Couple pics and cheezy name bars on the photos....

A new adjustment on my pics... I am now going to place name bar on them cause its becoming a problem with people pulling my images and using them in blogs and online articles and such.

It kind of sucks cause people pull the image, don't tell me and end up using the files, often with no credit or being used with stories I may not support... Its getting a little tiresome.

I'm not sure if anyone knows this, but in 07 an Edmonton AD agency actually pulled one of my images of Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and used in a mass media TV campaign! We ended up settling financially out of court but I couldn't believe it! they actually used an unlicensed image in mass media.

Anyways,

Back home and right into the thick of things. The day after I got back from my shoots in Europe I ended up shooting for Matt over at Pure Vision. He was gracious enough to give me product to shoot in studio, so it was relaxed day in a comfortable environment, but he's got me going on location Monday for one of his industrial clients.

I am pretty excited because Readers Digest called again, and we are shooting a few stories in Edmonton this week... which is nice because Digest is national, but more over Its nice to have Alberta based stories in a national magazine.

I am also trying to process the Euro images for clients so its a bit of a juggle, with the jet lag and other work on the go.

I just thought I would post a couple images from Rome, Enjoy!

C

Good Shooting so far... now the ash cloud

Shooting in europe has went really well.

Oh and my macbook pro is failing, so thank god for backups.

As for now the shooting is complete and we are spending a few days at some friends house just outside of Verona Italy. We are getting some much needed rest, good food. As I cant post any of my commissioned images, here are some random personal pics I shot during a restuarant venture Angelo introduced us to. The restaurant is nestled in a small picturesque village about 40mins from Verona and is frequented by locals who are insearch for hand made tortellini...

On my way home on the 21st, providing we can still fly out of Rome, and are not delayed due to the ash cloud.... mind you not a bad place to hang out for some extra time, save for the fact Ihave a shoot on the 23rd, 26th and 28th.

enjoy

c

Here are a few pics.

London Hotel what a nice suprise

I arrived in London last night and got such a pleasant surprise when I arrived at the hotel. It’s in Chelsea about a 20 minute walk from London proper. Its called the Pestana Chelsea Bridge. I found out that the Pestana hotels are a Portuguese owned chain. They boast that unlike their American competition rather than choosing just functional durable decor, the Pestana hotels choose to design their hotels based around looks and style.

Because I don’t ever really book my own hotels, what I get is often hit and miss... and especially in cities like London you can really get some misses. Here are the pics of the room.

Here are some of my top 4 travel tips when it comes to hotels.

1. Always hang the do not disturb sign on your door. first is because when you have alot of camera gear in your room you dont want hotel staff coming in everyday. Personally I dont have someone come into my house and clean everyday, so I really dont need to have some one come into my hotel room and clean everyday either.

2. If you do have the hotel staff come in to clean or even if you dont, when you leave tip well. Some people I know (like my mom) like to leave little things like canadian key chains and such. This pisses me off cause you cant feed your family with a maple leaf keychain. Money means more than little dollar store niknacks... especially in third world countries.

3. When the remote in your room dosent work, take out the batteries and rub them on your pants... the static from your pants will get you another 10 mins of use! (tip from "Smile When Your Lying")

4. When you are looking for a place to eat or how to get around, ask a hotel staff member your own age. It never fails, when I ask a 50 yearold member whats a good place to eat, then inevitabley send me to a very expensive resturant, when I ask someone in their late 20's, I usually get sent to a cool little hole in the wall thats cheap and offers great food.

Enjoy!

C

Travel Photography Tips

Tomorrow I am off to Europe to shoot for a couple weeks. Originally I was just planning on tagging along with Eva who is shooting in London for a few days. But I ended up placing a few calls to past clients and landing my own travel gigs in Paris and Rome. Lately I have been posting my pre sketches and such on my Blog, but because this is a travel gig I decided to blog about my prep instead.

10 years of shooting travel has led me to amass a wide variety of useful tips. So here are my Top Ten...

(kinda cool, this is a chinese entry visa from my 2008 olympic photography exhibition.)

1. Keep $100USD hidden in your shoe. If something bad happens bad people almost never take your shoes. In pretty much any city on the planet you can get to a Canadian embassy with that $100 bucks you stashed away, Make sure its in USD... $100 CDN does you no good in some small town in Eastern China.

2. The beauty of shooting on film was that everything ran on AA batteries, now all cameras have rechargeable batteries... which means you now have to bring the battery chargers... so make sure you have the proper converters, or else you will be without power.

(this coverter is on steroids)

3. Thanks to Rogers and Telus Canada is the most expensive place on the globe to buy a cell phone... However almost everywhere else on the planet you can pick up an "open" non contract phone for super cheap and just purchase a pay as you go sim cards which give you a local number. You will be surprised how affordable long distance rates are as well. Then the next trip you take, just buy a $20 sim card for your open phone, and presto, you have a new number and lots of air time. This phone was purchased in Egypt and I will be using it in Paris and Rome on this trip.

(look ma Arabic on the Keys!)

4. When packing camera gear even if you only have a little bit, open up everything, lay it out.. then just pack your case with only what you need. On this trip the Fisheye and the super fast 1.2 lenses are staying home. . here is my layout process.

5. Most pros I know, myself included usually shoot travel with only 3 lenses. A wide angle, a Midrange working lens (say 24-70) and a telephoto. Leave the specially lenses at home.

6. I always carry on these three things. My camera gear, glasses and spare contacts. If for some reason my luggage gets delayed (like it did in Egypt for 7 days), at least I still have my cameras and my vision.

7. Ok this is going to seem weird but it works. you can read about it in the book "Smile When Your Lying" as well as it was told to me by Capitan Jacob the super traveler. Before you leave buy a few small boxes of chocolates like Godiva. Then just when you board the plane give a box to the head flight attendant and thank them for the great job they do... Take your seat, and just wait and see what happens. More times than not I have been bumped to first class or given free booze the whole flight... Every time I do this I get something in return.

8. Make sure you have a copy of your passport! Seriously nothing sucks more than losing your passport, but it sucks more if you have no photocopy of it.

(my reading material for this trip)

9 Keep two wallets. Your real one should be fully stocked... but the Photo Wallet should be empty with the exception of five one dollar bills. When you see a subject you want to photograph, ask them if you can take their photo... in 3rd works countries a lot of times they may want a "fee" for you to take thier picture. That's cool. Just pull out your Photo Wallet and offer them $2. If they want more you can always say hey, I am giving you almost all my money look!

10. Speaking of photos of people you need photo releases. Even if you pay a person you can't sell a picture of anyone unless you have their photo release. So print off 20 or so, and keep them in your camera bag. you can just Google "photo release" and you will have a one page word document which is good enough.

I know some of my clients read my blog, so if you need to contact me you can phone my studio manager Natalie at 780.909.4174.