Featured photographer located in Toronto, Canada who’s passionate about capturing the Light of Life.

Born in 1974 and raised in Scarborough, I first started taking pictures on travels in my early 20’s. I always had an “eye” for photography. Basic composition and creative angles came natural to me but I never explored the settings of a camera. I never bothered to learn any of the basic skills needed to be anything more than a point n’ shoot type photographer who always shot in automatic mode.

In 2000 I started a career in the airline industry and started travelling the world. In my travels I’d take lots of pictures using these same techniques but nothing worth looking at on anything larger than a 5x7 photo developed at blacks or on social media.

Fast forward to 2016 now and my daughters sweet 16 birthday was here. I looked into getting her a camera being a creative mind herself. I researched cameras on many YouTube videos and settled on getting her a Nikon D3300 with lenses, bag, and accessories. I took her to Dubai to watch the sunset from the tallest building in the world. I learned how to use the camera by this point, I understood the settings, and my skill level was now good enough to pass on this information to her enough so she could take pictures herself. Eventually the camera would not be much use, photography was not her passion. So we carried it with us on trips and it wasn’t used very often.

Now January 20th 2020 I am diagnosed with cancer. All of 2020 is an up and down struggle and by the end of it i’m in grave condition. Princess Margaret Cancer Centre offered me a new beginning through a trial treatment. Getting accepted was an uphill battle but eventually a miracle happened and I got in at the end of 2020. As the months move on into 2021 my health improves and I slowly get strong enough to walk to my appointments and treatments. It’s now June and I decide to use my daughters D3300 as motivation to get out and explore the city and push myself to walk and get my endurance back. I watched lots of Youtube videos on photography and everything clicked (pun intended). I then created a photography IG account to display my photos from my perspective of what I see on my travels as well as to motivate me to keep moving and capture as much as I could while exploring the city.

Again through Youtube I taught myself how to use Lightroom for editing my photos, and better understand all the aspects of a RAW photo file and how complex it is. I then got a Ricoh Gr3 to carry with me to my appointments and document all I see walking through the streets of the city. Eventually I got a Canon mirrorless to move into the more advanced world of photography. I recently picked up a printer and for the first time I saw my creations in real life, in frames, and on my wall. I’m proud of myself!

Now 7 months in to this new found passion I decided to create a website and share with you my portfolio of work, my perspective, and my story. I gave myself a deadline of January 20th 2022 to publish it, marking 2 years since my diagnosis. I’m putting out a message into the universe. That through our darkest of times, there is light to be found. I’ve learned how to capture this light, and I'm sharing my portfolio with you to view and hopefully gain inspiration from. 💙

Prints are available!

Thank you for visiting!

Howard Bailey.