Where I'm Coming From

I love people.

Perhaps it's from my mother. She used to strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere, anytime. A compassionate and easy listener, a loyal and intelligent friend: she passed onto to her children an understanding and affinity for stranger, kin, and friend.

Life is about those connections. I feel my wedding and portrait photography is an extension of that life-view. Telling the story of a couple, their friends, and their family on such a pivotal day is an inspiring thrill.

To be honest though, the privilege of being the 'eye' that records those connections comes with a heavy responsibility; one that I never take lightly.  Artistic creativity must be practiced, prepared, and polished.  I believe in delivering a high quality product and trusted service. 

My Style

My style has been described as photo-journalistic or  'reportage'.  (Wikipedia says... "Reportage is the art of blending documentary, first-hand observations, with personal experience, perception, and anecdotal evidence, in non-fiction form.") 

I'm also one of the original fans of David Hobby's off-camera flash techniques (aka. Mr. Strobist). I am influenced by Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson, Jeff Ascough and a host of other contemporaries. I also get inspiration from fashion photography and the great photographers of the past such as Yousuf Karsh, Henri-Cartier Besson (huge influence) and Ansel Adams.

I play the bagpipes, served in the Canadian Navy, married (same gorgeous gal) for 28 years, and have six wonderful people who honour me with the title of Dad. 

Vitals:

Name: Dan Ward

Education: BEng from Royal Military College of Canada

Occupations: 

• Ex-naval engineering officer
• Design Engineer, Lockheed Martin
• Photographer

My Kit

• State-of-the-art digital workflow (Lightroom, Photoshop, Album Designer)
• End-to-end colour calibration. 
• Always shoot full raw. 
• Files triple archived (two in-house, one off-site)
• Extensive portable lighting gear with wireless remotes. 
• Olympus pro cameras + backups
• Multiple lenses... long, short, macro, primes, etc.  (best glass in the industry)
• lots of batteries :-)

My Online Photo Partnership

Pictage is a "one-stop partner for online viewing, selling, and printing professional images."   Without their professional handling of my complete 'backend' business, I couldn't do what I love to do most.  Basically, I have a relationship with you, I take the pictures, and they do the rest.

Pictage handles everything from online proofing of all your wedding pictures, album design and print products (lots and lots of products), CD and DVD production, colour correction, qualitiy control, and the biggie... flexible payment plans.