Ransom Coker

My first son, Ransom (Matthew Richard Michael) Coker, born at home on April 7th More details to come…   Just moments after his birth…   Ransom with Mom after 26 hours of labour   Our Doula, and two Midwives with Mom and Ransom   Mom and Ransom, 5 am and ready for bed! First visit [...]

Photographer by Accident – “A Church and its Pizza”

I mentioned when I began this series of reflections that I got my start in “photography” when I was a kid. I just loved to capture the moment, and every once in a while I’d try something sort of artistic. A couple summers ago my wife and I took photographs for a wedding in Toronto. [...]

Photographer by Accident – Living out Loud

I’m gonna start living out loud My soul’s been dying To scream and shout And shatter the silence It’s a beautiful sound when each moment counts Starting right now, I’m gonna start living out loud I’ve always been a quiet person. Avoiding confrontation. Introverted. You know the type. I’ve never minded it really, but it [...]

Photographer by Accident – Faces

I was at a high school today doing picture day retakes. Naturally, on retake day at a high school, I get the really picky people who need a million shots before the smile or the hair is just right. Most of the people on retake day are pretty insecure. Today a girl came to the [...]

Photographer By Accident – Nobody’s Too Young To Be Ugly

A few days ago a couple of co-workers and I pulled up to an elementary school ready to tackle the day. I had been photographing high school kids for a couple weeks and was sort of looking forward to the challenge of younger kids. Well, the school dropped a bomb on us. Not literally of [...]

Photographer By Accident – I Didn’t Sign Up For This

One of the most difficult parts of doing portrait photography is that I’m not really a “people person.” I love people, but I find it difficult talking with people that I don’t know. If you’re not a people person either then you know that awkward moment that I’m talking about when you say “hi” and [...]

Photographer By Accident

When I started this blog all time ago, I intended it to be reflections on the music that I was listening to. Before I knew it, I was commenting on movies, sitcoms and other forms of ‘art.’ Now I add a new dimension; photography. Well. not photography really. More like stories-about-what-happens-when-you-give-a-guy-a-camera-who-doesn’t-really-know-what-he’s-doing. And stuff like that. [...]

Nesquik, arsenic: who are you to judge?

I found the title of this post floating around the Internet a few years ago. I hear the “who are you to judge” line so often that I thought I’d comment on it. I’m not just blowing off steam here, I think we really need to put some thought into this. Who am I to [...]

Stupid Batteries.

Let me recount a couple of events to you. A few months ago I was downtown Toronto with a friend. We were in a part of town that was unfamiliar to me. The streets were narrow and the buildings towered above us on either side. How tall they were I cannot really say because we [...]

On Angels, Brutes and Dark Knights

“Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.” Blaise Pascal Why has western civilization fallen in love with a guy in a bat suit and a guy in a clown costume? I think it is because in some ways the story of [...]