Tyler Christopher for Chris Smith Managment

A few weeks ago I had the chance once again to work with Canadian Olympic runner Tyler Christopher. The first time I shot Tyler was for an avenue magazine feature just before the Beijing Olympics.

Tyler and his manager apparently liked my images so they asked me to shoot Tyler again for a portfolio for the Chris Smith Management, the agency that reps Tyler, coincidently this is also the same agent who reps Nelly Furtado.

On this specific shoot with Tyler we pretty much stayed away from the “sports” theme as Tyler is already sponsored by Nike. It was all shot here in Edmonton.
Again it was a pleasure to shoot Tyler and as always he came out ready to work in front of the camera, making my job easier.

Shooting J in Edmonton Alberta

I first met J a quite a few years ago. His personal style reflects that of a tough I’ll kick your ass punk, yet when you speak with J he has a very soft and compassionate voice.

One day I asked J if he would let me shoot him he agreed but it took us almost 2 years to finally hook up to shoot together.

It was really interesting because he asked me what I wanted him to wear, but I really tired to let him and his style run free and I would just shoot what came.

In the commercial world almost all photography is pre-planned, but with this shoot we just met up, and found a location that worked that day.
I feel that this is one of the most honest portraits I have ever taken of a person. No plan, No pre conceived location or lens selection or lighting set up, just straight raw and from the hip. Enjoy.

Taking Photos of Sushi

This past week I ended up taking photographs for a sushi restaurant here in Edmonton called Kyoto Japan.

Although Im not known as a food photographer I do shoot the monthly drink features for Cargo and James. I have also shot some food for editorial puropses as well.

I quite enjoy shooting food. Mainly because it doesn’t talk back and stays super still when you need it to…

For this specific project I ended up using Trevor as my assistant as opposed to Nick. I this Trevor is more suited for the attention to detail rather than Nick who is much more technical and enjoys working with people.

Anyways I am quite pleased with the overall work. We decided to keep the styling simple and let the food speak for itself as opposed to heavily styling each image.

ENJOY!
C

You have 5 minutes....

Here is a fun invite with a Blues Brothers concept. Its of the owners of Wayward Steel, INLAND cement, AGRA foundations and Expocrete.

The owners were all light hearted and laid back guys but they were all very busy the day we were shooting.

So Nick and I arrive on location at Characters Lounge in Edmonton Alberta to set up at11:25 and one of the owners is like “sorry I have a phone conference at 11:30 sharp. I give the typical answer, which is a slight bending of the truth. - “No problem.”

So we shot the concept in 4 minutes and 45 seconds. It was busy, no room for error, our lighting had to be bang on pretty much from putting the soft box on the stand...

This is not the first time we have been thrown a 5 min time limit on us when we were supposed to have an hour... anyways with 4 busy company owners i was par for the course.

Im pretty happy with the turnout.

Olympics are over

Well the Beijing Olympics are finally over.

I am happy to say Karine Sergerie landed a sliver medal in Taekwondo, Sebastian lost out in the quarterfinal and unfortunately Ivette Gonda lost out in her first fight albeit due to some very controversial decisions by the referees.

(a cool article the sun wrote about my olympic taekwondo exhibition)

I was really hoping that Ivette would have done better, but I guess the refs didn’t feel Ivette should have moved on. Im serious it was really bad reffing and caused quite a stir in the Taekwondo community.


Anyways my Canadian Olympic Taekwondo photography exhibition featurning the aforementioned athletes will still be online for a while until I complete the next one either on the Edmonton Fire Dept or I hope on the Edmonton Tactical Unit. You can see the exhibition at www.photographyexhibition.net

Here are some recent pieces of work I shot of Tyler Christopher who also attended the Olympics, but was battling the flu, and thus had a sub par performance… No worries though Tyler will be in London in 2012.

C

Photographing Jamie Coutts in Southern Alberta

This past week I was working with Jamie Coutts from Original video in southern Alberta. The project was for Growing Alberta and encompassed a 4 days shooting taking us from Fort Macleod to Acme Alberta.

During our four day shooting schedule I photographed Jamie himself in Drumheller located in the badlands of Alberta. The badlands are the home to the most extensive and spectacular displays of dinosaur skeletons in the World.

We visited the tourist center to get some ideas of where to shoot Jamie. This is where we stumbled upon a brochure advertising these cool looking mushroom-capped rock structures called the hoodoos. So we decided to shoot there.

Once we arrived at the location we were quite disappointed. The hoodoos themselves stood only about 8 feet tall, a stark contrast to the brochure photo that made them look like towering formations standing a least 20 feet tall.

We decided to shoot at the hoodoo location regardless… but in the photographs we didn’t include the hoodoos.
Enjoy.

New Style of Photos

(Don Iveson - Avenue Magazine)

Here are some new images from I style I have been shooting lately which is lacing all pages of major US magazines and AD agencies.

(Miner for Gordon Group AD agency Ottawa)

I knew about it back in November but a few months ago I finally figured out how to land these "new" images, which I am confident, can be used for my commercial and editorial clients.
(Tiger Taekwondo Demo)

Although this look seems to be more for editorial purposes, I think it could add a certain feel for specific commercial projects, which need something a little surreal.
Basically for the past few months I have been "sneaking in" some of these images, when I provide my final images to my clients… the response has been very positive, but I have yet to see these specific images on any billboard campaign or editorial shoot.
(Nick Carlson - Photographer)

Keep an eye out for the September issue of Avenue magazine perhaps I may have "convinced" the art director to use this look in the story I shot of Don Iveson. Either way I think it’s a really cool style of shooting, it’s a little more complex but the results are very unique.

(miss canada competing for Miss Galaxy)

Take care,
C