When I started this whole photography thing my mom was somewhat proud of me but would constantly say “I won’t really know if this is what you should be doing until I see some of your pictures in a magazine with a scantily clad woman on the cover.”

Well mom, your dream has come true!

I have a couple of shots featured on an article about Lion Ride in the summer issue of Urban Male Magazine (UMM) available at newsstands wherever the magazine is sold (Mac’s had them in the Sault). There’s a quick interview in the band section of the magazine with Mikey and Marky and the shots are from their show here in the Sault trying to earn the opening spot for Kiss. For those of you who don’t know how this big carnival ride known as “Curt O’Neil Photographer” began it was with live band photography and Lion Ride is one of the few live shows that I still get out and shoot. It is definitely nice seeing something that I was passionate about and got me to where I am now being in a national mag. Also for those of you who have had shoots with me and I show you my “rock button” to prove that the bag I carry around is cool, it’s a Lion Ride button, told you it was cool.

Here’s some snaps from the mag as well as the two published shots nice and big.

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One year ago today we got burnt… badly… and we got married. Sunscreen would have been a good choice. I think the year has flown by and it is kind of crazy that it has already been a year.

Since the wedding we made it out to Hawaii (our honeymoon), watched the Packers beat the Bears (always a good day) and had the amazing opportunity to go to Italy to shoot a wedding and get some free time to check out the country on our own. Jes and I love to travel and the idea of seeing as much as we can while we can so adding two new places in the past year is awesome.

A lot of you know that I’m the idiot behind the camera but you do not know that Jes is the brains behind the business aspects of the business. The number crunching, the tax paying (yuck) and keeping me on track and showing up for your shoot. So without her this crazy photo business wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today.

Happy Anniversary Jes!

(the Hawaii shots are shot by me except for the one of us on the bike, that was shot by our spotter/driver; the wedding shots are from the super awesome Mark Ridout)

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Egads! How time flies.

My oldest boy Domino turned five today and as is customary he got his picture taken and a post on the site. Being the good puppy parent I am I only do this for him and not the other two. Traditions!

Dom wasn’t too cooperative today for his picture and we did it quick on the front lawn before and after his birthday walk. I think he was too busy staring down the cats across the street. Weather permitting he may be able to go for a swim at the park tomorrow.

For his birthday I entered him in for a drawing to win a pair of Elton John tickets tonight at Wacky Wings. It seemed only right. He also just informed me that it isn’t too late to send him cookies and other yummy snacks.

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I’m back. For those of you looking for those constant updates and had no clue where I disappeared to have no worries as I’m back.

Where did I go you ask? I was off on a little excursion to a little known country referred to as Italy to shoot the amazing wedding of Michela and Aaron. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. Details of the wedding week and pictures will be appearing here soon, I promise. Don’t let the title of this post confuse you either, we were not just in Rome but had the opportunity to see a lot of what Italy had to offer.

Jes and I had an awesome time while we were away and would like to thank Michela and Aaron, the McClelland’s and the Knox’s and the rest of the family and friends who were there that made us feel as welcomed as we were. We were able to get away for a few days on our own after the wedding to explore as much as Italy as we could in very limited time. After approximately 1400KM on the rental car, swearing at the GPS multiple times (Pisa and Rome confuse it quite a bit), seeing some of those “check-off-the-list” type sites and watching two Italy World Cup games with the locals we are happy to be home.

Below is just a sampling of what is in store (sorry guys – no wedding stuff just yet )

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On our last day in Hawaii we drove north to Honalua Bay where a large number of locals surf – Mike (Snowflake) pointed us to that location the day before saying he wished he was out there as the waves were reported to be awesome. After we found the location and a spot to park it was pretty amazing looking over the cliffs down at the surfers. To get to the water you had to hike down the cliffs, I went about midway down to get a little closer to the action while Jes hung out in the Jeep. It was crazy seeing the number of people out surfing and how amazing the waves were here in the open ocean.

We spent about an hour here before heading back in to Lahaina to kill the rest of our day. Experiencing something like this and seeing these guys do what they do made me wish I had a longer lens to capture it better – one day 400mm you’ll be mine, one day.

Follow the rest of the adventure here: If you want to catch up on what I was doing here are all the other posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 and Part 10

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