10 frames.... thats it!

This image is more about the story than it is about the pic.... so strap in,

Were shooting in Calgary for Shoppers Drug Mary on a Saturday (in December), and at 3pm I get a call from the Stollery asking if I can shoot a family portrait of the Moreau family the following day at 3pm. This call itself wasnt strange as we provide the event coverage for almost everything Stollery does, but to shoot a family photo, that was different.

Because Robert Bray shoots the advertising and family work. However in this case he was booked. The main thing was considering hes a personal friend of mine I really didnt want to do it because I do not like moving in on other shooters territory...

Its just my thing, unfortunatly nowadays way to many shooters do not respect this code. "What the code means is simply this, next year I will not pitch myself to shoot this gig, In my eyes Its Bobs until he decides not to do it or pass it off... and if the stollery decides to move it to me, then if it were a paid gig I feel that Bob is entitled to some compensation from my end, thats just the way I do it.

Back to my story, the other thing was I think Bob's work is simply unreal, and my pic could never be as good as his.... So while I was pondering the "can I actually do this" thought? Hillary said "One more thing Ethans wife Ornella suggested you personally if Bob couldnt do it". Now this was good because I have photographed Ethan on a few occasions as well as his wife Ornella, so I said yes.

Not thinking about my Calgary time line and the fact that its PITCH BLACK in Edmonton by 430pm.

So trevor and I ended up leaving Calgary a 130pm on Sunday and hauling ass back to Edmonton (no usually it takes 3hrs to get from one city to another) but I was doing 140kms the whole way. At about 230 I get a call from Ornella asking me to shoot at 4 because of something that came up... "No Problem", I hung up then realized again the light will suck outside at about 4:15. I really didnt want that cheesy interior family "posed look" with a lame ass background or over used backlight on everyone style that all to many people shoot!

So I end up rolling into Edmonton and to my horror it Snowed and was really cold outside! Oh my god this was going from bad to worse! So I get to Ethans place at 3:55 and take a look around and would you believe it there was literally one small patch of grass with no snow on it. It was like god looked down and cleared me a little patch with no snow.

We head outside in the cold, set up the shot in like 1 minute and shoot 10 frames before the light got to low, seriously 10 frames... bang bang bang... I could actually see the light changing before my eyes!

We were done by 416pm.

You dont need a lot of time to get a decent photo. Its no robert bray, but I was happy with it.

C