After doing some photos around the machinery for about forty minutes, I had one specific photo in mind that I really wanted to try out. It involved quite a bit of prep work, since we’d never actually done this before, so Chantal and I got to sit in the car with the heat pumping out while my assistant put it all together for us—thanks, Doug! I wanted to create a wall of fire effect behind Chantal and so I’d brought a pre-assembled wooden wall that Doug rebuilt and fixed in place. Then I set up my lights, called Chantal over from the warm car, and had two minutes to get the shot. And, yay, we got the shot!

I look forward to our next shoot, whenever that may be.

Lisa had emailed me a while back to see if we could set up a shoot for when she was going to be in Calgary next time (she’s from Ontario) and after checking out the awesome work in her portfolio I was happy to make the time. Lisa was excellent to work with! Very professional and easy to get along with. We worked so fast in this little area and Lisa went through such a cool variety of poses. The grungy concrete box as the sun went down really lent itself to a dark kinda vibe in the photography and, even though that is a bit of a departure for me, I went along with the feel of the place and got the photos below. The last image is creepy, eh? It’s the shadow of one of my assistants holding a bit of wood we found on the ground, shaped like a knife. It’s a bit of a nod to a Joe McNally shot I liked. I’m only posting my seven favourites, but I actually got 29 photos in 32 minutes, with various lighting setups.

Jake and Julie are a great couple and so cool to work with. It would be hard to get a bad photo of them! They were so easy in front of the camera and just so relaxed with each other and in love. We hit a few locations in Calgary, starting with a car wrecking yard and then heading north to see what cool locations we could use in the city centre. We ended up at Stephen Ave, which is such a rich location for photography, especially when they have the lights up in winter. Plus, the pubs and restaurants have really nice ambiance for indoor photos.

We are looking forward to their wedding this year. Here are some of their engagement images.

Since I didn’t submit any of our photos myself, it is interesting to see the images of ours that their judges chose. A big criteria for them was whether or not an image looked like it was distinctly wedding-y.

Their website says: “What we ultimately looked for was . . . is this a great photo or a great wedding photo? Unfortunately this meant that some incredible photographs did not make the cut, because they could have been anywhere, not necessarily at a wedding.”

This is kind of funny for me to read—and I don’t mean that sarcastically!—because I often deliberately distance myself from creating images that look wedding-y. This is especially true with the more fashion-based ideas that I come up with. I sometimes get inspiration from music photography and movie posters and I try to create a similar sort of commercial or cinematic vibe to my wedding photography—something that looks larger than life and out of the ordinary.

Anyways, I thought I’d comment on the images they chose to give a bit of a story behind each photo. So, for the first time on the blog I present to you: Captions!

This image was tricky to capture! It was taken on a small yacht on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna and the poor girl was sea-sick from the rocking of the boat. I was crouched up the very front of the boat holding a flash in one hand and my camera in the other, trying to frame the shot without getting any clutter in the background, or going blind from having the sun in the viewfinder, or falling over the side. I have two images of this setup and this is one of them. It pays to get it right the first time.

While I love going overboard (ha ha) to get cool-looking portraits, the emotions of the wedding day are what really hooked me in to being a wedding photographer. There are few days in someone’s life where they so honestly open up in front of their friends and family. I love being a part of that. This image was taken at a reception at the University of Lethbridge “Zoo” ballrooms. It has almost entirely black walls and is one of the trickiest places I’ve photographed in to really make the lighting look natural and good.

The couple asked for a photo of the bridesmaids carrying the groom and I thought it could be fun, so we set it up. They had a struggle keeping him up though, and this is where they started to drop him. That made them laugh and they slipped even more. I have about half a dozen images in this sequence, showing him up and steady to all the way down. I shot close up from a low angle to really get into the action.

Awww! Aren’t these kids so cute? Check out their matching green wedding flip-flops! This was during the group formals. I always try to catch interaction and emotional moments, even during the quickly set up images of the wedding day.

This is from the same wedding as the previous photo. The couple requested something that showed Lethbridge’s high-level bridge in the background and I wanted a different angle than is typical. We had to hike a little bit to get to this location, but I’ve still not seen anyone do quite the same shot.

This was one of the wildest and most fun receptions we’ve ever photographed. The bride and groom had a male belly-dancer for entertainment and he grabbed them and got them in on the act. Soon enough he had just about everyone up and was teaching them his moves, with some really hilarious consequences. Although 95% of the images on this blog are taken by me, this photo was taken by my very talented assistant photographer, Jessica. Kudos to her; it’s an awesome moment.

Our studio recently won the Canadian Bridal Network’s Best Wedding Photographs contest of this year, beating nearly 500 other entries. Actually, after the contest results went live I heard that the judges had short-listed a dozen of our photos for the winning spots, but in the end they decided to just use the one image below to represent our studio.

I met the couple in the winning image when I was looking for a wedding dress. Not for myself; for a bridal fashion shoot in B.C. The bride, Caitlin, works in Ten Fashions Bridal Boutique and when one of my models didn’t show I asked her to fill in. She brought along her fianceé, Kelowna DJ Dan Freeman, and so my fashion shoot turned into a real engagement session for them. Because they are an actual couple they brought great energy and true emotional connection to the shoot. Their wedding is in 2010 and will be awesome.

Thanks very much also to Trent from Eye For Detail Photography! I actually found out about this contest after receiving an email from Bride.ca saying that Trent had contacted them and told them to check out my work for the contest. Thanks, Trent!

Our models for the day were Dan and Caitlin—who are actually engaged to be married—Tonya, Steven, and Jesyca. They were all great to work with!

Dan is none other than “Tarzan Dan” Freeman, a radio personality from Toronto who now lives and works in Kelowna. For anyone who has listened to him and is wondering: yes, he is as crazy in real life as he is on the air. Dan, I am still bummed that I forgot to set up a shot of you being sprayed with the hose at Summerhill Winery. Caitlin was originally a last-minute addition to the shoot, but I am so glad we had her along! She was super helpful and excellent in front of the camera. Caitlin is a very skilled ballet dancer and has abundant natural grace. Oh, and I should mention on behalf of Caitlin that her actual wedding dress was not worn for these images. Dan and Caitlin had a fantastic chemistry and a great sense of fun. It was so easy to get cool photos of them.

Tonya was awesomely professional to work with! Even when I had her out in blinding sunlight on a yacht in the Okanagan Lake at noon she was striking pose after pose for me, with no complaints.

Steven was one of the most enthusiastic and patient guys I’ve ever had out on a shoot! We went way later than expected and he wasn’t in as many of the photos as the girls were, but he was so into the whole process and was great to have with us.

Jesyca was really quiet during the day, but always up for whatever I suggested, even my crazy evening shots in the Okanagan Lake. I think we got some very cool images, thanks to her.

More details and an update in a later post. I’ll stop this one now, before I hit my smiley quota.