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

My Photography Process Again

MY PROCESS AGAIN

Thanks everyone for all the feedback and requests to see more on my process for shoots.

I was going to post another set of images from the Olympic atmosphere here in Vancouver, but decided on posting one more on my process.

This is a series done of a girl named Jen. A fantastic model who I knew had a great tattoo I wanted to show off. The tattoo was on her ribcage and required some preplanning to ensure that she and her art work were represented in the proper way. So I decided to kind of work off of a lighting style of Leibowitz. One light, simple and grey background. The key to this shot was the models expression. The lighting was pretty basic, but that's kind of my thing anyways... You can see from the sketch that I think its pretty much bang on framing wise.... If you try hard and try to visualize my crappy sketch you can also see that my lighting was also pretty close.

I really don't like using "back light or hair light" in studio... The reason for my leeriness to use the back light are... I find its overused for one... but second... its misused more often than not, so portraits with a hair light often look like over lit lame school photos. There are of course some shooters like Nigel Parry who are absolute masters with side and back light... But they are rare.

Please forgive my sketchy notes... They were only be meant to be read by me... Thanks again for all the emails and feedback about my blog.

Enjoy.

Japadog Vancouver Olympics

Japadog… Vancouver 2010.

The line ups are long for almost anything here in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics.... Especially the Japadog stand on Burrard…This Japadog stand has a quite a cult following which creates daily lineups of an average of 15-20 people. Now during the Olympics the line ups are around 50-75 people long.. all day.

Most good restaurants owners display pictures of celebrities who have visited their establishments, and the Japadog stand is no exception. The street stand is full of pictures of celebs who frequent it…

This past summer I was in line myself was in line for a (Veggie Oroshi) and behind me waiting was “Darryl” from the TV show the office. He was staying at the Sutton Place hotel he heard about Japadog from other celebs who he was filming a movie with…

Here are some pics.

Enjoy!

Vancouver 2010 Spring Olympics

Vancouver 2010 Olympics

This week I have been in Vancouver shooting some architectural work for Pattison Outdoor, specifically some of their building wraps of the Hudson’s Bay Building, TD Tower, Canada Post Building and the Molson Brewery. Honestly the Molson Brewery wrap is incredible, it’s a huge wrap made up of a mosaic consisting of thousands portraits. As my place is downtown, I haven’t made it to Whistler and have no plans to, but it’s a pretty unreal scene downtown. As expected the streets are packed with people from all over the globe. What’s most shocking is that the weather here is like spring, not an inkling of snow. In Vancouver it could seriously be considered the 2010 spring Olympics.

I did get a chance to check out a Slovak vs Czech game yesterday, and tomorrow will see the German vs Finland game.

Check back in the next day or so cause ill be posting some random street portraits, including some images from a tourist icon the Japadog stand !

Enjoy!

C

Editorial Home Photography

Here are a few tearsheets of home interiors I shot for Paige Weir, the art director for Avenue Magazine. A few month back Paige brought me on board to shoot interiors for the magazine. I have shot alot of commercial interiors but never really for editorial. Whats the difference? Mainly in editorial work, the scheduled shooting time is very short, so you have to get in, get your photos (make them look good) and get out. This is why working with an experienced art director makes all the difference.

I quite enjoy shooting with Paige, because she comes in to a home and knows exactly what she wants, but still gives me leeway to have a creative outlet. Its difficult to get creative with interior work, but it can be done. I find we have a really solid working dynamic. I am really liking the way Paige is laying out my pictures in her features. Here are a few of them.

C

My Process

My Process.

I have been asked a lot recently about my creative process when it comes to shooting people. Considering I am not the most conceptual shooter, I always begin the preplanning phase with a sketch. Even if it’s a simple portrait session a rough sketch allows me to pre visualize the final image then plan accordingly. This sketch is a basic idea, it also helps me decide how I am going to light the photo. I also use this sketch to help determine the location, cast the talent and find the props necessary for the shoot.

This sketch also serves as an advance pre-vis for the make up artist. This way they can see what I am looking for and how I am going to frame the image.

Often though the final image will differ from the sketch but at least I have a starting point before I shoot. Here is a sketch from a shoot I did with Paul Brown of the Bear. I also included some production notes.

You can see in this image that the image did infact change. The girls on the frame right are facing each other in the final image, and in the sketch one girl is facing away. Also in the sketch the girl on the left is holding an apple, but I choose a pear for the final image. Paul himself is also holding a Barbie doll in the final image, where as in the sketch he has his hands on his knee… I found when I was shooting the “awkward hands on the knee pose” is just so damn cliché. (Side Note : If I see another photo of awkward people sitting on a tacky couch with their hands on their knees I am going to throw up! Its not original its lame.)

One last thing. Did you notice that my sketch was horizontal, but the final image vertical? This happens alot. I often sketch in landscape then shoot vertical.

anyways

ps (if people enjoy seeing these sketches, let me know and I can post some more from previous shoots and discuss them, as I always keep my sketches for future refrences)

Enjoy!
C