Shoots

I first shot 310-DUMP over five years ago making the company my first commercial client. Before that I had only shot weddings and model and actor portfolio work. I met Greg Kirkwood, founder, president, and CEO, at The Standard when I was shooting an event at the night club. All I am going to say about that meeting was that it was an interesting and late night. Shortly after, Greg gave me a call as he had some freshly-painted trucks that he needed shot and so began our working relationship.

Fast-forward to 2009, 310-DUMP has been thriving for fourteen years and is primed to franchise. They select Nabeal Mansour's Media-Masters Creative Communications Inc. as the agency to develop a new website and a franchise package. 310-DUMP recommended me to their ad agency. The budget for the project was limited, Media-Masters is still considered a relatively small ad agency, we were shooting fairly late in the season to shoot non-seasonal-looking content, and the expectations were high but we prevailed as a team. I felt that we were often arguing but perhaps it is through strife that we realize our greatest work and I doubt that we could have produced a much better marketing materials for a service as base as waste management. Over a hundred person-hours went into model casting and planning even before any photos were taken and I can't even imagine many hours Matthew Fagnan - the designer behind the website and print elements of the project - spent to plan the visual elements and to work on the final assembly. While the product may seem simple, it represents the culmination of weeks of work by some of the most capable people in their fields with whom I have had the honour to work.

Concepts co-developed by Elizabeth Szabo and Nabeal Mansour with some input from Greg Kirkwood, Sam Soliman, and myself. Hair, makeup, and styling by Nikolas for the first day of shooting and we worked without aesthetics support for the remaining shoot days. Shoot assistant was Ethan Oblak for the entire project. The model list is huge and I don't have everyone's full name but if any of our models see this entry accept my sincerest thanks.

All delivered photos shot with the Nikon D3 and either the Nikon 24-70mm F/2.8, the 135mm F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor, or the 70-200mm F/2.8 VR Nikkor version 1. Shoot candids taken by Ethan with a Zeiss Ikon, Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 on Kodak Ektar.

It seems as though Blue Willow Restaurant has been taking large but cautious steps to revamp their offering. Beginning with the build up of a concession trailer to offer specialized foods and desserts at outdoor special events to participating in the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival, Blue Willow is now open for lunch with some Asian fusion menu options. Well . . . was open for lunch. After checking up on the restaurant it seems as though a curious staffing issue is temporarily preventing lunch serving but official speculation suggests that the lunch menu may once again be available sometime in March. Keep checking the Blue Willow Restaurant website to see when it does. Until then I hope that you'll be satisfied drooling over the photos. All delivered photos shot with Horseman #3, a Horseman L frame camera now owned by Adam Neufeld. Lens used was the Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Film used was Kodak Ektachrome EPP and instant film was Fuji's ISO 100 9x12 stuff. Film processing by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver. Camera and styling assistance, scanning, colour correction, and retouching by Sarah Chung. Later in the shoot, Ethan decided to join us and helped eat. Kitchen and candid photos were shot with the Contax G2 and 35mm F/2 Zeiss Planar on Fuji Pro Z and processed by McBain Camera's Kingsway location. Some of the candids were taken by Sarah.

More photos after the jump.

In October and December of 2009 I had the privilege of photographing the interior of the new Art Gallery of Alberta for Avenue's sneak peek into the interior to be run in their January issue. Art direction by Paige Weir of Avenue Magazine with direction from the AGA by Sarah Hoyles. Ethan Oblak assisted with the October shoot and Rob Lim assisted with the December visit. Shots were made on the Horseman LE 4x5 chassis on Kodak EPP and Fuji Provia 100F or the Linhof Technikardan 45s on Kodak Portra 160VC. There are eight images that I'd like to discuss but my words are governed by a non-disclosure agreement and since the AGA isn't officially open yet I'll only discuss three of the eleven that were published from this day of shooting. I will try to blog again about these photos once the gallery is open. Another huge thanks goes out to Curtis Comeau for referring me to Avenue so that I would have the opportunity to shoot this project.

Two months before the shoot date Nikolas informed me that he had intentions of entering the 21st Contessa Awards in the makeup artistry category. I was pleased that he was aware of the time and effort required to pull together the models, materials, and time needed to do this shoot properly and that he was still interested in competing in spite already-established recognition for his work amongst my clients and in some parts of the industry in general. I never pass on an opportunity to work with Nikolas and we immediately started creating our list of models that we wanted to work with for this project. The list included many people that we have worked with before and we would have liked to have worked with them all but scheduling prevented us from having more than a single day of shooting. July 20th was our scheduled shoot day. The competition required a day look, a night look, and a look that could be whatever the makeup artist wanted to do. In the end, we didn't produce a night look from this shoot that we felt was strong enough for submission and while we had other options, Nikolas decided not to submit the photos for the competition and I supported his decision. We'd do better work next year and this time we'd have the ideas for the competition brewing in the backs of our minds until summer 2010. Still, I felt that we created some solid makeup-oriented images even though most shots were with very natural makeup. Furthermore, I felt that my yield from this shoot contained some of the best shots of Julie's face that I have ever shot.

Thanks again to our models Whitney Grace, Julie Gillespie, Alteira Evans, and Stephanie Calihoo, photographers Corey Thompson (Yellowjacket Photography) and Rob Lim (Rob & Lauren Photographers) and set designer/prop master Christina Ignacio-Deines (IDBohemia) for making this possible and also to all of the models who agreed to work with us but we were unable to shoot. We will work together sometime soon.

Many more photos after the jump.

The 2009 wedding shooting year wrapped up for Dong and I at the end of September. I'm still working through some colour and silver halide black and white film from the last few weddings and I came across some photos from Vivian's and Aaron's engagement shoot in the mossy forest introduced to me by Cody Tait and Mike Isaak. I started shooting with the Zeiss Ikon at first and then backtracked to pick up my Sinar X and subsequently got lost. Not just a little lost . . . so lost that I had to follow the noise to the high way and then find my way back in, eating up about half an hour of daylight. It was an interesting experience and we got our shots but I'm definitely not wearing sandals into a forest again.

As one Avenue art director moves to Vancouver another is moved back from Vancouver to take his place. Curtis Comeau recommended me to Paige Weir during his meeting with her sometime back but we were all too busy to meet up until shooting had started for the October issue of the magazine. By the time we met, fortunately there was still a story to shoot. I was commissioned to shoot for a story about a company called Mural Mosaic based on an acreage north of St. Albert. The full story is available on Avenue's website. In spite of having to fight with clouds when using the Sinar X and the 75/4.5 for a formal group shot, the shoot went fairly quickly. Most of the shots were exposed with existing light. Ethan Oblak who is spending a University of Waterloo Engeering co-op term with me also snapped some photos, one of which was published. Paige was kind enough to credit him also in this issue.

This day's shoot for Avenue magazine was my first shoot for an editorial publication. I met with Rob Machida and our subject, the renowned tailor Sam Abouhassan before shooting to look at his store and to discuss ideas for the shoot. Rob knew that we needed a photo for a double page spread and we were also shooting with the intent to generate a few options for the cover. Admittedly, nothing went as I had expected (including the issue for which we thought we'd be shooting) but after seeing the published piece I was pleased with the finished product and how Rob put the design of the pages together. Rob was there to do art direction and Nikolas Seyhatheb imaged Sam by helping to piece together some of his outfits after Sam had picked out the major items. Nikolas also handled hair and makeup allowing me to deliver the photos unedited save for a minor eye tweak and the removal of an electrical socket in one photo. Sean Traynor, Corey Thompson, and for a short time, Lillian Patz, were on set to help out with the photography end of shooting.

I brought along my Rollei 6008AF w/ Phase One back and Schneider Xenotar and also the 75/4.5 Calumet Caltar-N II and the 210/5.6 Schneider Symmar-S but all photos selected for publication were shot with the Nikon D3 and either the 24-70/2.8 AF-S Nikkor or the 135/2 Defocus Controll Nikkor. Shots with the 135 were done at ISO 1600 or above and still looked really clean.



Immediately after the first day of shooting I vented to Corey over supper with some of my frustrations from the first day of shooting. There were some judgement calls that I later realized that I should have made but failed to. I should have insisted on a different location and I should have recognized that the subject would be more comfortable shooting in a different location. I am glad that we were able to reshoot and will know better for next time. Shooting in Sam's home was so easy. The subject was fully relaxed and we weren't distracted by the high volume of pedestrian traffic crossing outside his store. Surprisingly a photo from the first day of shooting made it to the cover. To be completely honest I was a bit disappointed by the selection at first but after seeing the finished layout for the cover I was very impressed with what Rob managed to pull off. This issue would be Rob's last with Avenue. Shortly after completing this issue of the magazine Rob relocated to Vancouver with his fiance. A huge thank you to Curtis Comeau for introducing me to Avenue. At time of blog posting, Curtis has referred me to two Avenue art directors. Curiously, as a photographer competing for the same market share, Curtis has done a better job promoting me than I have done for myself and I will always be grateful for that. =)

Jason Hafso had an iPhone pic of an abandoned house north Bon Accord he cleverly captioned "Wanna buy a house? LOL" When I saw the photo I immediately asked him for details of its location and after doing his headshot he quickly mapped out approximately where this site was and some nearby landmarks. As usual, I scouted the location with Leanna and I kept some lighting and camera equipment in the car in case it was a suitable shoot location. I shot three new rolls of business cards and several large format frames. Below are a couple favourites. As always, thank you to Leanna for being so available to test new equipment and locations.

Lesa Patermann, a realtor I photographed last year, passed my name along to her colleague Jason Hafso. Jason had an interesting home he was entrusted to sell - it was a home built in the '50's and then redeveloped by Katherine Ball as her family's primary residence. Jason was in a hurry to get these photos shot because he was hoping to have his listing go live within a few days. My preferred medium for shooting interiors is 4x5 film and turn around for colour film is about a week to ten days so I brought along the Nikon D3 and shot some temporary photos that Jason could use in the listing before the film was scanned. We did a walk through the evening before to get a feel for the light in each room and to develop a schedule for the best times to shoot each room. Most rooms would be shot best with direct sunlight entering the windows, some were best shot around dusk, and some were not affected by outdoor ambient light and these could be shot after sun down or whenever there was a free moment between shots with more finicky lighting.

From the moment I realized how serious he was about getting good architectural photos done for this listing I had high expectations for both the property and for this realtor. Jason didn't disappoint me. Jason is one of the most motivated and hardworking realtors that I have met and in spite of the realization that multimillion dollar homes like these are much more involved listings than homes appealing to first time home buyers and the fact that listings like these scare most realtors (perhaps including Jason), I was pleased to see that he was going to do his absolute best to make sure that this listing was done right and would really stand out amongst a surprisingly large number of multi-million dollar homes listed in Edmonton.

All photos shot with the Horseman LE and the Calumet Caltar-N II/Rodenstock APO Grandagon 75/4.5 in a Copal #0 on Fuji Pro-S 160, metered to ISO 100, and scanned with the Microtek Artixscan M1. Jason, and the designer her family were instrumental in creating these photos. Thank you.

More photos after the jump.

Julie is my favourite blonde model. I have worked with her extensively in commercial shoots for Derk's and Bridal Fantasy but rarely do we get together to do personal projects. I feel that Nikolas kind of pushed us to do this one in a tighter time frame than I had hoped but I am still glad that we shot. He's using Julie as one of his models for his Contessa entries and I intend to shoot the photographs on 4x5 film. To reduce the uncertainty, I intend to test as many of his models as I can with as many different film types as I can to get a better feel for which films work best for which models. I tested Portra 160VC, Provia 100F, Astia 100F, Velvia 100F, and Pro-S 160. Unfortunately, those were the large film stocks that I had in the fridge and there is absolutely no colour sheet film in stock anywhere at any of the Edmonton camera stores. I shot all of the film frames this day and Nikolas handled the D3 and the 70-200/2.8 VR. I feel that his shots overall were more successful than mine. I'm kicking myself for not putting more into this shoot, subconciously treating it as just a film test when instead I should have been savouring this opportunity to work closely with an accomplished international model and an accomplished international makeup artist/haristylist/fashion stylist. I'll make it up to you guys. I promise.

Julie represented by Sabrina Notte. Photos shot in a privately owned and maintained natural reserve scouted by Cody Tait and Mike Isaak. Thank you. Favourites posted up front. Additional images after the jump.

Rina Chan and Anthony Chan of Infused Studios referred Whitney to me. This Red Deer-based actress couldn't find a suitable photographer in her municipality. Her agent suggested a photographer in Calgary and she also considered flying out to Vancouver to get her shots done there. It was my first headshot session of the year and I feel that we saved her a longer trip out and judging from where she's used the photos already I think she was satisfied with the results. Hair, makeup, and styling by Nikolas. Here's a small sampling of what we felt worked. Nikon D3 and 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor used except where noted.

I doubt that the date in this entry's title is correct but it's my guess as to when these photos were taken. It would be years before the film would see a lab, strangely, I couldn't have been more pleased what the heat and radiation damage has added to these photos. It was unexpected. Had I predicted that there would be so much loss in sensitivity I would have requested that the film be push processed two stops. Fuji NPS 160 metered at ISO 100 and shot on Gordon Henderson's Linhof Technika V (I think) 4x5 and I believe a Voigtlandar APO-Lanthar 210/4.5 with some tilt and swing movement. Leanna, as usual, is my test subject for new film and cameras. It brought a smile to my face to see these photos again having totally forgotten about them.

Recently, I have taken an interest in architectural photography. It was opportune that one of my printing clients owned a house once built as a notable architect's primary residence and was in the process of moving. Frank Grisdale, a longtime printing client soon turned into a photography client when he booked me to photograph his home, designed by and once owned by Peter Hemingway, without the mandate to document but to interpret artistically. It was an interesting assignment. The architect is responsible for the design of Edmonton landmarks such as the Muttart Conservatory, Coronation Pool, and the Stanley Engineering Building and this one of a kind building presented many challenges and opportunities to create images that were out of the ordinary.

All photos shot with the Horseman LE and the Calumet Caltar-N/Rodenstock Grandagon-N 75/4.5 on Kodak Portra 160VC film, processed by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver, and scanned back in my studio on a Microtek Artixscan M1.

Robert Hall, an Edmonton and Vancouver actor, came to me for a new headshot upon Nikolas recommendation. I was looking forward to this shoot. Not that I don't enjoy shooting beautiful women in their late teens to early twenties but there's a lot of character to be found in the face of an experienced, older male actor. Nikolas was responsible for hair, makeup, and styling. Robert's own clothes complemented by my wardrobe which has begun to double as a styling kit for male subjects on photoshoots. Thank you to Derk's for having all of the cool clothes that I like. At time of posting, Robert is represented by the legendary Darryl Mork of Edmonton.

Yura, Tom, and I discussed shoot concepts over some KFC and Coke and Chopin potato vodka at 350 Designs a few days before this shoot. We talked about using rundown locations, roof tops, old fire escapes and the usual back alley and parkade stuff but we needed a story to tie everything together. A year or two ago I told Leanna that I wanted to stage a drug deal in a warehouse or on a large piece of tarmac and shoot it. Leanna frowned upon the idea. She probably also gagged much like how she does whenever she sees my nude with Hasselblad cameras photo but Tom and Yura gave me the opportunity to put a commercial spin to the concept. I think it was Yura who proposed that instead of people just wearing Tom's shoes and dealing high-valued controlled substances we should replace the drugs with shoes. That got Tom thinking about his resources for locations and extras. He had a friend with two pitbulls and he also had a hook up to a warehouse operated by UT Quality, an ultrasonic underground pipe testing company. While I may do my original drug deal concept one day, I was pleased with the results of this shoot that, unlike my original concept, has commercial value. Lots of images. Sorry for the long load up. Also check out Yura's application of the images into an e-mag at ShoeGuru.ca.

The beginning of this day was far from smooth. We had several hiccups with wardrobe limitations . . . try pulling clothing for about ten models on short notice from a high end store. But Tom and Nikolas (website isn't up . . . contact me if you need an incredible makeup artist/hairstylist/fashion stylist/overall really cool dude to have on set) pulled through and we have Urban Fashion Group to thank. Also a big thank you to Dong Kim for pulling his connection at Urban for us and a huge thank you to the facility manager for UT Quality's warehouse for taking the place out of commission and staying with us until about 8:30pm. If you see this post please e-mail me so that I can credit you. I'm sorry that I have forgotten so many names. You know who you are and without all of you, nothing that we achieved this day would have been possible.