Shoots

Location scouting continues to be one of the most challenging parts of preparation for my photo shoots. Within a small centre like Edmonton with relatively little variety in publicly-accessible architecture a photographers needs to be resourceful and, sometimes, a little selfish. Resourceful in a sense of thinking of locations not just as backgrounds but about variables related to terrain and changes in elevation, geometry, and light-shaping. And selfish because there have been instances where an individual with whom you share location details or someone with whom this person subsequently re-shares this information violates common sense code of etiquette. Sometimes this lack of care for space I've shared even extends to outdoor locations. There have been a few instances in the past year where I have spent hours at private nature reserves fixing what appears another shooter may have disturbed with significantly damaged shrubbery off established trail areas, discarded clothing tags, and photography-specific tape along with less specific garbage. For these reasons I'm officially closing my location black book except to those who have original location information that they can exchange granting me access that I do not already have. If you have a location to share and would like to trade please contact me. Rant aside, location information for this shoot came to me indirectly as I was cast as an extra for a television show pilot shot around this lake.

Our primary objective was to secure a solid beauty-oriented photo for Vicki so the shoot's yield is heavier with tighter face crops. We also did this shoot before I acquired a faster-than-F/2.8 prime wider than 135mm for Nikon F-mount so we were a bit limited to what I could shoot with shallower depth of field. We have a completely different team this time: Jared Tabler was our fashion stylist; Nicola Gavins for hair and makeup, and Brenda Rains agreed to come on set for a bit of model direction and overall art direction. I was pleased with the images we created together. As with working with any new team there are refinements in synergies that we couldn't realistically achieve the first time we work together and I would welcome future opportunities to work with this group.

A shot from the second "look" this shoot and one of my favorites.

Probably not the best shot of Vicki but I found it more interesting than some of the photos in which she may have looked more beautiful.

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We scheduled this shoot shortly after Brenda's suggestion to have her hair dyed darker. Nikolas did the dye job at Mousy Brown's. He decided to leave some of her natural colour as highlights.

A more static shot from the same set.

Slightly wider crop from the set but still shot with the 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor.

Makeup artist/hairstylist and fashion stylist responding to the camera.

Though I may only understand 5% of the words spoken this day I felt no less a member of this event. We've photographed countless weddings and the love and closeness I feel that is shared with this couple and their guests is easily among the warmest and most overwhelming that I have experienced in my seven years as a photographer. Thank you, Jana & Jascha, for this privilege. We have become insiders amongst mere acquaintances . . . friends amongst our favourite photographic subjects.

I'm a little embarrassed that I only blog about wedding photographs when there is something technical and photographically-relevant to discuss. It's not that I am ashamed to admit that Dong and I shoot weddings even though our specializations lie in fashion and architecture or, in Dong's case, fashion and food. I don't know from what this embarrassment stems. Perhaps it has something to do with wedding photography being one of the types of recreational shooting that we do and by only semi-admitting our involvement in this market we can participate more as outsiders and, when we don't feel there is a good fit between what we offer we can comfortably recommend a solid list of other photographers the couple should consider.

Many of the digital images in this entry were reworked in Lightroom 3.x with a MIDI controller connected through Knobroom. I'm currently using the Akai APC40 controller which was originally designed as an Ableton controller. While it is robust controller with excellent tactile feedback in the sixteen control knobs if I were to buy another controller to use with Lightroom/Knobroom I'd like to try the Behringer BCF2000 with its eight motorized faders plus an additional eight perpetual dials. The motorized faders and the memory recall functionality on the controller would allow semi-hardware-based preset recall functionality instead of having to somehow program a software bridge with the APC40 as it seems to require the software to recognize its preset keys to recall banks of settings. Using a hardware controller and mapping functions like white balance, tint, exposure, contrast, black point, recovery, fill light, saturation, split toning hues and saturations and memorizing the feel and location of the physical controls allows the photo editor to experiment with many more settings adjustments in the same amount of time. It also speeds up making similar but not exactly identical adjustments in groups of photographs which share similar lighting conditions that vary slightly. Using Knobroom allows you to view multiple images in the Library view in Lightroom to fine tune images without needing to work with the rough controls you're usually limited to in the Library view. This makes conforming a set of images in a grouping much faster and more precise.

With all that said, Jana's and Jascha's wedding shoot was one that we fought hard for. And it wasn't just because Jascha is especially handsome (okay okay . . . Jana isn't bad looking either); it was because they are a really fun couple and I enjoy talking with them and spending time with them. Later I learn that Jascha is an aspiring photographer and kite enthusiast.

Shot in Mike Isaak's and Cody Tait's "secret" mossy forest location with the Nikon D3 and the 135mm F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor. An edited version of this image was delivered to the couple shaping the ill-fitting pants and vest. I brought some clips and did what I could. I'd suggest a fitted suit and shirt as opposed to a typical formalwear rental if you're picky but I'm still pleased with the image.

I always struggle with group shots but I felt this one was interesting and reasonably natural. 24-70 on the D3.

One of the earlier shots of the couple together when we reached the forest location. Shortly after Jascha would slip and fall gracefully into a bed of moss.

With the D3 and 24-70 F/2.8 AF-S Nikkor at F/2.8. Justification for never cleaning my lenses . . . more exposure latitude and ethereal glow without editing!

A variation from the setup in the first image.

Many more images after the jump.

Steph's and Courtney's creative with Nikolas Syhatheb was a shoot born into ideological and logistical conflict. Mode Models' Michael Meneghetti (ha, alliteration!) expressed concerns over the value of "artistic" creatives in helping models land international work because many of these shoots tend not to give clients a clear view of what these models really look like. These assertions echo what Next Models' Brenda Rains had relatively recently help me to understand; in shooting model development creatives, dramatic makeup, hair, and lighting should take a back seat to seeking a model's natural beauty through the lens of a camera. It's actually a concept that I have casually attempted to help Harvey Miedreich understand during our first meeting and to be completely honest I still have my doubts that Harvey fully understands (are you reading this, Harvey?! ) I feel that this was a concept and purpose that Nikolas understood early on in his career and I only now understand. Why he often resisted doing a more dramatic application of makeup and instead opted to extract a model's beauty rather than modify it.

Back to discussing the logistical challenges. Nikolas' full time placement at Mousy Brown's seems to have helped him become a better hair stylist for photography and film but it also has made him become much less available. Sunday is now his only full day off which, unfortunately, has made creative shoot planning very inflexible. He booked me for a Sunday for a creative collaboration and I was under the impression that he had already spoken to the two models' agents about the shoot. I found out that Michael had yet to have been consulted (Friday) so I send out an e-mail which reaches him the Saturday morning before the shoot. Michael returns my request with an outright no and so I attempt to call Nikolas and fail to reach him on his cell phone because of the phone blocker installed at the salon. I panic and physically go to the salon so that I could ask him how to proceed and Nikolas' suggested approach was to make Michael aware that the models were ready to go and help him understand the difficulty we found to agree on a Sunday.

In the end and after a phone call Michael obliges. I feel that his concerns for approving a creative booking with such short notice is well-founded; by lengthening the pre-shoot planning time an agent can use this time to better prepare a model for a shoot and also help a photographer be more logistically aligned in the time leading up to the shoot in hopes of getting better images even though these casual creatives tend towards lower-concept shooting. With that in mind I was still glad that we were able to shoot together and even though we struggled with the idea of going so natural with makeup and hair there were photos we created this day that were unique and possibly portfolio-worthy.

While Nikolas prepared the girls I floated the idea of shooting only black and white film. If we could accept monochromatic images as the only deliverables shooting with only the Leica M7 and Toyo VX125 large format camera platform would prove to be a valuable photographic exercise. And so I loaded six 4x5 sheets of Ilford FP4+ and four 36exposure rolls of the same film and we left for the photoshoot location. You can also see Mode's blog entry with their favourite images from the shoot here.

I don't know why I like this image so much. It looks unlike anything I have ever shot before. Captured with a chrome/vulcanite/MP finder a la carte Leica M7 through the Zeiss 35mm F/2 Biogon ZM on Ilford FP4+ pulled from ISO 125 to ISO 32 in a 1+1 dilution of Kodak XTOL and scanned with the Nikon Coolscan 5000. Full res crops available upon request for tonality and grain structure evaluation.

Some earlier shots. To be completely honest I had absolutely no idea how to make this shoot work with this styling and with virtually no makeup and no styling product applied to hair and in the middle of the day. But part of the charm of working with black and white again is only needing to think about contrast and mentally discarding colour from your scene. In the last photo Courtney and Steph are having a laugh at my expense after my unfortunate tongue slip. I was nervous, okay?! Hahah.

We experimented with using one of the models as a background element in a number of photos. By pulling to ISO 32 we could shoot midday with lens apertures wide open even with fabric shutter of the Leica M7 limiting us to 1/1000s maximum shutter speed.

There was an assortment of ladders between the catwalks around this small water processing facility that I originally wanted to arrange and shoot a wider angle image but the geometry just wasn't working out. Still, with a bit of direction Courtney shot beautiful interacting with the single ladder.

I worked with Steph along recently-erected construction scaffolding. While there were photos of Steph making more contact with railings and pipes I felt that the shots where there was implicit interaction with the environment through the way lines intersect created stronger images. Photos shot through the Leica 50mm 2nd generation chrome Summilux-M at F/1.4.

Nikolas touching up makeup under an umbrella, giving Courtney a piggy-back ride back to the vehicle, and spritzing everyone with some vitamin water spray.

Taken on the scaffolding with the Schneider Symmar-S 135mm F/5.6 @ F/5.6 on the Toyo VX125. Scanned with an Aztek DPL-driven Howtek Scanmaster 4500 drum scanner. And I may have flipped this film when scanning it.

A shot from the Leica through the 35mm F/2 @ F/2 just to help give an idea of the difference in lens rendition between somewhat similar relative magnifications for each lens on their respective formats.

Until recently I only knew Next Models scout Brenda Rains through legends told by fashion industry veterans. Many know her as the agent responsible for helping make Mode Models Edmonton a player in the modeling industry in Northern Alberta and for being the woman with the fabled eye for undeveloped raw material with incredible potential. We met through Nikolas one evening at Lit the wine bar on 104 St. in Edmonton and we decided to stay in contact about working with some models she was developing. She held a casting at my studio and I invited Dong Kim and Harvey Meidrich to join Nikolas and me. And what Brenda brought us blew us away.

We used the former Red Strap Market which was formerly an Army and Navy and is now used mostly as a storage space by Gene Dub Architects during specialized construction projects like for the Alberta Hotel. The space presents so many possibilities due to its current state of disrepair. A side storage room with decaying floors and ceiling houses some artifacts from when the building was still the art market and furniture from some historical building projects. Each floor presents a different architectural and lighting challenge. And there is "unofficial" multi-level rooftop access.

I met Alex at a Starbucks two years ago and I continued to see him make my half-sweet-toffee-nut-white-mochas and one-pump-cinnamon-dolce-one-pump-hazelnut-half-sweet-java-chip-Frappucino-extra-coffee-sub-mocha-white-mochas fairly regularly without realizing his potential in front of the lens. Brenda spotted him and insisted that I shoot him. At first Nikolas and I booked Alex and Jenna to shoot on the same day but with the intention to shoot them individually. But Brenda decided to bring them together and coach them to move and pose together and after seeing some of her quick snapshots and seeing them on set together we knew that we had to shoot them together.

We had reasonable but high high expectations about many factors related to the shoot. The location was familiar and constantly evolving and while there was a certain level of familiarity with the space this familiarity only served to underline my fears surrounding shooting large format and fairly slow colour film in dimly lit rooms and with smaller battery-powered LED light sources if we needed any artificial light. With all of my lenses no faster than F/5.6 and with the only film options faster than ISO 160 were black and white we often shot at between half a second to two second shutter speeds. And it didn't help that when you tell a model to hold still their involuntary body twitching increases exponentially! In spite of the number of times I had used this location we continued to discover variants to spaces we had previously used or rooms we had never thought of using. And nature decided to throw us a completely new variable; water covering the floors of some of the rooms dripping through a rooftop two floors above. More photos after the jump. And there may still be a few black and white drum scans on the way from the first look . . . I still haven't processed all of the film yet.

One of the key images that I wanted to shoot with both models. With only Portra 160 on hand for colour film and with my desire to respect existing light and only enhance it with modest amounts of controlled light from an ARRI Locaster and a custom colour temperature adjustable LED panel we were shooting half second to full second exposure times even at F/5.6 on the Schneider Symmar-S/Caltar-II S 135mm F/5.6. [JADE GREEN] Toyo VX125. Scanned on the Howtek Scanmaster 4500 drum scanner driven by Aztec Digital Photo Lab Professional. Film processed by ABC Photocolour Vancouver.

Like the previous frame, this frame also suffers from a bit of motion blur due to the low light levels and slow speed of film but the slight bit of motion blur didn't negatively impact the final image . . . at least not for me. Existing light.

Some Fuji FP-100c45 9x12cm instant proofs.

In recent shoots I've become much more aware of existing light modifiers and how the existing location geometry can adversely affect lighting from one or two simple existing light sources. With this awareness and combined with designer artificial light sources like colour temperature adjustable battery-powered LED fixtures light modification is simple. Furthermore, using all continuous light means that any video footage shot on commercial assignments can more easily be conformed to the still photographs. Using LEDs have also allowed me to enhance dimly-lit locations for human actors/models without having to completely reconstruct all existing architectural lighting.

I took some frames with the 24-70 F/2.8 Nikkor and the D3.

And a couple frames of Alex individually. Nikolas had me search for an Amish-style hat which a costume store Justin Poulsen, my architecture photography partner, directed me to identified as a Zorro hat.

The only light source in this room was a window behind me that starts about a foot off the ground and terminates below eye-level for Alex.

And with window camera right.

I switched to the 60/2.8 Micro-Nikkor and tried to get as much camera and subject/background separation as possible for a series of images with both models in a fire escape stairwell in the north west corner of the building. Jenna's yield from this set was over 90% and she very easily created new poses and expressions for every frame.

We had mixed reviews of the hat . . . Brenda and a couple other fashion people seemed to dislike it but Nikolas and I liked it.

D3, 60mm F/2.8 @ 2.8, ISO 1600, 1/200s.

Alex looked a lot like Jude Law in several of his photos in the stairwell.

And uh, mandatory shirtless boy photo.

Merran was so perfect for the images in our minds and I believe that Nikolas finally achieved something with this shoot that we had continually sought to realize for years. But in spite of how satisfied everyone seemed to be with these images, as the photographer I feel as though I left a lot of creative potential untapped and, in a sense, let down the team. Had this been a commercial shoot, achieving the original vision would have been enough justification to wrap the day. But this was to be an explorative and experimental shoot where we were to push ourselves beyond our familiar limitations. And perhaps here is where Nikolas and Merran had succeeded and I merely achieved what was satisfactory.

Originally I had intended to use the fog as a medium through which to project and "fake" many more natural light sources as if our locations had a wall perforated with rotted holes allowing the passage of direct sunlight. But upon proofing with a Fuji Instax frame I became comfortable with the composition, posing, and the found lighting that I had only conservatively enhanced with a single artificial light source even though I had brought a total of four Dedolight tungsten heads, two Arri Locaster LED arrays and two bi-color LED panels. I had become so pre-occupied with meeting a cut off time that early in the shoot I had subconsciously eliminated what I believed were non-essential elements that could jeopardize meeting this deadline. I had a few ideas that would have leant more depth to the concept and I could have used a stronger hand in directing our model but I had become distracted by the camera work.

Regardless of these personal disappointments I had discovered something through this shoot that wasn't directly related to these photographs. But that's for an offline discussion.

Two of the three deliverable images shot in the originally-intended format and medium. Ilford HP5+ pushed to ISO 1600 in Ilford Ilfosol S after being exposed through a Schneider Symmar 135mm F/5.6 (above) or 210/5.6 (below) mounted on a jade green Toyo VX125, and drum scanned with an Aztek Digital Photo Lab Pro-driven Howtek Scanmaster 4500. Lighting provided by a custom 9x9" bi-color LED panel running on a Sony V-mount battery. Fog by a Martin Magnum 800 and Martin fluid.

I guess this image serves as a setup shot.

Some of the [2minute] instant proofs from the Toyo.

Kingsway Mall's spring campaign photography planning and shooting transcended what, in retrospect, could have been the most tumultuous period in both my professional and personal life. I suppose a photographer can never fully separate living and working but this shoot's timing placed it at the meeting point of so many conflicting forces from so many directions. My parents were planning to leave the country and a large commercial realty portfolio for five weeks, my brother was still in South America, and I was developing a combined architectural portfolio when before my showcases have always contained work for which I was the sole photographer. And during this entire process Leanna, my girlfriend, closest friend, and muse of almost a decade was ending her relationship with me . . . while I was getting audited by the CRA! On top of all of this my work was finding itself a new path; it seemed to have been following the path to equipment minimalism of my architectural photography. Yet when Todd of Tag Advertising phoned me with a wild, equipment-intensive and potentially physically impossible concept for Kingsway that he wanted me to help realize I had to put many of these external factors into my "hold pile" and focus.

Corey Thompson and I spent hours testing and experimenting with different photographic projection methods in tandem with a variety of foreground light control methods. Corey had a lot of novel ideas for flagging and even for the generation of light textures for the backgrounds. As our understanding of the challenge and of strobe image projection evolved, so did a set of tools that allowed our photographic team to enable an art director to do graphic design with light all in camera. The photographer is often offered undivided credit for the success (or failure) of a photoshoot but as with many of my shoots the photographer is a relatively small part of the equation. Those who have already seen the photographs and realize what he have achieved don't give Todd Sloane and his agency enough credit for the creation of a concept that empowers a client to shoot seasonal advertising indoors in any season and for any season with minimal post processing. Todd's expertise made the difference between a hodgepodge of random projected images on the background and a well-planned interplay of projected imagery, foreground lighting, and John Chwyl's wardrobe styling choices.

I would like to thank Corey, an extraordinary art and conceptual photographer, for his continued support not just as an assistant but as a full photographer willing to lend his expertise on my sets. I often fail to adequately appreciate his contributions and his tolerance of my often impatient and unyielding nature. Thank you to Bry Acheson for her assistance with day 1 of the shoot where we continued to encounter numerous technical challenges she actively helped to resolve. Thank you to Aaron Pederson of 3TEN Photo for making available his studio with near-ideal topography for where we needed to place equipment and all at a reasonable price. And a gigantic but humble thank you to Stephen Pilby, my good friend, and his company Lighttools. Stephen's invention of the the Lighttools Soft Egg Crate allowed us to use soft light for our subjects while minimizing impact on contrast in the projected backgrounds. Without them the backgrounds would have been totally washed out. Soft Egg Crates allowed us to realize our art director's dreams of spring fashion photography in Edmonton in -28degree weather beyond expectations and within budget. I don't think any of us fully realize what we achieved with Todd's vision and Stephen's light controls and the implications these achievements will have for shooting seasonal retail advertising in markets with temperate climates. And a huge thank you to our models, Ania B, Courtney M, Riza S, and Liam, all represented by Sophia Models of Calgary. Thank you all for what we have created.

Two of some of my favourites of Ania B.

Courtney M . . . so hot that she made Nikolas question his sexual orientation for a couple minutes.

Riza . . . and recent winner of the Miss World Canada pageant.

Liam. Dylan and Whitney of En Vogue Photography, Saskatoon photographed him for Midtown Mall previously. Except he didn't have hair then.

TAG Advertising's mockups for the new campaign. I knew that we had our work cut out for us when we dissected the lighting in these mocks and realized that much of these images couldn't be created optically in a single image and some would require "negative" light sources. In 3D art the artist can create a light source that can subtract light from the scene but, at least to my knowledge, there is no way to project "light" that precisely darkens part of the scene. We could have lit everything with lekos and used extensive numbers of custom cut gobos but this wouldn't be feasible considering our time budget.

So we compromised. And here's how we did it. One Bowens QuadX 3000 power pack, one Bowens Quad head, one Calumet/Bowens ellipsoidal reflector spot lamp strobe projector, one Bowens/Calumet universal spot attachment, three Norman IL2500 heads, one Norman D12r power pack, one Bowens Esprit Gemini 250 monolight, Calumet and Chimera soft boxes, and Lighttools Soft Egg Crates on every single soft light source to maintain foreground control and direct light off of the background thus preserving contrast in the projections. Part of the reason that we chose Aaron Pederson's/3TEN Photo's studio was because we knew that we would need to project from above and around the model and that adjusting the projection would be a tedious job requiring many small adjustments. This studio offered a platform situated about 10-12feet above the ground so we could use a normal light stand and a projectionist could stand on level ground while adjusting the primary background projection light. All photos shot with the Nikon D3 and the 24-70/2.8 AF-S Nikkor directly to a custom compact PC/Windows Vista workstation equipped with an NEC Spectraview LCD2690WUxi and processed in Adobe Lightroom 3.

Here is an image I was hoping would be a billboard/2:1 aspect ad candidate but never saw light.

Experimenting with different backgrounds and a photo showing what the set would look like without an image projected on the backdrop.

I admit that I am embarrassed that it has taken me until the eve of next season's Kingsway Mall campaign photoshoot to share photos and notes from last season's photography. I delayed posting not because I wasn't eager to show you the work we produced and the process through which the images were created but because I was very happy with the images Kingsway Mall and their advertising agency, TAG Advertising of Calgary, AB selected for ads and for the Kingsway Mall website. The shoot felt much like what the reunion of an old band may have felt like; West Edmonton Mall alumnus John Chwyl as Kingsway's marketing director, Nikolas Syhatheb and his team for hair and makeup, and Corey Thompson as photographic assistant/co-photographer/human boom stand. But much had also changed. I looked through TAG Advertising's portfolio and company with a diverse and illustrious past and with enormous potential. Many of the works, while done for mostly small and medium-sized businesses, were very original and brilliant both in concept, execution, and delivery yet also pockmarked with work that I couldn't understand. I often experience this response when looking at the work of many of the ad agencies that I have admired and would appreciate an opportunity to work with again in the future. For weeks we planned this shoot and for weeks I could barely contain my eagerness to work with this new (for me) art director.

I was apprehensive about the concept at first; the concept called for images shot with mostly out of focus/blown out backgrounds that would later be gradient-toned with some blues and integrated with Kingsway Mall branding materials. But I had faith in the concept and art direction and as the two days of shooting unfolded I wasn't just relieved but pleasantly surprised that my initial apprehension was totally unfounded. The two days produced some of the most free-flowing shooting situations that I've had the chance to work with in commercial fashion photography. John insisted that Patricia be one of our models for this shoot and I wouldn't object to another opportunity to shoot with her (even if I dared!). Katherine and Sean are represented by Sabrina Notte and her agency Deja Vu Modeling International out of Red Deer. Vicki is a model you've seen before in my portfolio and my blog and is currently unrepresented. Liv is a new model and Tom Jablonski is a friend and the Shoe Guru. We used Corey's 72x72" Scrim Jim and 1stop black screens or the white/silver reflector fabric as the only light modifier for the two days. Virtually all photos were shot with the Nikon D3 and the 135mm F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor and processed in Adobe Lightroom 3. Katherine is currently modeling in India and Oman under Inega model management. And a huge thank you again to the awesome people at the Alberta Aviation Museum for hosting us at the hangar.

I've worked extensively with Vicki over the past five or six years and created several pieces that I felt were photographic portfolio worthy. However, I feel that this may be the one shoot in which Vicki has looked her best.

A selection from Sean's first set of the day. Scrimjim silver reflector used to fill in some of the shadows on the forklift in the background.

Liv's last look of her first full shoot day ever.

I thought Tom had a cool look from the first time I shot him for his own company's promotional materials.

My favourite shot of Katherine to date.

Some of Patricia's photos that were never used. A small cross section of a 100+ image flow of hotness.

The concept mockups that got me a bit worried at first.

Between a half hour in a coffee shop and a few short trips on trains I thought I had constructed what I was going to write for this shoot. However, after learning what I just learned from my art director I can't publish most of that! I'm posting the same images and with similar captions but it'll be more a discussion about the technical aspects of the shoot than about my interaction with art direction and client.

Ania Smith of Axial 3D was our art director. This shoot was partially a promotional shoot for Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe showcasing some of the new renovations and breathing new life into their existing photographic advertising but it was also partially a personal project for Kevyn, the hotel's new owner. The challenge was that the hotel had not yet been fully renovated so we had to be imaginative. We wanted to create something that wasn't purely architecture-oriented because we needed to give a sense of the spaces within the building without explicitly documenting certain details about the spaces that were destined for change. Models became very important to help us achieve this goal and it was also important to shoot with a camera chassis and a format that would allow for a high degree of adjustment latitude and selective focus and do so without negatively impacting reproduction size or giving photos the "small camera tilt-shift look" often associated with using tilt-shift lenses on digital SLRs. For this reason the project was shot almost exclusively on 4x5 films with the (jade green) Toyo VX125. This would also be my first project on which I'd use colour temperature adjustable LED lights in the form of ARRI Locasters as the primary photographer-controlled light sources. Most original film rebate is intact and film types range from Portra 160NC to Ilford HP5+ to Kodak EPY 64T. Colour films were all chemically processed by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver and I drum-scanned them in my studio on an Aztek DPL-driven Howtek Scanmaster 4500. Ilford HP5+ push processed to ISO 1600 in house in Kodak XTOL at stock strength.

Hair, makeup, and styling by Nikolas. Photos shot with a lot of help from Corey Thompson. And special thanks to Kevyn and his assistant, and the hotel's staff for being very accommodating and for being great hosts. Book a room in this hotel; you won't be disappointed. And thank you to Yura of 350 Designs for introducing me to Ania a few years ago.

A shot in Crowne Plaza's largest ballroom. I think just about every wedding photographer in the city has shot in this ballroom at some point so it was important to try to take the focus away from the room itself and to create a new focal point. I sense that some of the decor in this room is about to change. Kodak EPY is a discontinued ASA 64 tungsten balanced slide film. I bought a 50pack when I was in Detroit and motorcycled it back this past summer. Shot with the Schneider Super-Angulon XL 72mm. Very modest rim and fill light provided by ARRI Locasters tuned to 2800K undiffused. Using colour temperature adjustable LEDs allowed for setup, colour match, shoot, and teardown faster than we could normally setup and colour match our lights for situations like these.

Originally, I wanted to have a half naked woman in the foreground of this photo and with underwear and clothes scattered across the bed and the floor as kind of a fun option but my requests were denied. Anyhow, I'm still happy with the photo . . . I wanted to deviate from the usual hotel room photos showing off perfectly-made beds devoid of any signs of occupation by people and give it more of a life style feel. Shot with the Schneider 72mm Super-Angulon XL wide open with a bit of swing and rise movement for selective focus and to prevent wall lines from converging.

Another option for a bedroom shot. Also shot with the Schneider 72mm XL.

Shooting only with continuous light and shooting with a 4x5 (or larger) ground glass allows for very easy composition of more static frames. The added flexibility of full movements in a monorail camera allow the photographer to add a unique flavour of dynamism and exotic lens rendition to an otherwise more posed photograph. We used a single ARRI Locaster set to 6500K with a diffusion gel clipped to the barn doors to light the foreground for this shot.

We moved to Portra 400NC for the photos shot in Laronde because of how many people were involved and because we wanted people to be animated while in their seats. Even at ISO 400 (rated to 320) we were getting about 1/30s at F/11 and even with a bit of fill by ceiling bounced ARRI Locaster as we were metering for the foreground. Background spot metered at about 10 stops brighter than the foreground but what was really interesting is that in spite of all of the the criticism we've seen about film's narrow latitude, this was the first photo that I had to edit to significantly increase contrast and throw away highlight detail to make it look realistic. Caltar-II S 135mm F/5.6. Film loaded in 6 frame Graphmatic film backs.

One of the few photos shot on the D3. I resorted to using a dSLR because we needed to shoot at higher sensitivities which was one area that colour film suffers. This particular shot was done at ISO 800 and at F/2.8 with a 1/10s shutter speed.

This was the last shot of the day and the one I found the most challenging. The lobby is a large space to fill and with flat, uncontrolled, and mixed lighting which is why I opted to shoot a black and white film. Admittedly, I struggled to position people in a believable manner and I am not sure if I achieved this. And (I never thought I'd be able to say this with a straight face!) we may have too many female models!

All in a day's work: instant proofs from each of the 4x5-oriented scenes.

I haven't felt so unprepared since I started shooting as I felt for today's session. It wasn't because the expectations were unreasonably high for this shoot since it is a conservative editorial disguised as a fashion shoot. It isn't because I was attempting to displace a high profile photographer since I wasn't displacing anyone. And it isn't because the art director threw in a location that likely won't have AC power and to keep things interesting I chose to work only with continuous light sources. I felt mentally unprepared. I felt as though I was being constrained by this publication with limitations I don't even encounter in commercial photography on a budget of about 25% of what I typically command for this amount of effort for a commercial shoot. However, when I saw the published piece, in spite feelings of uneasy apprehension as I handed over the full resolution versions of the files Rodrigo requested, I am thoroughly pleased and even impressed by the final product. The January 2011 issue of Avenue Magazine Edmonton featured the first cover that I have shot that I was completely happy with and I feel that Rodrigo López Orozco, supported by Anders Knudsen, creative director of Avenue Calgary,
is whom is most deserving of the credit for this cover . . . aside from our model, designer, and stylist, Natasha Lazarovic and our makeup artist, Hailey Ginn. I'd also like to thank Adam Goudreau, my co-photographer for the shoot, for setting up while I ran back to the studio to grab a few items and for allowing our shoot to flow smoothly. And thank you to Carla Alexander and her staff at MRKT. And as always, thank you to Curtis Comeau for repeatedly recommending me to Avenue. Because of you I've had the privilege of working with my third Avenue art director.

All photos taken with the Nikon D3 through either the 135mm F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor, 24-70/2.8 AF-S Nikkor, or the 70-200/2.8 VR I at sensitivities ranging from ISO 800 to 3200.

Web-res of the January 2011 cover of Avenue Magazine Edmonton as borrowed from Avenue's website.

I just noticed that this image was reversed for design reasons. Maybe that's why Jonathan couldn't recognize her even though they were high school chums. Illuminated with an ARRI Locaster color adjustable LED fixture set at 6500K for the background and with an ARRI Locaster with diffusion gel clipped onto the barn doors for the foreground at 2800K. White balance set in Adobe Lightroom 3.x to 2800K. My only non-essential edits were the removal of some arm freckles. =P

One of my favourites of this part of the shoot.

An all existing light shot that didn't make it past the first round of selections.

This image was lit with two ARRI Locasters to the left of the frame, one above the other and about five feet away. Both lights were set to the same colour temperature. If this photo were to have been published I would have smoothed out the edge of the nose shadow. Working with smaller light sources it's important to properly centre the light over the face axis if a photographer needed a shot to be usable right out of camera without a displeasing nose shadow.

We spent the most time on this set of images both in shooting and in setting up. It's Natasha's brand new "Soviet Russia" piece and, at least at the time this was taken, no one has had a chance to photograph it yet. We used three tunsten Dedolight 100W Fresnel fixtures all set within about a stop apart and on the same C-stand. The lights were used unmodifed to provide separation lighting for Natasha's body and for her head piece. Two ARRI Locasters set up one above the other camera right provided the key light with the higher light softened with a diffusion gel clipped to the barn doors.

Literally our first shot after moving the lights. Diffused ARRI Locaster camera right and dimmed ARRI Locaster set at same colour temperature for rim camera left.

Natasha making Rodrigo feel uneasy holding all of the repurposed little animals. Locasters in the foreground. Leica M7, 35/2 Zeiss ZM Biogon, Delta 400 pushed to 1600 in Kodak XTOL and scanned with the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED.

From left, [ridiculously skinny] Adam, Rodrigo, and Hailey. Very small crew this time.

At approximately 7pm on September 26^th I attempt to book a train trip from Köln to Frankfurt for the 27^th at 6pm. Deutsche Bahn’s website returns an error informing me that my desired itinerary occurs in the past. “The past?” I inquired unto myself and I sat there pondering this software glitch over a Baileys latte at Brownies off Friesenplatz, confident that it would work itself out. And the problem did work itself out – I finally realized that I had failed to advance my watch a day as we crossed the International Date Line on my flight over from Edmonton. It was 7pm on the 27^th when I had attempted my booking. But I still had one thing left to do during this visit. I rush off.

About fifteen minutes and one transfer later I find myself at the Nippes station platform. The air is misty and the streets are deserted. Unlike much of Köln, this area’s population density and commercial density seems very low with large parking lots around sleepy-looking but modern warehouses. I see only a handful of pedestrians some of whom shoot me an occasional nervous glance. So far, everything seemed as I had expected.

There is one road roughly parallel to the direction of train travel but this road angles slightly after a few metres. I am sheepish to admit that I instinctively headed the right way to my planned destination without having to ask a local for directions. I come across a sign board on a bicycle rack pointing me towards a casino. Everything I saw seemed to point me to where I wanted to go. It would be only a few steps before I see the blue, twelve storey building towering over the much smaller surrounding structures. Pascha, Cologne, is the largest brothel in Europe and is licensed by the city and was built on government-owned land. Upon entering, guests are asked to pay a 5euro entry fee that is good for twenty four hours and includes all non-alcoholic beverages and some snacks. If a patron were to choose to leave the premise with the intention to return later, the doorman will offer to stamp your hand (with a star, in my case) so that you may avoid having to pay the entry fee again. In the same building but behind a semi-separate entrance, there is a strip club with similar rules to those in most of North America. But I have seen a strip club before. I was here to experience the brothel. And though I wasn’t here to experience it how most men choose to experience it, I believed that walking the floors would ensure that I not be denied one of life’s greatest and most taboo experiences.

I visited all of the floors except for the floors reserved for transsexuals and I also didn’t visit the club-style brothel at the top floor. Many beautiful women sat outside their rooms or within their rooms with their doors open, casually displaying themselves to those who may peer in. I spoke with a few of these women. Amongst them were a Hungarian, an Italian, a Pole, and a Chilean. But on the fifth floor I happened to glance into a room and could not walk away. A young Brazilian enthusiastically leapt to her feet to greet me at the door and to invite me in. She was short, no more than 5’4” or about 160cm and her command of spoken English was barely functional. It would take me almost two minutes to explain my intentions and another two minutes before we could agree to working terms.

I photographed Nora for about a half hour during which I shot almost two rolls of Ilford Delta 400 through the Leica M7 and the Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2. Back in Edmonton I would push the film to ISO 1600 in Kodak Xtol at its stock concentration.  Before leaving I pay Nora fifty euros. I left her room feeling somewhat traumatized while toying with the idea that I had just paid for the services of a prostitute. But I also had to think about what was she to me? What had I just paid for? Was she a prostitute or a model whom I directed as I would have directed any other model on the same set and with the same concept? The process and the end result were much more gratifying that I imagined her regular service would have been . . . though I was certainly curious.

Leaving the brothel and telling Leanna all about my experience was sort of a proud moment for me. Being able to honestly recount the events of the night to the most important woman in my life (other than my mother) with the knowledge that many other men making such a revelation to their respective significant others would have provoked wrath and scorn served to reaffirm that Leanna is the coolest girlfriend ever. And for the record, I sent Jonathan Puckrin this series of images first. I felt that he would be my one friend who would likely appreciate this set the most. I feel badly that I had done this shoot at the time that I did and wish that the photos didn't find him during such an unfortunate time.

In the past year I've been able to selectively squelch my inner control freak and accept existing light as it is, modifying it only when necessary. For the film fanatics that read this, it has nothing to do with the fact that I am shooting more film but because I try to shoot and travel lighter I'm needing to improvise more and make up for what I lack in light control with spontaneity and stronger compositions.

Most of the light in my model's room came from string lights around the bed, around the mirror, and interwoven with the translucent fabrics attached to her ceiling.

The mirror added some complexity to the photos but also made some angles unshootable without getting myself in them especially with such a small room. I had to make compromises. Shooting with a lens that wasn't wide enough added to the challenge that made the shoot more enjoyable for me.

This was one shot in which I half-wished there was no cut off but am cool with its composition as it is. My biggest fear was for motion blur holding the camera at arm's length and shooting at shutter speeds slower than 1/8th of a second. The heft of the M7 helped dampen some of the hand shake.

Some of my model's artefacts added to the realism and authenticity of our set.

This shoot inspired a new level of appreciation for the benefits of Xtol especially with designer films like Delta, Tmax, and Acros. I believe much of this shadow detail would have been lost had I developed in something like D-76 or HC-110 or even Ilfosol S or 3. And to top it off, Xtol is free of the more toxic components commonly found in other developers; it's primarily an ascorbic acid (vitamin C) developer. I even keep its working solution in an old Tropicana orange juice bottle in my studio.

I wished that my subject spoke more English. I wanted to know more about how this room had come to look like this and how long she had been working here.

This shoot offered one of the rare instances where I could meter off a model's chest to get my desired exposure values. Furthermore, having shot the M7 for some time and shooting with the Biogon 35/2 for even longer I was often able to focus in the centre, guess and adjust slightly, and shoot without having to focus and recompose from another part of the scene.

And just for Justin Poulsen, I believe my subject had a foam mattress but I did not confirm whether or not the foam was of the memory variety.

Today we completed a Contessa entry we started over one year ago.

I never thought that we'd take this long to complete a Contessa entry. Or that we wouldn't qualify as finalists. But I have nothing to regret. This project has offered me an opportunity to work with people with whom I'd like to work again and it has also given me a rare opportunity to work with my own mini-supermodel with full hair, makeup, and styling support by the best MUA and hairstylist that I know. To Nikolas, I never take for granted the times you've chosen me to be your photographer for your personal projects. You're regularly booked by Edmonton's top photographers to work on some of the most coveted and closely held contracts we get to see in this market and I know that any of us would be just as honoured to have this privilege. To our models from this shoot and our shoot at the same location in 2009, I doubt you fully realize how easy you have made it for just about any other photographer to have picked up the same camera and created something beautiful with you in front of the lens. And to the person who owns this abandoned property north of Bon Accord, I need to meet you! In the meantime, I'll just thank Jason Hafso for sharing this location with me.

That's kind of a strange place on you to put bug repellent, Leanna.

Leanna helping Michelle with bug repellent while Nikolas does some touch ups.

Leanna receiving some touch ups of her own.

Not every photo is a winner but every shot is important. First photo lit with a tiny Norman 200B battery system and head shot through the diffuser of a 5-in-1 reflector as held by Nikolas. I wanted to keep the look consistent as with the previous year's shots so we went back to existing light.

The image Nikolas selected of Leanna's set for the final entry. I still remember Leanna being so upset with herself and with me because she thought that she did so badly that I gave up after under fifteen minutes of shooting. The selected image was the second shot after I changed camera angles and location slightly. Nikon D3 with the 135 F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor at ISO 100, 1/1600s, F/2.

Michelle catches me sneaking a shot of her from within the grass. I first saw Michelle on a motion picture set five years ago not long after I started shooting. This would be the first opportunity that I have to work with her and hopefully won't be our last.

It would be just seven minutes before we create the image that Nikolas selects for submission.

Same settings as with the other images but at 1/2500s. This was one of Nikolas' night looks for his submission. But we were shooting during the day and I was kind of lazy with lighting and tried to "nightify" the shot by improvising with some of the burnt remnants of one of the buildings on the abandoned site.

I had some time to expose a few 4x5's. All 4x5's shot on Portra 160NC with a jade green Toyo VX125, 135mm F/5.6 Schneider Symmar-S/Calumet Caltar-S at F/5.6. Exposure time was approximately 1/250s for the two shots with both subjects. Rear rise and front swing applied to maintain perspective and get both models in focus.

All 4x5's scanned with the Howtek Scanmaster 4500 driven by Aztec Digital Photo Lab Pro attached to my little tethering workstation. Some fine tuning of colour done in Photoshop CS4.

The sun came out and made this photo a bit more daytime-looking than I would have liked for Michelle's wardrobe and makeup. I hadn't thought of that when I was shooting but I'll remember for next time. It also looks as though I have some sheets of old 160NC and new 160NC mixed together. Look at the edges of the film!

During a month of shooting mostly commercial architectural interiors and events, Paige Weir's request for me to shoot Karyn Decore, president of Decore Hotels, for Avenue Magazine Edmonton's Style Q&A feature for June was a welcomed invitation. A bit of research revealed that our subject-to-be was also very attractive and in excellent physical condition . . . I was excited. We discussed locations and toyed with the idea of shooting at one of the Edmonton celebrity's hotels without making it look like we shot out of town and while I sense that there was a realistic possibility that we could shoot outside of Edmonton considering that Karyn was actually in Banff when we began discussing the shoot, certain scheduling and support staff elements made it much more desirable for the team as a whole to shoot in Edmonton.

Fortunately, Paige has hookups. Years ago, I shot my first billboard for Derk's Formals in the Red Strap Market space just east of the Edmonton provincial court house. Since then, architect Gene Dub had purchased the building and it had become more difficult to book time in the space to shoot but Paige made the arrangement and, once again, I was in the space where I did my first shoot for my first commercial fashion client. I did a building walk through with an interesting and eccentric Austrian gentleman who works for Gene and we spoke briefly. Some things about the building have changed but, for what we needed the building for, much has remained the same. I walked through the ghostly floors observing the windows which had now been plastic-wrapped over to help reduce energy loss. Some floors had a dense layer of fine dust that was largely undisturbed and may have collected over several months or even years. The space had become more beautiful and more characteristic with unoccupation.

Below are some photos I shot during the walkthrough taken with the Leica M7 and the Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 on Fuji NPZ. 

On the third floor. For the Derk's shoot we used this floor only for photos after dark because it didn't have enough light for what we needed to do with it. However, this floor and the broken ladder became the setting for my favourite photos from our shoot with Karyn Decore.

Under previous management we weren't allowed to use the top floor because of the exposed insulation but this time no one stopped us from using this spot. Shooting in the other direction, Craig Hobbs, co-shooter on this shoot, created what would become the cover for Avenue Magazine Edmonton's June issue.

We used these west-facing windows as primary lighting for the Derk's billboard. We shot Karyn with lens axis perpendicular to this wall and directly adjacent the south wall for the portrait-oriented full length.

Craig selected this area to shoot Karyn in piece from Edmonton designer Natasha Lazarowich's line Temna Fialka. The white wall parallel to the windows affords a photographer a lot of working room with generous fill light which we sought out to complement Karyn's dark hair and high cheekbones.

Having Craig on set gave art direction and I the confidence to shoot exclusively 4x5 film while Craig shot his D3. In fact, more of his shots ended up being published. Below, all photos shot with existing light on Portra 160NC with the jade green Toyo VX125 and either the Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6 or the Schneider Symmar-S 135mm F/5.6. Film processed by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver and wet-mount drum scanned in house on the Howtek Scanmaster 4500 driven by Aztek's Digital Photo Lab Professional software suite.

Craig's shot with similar pose and same location ended up on the cover. Depth of field at F/5.6 even on the 135mm lens was very shallow and with the slightest bit of subject movement the subject's face became slightly out of focus. The cover would require a the image to be cropped to about 1/5th of its original area. That said, due to the low levels of enlargement required to get even an aggressive crop of a 4x5 shot to full page size, the softness was not visible at final enlargement size, matching the sharpness of Avenue Edmonton's May cover shot by Bleacher and Everard, the American photographers that Avenue contracts for their US Style Q&A features. Shutter speed was approximately 1/8th of a second.

A full length published with approximately 1:1 enlargement for the story.

My favourite shot from the shoot. Fortunately it made it to print but at reduced size. Subtle front tilt, swing, and fall applied. I had forgotten to tap the film holder to ensure that the film was sitting square but there was enough cropping room left to correct for the rotation. I didn't fully correct the rotation here because Karyn's posture and the ladder's position seemed more natural with this much rotation even though the straight lines of the space emphasize the residual rotation.

Karyn was a lot of fun to work with being very patient and charismatic with lively eyes and she pulled off many outfits that most women don't have the physique to make work. Her support team consisting of her hairstylist (sorry, I don't recall her name), makeup artist, Bonnie Paxton, her stylist/stand-in/modeling coach Kendall (a former international model) and designer Natasha Lazarowich helped move the shoot along smoothly and made all of the looks very polished.

In the extended body of this entry you'll find some behind the scenes shots taken with the Leica M7, Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 on Delta 400 pushed to 1600 in Kodak Xtol in stock concentration.

. . . for wedding photography. Or so I thought until I received two rolls of Fuji Astia 100 non-F back from my pro lab of choice, ABC Photocolour, after Dong Kim and I shot a wedding for a black couple (with mostly black wedding party) a couple Saturdays ago. I don't usually blog wedding photos nor do I advertise myself as a wedding photographer but I feel that I need to share these images with a larger audience because I regularly express my feelings of aversion towards positive film for existing light photography because of its narrower exposure latitude, lower maximum speeds available, and inconvenience since the closest good lab being in Vancouver. Up until recently, I would shoot almost exclusively Fuji NPZ/Pro-Z ISO 800 negative print film rating it at ISO 640 and Ilford HP5+ or Delta 400 at anywhere from ISO 100 to 3200 and processed in Kodak HC-110 or Kodak XTOL. I would then shoot formal portrait photos on a dSLR like the Nikon D300 or D3 because of the flexibility of shooting at a low base ISO, higher maximum shutter speed than my Leica M7 or Zeiss Ikon, and the often superior colour output with satisfactory black and white conversions. These two rolls of Astia 100 make film rangefinder photography outdoors for formal wedding portraiture totally feasible with my shooting style. Positive frame borders deliberately retained when scanning with the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED. All but the first frame selected from a roll of thirty eight exposures.

And a huge thank you to Yvette and Alvin for selecting Dong and I as your photographers. I couldn't have hope for a better start to the wedding season. The baring of unfiltered emotions, the love shared by all of the wedding party and guests which have been cultivated, in some cases, for a period longer than I have been alive, the dozen high school aged female total strangers that you allowed to join your dance, and even the hour and a half of beautifully composed, delivered, and thoroughly entertaining toasts during the reception made shooting this wedding one of the most fun wedding shooting experiences I have ever had.

I shot this image last of the set being posted but it makes more sense to see this image first. It just happened that we shot the formal photos before the wedding ceremony. Shot with the Leica M7 at 1/1000s and F/2 through the Zeiss Biogon ZM 35mm F/2. It's also important to note that all of my M-mount equipment is in chrome/silver colour because the colour of the camera equipment has a huge impact on the images it creates.

One of the few shots with "real" wind blowing Yvette's veil. Leica 90mm F/2.8 Elmarit, first generation in chrome.

In retrospect, the photographic challenges imposed by very dark-skinned person in very white clothing without artificial light control in a slightly backlit scene should have turned any more risk-averse photographer away as inexperienced as I from trying film technology which is known to have less exposure latitude than professional negative films and modern professional digital still capture devices on a production shoot but I am glad that I took the risk. Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 @ F/2 and 1/1000s. Strangely, the bride's face turned out noticeably darker than the rest of her exposed skin. In the final deliverable photos I will likely lighten her face to be a bit more consistent with the rest of her body.

Alvin had an irremovable grin on his face the entire day. I struggled with it at first as I tried to create more dramatic and serious photos but as a photographer trying to take a contemporary approach to wedding photography I think it is more important to act as channel for the day's emotions than to try to create something untrue; Alvin really is the happiest groom that I have ever seen.

The problem with having only one roll of film loaded at a time is that you are stuck using whatever film you have loaded even when the situation changes. I originally wanted to shoot some HP5+ and let it overexpose a little by using it at rated speed and then processing in Ilfosol S as part of the non-formal coverage of the formal portrait session to allow for some noticeable grain structure but I had a few frames of Astia left loaded in the camera so that's what I used. Same settings as previous frame. I noticed that Astia 100's anti-halation measures may be weaker than with other films thus resulting in more "glow". The glow is further amplified by the dirt on my lenses that I refuse to clean off.

The graduating high school classes and the handful of other photographers with wedding parties at the Alberta Legislature were very co-operative keeping out of our field of views and giving us time to work. Which is good or else the bridesmaids were ready to muscle us through the crowds and maintain a perimeter. Still, I think someone's elbow is just into the frame near the bottom right edge. Leica M7, Elmarit 90mm F/2.8 first generation M-mount.

It was about time to leave the formals location when we realized that we needed some shots of just the couple. I haven't seen Dong's shots yet but he has some more dynamic arrangements. That said, a bench in the Lois Hole Garden east of the main building gave us what we needed to change up the terrain a bit.

Hahah . . . awesome.

My Panasonic DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera with the standard 14-140mm kit lens and the 20mm F/1.7 that's normally packaged with the Panasonic GF1, Rode NTG-2 microphone and shock mount arrived the morning of the day I was to shoot the Art Gallery of Alberta's Art on the Block silent auction fund raising event. It is the first Art on the Block event held by the gallery since it has been reopened as the Art Gallery of Alberta and, fittingly, it was the first time that I was to shoot any event with a camera with a smaller capture area than that of the APS-C sized dSLR sensor as the primary camera. While I packed the Leica M7 and the 35mm F/2 Zeiss Biogon I only shot a half roll of Ilford Delta 400 at ISO 800 and I have yet to process the film. The digital files have already been delivered to the AGA. I don't normally blog about event photos but I feel that being comfortable shooting this event with, effectively, an interchangeable-lens high end point and shoot digital camera, as the official photographer says something about the viability of using such a system for serious photographic work. I have already joked to Dong Kim, Ethan Oblak, Corey Thompson, Justin Poulsen, Craig Hobbs, and Leanna about quitting shooting with Nikon dSLRs for small format work and while I don't really intend on selling off my Nikon gear, I don't see a need to pack it for event work anymore. For the foreseeable future, I intend to shoot events with just the GH1 and the Leica M7 and their complement of lenses.

All photographs shot with the Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 and processed in Adobe Lightroom 2.x. Most of the shots were made at least three quarters of a stop underexposed . . . sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally. I had just gotten the camera and had accidentally changed exposure compensation without figuring out how to change it deliberately until later in the night and, at least for this evening, camera had a tendency to underexpose to preserve highlight detail even if the photographer made no exposure compensation offset. Thank you to Adam Neufeldt at McBain Camera for helping me with my purchase.

The main auction and entertainment area.

Mid-action awkward facial expression and body position shooting started pretty early.

This scene is heavily backlit which proves that the camera handles scenes with high contrast acceptably. There were shots in which the sky is blown out but it doesn't blow out in a way that most smaller sensor-equipped cameras typically blow out the sky.

I was worried that the less oblong 4:3 aspect ratio of the camera would impact my hand held compositions but was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the visual elements that I wanted to incorporate into my shots fit naturally. The 4:3 aspect ratio feels more similar to the 4:5 aspect ratio of the Toyo VX125 than it does to the 2:3 aspect ratio of almost all of my other cameras and the Toyo is always shot on a tripod.

The camera lacks an optical viewfinder and typical auto focus points that you would find in a normal SLR with a mirror. Instead, the camera uses contrast-based autofocus off of the image picked up by the sensor like what most point and shoot digital cameras use or like the contrast-based autofocus found in the Nikon D3 and D300 when in tripod live view mode. Except this auto focus is very snappy . . . snappy enough to capture certain people's facial expressions before they recognize me. Autofocus is comparable to that of the D300 in similar situations though I know many would argue that the D300 may still be faster.

The backlit donor wall has been a challenging background to use when tuning for natural skintones even with the Nikon D3 but the GH1 seems to handle the situation satisfactorily. White balance was unaltered from the original capture with only some adjustments made to brightness and contrast.

Using the "automatic everything" autofocus mode was convenient and fun though about 10-20% of the shots could have been focused better. That said, the shots weren't completely out of focus; one would sometimes prefer to have a face facing the camera in focus than the back of a head but the photographer could opt for a more deliberate autofocusing mode.

One of the major complaints of the Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds format is that the smaller sensors lead to shorter focal lengths being used for the same angle of view as one would achieve with a larger sensor. However, when lens manufacturer's follow through with one of the original design and marketing pushes of offering wider relative aperture lenses, one can easily overcome the increase in comparative depth of field with wider apertures. All of this in a lens that barely protrudes from the camera body more than the grip.

Processing almost 250photos in about an hour after shooting them was pretty easy considering how Lightroom worked with the raw files. It seems that automatic white balance information was fully communicated through to the software and the white balance information gives the photographer a useful start from which to tune. That said, at ISO 1600 and above and under mixed artificial lighting conditions white balancing a Nikon D3 file would yield cleaner tonal transitions and with more pleasing and natural skintones.

This image along with a few of the other images from the set exhibited some interesting blur around faces. I don't know what kind of camera and subject movements could have created the blur around the gentleman's face while keeping the face of the lady in red relatively sharp and in focus in the way we see it here but I don't find it objectionable.

Tracking movement with this camera was similar to tracking movement with a Contax G1 or G2, Zeiss Ikon, or Leica M7. On top of that, one could very quickly achieve focus and continually maintain focus as subject and camera moves unlike the Leica M-mount range finders which would require the photographer to predict distance changes and continue focus adjustment blindly unless one were to compose with subject under the rangefinder patch in the middle of the frame. In the case of the Contax G system, there is no way to focus track without keeping part of the subject under the single auto focus point. Like comparisons to the Nikon D3, these may not seem like relevant comparisons but when choosing a camera for a particular assignment we need to consider what the absolute best tool for the job is and not just what works within a certain budget or which cameras review best by non-photographers running review websites reviewing under hypothetical laboratory conditions.

The 20mm lens rendered subjects in close range attractively and without objectionable distortions that even lenses like the Nikon or Canon 17-55mm F/2.8 lenses typically render when shot in landscape and at under 35mm.

Obviously not shot by me but this photo goes to show how easy it is for someone who has never used this camera before to pick it up make a technically-sound photo. Furthermore, I am far from being model material and I am long overdue for a hair cut but by Klyment-standards this looks pretty good.

I was hoping to make a bunch of chronologically-ordered posts but I figured it may be a good idea to get this entry out before the current issue of Avenue Magazine Edmonton is off the stands. We were originally scheduled to shoot a week earlier but due to some scheduling conflicts we moved the shoot to March 9th. Capture was destined to be all digital so the later shoot date didn't seem to scare Paige Weir, our art director, as much as it sometimes does when I try to convince her that I should be shooting 4x5's or film rangefinders or something similarly de-evolutionary. Below you'll find a one-sided discussion of the results of several hours of planning spread over several weeks. We reviewed, or rather, Paige reviewed and I suggested numerous models for this shoot and she finally settled on three beautiful and extraordinary models who had the unlucky fate of having to meet us early at the studio with two of the models coming from out of town and shooting with us for a solid nine hours. Most of these photos didn't make it to the magazine but you can see low resolution versions of the files in the article on Avenue Magazine's website.

Makeup by Adrianne Thomson, hair and styling by Nikolas and assisted by Jacqueline Ohm, music on set by Corey Thompson, and Craig Hobbs and Adam Goudreau assisted on the photographic side of things. Julie and Jessica are represented by Sabrina Notte and her agency, Deja Vu Modeling International of Red Deer, Alberta. Nikon D3X loaned to me by Huy Sam and Manfrotto Autopole/Expan system loaned to me by Curtis Comeau.

I first saw Kayla in the parking lot behind my studio last year. She was dropping off promotional supplies for a beer company that she represents to the pub on the main floor when I spotted her in the parking lot as I was moving some paper up. I told Corey, who happened to be at the studio. I needed Corey to convince me that I would regret not getting her number to shoot her in the future and Corey did what I hoped that he would do. I got her number and a year later she ends up on the cover of Avenue Edmonton. This photo was my favourite from the yellow dress set but another photo was chosen for the cover. Shot with the D3X and the 135 F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor. Key lighted with a 22" Norman beauty dish and sock with centre dome in place, filled with a Chimera Video Pro Plus large strip, and rimmed with a Chimera Video Pro medium softbox with Lighttools 20degree Soft Egg Crate from the right all driven with the Norman D24r and Norman IL2500 heads. Background lit with a bare reflector on a Bowens Esprit Gemini 500.

Avenue Edmonton April 2010 cover.

Julie modeling one of the outfits that didn't make the cut. It's one of my favourites from the shoot. Hopefully Nikolas will notice this entry and leave comments as to where all of this clothing is from. Similar lighting to cover but shot with the 70-200/2.8 VR Nikkor.

Jessica modeling another outfit that didn't make the cut.

This outfit actually made the cut but with a softer facial expression for Kayla. Jacket by L.A.M.B. from Thread Hill. A scarf from She Matters is being used in the model's hair. And I love the suspenders but don't know where they are from.

A less weird shot from this set made it to press.

Another outfit that didn't make it to the magazine.

The collar on this coat was such a pain. It wouldn't stand for more than a few seconds on its own but I think that Julie made it look as good as it was going to look in photos. It looked great in real life.

A shot from Craig's Leica M3 and 50mm Leitz Summitar on Ilford Delta 100 processed in stock working solution of Kodak XTOL but then fixed in stale fixer. I should have done a clip test before fixing. A certain someone who was working for my studio had significant loss of working solution when they used it introducing a lot of air into the bottle which I suspect caused the premature failure of the fixer.