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Chantal and I have worked together once before, on a Global TV commercial, and although it’s been a long time coming, we finally got back together for this speedy Calgary photo session. We chose a location on the south side of Calgary and when we arrived I saw they were doing some construction work. As soon as I saw the trucks there I thought, “Photo props!” The workers were knocking off for the day and they let Chantal clamber over the equipment in the name of photography, which was pretty cool of them. I suppose she’d have to try really, really hard to break one. I like the juxtaposition between the trucks, which are all dirty, imposing, and grungy-looking and Chantal, who . . . isn’t.

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.

Coming Soon!

Bride.ca has just released the Honourable Mentions of their 2009 contest and we placed there, too. In fact, out of the 35 images six of them are ours! Yay us!

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.

Here are some images from a bridal fashion session we did in Kelowna. There will be another follow-up post to this one later. You’ll see why.

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.

Here are some images from a recent shoot in Utah, USA. I’ll post more details later, but I wanted to show you some images now!

Grace is a local model and a really fun person to have on a shoot.  Take a look at the photos and you’ll see what I mean!    I did this shoot with Jessica, whom I will be introducing on this blog very soon.  Grace was awesome to work with!  She was really naturally talented and hard-working, too.  I love how she was able to add her own flair to create something that really suited the clothes and environment.  It was more like she took on the role of a character and acted it out than just simply posed.  Very cool.  Check out the crazy clothing she wore when we hit the alley downtown!  It was so funny; she turned so many heads when we were setting up and shooting that scene.    One car actually drove past us, then stopped and reversed so the people in it could stare at her.  Lol!  That’s the first time I’ve had that on a shoot.  Hmm.  Perhaps if I dressed like that I’d get it more often.  What do you think—should I borrow that outfit for my next wedding?