Edmonton Fire Exhibition

Hey Gang,

With the deal in place with Edmonton Fire, and the exhibit complete (or as complete as it will ever be, I am still going on a few ride alongs) we have a print release date in October 2010 at the Edmonton City Hall. The online version of the exhibit will be released at the same time at Photo EX www.photographyexhbition.net.

As a teaser I will be posting once a month a" preview" image on Photo EX until the print release date.

I am pretty excited for this exhibit, and I have to thank Tim Wilson of Edmonton Fire, who has basically been my biggest supporter and I guess you could say, "unofficial producer" of the exhibit. Please feel free to pass this blog around, I really cant wait for people to see check it out.

I feel this collection of images which I have been shooting since 2006 are even stronger than the images I captured when I went to Beijing in 2008 to photograph Canadian Olympic Taekwondo Team.

Enjoy!

C

Mike Percy Dean of UofA School of Business

I couple of days ago I was contacted by the Journals Les Affairs in Montreal to photograph the Dean of the UofA School of Business. The problem was I was scheduled to shoot 5 interirors for a magazine around the same time.

I ended up squeezing it in, thanks to an accommodating Dean… The Dean who was a very very nice man to shoot, he had little time but did everything I asked of him… and never made us feel rushed. The stressful part of the shoot was the ridiculously fast turnaround time. The absolute deadline was 5pm Montreal time which was 3pm our time. Here is a breakdown of the crazy morning.

Vancouver Photographer Curtis Comeau photographs Mike Percy

8am – arrive on location set up lights, and block the shoot

8:45am The dean arrives, we begin to shoot

9:10am I am in my car heading to the studio (its 12 noon in Montreal)… assistant tears down without me.

9:40am I arrive at studio, process proofs and send them off for editorial choices

10:15am choices made… processing x2 images for final output.

10:45am FTP the final files…

11:10 am head out to shoot an editorial home piece I need to be at for a 12:30 start time.

enjoy!

C

Photographing Edmonton Mayor

Photographing Mayor Mandel.

The problem with spending 6 days at the Olympics in Vancouver, is having to make up the work you delayed for my Edmonton clients when I returned home. So last week I completed 9 separate shoots in 5 days. The last shoot of this past week was with Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel.

Often on many shoots I am bound by strict art direction, which isn't a problem, but sometimes it strips your creativity. But the portrait session I had with with Mayor Mandel was a complete open book. So I shot the way I wanted to, black and white, tight... very very tight, lots of shadows and tack sharp...

Normally when you photograph a politician their communications director or dept is all over you with what you can and cant do... and the politicians always have to be smiling. I have been fortunate in the past however that I had free reign to shoot my style with the past two Alberta premiers, and fortunately now with Mayor Mandel.

(candid of the mayor shot with 35mm)

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Mayor Mandel is a super cool subject. He showed up in high spirits, pretty much did whatever I asked, but more importantly knew exactly what I was going for. His communications person was also very cool, and trusting that my style would not skew the image of the Mayor.

(pic of me with the set up at edmonton city hall)

The shoot lasted 5 minutes, not because Mayor Mandel didn't give me the time, but because I nailed what I wanted out of him in 10 frames. I think he was kind of surprised when I told him I was done. No point in over kill, especially when you get exactly what you want.

Enjoy!

Vancouver Airport

I spend alot of time in the Edmonton and Vancouver airports comminuting back and forth. Here is a picture I took at the Vancouver airport last week during the Olympics. Like most pictures the most fascinating part is the behind the scenes story.

Normally when a gate attendant announces the boarding of a flight everyone crowds the jet way as if the plane was lifeboat on the titanic (which really annoys me by the way).

But in this case the attendant made two announcements and people just ignored her watching the Olympic hopeful. It was kinda funny... imagine being the gate attendant seeing this infront of you... like children in play school... - by the way we didnt get a gold on this run... and I was first on the plane!

C