business profiles are always an interesting assignment. you are usually balancing two expectations. the first is from the publication, making sure the images are on point with the written copy and are shot in the style they need. the second is from the business itself. the business wants to put their best foot forward, showing potential clients/customers a bit of who they are and what they can do for them. the other constraints that comes into play are time and space. the majority of business owners only have a few minutes in their day to stop for a portrait, and finding the space to setup in their business can be a challenge. i guess it doesn’t help that i’m not a small flash strobist-type shooter. i shot a a series of business profiles for IMPACT magazine that are in the current July/August issue. all of my subjects were super accommodating and patient. and it was the first time i’ve had to work around a MRI machine. [more on the MRI after the jump]

one of the businesses that i was to profile was AIM Medical Imaging. i had a few ideas going into the shoot, one being a bit of a take off of Joe McNally’s shot of a father and son in front of the father’s brain scans. i wanted to incorporate MRI scan film into the portrait some how. to my dismay, imaging has gone 100% digital in the last few years and clinics no longer expose film of any type. next idea, how about shooting in the MRI room. Dr. Sharma was on board with one limitation, no equipment can be in the room as the MRI magnet is always on and the equipment will be damaged. she wore her watch into the room by accident and she mentioned that the battery would be dead within 24 hours. well then… the MRI room was a decent size, with the MRI machine taking up a fair bit of the space. my saving grace was the door to the room was large (big enough to fit a gurney) and a semi-frosted window that the techs sat behind to monitor the scans.  i positioned a bare strobe head behind the window, the semi-frost worked great to diffuse the light just enough, and the door was big enough to accommodate the majority of a 5-foot octagon. i had just enough room to fit under the octagon to shoot. it was tight, but it was all outside of the room so that my equipment all worked.

this is the final image that was selected. you can see the shadow on the left side where the bare strobe overpowered the octagon.

Montecristo Magazine picked up one of the images for an article are running in their winter issue on Mercedes-Benz.

Here are a few pages from the book and the Montecristo article.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.