Shooting NHL Hockey for Rogers SportsNet

I had been told that shooting NHL hockey was going to be very very difficult, but I found it quite easy.

The hockey at the NHL level is incredibly fast and you need top end lenses to shoot it, but the biggest challenge of all was the lighting in the Rexall arena, which I was told by other camera guys is one of the worst in the NHL. (because its low lighting).

I really hope that Edmonton ends up getting a new arena.

A few months ago I was shooting the BlackEyedPeas for Blackberry, and some of the reps from the US were really un impressed with REXALL place. The city of Edmonton tax payers really should get on board and support a new arena.

Anyways the reason I found shooting NHL hockey easy is because I still play hockey on a regular basis. Albeit the NHL is much faster than the hockey I play, my experience allowed me to anticipate the plays and things like which way a player was going to turn or which way he was going to shoot the puck... so I knew not to waste time on say a right handed shot cutting to the middle because he would inevitably turn away from me.

I actually found shooting taekwondo in Beijing much more difficult and challenging.

My assignment from Rogers Sports net was to shoot ISO's on the selected players, so I couldn't really shoot wider to "tell the story" if you will.

I did stray a little and shoot candid things like Paajarvi lining up for a faceoff, and the Goalie Khabibulin taking a break drinking water. Although Sports net didn't need any of these I thought they would be good to shoot regardless.

Enjoy!



C

How I shoot product

I'm pretty open when it comes to my shooting techniques.
Because of the fierce competition in our profession many professional photographers keep their secrets close to the chest. Others get insulted when another photographer takes influence or copies their work.

Personally I could care less if anyone copies my work because I feel that pretty much everything has been shot before, so really who cares if someone gains influence from your work even if its an exact replica. When it comes to keeping my shooting techniques a closely guarded secret this is another area I really could care less about. I quite enjoy sharing photography knowledge.

(fishing line gone.. )
Let's be honest with the amount of info available online, in seminars, in schools and at Chapters (Barnes and Noble for my American friends) there really are no secrets in the photography game anymore, so why not share them?

Anyways, this post is about the positive and inquisitive emails I have been receiving wondering about my equipment and techniques I used to photography my product work on my last post.

My lighting is all over the place. I use hot lights, ambient and fluorescent but about 60 percent of the time I use strobe. For strobe I use Elinchrom. Everything from RX600, AS and RX Ranger packs and the new Quadra packs.

(shot with hot lights, look at the burn in the top right)
On my lights I typically use umbrellas or medium soft boxes. I also use hard light from reflectors and bounce it off different objects like paper, foam board and or mirrors.

(hot spot is gone with 30 seconds of post production)
I love using mirrors for close up work to bounce light back into my product, especially food. I am always using a color corrector. I like to use fishing line a lot to ensure finicky product is always in the right place like on hand bags. I also use tape and stuffing for clothing

I do not but I should use the Elinchrom fiber optic kit when I am asked to shoot jewelry. My colleague Trevor uses fiber optics and his results are simply mind-blowing.

I almost always use some sort of stylist when I am shooting. Why? Because my strengths are making things look good in pictures, not to make them look good FOR a picture.

(exposure is correct, but the "ticks" above the Fossil logo are reflecting black... So either spend 20 mins adjusting the reflections if its even possible or fix in post)

(3-4 mins and its fixed, with more control)
I do rely on post production to make the images stronger, but I do not alter the reality with my postproduction techniques. My post is mainly for controlling reflections and dodging and burning.

Hope this answers a lot of questions people may have.

Today was a good day.

Today I had a cancellation and re booked a shoot for a full day for a furniture manufacturer. Well it was actually for an agency, but you get the idea.

Usually I charge a cancellation fee, but in this case it was a welcome day off. I spent the first half catching up on processing.

One of the processing projects was from a really cool shoot for WEM (West Edmonton Mall) which included some cool brands Burberry, Fossil, Coach, Sephora and a few others.

Nat bailed me out by running around the city finding me a blown fuse for one of my Elinchrom 600 lights... (thankfully I had a backup) and a huge thanks to Pat and Nicole for doing the styling... without them I would have been lost.

The second half of my day was spent running around town with a quick stop to pick up a new GIJOE comic to which the cover art that was just sent to me from his agent.

Many of you know I collect original comic art, and lately I have been into an artist named Agustin Padilla. He's a very talented artist and was just signed by IDW. The reason I mention the comic is because I always frame the art with the comic side by side.

If anyone is interested new comic covers (1-3 months old) typically sell on the open market for between $750 - $2500. Once the covers mature between 3-5 years if the artist is still going strong covers sell for around $1500-$4000. And anything 20 years or above you start to get into the $3,500 and up to about $10,000. If its a classic cover $30,000 or more is not unheard of.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

I am kind of fired up because I am shooting the Hall, Eberle and Paajarvi for the Edmonton Oilers for Rogers sports net tomorrow.

C

Election Night Coverage 2010.

(Mandel supporters hearing the results)

Here is a series of photographs from Stephen Mandel's Election Night (last night) event in which he secured his third term in a major victory.

My involvement with Mandel's campaign was that I shot his portrait that was used as his 2010 campaign image.

(Taking a pause before addressing the crowd and media)

Because I'm more of a commercial shooter and not a daily newspaper photojournalist I am used to having the luxury of time and my subjects undivided attention. Whereas when shooting news a photographer has to battle in scrums to get his or her photo, not to mention your subject's attention is divided amongst several people all of whom are bombarded the subject with questions...

(I love this image because I am shooting it with a 200mm through the crowd)

I am well aware of what happens in scrums and the insanity of events like this, so for this series I decided to shoot the event in a little different style than everyone else.

(without question one of my favortie images of the evening, Stephen and his wife)
First off I shot in Black and White just like the campaign portraits. Then rather than fight the scrum and the crowds I decided to shoot them. I wanted my pictures to show tell the story of what happened as opposed to a tight ISO crop of Stephen.

While most of the main stream media was all scrumming the microphone shooting insanely tight I decided to pull back and shoot what the people were seeing... and then I noticed something really cool.

The crowd was really into what Mandel was saying in his speech, so I turned my camera on them. I think I was the only shooter in the room who had his back to Mandel while he was speaking.

I guess it may have been rude, but I just felt that the people in the room were just as much as part of the event and they provided excellent photographs to add to the story.

(another one of my favorites... random person in the crowd) 

(Mandel hugging his wife on stage, another term to go)  
Hope you enjoy this series.
C

This week and Architectural and Interior posts...

This past few weeks have been really busy, shooting a few campaigns for WEM (West Edmonton Mall) some portrait sessions and some work for Pattision Outdoor.

This upcoming week has looks great as well tomorrow (Monday) I shoot an interiors session for Avenue Magazine, a portrait series for a pretty big law firm, Tuesday I had to turn down another shoot for WEM in order to edit the campaigns I shoot last week. Wednesday is a full product day on location for Pure Vision, Thursday first half of the day I am shooting again for Pattison Outdoor and then Oilers NHL hockey for Rogers Sports Net, only t close out Friday in studio shooting portraits for two more clients, then running off to shoot for the City of Edm in the afternoon.

I have decided to post some images Architectural images from a few shoots. Series 1 from a 1.2mil Ace Lang home.

The home was 4000 + square feet and featured plenty of natural light. So just a kiss of strobe and a little coaxing of the ambient lught made this shoot run very smooth.

Next is some interiors of the Melting Pot an American Fondue restaurant franchise that just opened up their first restaurant in Canada. 

More more difficult because the space is very intimate, and very dark.. lighting was a real pain for this one.

Finally some exterior images of the dual outdoor Fuhr sports park field in Spruce Grove AB shot for some economic development brochures.

panoramic... useless for most purposes, but fun to shoot..

Advertising Work in Print

Hey Gang,

I finally have time to post some blogs on a regular basis. Here are some current billboards that feature some of my photographs.

I am also posting a brochure I shot for CWB a while back, I finally had the chance to see some of the work in print. I am quite happy with the results.

Here is some of the work.

Again all of this was shot a while ago, but because of confidentiality agreements, I really couldn't post any of the images, till they "hit the streets".

Enjoy!

C