Pot Ash Mines in Saskatchewan

I am really excited to be shooting for P&H Mining again. Well actually I am working for NAS a division of McCann, but they have P&H under their belt. I really like shooting for NAS, my client gives me alot of creative freedom, and she always gets me some fun interesting projects.
I have worked for P&H in the past but it has usually been operations based, or outdoor mining projects.




This time however we are shooting in an underground Pot Ash mine. Am I nervous, you bet your ass I am... The way I see it, humans are not meant to be working miles beneath the earth's crust, let alone taking photos there. But before you think the lovely Maureen brought duped me on to this shoot with her memorizing English accent, I have to clarify - I actually pushed hard for this job. I wanted to do it.
Why on earth would someone push for a job when they are genuinely afraid of what it entails?




Well I liken my choice to a young American kid joining the military in the 1970's but for no other reason than "It seemed like a good idea at the time".
The other reason, and probably the more influential one was one of my life's mottos "Never pass up an opportunity that will make for a great story in the future"
As it turns out I fly out Monday, so I am prepping for my trip as we speak. So this put me in the mood to post some images in the Industrial field specifically the Oil Industry. So here are some images from CanElson Drilling in Alberta about a month or two ago. www.canelsondrilling.com

Camera Review...

I have been taking alot of cool pictures lately... really I have, but it kind of sucks I cant release them, because most have been for editorial purposes. Today we just finished shooting quarter back Rickey Ray for a style Q&A, and I'm really happy with the results. I will be posting some of the preproduction, behind the scenes and images from the shoot once its out in July.

So I thought I would post some images from a late night visit to a sketchy California Diner. I was actually testing the ISO of the 5DMk2. Yes I know the 5D2 has been out for a while... but I have never picked one up. I use the 1Ds series cameras and medium format Phase One backs. I usually stayaway from consumer or "pro-sumor" cameras... but I have heard some many great things about the 5D2 I had to try it.

FYI these photos are shot on 3200-6400 ISO (sick, just sick)




My results... Holy crap Canon really out did themselves with the 5D2. The image quality is very good, interface is typical canon -really great, sensor dust removal is equally as good, but the ISO noise range is what makes the camera. Now finally Canon is on the level playing field with NIKON.


DINERS...


I will say the body construction is rather flimsy compared to the 1dsMk3. But just fine compared to 95% of the SLRs out there. I just kept thinking for alot of my travel work, I would really question its durability. Sure hanging out in a tour bus in Mexico it will be fine, but trucking across a sandstorm in Jordan or hitting up the humidity in Guatemalan jungles... im not so sure.



Now me being a bitch... the 5D2's shutter doesn't really sound like a shutter to me. At least not like the pro 1DS series. It sounds like a digital shutter as opposed to a mechanical shutter. The weight was also a concern for me. I started shooting back in 2000 with the 1V film bodys, so I like to hold heavy cameras, and the 5D2 was just a little too small. I know Im being a bitch...
Either way, a great camera for the price.
Oh and the eggs at 1am were great.
C

Yes I read comics

A few blog posts ago I wrote about my top travel tips, and in it I posted a picture of my reading material for the trip... a few graphic novels (individual compilations of comic book story arcs).
Alot of people emailed me asking if I really read graphic novels, and if so why? Well I do read them, alot of them infact. I even use them as inspiration and research for upcoming photo shoots.


See in graphic novels the artists need to be very aware of lighting and composition. Each panel is used to move a story along, often without words or dialogue. So I study the image composition and the lighting and implement the same techniques with my photographs.
Especially in my industrial work. I have to clarify, I do not buy individual comic books though, because I am way too impatient to wait a month to see how a story will progress.

In addition to graphic novels I collect comic art. What is comic art that you ask? Well obviously comics are drawn first.... so I purchase the actual drawings that are used to make the book. It's a huge industry with prices starting in the high hundreds for one page and often tens of thousands of dollars depending on the artist and character.



I personally prefer collecting only the cover art rather than the inside pages. The art is drawn on much larger pages 13x19 than the actual book.

An artist will make a few sketches of cover options before they begin to pencil the real cover. These are called "Prelim Sketches". The Prelims' and are presented to the publisher for approval. I pick cover prelims that were approved on occasion as well... They are quite interesting because you get to see the progression of the art to the final cover.

(this is a prelim of a cover beside the actual comic)

I collect alot of Robert Atkins GiJoe work right now. He's one of the hottest artists out there and a super cool guy to deal with. He also does the art that you see in Heroes the TV series.
Anyways this post was ,not so much photography related but a little about me personally.
enjoy,

C

Monaco Hotel in San Fran

Sometimes I end up getting booked in some less than favorable accommodations while working on the road. The worst hotel hands down was a beat down hunting motel (actually a trailer) in some small town (the name now escapes me) hours north of Wichita Kansas. Anyways last week I spent a couple days shooting in San Francisco and I was booked into the Monaco hotel downtown.(Jeff and Janna you guys are the best by the way :))




When I checked out the location of the Monaco Hotel on Google maps, I noticed it was located on the northern part of the Tenderloin district. Oh Shit. See legend has it the Tenderloin district got its name back in the day because the beat cops who patrolled the area got extra danger pay, and thus they could afford to feed their families Tenderloin steaks on a regular basis. Rumor has it not much in the TL has changed since them. Rumor or not, I really wasnt in a rush to find out.



As it turns out the Monaco San Francisco turned out to be a fantastic hotel with an incredible interior, $50 nightly valet parking and $5 bottled water in the rooms. Yes it was located in the TL, but like always nothing is as bad as you think it will be.



During the day the TL was just fine, a lot of homeless but thats about it, while night proved to be only moderately more sketchy.

Here are some pics of the interior of the Monaco.
Enjoy!

C

Veterans Parade

Last week I ended up shooting a WW2 Veterans day parade for the liberation of Holland for the City of Edmonton. I quite enjoy shooting live media events for the City, first off its a nice change of pace from my commercial routine. Second I get to hang out with the daily shooters for about an hour. I am always amazed at how fast daily guys work. Its like show up, shoot, leave...




Some of them are really cool. Some have huge egos and look down on commercial guys but it's fun all the same. One of my favorites daily guys in Edmonton is Perry Mah from the SUN. No ego and really laid back... for a p-journalist you don't really notice him a whole lot, and he always makes time to chat. He's kind of like this old warhorse who's seen it all, and really doesn't get fired up over much.
Anyways in addition to photographing the event, I ended up chatting a lot of the veterans.





I was quite moved by some of their stories and sacrifices they made. At one point I was talking to this gent and was overwhelmed by this feeling of inadequacy almost like a fraud of a human. While he was talking "when im 90 what the hell am I going to have to say about my life??? I have never been part of liberating a nation or people and never really fought for a cause of any significant sacrifice. Kind of sad when you think about it...
I guess there is no point to this blog, im just rambling again, but I felt like I had to share it.



Tomorrow I am going to get one of those support the troop stickers for the people who are doing their best to make places like Kabul a safer city.



C

Parabollic Umbrella

On Wednesday we shot a small campaign for Red The Agency for Canadian Western Bank. The call was to shoot on seamless so I wanted to shoot with a nice board light, so I decided to employ the use of a parabolic umbrella.



The parabolic is this huge umbrella which casts a board light but still has a nice crisp to it.



We ended up clipping my 12 foot scrim silk to the umbrella to soften the light even further. Unfortunately I can post any of the CWB campaign photos because of confidentiality agreements, but I was very happy with the results.




We shot the campaign at the Union Hall because the space in my studio was too small for the 7 foot parabolic to be used effectively. After the main shoot we ended up shooting a few new billboard images for the Union as well.



I am posting a few “production shots” of Kev and Natalie setting up the gear. I will post a few shots from the Union shoot next week.
Enjoy!

C

Sandbagging Other Photographers

Sand-bagging (sand'bag'g'ing)
v.
1. The act of speaking negatively to a client about another photographer behind that persons back.
2. Deliberately putting down a photographers work when your own work sucks even worse.

Sandbagging... yup I made up that word, but I think it fits the description.

I have been asking myself why do so many photographers Sandbag each other?

I have come up with two reasons.

One because the competition in our field is so fierce, many shooters lack the confidence in their abilities resulting in a Sandbagging mentality due to the threat of losing a contract.

And Two because to be a successful photographer one needs to have a certain amount of confidence within their own abilities. Often pros make a good deal of money, pay other people to work with them, and of course produce unique images that are designed for people to enjoy. So naturally a photographer will receive a big ego boost if all of these factors come into play. However there is a fine line between Confidence and Arrogance resulting in a lack of respect for other shooters work.

Many people unfortunately end up crossing the Confidence/Arrogance line. Resulting in the Sandbagging syndrome.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a granola guy who thinks everyone should get along. In fact I think checking out and critiquing other shooters work is a great thing, but there is a line that is crossed when it becomes Sandbagging another shooters work.

So how does one stop being a Sandbagger? First photographers need to relax and realize we can't shoot everything that comes to our plate. Second join a group like CAPIC to meet other shooters. And third I think shooters need to extend the olive branch and just contact photographers to say hey whats up.

Emailing shooters is not always cool though. Early on in my career I emailed photographers who I liked and just let them know I loved their work. A few of them looked down on as an amateur and disregarded my comments. This kind of sucked, but proved they were dicks in the first place... As it turns out now many of these guys are actually Sandbagging Dicks.

Personally though some of my closest friends and mentors are photographers in direct competition with me. But I find a comfort in talking and discussing problems with shooters who are in the same position as me... Some of us have become so close that we even trade specialized gear with each other to keep costs low and maximize our creative potential.

Im rambling now, but if any amateur shooters out there are reading this, please remember to keep the Sandbagging to a minimum, you will be happier, and also feel free to send shout outs to photographers who you dig or look up to!

C

Preacher Man...

Sometimes, I shoot a lot of really cool things, but can’t post the images for a variety of reasons. One being the publication containing the photo has yet to be released. Or two the campaign has yet to be released.

Leading me to times me like this…. Where I have to look back a month or two and post something a little older. I hope all of you reading this don’t mind. I don’t because I get a chance to look back and reflect on my work. Sometimes (a lot of times, I see things I would have done differently)...

But in this case I wouldn’t. I really love this picture. I honestly don’t remember what the technical aspects of it were, but I shot it in my studio.

The only technical thing I do remember is that I wasn’t going to be afraid of shadows while shooting it. I remember approaching the pre planning stage with the thought I wanted a really sharp image and that it would have impact though really hard light. I wanted to see everything, down to the last pore in his skin…. Essentially showing the viewer who he “really is”... Hes a preacher.

Enjoy!

C

Lizzy Hoyt Portrait

Lizzy Hoyt, She doesn't just fiddle around... well maybe she does, because she plays the fiddle. Hahahhah ooohhh Im witty... no seriously though,

I thought I would post this even though I shot it a few months ago (for Lizzy's new yet to be released album). I am currently designing my portrait based comp card, and I decided to include this image of Lizzy. I think it's a strong picture, not so much technically, but more because I feel I captured Lizzy in a moment of confident affection. I am not sure if they are going to use this image, but I thought I would share it regardless.

Check out her stuff at www.lizzyhoyt.com

Enjoy!

C