ellipsis…

as of tomorrow a new decade will begin. it’s already been ten years since we all partied like it was 1999. 2009 was a very interesting year. packed up my life and moved to Vancouver. spent the last 10 months of the year cooking good food, hanging out at the beach, eating sushi in Seattle, knocking off a couple more of those 10,000 photography hours, and connecting with some amazing people. i will admit that i have reinvented myself and my art a couple times over since i’ve been in Vancouver. all for the better.

thank-you to everyone who has stopped by and read my blog. i am really excited to see what 2010 has to offer. you can guarantee that there will be more pictures, videos, and behind-the-scenes posts to come.

have a safe NYE. i’ll see you on the flip side.

I’m cutting this Merry Christmas wish pretty tight. Being back home with my family, with piles of snow around the house, smells of pine and apple cider, and the all the chaos in the kitchen, I feel right at home and blessed to be back.

Have a very Merry Christmas.

a thank-you video to all of the people who made Help-Portrait Vancouver a huge success.

Help-Portrait Vancouver was an overwhelming success! the Grace Mansion was full of joy and laughter. the makeup artist and hair stylist were buzzing making women and girls look beautiful. Mark Hildebrand and Kathi Reid filled the room with music. photographers were making people smile and laugh and giggle with excitement. and when the printers starting rolling off prints, it was priceless to see people’s reactions to their portraits. it was such an amazing experience to watch it all unfold before me.

the day went off without a hitch. all of my worries disappears as the first family walked through our doors. that was one of my favourite moments. we all had been waiting for our first family and a photographer suggested we take a group photo of the morning crew. just as we were about to take the picture the first family walked in and we all turned and cheered and clapped, we almost scared them away. lol! my heart jumped and the day had officially begun. everyone seemed to get into a good rhythm, a relaxed joyous rhythm. the day honestly flew by so quickly. i’ve watching the videos that Steve Tan has produced over and over again. they capture the day so well.

by the end of the day we took approximately 175 portraits of families & individuals, which translates to having about 430 people walk through our studios. pretty amazing that we were able to touch that many people. this is just the beginning. there is much more Help-Portrait to come!

the morning crew

the afternoon crew

mr. leigh culpin taking a portrait

bernard ng firing away

michael moore’s larger than life personality

Steve Tan, the resident Help-Portrait Vancouver videographer, has produced two videos of our event. watching these videos almost make me cry. they capture the day so well. i’ll let the videos do the rest of the talking.

Help-Portrait Vancouver

Help-Portrait Vancouver “Let It Shine”

i have been wanting to shoot this project for a while, and i got the chance last weekend. the idea was simple; capture a ballerina mid-flight. my friend, and ballerina, Miss. Amy Schmidt obliged to be put through the paces of doing the same jump over and over again. we had a ton of fun shooting, almost had Amy jumping right into the softbox… no good. i’m super happy with the final result. simple and elegant.

here’s a quick behind-the-scenes video. it’ll also show you the simple lighting setup that i had.

IAN SHEH VID: ballet