ellipsis…

the new May issue of V-rag just hit the shelves. i had the pleasure of collaborating with makeup artists Eman Aziz on producing and photographing the cover and fashion editorial. my first cover actually! we worked with the 2010 Vancouver Gay Top Model winner Fraser, and fabulous fashion stylist Peter Hoang of thestarvingstylist.com. my good friend and amazing assistant for this shoot, Georgia, took it upon herself to take behind-the-scene photos, which is always great.

for you strobists out there, this shoot was almost 100% natural light. for the most part a reflector was all that was used to create fill, and on the last set in the alley a SB900 was fired behind the model to create some separation when shooting against the dark wall (which were left out of the editorial).

continuing with my personal portrait project Designer Series, i had was privileged to photograph legendary Canadian shoe designer John Fluevog. John is probably one of the most chill men i have ever encountered. Miss Georgia Esporlas assisted me on this shoot and shot the behind-the-scenes footage.

i received a call late one Saturday night in October from a odd area code. i picked up and on the other side was Ron MacSpadyen, publisher of Ontario Lacrosse Magazine. it was at least 11pm on the west coast, so he was burning the mid-night oil. he had seen the images i took at the 2009 Mann Cup and wanted to use them in his article on the championship. they ended up publishing 8 of my images. thanks to Steve Kojima, designer of Lax Fuj Clothing, for inviting me to photograph the championships.

i’m back from a whirlwind trip to Thailand. visited an orphanage, rode a elephant, and got soaked by the extended Songkran festival while river rafting, all in Chiang Mai. got down to work photographing NightLight staff while they worked on some amazing jewelry. met up with Chris who works with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who took me around Nana Plaza and told me all of the ins and outs of photographing in a red light district. Chris also heads the MST Project that works with the men who buy sex workers. MST Project’s mission statement is “Men are not part of the problem but rather part of the solution.” pretty powerful stuff. he says that a lot of his work is to change people’s perspective of the men who buy sex. and on my last day, i photographed a handful of signature pieces and some of the new lineup of jewelry on the streets of Bangkok.

i didn’t bring any of my digital gear so i borrowed Katie’s equipment, an Olympus E-520 with the kit 14-42 and 40-150 lens. to be honest, it’s amazing what you can do with just a basic consumer kit. Katie is NightLight’s jewelry designer. she’s got an awesome vision for where she wants to take the jewelry, and is coming out with some fantastic stuff. Katie, Gift (her design intern), and I headed out onto the streets of Bangkok on one of the hottest days i’ve experienced, 40 plus degrees celsius and probably 90% humidity. add in all of the pollution and you’ve got a sweltering day for a photo shoot.

the idea was to place the jewelry in, on, around the busy streets of Bangkok. using the urban landscape to create interesting backgrounds for the jewelry. i grabbed a couple of sheets of white paper to use as reflectors but the sun was already so high in the sky at 10am i didn’t really use them. plus white doesn’t reflect enough to really counter act the sun. it was funny how many people stopped and watched as i crouched on the ground taking pictures. when i was in China and Japan i remember seeing photo shoots everywhere i went. no so much in Thailand, it was like i was a new street performer. half way through Katie asked me if i was going to take a shower after, i totally didn’t notice how dirty i was getting from shooting everything from such a low angle.

i think the images turned out pretty good. i’m hoping NightLight can put them to good use. you can find NightLight’s jewelry here. they have a brand new website launching soon, so don’t mind the design for now.

i shot a quick editorial piece for Avenue Edmonton Magazine in early August that was a bit of a challenge. the story was on the Remand Centre in Edmonton, and the idea was to shoot someone in handcuffs outside of the facilities with a gloomy, dark mood. the challenge came when the day of the shoot was plus 30 degrees celsius, and and there was barely a cloud in the sky. there goes my dark gloomy mood. the angle i wanted was right infront of the building so that sign would be in the background (the Remand Centre really just looks like every other office building downtown, so without the sign no one would really recognize it). the other problem i had run into was by 5pm the sun was already westward bound, almost splitting my image in half with a shadow. throw up a flash through with a small softbox for a fill and see what i can create.

initially the idea that the art director and i had come upon was to photograph almost the entire building with the model in the foreground. low angle, shooting up. with so much contrast that proved to be difficult. put on a polarizer to see if i could bring back some of the sky, in the end it just killed all the detail in the building. f/16, f/22…. this is where a camera that can sync past 1/250 would have come in very handy. polarizer goes back in the bag. out comes the ND8. i started to shoot some tighter frames, something a bit more artistic, and with a shallower depth of field. ND filters are fantastic!!! there was still the balance of exposing the model and the shadowed building in the background. no huge budgets here to light an entire building.

after some post to bring the mood down, i started to think of what else i could do to add some emotion to the image. i don’t play with them a whole lot, but the thought of adding a dirty texture to the image came to mind. and so i did. played with a couple of them and finally decided on a dirty floor that brought an awesome feel to the images. pitch the idea to the art director, she loved it, and that’s that. looks like they took the dirty theme and used it for the entire article design. not too bad…. everything in the end worked out and the image works really well with the layout. next time i’m shooting at night, and bring the army to light up the building.

last month i shot my first project for the new book that i’m working on. something new and different than what most people are use to from my lens. this is work that has been stewing around in my head for quite sometime, i just needed the guts and a swift kick-in-the-ass to get started on them.

with some inspiration from The Baby Cakes Baby Shoppe and a gas mask, this shoot came together after hunting for a dress for almost 4 months. a big thanks to marina and maria from the bake shop for letting use the space, to nik for being my always gorgeous model (thanks baby!), jan for doing an amazing job with the makeup and hair, and shiv for assisting me with all of the setup and finer details.

more craziness to come!

the crew! me, jan, nik & shiv.

(if you are ever in the west end of edmonton, treat yourself to a cupcake from Baby Cakes, they are AMAZING!)

[Update] Baby Cakes Bake Shoppe is now under new ownership, and unforchunately the cupcakes are not as good. i’m kinda sad.

the new Running Issue of IMPACT Magazine just launched, and i had the opportunity to photograph a couple of ultra-runners for this issue. these guys do some insane distances. 100 miles!!!

the gorgeous miss darla decided to play dress up for me this afternoon. it was so much fun! i’ve been wanting to do a fun shoot with her before she leaves to hawaii for a couple of months. here are some of our fun pictures!

thanks so much for putting together so many great pieces darla! have a great time in hawaii. take some great pictures with that new camera.