travel work... in Alberta

(Probably my favorite picture of the series, shot at the McKay school archives in Edmonton. When I shot this I really felt like I was back in the late 1800's, Randall is actually a teacher in real life)

Travel work in Alberta... finally.

I end up shooting alot of travel work outside of Canada, I guess that makes sense because I live in Canada, but what I mean is I rarely get commissioned to photograph travel in Canada.

A blessing at times, a curse at other times. I have been comissioned, once to shoot travel in Canada, I photographed the Confederation bridge in PEI, yeah I know, an Alberta guy shooting in PEI... that shoot in itself is quite a story.

(one of my other favorite pics of the whole shoot, shot in Camrose. I love this dad's cloths and hat, the flames and all. Its a real genuine honest albertan picture)

Back to my rant, finally, this past spring I won a nice little RFP from the Alberta Museum Association to shoot 6 museums in Alberta. I mean its not like shooting in Jordan or Egypt, but it was actually a nice little project because I was given the opportunity to visit and photograph museums in Breton, Camrose, RedDeer, Fort McMurray, and really had I not been awarded this commission I would have never seen these places.

So rather than posting some new pics of south east asia, I decided to post a couple images from the AMA series here. What was really cool about this gig is my art direction was zero... really... it was just here is some money and go take pictures of these museums, and make sure they are good, alot of trust on thier part from the AMA, and I commend them for that. When it comes to travel work, thats the type of commission I and other travel shooters love getting.

enjoy,

C

Medium Format again...

I love canon products. I swear by the 1dsMK3, and for alot of my work like travel and documentary no other camera works as well. True the ISO range on the MK3 sucks, but i rarely shoot over 400 anyways, so for me the ISO argument is a moot point. But this blog post is to mention the power of Phase One backs. Really I cant imagine how a photographer could work in the commercial field without owning or having constant access to Digital Medium Format, especially studio shooters.

I understand the argument of spending 20,000 or more on a camera, but then how the hell do photographers shooting on the 5D or 5D2 even attempt to justify rates of $1000+ a day. I mean come on, the cameras alone just dont justify the photographer day rate!

Thankfully though for high end pro shooters, I am noticing that many ad agencies are starting to realize that photographers who shoot on lower end SLR's may not be the best choice for the commercial jobs... And rightfully so.

For those who are reading this who have never shot or seen photos from D medium format its really another world. When a client and photographer is concerned about quality, and I mean real quality, there is no other way to go. I am finding myself shooting more and more and more on my Phase One p30+ even when the job dosent require it. I guess it comes down to the fact that I want to deliver the best possible product interms of image quality I can, and phase allows me to do just that.

Some work from the phase back.

C