tracey l heppner - photographer & lover of life

we met at a party at our mutual friends, miranda & reilly.

sounds pretty good so far, hey? :) hehehe…seriously though, we did! and i remember it well…miranda gave me the skinny on how they knew him, where he’d come from, etc. not juicy skinny, just necessary skinny so i would have some knowledge. i remember it well. (didn’t i just say that?!)

one thing that i appreciated about john is his non-judgementalness…is that a word? we come from WAY different backgrounds, yet we were still able to connect and have some meaningful conversation. a few of us photogs even ended up going out the next day and doing headshots of each other. it was a really awesome afternoon. to this day, one of the headshots he took of me is one of my favorites..and i dont like photos of myself. so thank you, again, john. :)

john is a rare breed. so much drive and passion. so much persistance. so much class. so much talent. so much experience. and so young! (had to elbow jab you there! :p) wise beyond his years he is indeed.

i  was flying through toronto last fall from Italy and had tweeted him if he wanted to do lunch at the airport. he came. we had a great time. i will remember that. i guess you can say, john is unforgetable. in his style. in his personality. in his own way. and even though i don’t consider us tight in any regard, i appreciate who he is as an artist, as someone in the industry and as a person. and i appreciate that he is so real and genuine.

john also has launched his new workshops, PRIME. you should take a look at those as well. :)

so thanks my friend for taking time out of your day to be here…and for friendship. :)

xotracey

TLH: what is the favorite part of what you do (business wise)?
JOHN: I love that every day is a new challenge. Every year, something unexpected. Mundane genuinely scares me. I really enjoy a lot of the uncertainty involved in being self-employed; it’s always a new adventure. I feel lucky that I fell into photography, I think it’s one of the less stressful ways to hang out and collect a pay cheque. I also feel that as you grow as a photographer, and business person, new avenues open up for you, and you can create and define new ways of doing business.

TLH: how did you get started? everyone asks, i know, but peeps wanna know!
JOHN: I’ve been fortunate in my life in that the right people have taken the right risks with me. My involvement in the early days of a website called deviantART really fuelled my passion for art and images, my work with the team there gave me a lot of confidence that I could eventually do something in the arts. While I originally had a base in information technology, I quickly learned that wasn’t for me.  After attaining a formal education in Photographic Arts, I was a part of a little company called StillMotion, and eventually went out on my own and started John Edgar Photography!

TLH: if you could live anywhere in the world for a year, money not an issue, where would it be and why?
JOHN: I think I’d like to live in Hong Kong. One of the things I love most about NYC is that it never sleeps, so much to do all the time. Whenever I’m in New York, I feel like anything is possible, nothing is unattainable. While I’ve not spent a lot of time in HK, I think it’s got the same vibe, but with an asian flair. I love NYC, but I’d be very curious as to what HK would be like to live there for a year.

TLH: favorite story/memory of past client/work/project
JOHN: This one is quite personal for me. I was recently on assignment shooting a wedding in NYC. My friend Steve came along to shoot the wedding with me, we landed on a Thursday morning, hung out in NYC and that evening went to shoot the rehearsal dinner. After meeting the bride and groom and chatting for a bit, I started shooting. I immediately noticed an unbelievably beautiful women in a blue dress sitting at a table by the front. I tried not to make a big deal about it or pay more attention to her than anyone else, but I was certainly quite taken. I didn’t think too much more about it till Saturday when I showed up at the hotel in the morning to discover said person was the brides sister. Her and I conversed much over the day of the wedding, and late into the evening and it was really nice getting to know her. I headed back to Canada somewhat sad I’d met this awesome person who lives in New York. We ended up keeping in touch after the wedding and I’m happy to say that she is an important part of my life, and a fantastic girlfriend!

TLH: what is your favorite foods to eat? to make? to buy? why?
JOHN: I LOVE small plates / tapas style food. Mexican / Spanish inspired.. I’m all about lots of different things in one sitting. A friend used to muse that my favourite restaurant is the food court because I’d get a small something from each place. I guess variety really is the spice of life. I love Las Ramblas in NYC (West Village) and Foxley Bistro in Toronto (Ossington Village, oddly).

TLH: where do you see yourself in your biz and life in 5 years?
JOHN: Had you asked me that 7 months ago, I would have been a lot more sure of the answer. Recently things have changed in my business and in my person life that have created more questions and more ideas. I’m not totally sure photography will be the bulk of my income in the next 5 years, I’m not sure where I’ll be located, what I’ll be doing etc. I know for certain that I’ll be self employed, or at least working within a company I’ve founded.. but what that area is remains to be seen at this point.

TLH: how do you want to be remembered?
JOHN: Difficult question for sure, in fact I’ve mulled over this one for about a week now. I came to the conclusion that I’m couldn’t care less how I’m remembered. As long as in life, at the end, I can die knowing that I lived as a good person, who took the time to care about others and made sure those I care about the most are happy and successful.

check out more of JOHN on the interwebs:

website: www.johnedgar.ca

blog: www.johnedgar.net

facebook: www.facebook.com/jedgarphoto

twitter: www.twitter.com/