Unique Images Photography | Weddings | Portraits | Fashion » Wedding, Portrait, and Fashion Photography Blog

Or “senior portraits” as they call this in America.

Cassidy was my first grad student of the year and she was a really cool kick-off into this year for me.  I have to say that I really love doing grad photo sessions!  It’s like taking all the creative opportunities from weddings and family portraits and condensing them into one session.  And I can pretty much be as weird as I like with my ideas!  That’s my goal in life: an excuse to be weird. 

Cassidy’s mum had set this up for her and I also called Cassidy before the shoot to get some idea of where she was at and what sort of things she’s into to help me to get photos that reflect her.  I had a whole bunch of ideas for outside and then it rained!  Actually, it rained and snowed all in the same day.  But I am a practiced improviser and we used some indoor locations instead.  In fact, I’m glad it rained, because the “plan B” locations ended up really fueling some creative vibes for me.  And check out the cool colours in the first few images. Those are her bedroom walls!  Crazy bright, eh? 

Anyone who reads the Lethbridge Living Magazine will know that I shoot for them each issue. Until now I’ve never been able to show any images prior to publication, due to a standard publishing agreement with the magazine. However, with the way the web has become such a large part of peoples’ lives, magazines everywhere are seeing the benefits to having more of an online presence. So, for your viewing pleasure and tantalisation, I present to you the first ever pre-publication glimpse at an upcoming article! Well, one of the images, anyways.

These are actually some of the most challenging shoots I ever do, believe it or not. Even though I don’t have to come away with nearly as many images as I do when shooting portraits or weddings, the dynamic is very different. Recently I’ve had more flexibility in my shoots, but quite often I only get a 15-minute window to capture several images of a busy business person in their cluttered workplace who doesn’t want their photos taken in the first place! Oh, and these photos will be published and make their way into thousands and thousands of homes and businesses in and around Lethbridge, so they better be good. Now you see what I mean, eh? Also, due to the nature of the magazine printing process, the colours of my images don’t turn out quite right. But that’s the way it goes for online viewing, too. Unless everyone’s monitors are all properly calibrated with external calibration devices, photos can appear too bright, or too blue, or too dark, or whatever. I just have to let it go and not be such a perfectionist about these things. Either that or go and calibrate the monitors of everyone who visits my site. Argh!

But I do enjoy it. I love the challenges involved. And Jenn and Tim, the owners of the magazine since 2006, are very easy to work for and have a great vision for the future of the Lethbridge Living. They’ve really pumped some new life into it since they took over and it’s exciting to work with people who are able to set optimistic goals and then exceed them.

The image below was taken for the upcoming summer issue and should be on the cover. It’s supporting an article on Lethbridge’s Softball Valley. I also have some photos supporting an article on Fort McLeod’s South County Fair.  Look for it on shelves in July.

This was a cool wedding.    Erin had a bright red birdcage veil and her wedding dress was really different, too.  Very unique.  And it’s not every wedding you see a Corpse Bride cake topper!  I really love that we get such a diversity of couples for our weddings.  I think they choose us because they want something different and non-traditional and so we end up with lots of people who are not your typical traditional couple as well.  That’s very cool. 

Erin hadn’t asked for any getting ready coverage so we started our day at the wedding ceremony itself, which was at Lethbridge’s Galt Museum. This is one of several weddings we have there this year.  In fact, we have been there for our last three weddings!  I like the Galt; there’s lots of natural light and a great view.  I usually balance the photos so I can show the outside in my images, but this time I let the sunlight really just brighten the whole scene up.  As I said, I like to do things differently at different times, but the main thing is that I like to do whatever works for the particular scene at the time.  There’s no sense doing something just because it worked the last week for the last couple.  You have to be adaptable in this job! 

Erin and Jonathan had chosen Nikka Yuko, Lethbridge’s Japanese Gardens, for their portraits, so we stayed there the whole time for the portraits. Even though it was the tail end of winter there was a little bit of green poking through. It had snowed just a couple of days before, and though it rained and sleeted during the reception we had bright daylight for our portrait time. We stayed for the reception, which was also at the Galt and I have quite a few of photos of the two flowergirls, since they were so photogenic and fun.  The reception was really relaxed and informal and towards the end of the evening I asked Erin if there was anything she’d really like photos of before we left and she replied that she wanted lots of photos of the two flowergirls and I said, “Good! That’s what I’ve been doing!”

So thanks to Erin and Jonathan for letting us hang out with them at their wedding!  We wish them all the best and here are some of their wedding images.

Jaylene is such a natural in front of the camera. I think I even asked her if she had done any modeling, which is hard to ask and not sound like a creepy old guy. Lol! But, seriously, we work with all kinds of different people, from models to people who’ve practically never had their photo taken, and I have to say that I’ve never had such a natural to work with as Jaylene. We’d be setting up and I’d be ready to tell her how to pose and I’d say, “Just turn a little . . . oh! You’ve already done it!” I love it when people make my job easy. 

We did some studio-style work first, though I’ve pretty much entirely phased that out in favour of on-location photography, and then we hit up the Henotic and a few other local locations here in Lethbridge. I’ve been going through a bit of a Henotic phase!     It’s quite nice in there, but I’m giving it a bit of a break for now so I can keep diversifying. Lethbridge doesn’t have a wealth of different locations to choose from, but I do try to do something different every session. I can’t stand to repeat myself! 

Jaylene was such an natural to work with and also a really easy-going person. Here are some of her photos.

Recently I had the pleasure of working with up-and-coming model Chantal and her boyfriend Andy on a shoot that was recorded for Global TV. I think this is my fourth time on TV and I’m actually getting used to it now! Man, the first time was freaky, even for someone who used to perform in live bands and act in amateur theatre! But this time it was a breeze and Chantal and Andy were very easy to work with as well. Of course, it certainly helped that our cameraman, Chris from COGO Productions, was super calm and professional, too.

The idea was to do a regular engagement-style session and record it for a TV commercial for Global. So I went through the sort of things that I would do for an engagement shoot and directed Chantal and Andy, telling them to interact and pose in ways that suited their personalities. We had a lot of fun. Chantal, especially, was really into the whole image-making process and both of them were up for anything, so we ended up shooting for quite a while, continuing long after Chris had packed up his video gear and gone home for dinner.

We started out in the Henotic restaurant and then spent a bit of time in an alleyway, before heading out to a nice big field just outside of town.

You can see the commercial on Global’s network, mostly around the 6pm to 7pm timeslot during the next couple of weeks or so. And here is a selection of images we got from the shoot.

Allan and Wendi, the Global TV Wedding Wish winning couple, were a very cool couple to work with.  Of course, I would expect nothing less from them after knowing their antics in trying to win the Wedding Wish contest. You can read more about them and their masked adventures on their Facebook page.

Allan and Wendi saw one another before their ceremony and I set up a romantic meeting for them.  Then we did most of the rest of their portrait images before the ceremony around town, including inside Henotic restaurant, which has become my favourite place for indoor photography in Lethbridge. The decor and ambiance is probably the best in Lethbridge. The owners are friendly and accommodating, too.  I was first there for photos during Heidi and Clark’s wedding last January and I’ve been back a few times since then.

Allan and Wendi’s wedding was on the grass at the top of the coulees just behind the Galt Museum here in Lethbridge on a nice sunny day without too much wind—for Lethbridge, anyway.  Allan and Wendi both wrote their own vows and you could tell immediately how much love they had for one another. Their words were so touching and meaningful. I have a photo of Wendi wiping away tears during Allan’s vows. This was the most well-videoed wedding we’ve been to, with a big news camera from Global TV as well as two, only slightly smaller, cameras wielded by George Gallant, a instructor who teaches video production at Lethbridge College, and his son. These guys all knew what they were doing and we had no problem with them getting in our way or anything like that. I’m hoping to get some footage from George to put up later as well to show you how I shoot at weddings. Stay tuned for that, too.

The reception entertainment for the evening was provided by J.R. Matthew, Entertainer Extraordinaire. His show was fantastic! If you’re ever looking for someone who can keep things alive at your reception, he would be on the top of my list. With his wife Lyn working the sound for the evening they did a very fun game show that had everyone madly competing in crazy events to win points. I will be posting some of those images in the slide show, so make sure you check back at the end of the week to see some hilarious photos of the wedding party guys in drag, and more.

The first dance started out normally and then there was a brief moment where it looked as though Lyn and JR had messed up the music, but it was all a prearranged stunt and Allan, Wendi, and Allan’s brother and his wife all launched into the Evolution of Dance routine. This was something that was going around YouTube a little while back, but it’s the first wedding we’ve been to where anyone has done it. They did it really well!

Here is a slideshow of some of their images. 

We recently had the privilege of photographing our friend Melissa. She needed some headshots done for a local church. Like many people, the only prior experiences she’d had with photography before talking with us had been unpleasantly contrived sessions and she told me that she wanted something natural, something authentic, something that showed who she was as a person.

So we started out with the headshots, which we did in her house in front of a wonderfully colourful wall, and then moved on to a field on the outskirts of Lethbridge for photos of her playing her guitar. Melissa is a Christian and the photos at the end of the slideshow are of her worshipping God in a very natural way. This shoot was very spontaneous, as many of my shoots are, and Melissa’s photos grew out of an organic interaction between us all. After the headshots I did no posing at all. It was great to photograph someone so genuine who opened up with us like that. Photography for me is very much about connecting with people and my most meaningful and successful shoots are those where people are able to relax and be themselves. I’m a very open person myself and so I think I create an environment where people find it easy to do this.

Melissa is a very gifted multi-instrumentalist and the music in her slideshow was taken from a CD she recorded. You can find out more about her and her music HERE. Click on the play button below to see her photos.

I have something a bit different this week: photos of us! After over six years of marriage without ever having our photos taken we finally had some done. I had been thinking about this for some time and when we had the opportunity I called Dave from DQ Studios and made a time to get ‘em done. Well, I tried to, anyways. But between our schedule, winter, and Dave and Quin’s crazy flying all over the world schedule it took a couple of months before we made a date that stuck.

It was weird being in front of the camera for a change. And it was especially weird not being in charge! I had to follow directions instead of telling other people what to do! But Dave and Quin are a fun couple and I had confidence in their exceptional photography abilities, too. If anyone could make me look good it was them. It was actually a great experience being on the other side of the camera for a change, because it’s been so long since I was regularly a subject instead of being the photographer. So it’s given me even better insight into how our clients feel when we take their photos.

When I first made the appointment Dave asked me, “How do you feel about junkyards”? He’d recently met someone on a flight who owned a wrecking yard in Calgary and so he was all fired up for a shoot at this new new location. I’d never done a shoot in one either, so I was definitely interested. I’m always up for new things.     I brought along my guitar—that’s what you do at wrecking yards—because I think it’s can be cool to have some kind of props that show an aspect of who you are.  Apparently, the aspect of my personality I showed was that I take musical instruments to strange places.  It was good to have though, and it probably made me less self-conscious, because it gave me something to do.  That’s a hint to potential portrait clients. 

Dave and Quin were really easy to be subjects for and I’m glad we chose them.    On a more personal note, it was great to spend the time with Sherri and I think the photos and the photo session managed to bring us even closer, somehow.  I think looking at the photos and seeing yourselves from the outside looking in can give you a new perspective on your love for each other.  It was an unexpected benefit of the whole experience.  Here are some photos.