichole Cordova, Chrystina Sayers, and Natalie Mejia.

Hey, Picasa, I love you – you know that? We’ve had a great relationship and aside from your tendency to totally hog my resources, I appreciate what you do. But you know what would be nice? If you didn’t pick up on every out of focus, blurry face from my entire 200 Gb collection of photos.

Now, to clarify, it’s not that I take a lot of out-of-focus photos of people (well, not many), the problem is that for every event or red carpet I shoot, there are anywhere from 5 to 20 faces in the background.

Doing the math there, considering I shoot around 250 photos for a short red carpet, and assuming that at least 50 of those are closeups on only one person’s face, that’s a minimum of 1000 faces Picasa is trying to deal with. And that’s just one photo album.

So I have to ask. If the folks at Google are supposed to be so smart, why can’t Picasa ignore out of focus faces? Clearly I have a somewhat rarer problem that most people who use Picasa, but I bet I’m not alone with this issue on some scale. And is it really so wrong that I should want to tag my friends while maybe using tagging to make it easier to find some of my celebrity photos?

The big reason I’m complaining is simply because I’ve had the new version of Picasa for months, and it’s still only 10% done recognizing faces.

The Kool Haus in Toronto was packed with pushing, excited, screaming fans on Thursday night (October 15) as Paramore took to the stage to perform a few songs.

Covering some of their biggest songs, including a number from their new album Brand New Eyes, Hayley Williams and the band performed fifteen songs, wrapping up with an encore featuring “Misguided Ghosts,” “Misery Business,” and “Brick By Boring Brick.”

I’ll have a full photo gallery online later today, but for now, here are a few images from the show:

One of the world’s greatest rock bands stopped at Toronto’s Rogers Centre tonight for the first of two massive shows, September 16 and 17. The band was of course U2, in town for their 360° Tour, and the crowd went insane as Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. all rocked their hearts out to some of the band’s most well-known songs.

Touring for their latest album, No Line on the Horizon, the band is nearing the end of their North American dates, wrapping up on October 28 in Vancouver, BC.

Here are a few photos from the show, with a full gallery on the way soon (click to view the full-size version):

What’s that, more photos you say? Yes, indeed. Interviews and other goodies are coming, but after waiting for over four hours for this event I had to post some teaser photos from Oprah Winfrey‘s red carpet for the film Precious by author Sapphire.

The night was jam-packed, and there were a couple of surprises on the red carpet, including the appearance of Mr. Robert DeNiro, but the point of it all is that this film is going to be huge. Massive. Oscar talk already, including for Mariah Carey.

A full gallery will follow soon, but for now here are a few highlights of the night:

Okay, Jonas Brothers fans, I have a rare update for you. As some of you can probably guess, I don’t usually follow the band’s activities, but I stumbled onto the set for their new TV movie, Camp Rock 2, so I thought I owed you some details.

On Friday I was at Rockwood Conservation Area near Guelph with Aisha and we noticed that a big event was in the works. They were putting up a tent near the parking lot, and I they had a lot of power cables running down to the beach. That’s when I realized we were walking onto a set-in-the-making.

Rockwood has a nice big open field leading down to the beach, but on Friday there were seven or eight rustic cabins that had been built along a path leading down to a fire pit area. It looked like most of the set had already been built and they were doing set dressing and random work to make it look right.

When we asked someone what they were filming they said it was a movie called “Coin Flip”. Looking around though, Aisha noticed that there were canoes that had been painted to say “Camp Rock”, so it didn’t take much to connect the dots.

The first connection is that the Ontario Media Development Corporation has a production named “Coin Flip” on record with director Paul Hoen and producer Kevin Lafferty. Looking up their details, Hoen is the director for an upcoming TV series called Jonas, starring the brothers, and Lafferty was the producer for 2008′s Camp Rock. That’s pretty much clear proof this was indeed the Camp Rock 2 set, or possibly something connected to the new TV series.

Either way, here are a few photos from the set. If I’ve got this wrong at all, please let me know. Otherwise I’ve sent an email off to the production company to see if I can get any more info or a confirmation. I’ll post an update below if I get any more information.

It was a very pink affair tonight as Katy Perry performed at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto for her Hello Katy Tour.

While the lawns were completely empty, probably thanks to the rainy day we had in the city, the seats were packed with screaming fans, who snapped pictures almost constantly throughout the first few songs.

Perry for her part was a great performer. Although I had previously seen her do her thing for a CHUM FM event in the city, this was a much better venue to catch her at, and she made good use of the stage.

For now, here are two photos that I snapped, with more coming tomorrow.

Concert and music photographers have it tough today. Okay, that’s not exactly true – it’s my dream job, and it’s really just about being in the right place at the right time. That said, I really appreciate that at least one musician gets that the world of music, and concerts, has changed a lot in the last couple of decades.

While I’m not exactly a John Mayer fan, I have to admit he’s really talented, and after reading some of his recent tweets on Twitter (courtesy of Aisha), I’m at least very impressed that he said something like this.

Here are Mayer’s four tweets that I really, really appreciate:

johncmayer: There’s still no better digital camera on the market than the Leica M8. I wish I could photograph bands on tour like Jim Marshall used to.

johncmayer: Jim told me that in some ways the art of rock photography is dead because of how little access bands give photographers.

johncmayer: Could you imagine someone taking a pic of Janis splayed out on a couch with a bottle of SoCo today? A PR rep would squash that so hard.

johncmayer: And most bands have a “first 3 songs” policy. Who can get a good sexy rock n roll sweat going by then?

Ain’t that the truth. I feel priveledged to even have the chance to shoot three songs at most concerts, but it’s not really what I would call a great representation of any artist. It’s a window into their show, for sure, but it’s limited to say the least.

Which leads me to add that I’m readily available for any band who wants to give me a backstage pass for their next big tour. I would love to document an entire night of rock and or roll festivities.

Celebutantes, nouveau famous, and the genuinely talented all collided tonight at the 2009 MuchMusic Video Awards for an evening of partying, schmoozing, and well, posing.

It was a good show, as these things go, and I really enjoyed the lineup of stars, from the Black Eyed Peas and Audrina Patridge to Billy Talent (who brought their dads with them for Father’s Day!) and The Stills. (I’ll also have to admit that it was nice to see Girlicious again this year, if for no other reason than the lovely Nichole Cordova.)

While I was more intrigued with the Black Eyed Peas, and even listening to Brody Jenner talk about being a celebrity, and how much he loves Canada (not to mention Jayde Nicole, who was also at the MMVAs), it was pretty clear that a lot of the fans were there to see one guy in particular: Taylor Lautner. Yes, the Jonas Brothers had people screaming, but I think Lautner left a lot more people weeping on the ground.

Personally, I have a hard time taking anything Twilight-related seriously, but hey, I don’t think much of the Twilight sensation has anything to do with the quality of the writing, or acting for that matter.

Anyway, for my sixth (or was it seventh?) year at the awards, I took in all the usual sights – from the red carpet to the media room – but I really have to admit that I missed the outdoor invite-only party.

Usually a fun place to hang between catching interesting stars in the media room, the parking lot was filled with the colossal stage, and behind that some barren space between buildings where catering trucks were lined up.

But, I digress.

Tomorrow I’ll have more to blog about. I’ll try and post as much as I can, and that includes some of the 1200+ photos I took. I also shot video of a bunch of people, including Jayde Nicole on the red carpet, the Black Eyed Peas and the Jonas Brothers chatting with the media, and I have a few stories to share.

I’ll also open this up for fans to tell me about what you thought of the show, your experiences (if you were at the event), or whatever you want to share. For instance, what did people think of Lady Gaga‘s flaming bra or her nearly non-existent underwear? She didn’t come back to the media room, so the only impression I had of her was totally on-stage during the show.

Any thoughts to share?

P.S. Apparently, if this is something you’re wondering about, Nickelback claimed the most awards at the MMVAs.