Friday, June 18. 20102010.06.05: Slide film sucks . . .. . . for wedding photography. Or so I thought until I received two rolls of Fuji Astia 100 non-F back from my pro lab of choice, ABC Photocolour, after Dong Kim and I shot a wedding for a black couple (with mostly black wedding party) a couple Saturdays ago. I don't usually blog wedding photos nor do I advertise myself as a wedding photographer but I feel that I need to share these images with a larger audience because I regularly express my feelings of aversion towards positive film for existing light photography because of its narrower exposure latitude, lower maximum speeds available, and inconvenience since the closest good lab being in Vancouver. Up until recently, I would shoot almost exclusively Fuji NPZ/Pro-Z ISO 800 negative print film rating it at ISO 640 and Ilford HP5+ or Delta 400 at anywhere from ISO 100 to 3200 and processed in Kodak HC-110 or Kodak XTOL. I would then shoot formal portrait photos on a dSLR like the Nikon D300 or D3 because of the flexibility of shooting at a low base ISO, higher maximum shutter speed than my Leica M7 or Zeiss Ikon, and the often superior colour output with satisfactory black and white conversions. These two rolls of Astia 100 make film rangefinder photography outdoors for formal wedding portraiture totally feasible with my shooting style. Positive frame borders deliberately retained when scanning with the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED. All but the first frame selected from a roll of thirty eight exposures. And a huge thank you to Yvette and Alvin for selecting Dong and I as your photographers. I couldn't have hope for a better start to the wedding season. The baring of unfiltered emotions, the love shared by all of the wedding party and guests which have been cultivated, in some cases, for a period longer than I have been alive, the dozen high school aged female total strangers that you allowed to join your dance, and even the hour and a half of beautifully composed, delivered, and thoroughly entertaining toasts during the reception made shooting this wedding one of the most fun wedding shooting experiences I have ever had.
 I shot this image last of the set being posted but it makes more sense to see this image first. It just happened that we shot the formal photos before the wedding ceremony. Shot with the Leica M7 at 1/1000s and F/2 through the Zeiss Biogon ZM 35mm F/2. It's also important to note that all of my M-mount equipment is in chrome/silver colour because the colour of the camera equipment has a huge impact on the images it creates.
 One of the few shots with "real" wind blowing Yvette's veil. Leica 90mm F/2.8 Elmarit, first generation in chrome.
 In retrospect, the photographic challenges imposed by very dark-skinned person in very white clothing without artificial light control in a slightly backlit scene should have turned any more risk-averse photographer away as inexperienced as I from trying film technology which is known to have less exposure latitude than professional negative films and modern professional digital still capture devices on a production shoot but I am glad that I took the risk. Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 @ F/2 and 1/1000s. Strangely, the bride's face turned out noticeably darker than the rest of her exposed skin. In the final deliverable photos I will likely lighten her face to be a bit more consistent with the rest of her body.
 Alvin had an irremovable grin on his face the entire day. I struggled with it at first as I tried to create more dramatic and serious photos but as a photographer trying to take a contemporary approach to wedding photography I think it is more important to act as channel for the day's emotions than to try to create something untrue; Alvin really is the happiest groom that I have ever seen.
  The problem with having only one roll of film loaded at a time is that you are stuck using whatever film you have loaded even when the situation changes. I originally wanted to shoot some HP5+ and let it overexpose a little by using it at rated speed and then processing in Ilfosol S as part of the non-formal coverage of the formal portrait session to allow for some noticeable grain structure but I had a few frames of Astia left loaded in the camera so that's what I used. Same settings as previous frame. I noticed that Astia 100's
anti-halation measures may be weaker than with other films thus
resulting in more "glow". The glow is further amplified by the dirt on
my lenses that I refuse to clean off.
 The graduating high school classes and the handful of other photographers with wedding parties at the Alberta Legislature were very co-operative keeping out of our field of views and giving us time to work. Which is good or else the bridesmaids were ready to muscle us through the crowds and maintain a perimeter. Still, I think someone's elbow is just into the frame near the bottom right edge. Leica M7, Elmarit 90mm F/2.8 first generation M-mount.
 It was about time to leave the formals location when we realized that we needed some shots of just the couple. I haven't seen Dong's shots yet but he has some more dynamic arrangements. That said, a bench in the Lois Hole Garden east of the main building gave us what we needed to change up the terrain a bit.
 Hahah . . . awesome.
Continue reading "2010.06.05: Slide film sucks . . ." Monday, May 17. 20102010.05.12: Art Gallery of Alberta's Art on the Block event . . . with the Panasonic DMC-GH1My Panasonic DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera with the standard 14-140mm kit lens and the 20mm F/1.7 that's normally packaged with the Panasonic GF1, Rode NTG-2 microphone and shock mount arrived the morning of the day I was to shoot the Art Gallery of Alberta's Art on the Block silent auction fund raising event. It is the first Art on the Block event held by the gallery since it has been reopened as the Art Gallery of Alberta and, fittingly, it was the first time that I was to shoot any event with a camera with a smaller capture area than that of the APS-C sized dSLR sensor as the primary camera. While I packed the Leica M7 and the 35mm F/2 Zeiss Biogon I only shot a half roll of Ilford Delta 400 at ISO 800 and I have yet to process the film. The digital files have already been delivered to the AGA. I don't normally blog about event photos but I feel that being comfortable shooting this event with, effectively, an interchangeable-lens high end point and shoot digital camera, as the official photographer says something about the viability of using such a system for serious photographic work. I have already joked to Dong Kim, Ethan Oblak, Corey Thompson, Justin Poulsen, Craig Hobbs, and Leanna about quitting shooting with Nikon dSLRs for small format work and while I don't really intend on selling off my Nikon gear, I don't see a need to pack it for event work anymore. For the foreseeable future, I intend to shoot events with just the GH1 and the Leica M7 and their complement of lenses. All photographs shot with the Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 and processed in Adobe Lightroom 2.x. Most of the shots were made at least three quarters of a stop underexposed . . . sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally. I had just gotten the camera and had accidentally changed exposure compensation without figuring out how to change it deliberately until later in the night and, at least for this evening, camera had a tendency to underexpose to preserve highlight detail even if the photographer made no exposure compensation offset. Thank you to Adam Neufeldt at McBain Camera for helping me with my purchase.
 The main auction and entertainment area.
 Mid-action awkward facial expression and body position shooting started pretty early.
 This scene is heavily backlit which proves that the camera handles scenes with high contrast acceptably. There were shots in which the sky is blown out but it doesn't blow out in a way that most smaller sensor-equipped cameras typically blow out the sky.
 I was worried that the less oblong 4:3 aspect ratio of the camera would impact my hand held compositions but was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the visual elements that I wanted to incorporate into my shots fit naturally. The 4:3 aspect ratio feels more similar to the 4:5 aspect ratio of the Toyo VX125 than it does to the 2:3 aspect ratio of almost all of my other cameras and the Toyo is always shot on a tripod.
 The camera lacks an optical viewfinder and typical auto focus points that you would find in a normal SLR with a mirror. Instead, the camera uses contrast-based autofocus off of the image picked up by the sensor like what most point and shoot digital cameras use or like the contrast-based autofocus found in the Nikon D3 and D300 when in tripod live view mode. Except this auto focus is very snappy . . . snappy enough to capture certain people's facial expressions before they recognize me. Autofocus is comparable to that of the D300 in similar situations though I know many would argue that the D300 may still be faster.
 The backlit donor wall has been a challenging background to use when tuning for natural skintones even with the Nikon D3 but the GH1 seems to handle the situation satisfactorily. White balance was unaltered from the original capture with only some adjustments made to brightness and contrast.
 Using the "automatic everything" autofocus mode was convenient and fun though about 10-20% of the shots could have been focused better. That said, the shots weren't completely out of focus; one would sometimes prefer to have a face facing the camera in focus than the back of a head but the photographer could opt for a more deliberate autofocusing mode.
 One of the major complaints of the Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds format is that the smaller sensors lead to shorter focal lengths being used for the same angle of view as one would achieve with a larger sensor. However, when lens manufacturer's follow through with one of the original design and marketing pushes of offering wider relative aperture lenses, one can easily overcome the increase in comparative depth of field with wider apertures. All of this in a lens that barely protrudes from the camera body more than the grip.
 Processing almost 250photos in about an hour after shooting them was pretty easy considering how Lightroom worked with the raw files. It seems that automatic white balance information was fully communicated through to the software and the white balance information gives the photographer a useful start from which to tune. That said, at ISO 1600 and above and under mixed artificial lighting conditions white balancing a Nikon D3 file would yield cleaner tonal transitions and with more pleasing and natural skintones.
 This image along with a few of the other images from the set exhibited some interesting blur around faces. I don't know what kind of camera and subject movements could have created the blur around the gentleman's face while keeping the face of the lady in red relatively sharp and in focus in the way we see it here but I don't find it objectionable.
 Tracking movement with this camera was similar to tracking movement with a Contax G1 or G2, Zeiss Ikon, or Leica M7. On top of that, one could very quickly achieve focus and continually maintain focus as subject and camera moves unlike the Leica M-mount range finders which would require the photographer to predict distance changes and continue focus adjustment blindly unless one were to compose with subject under the rangefinder patch in the middle of the frame. In the case of the Contax G system, there is no way to focus track without keeping part of the subject under the single auto focus point. Like comparisons to the Nikon D3, these may not seem like relevant comparisons but when choosing a camera for a particular assignment we need to consider what the absolute best tool for the job is and not just what works within a certain budget or which cameras review best by non-photographers running review websites reviewing under hypothetical laboratory conditions.
 The 20mm lens rendered subjects in close range attractively and without objectionable distortions that even lenses like the Nikon or Canon 17-55mm F/2.8 lenses typically render when shot in landscape and at under 35mm.
 Obviously not shot by me but this photo goes to show how easy it is for someone who has never used this camera before to pick it up make a technically-sound photo. Furthermore, I am far from being model material and I am long overdue for a hair cut but by Klyment-standards this looks pretty good.
Thursday, April 29. 20102010.03.09: Avenue Spring Fashion FeatureI was hoping to make a bunch of chronologically-ordered posts but I figured it may be a good idea to get this entry out before the current issue of Avenue Magazine Edmonton is off the stands. We were originally scheduled to shoot a week earlier but due to some scheduling conflicts we moved the shoot to March 9th. Capture was destined to be all digital so the later shoot date didn't seem to scare Paige Weir, our art director, as much as it sometimes does when I try to convince her that I should be shooting 4x5's or film rangefinders or something similarly de-evolutionary. Makeup by Adrianne Thomson, hair and styling by Nikolas and assisted by Jacqueline Ohm, music on set by Corey Thompson, and Craig Hobbs and Adam Goudreau assisted on the photographic side of things. Julie and Jessica are represented by Sabrina Notte and her agency, Deja Vu Modeling International of Red Deer, Alberta. Nikon D3X loaned to me by Huy Sam and Manfrotto Autopole/Expan system loaned to me by Curtis Comeau.  I first saw Kayla in the parking lot behind my studio last year. She was dropping off promotional supplies for a beer company that she represents to the pub on the main floor when I spotted her in the parking lot as I was moving some paper up. I told Corey, who happened to be at the studio. I needed Corey to convince me that I would regret not getting her number to shoot her in the future and Corey did what I hoped that he would do. I got her number and a year later she ends up on the cover of Avenue Edmonton.
This photo was my favourite from the yellow dress set but another photo was chosen for the cover. Shot with the D3X and the 135 F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor. Key lighted with a 22" Norman beauty dish and sock with centre dome in place, filled with a Chimera Video Pro Plus large strip, and rimmed with a Chimera Video Pro medium softbox with Lighttools 20degree Soft Egg Crate from the right all driven with the Norman D24r and Norman IL2500 heads. Background lit with a bare reflector on a Bowens Esprit Gemini 500. Avenue Edmonton April 2010 cover.
 Julie modeling one of the outfits that didn't make the cut. It's one of my favourites from the shoot. Hopefully Nikolas will notice this entry and leave comments as to where all of this clothing is from. Similar lighting to cover but shot with the 70-200/2.8 VR Nikkor.
 Jessica modeling another outfit that didn't make the cut.
 This outfit actually made the cut but with a softer facial expression for Kayla. Jacket by L.A.M.B. from Thread Hill. A scarf from She Matters is being used in the model's hair. And I love the suspenders but don't know where they are from.
 A less weird shot from this set made it to press.
 Another outfit that didn't make it to the magazine.
 The collar on this coat was such a pain. It wouldn't stand for more than a few seconds on its own but I think that Julie made it look as good as it was going to look in photos. It looked great in real life.
 A shot from Craig's Leica M3 and 50mm Leitz Summitar on Ilford Delta 100 processed in stock working solution of Kodak XTOL but then fixed in stale fixer. I should have done a clip test before fixing. A certain someone who was working for my studio had significant loss of working solution when they used it introducing a lot of air into the bottle which I suspect caused the premature failure of the fixer.
Continue reading "2010.03.09: Avenue Spring Fashion Feature" Thursday, February 18. 20102009.09.12: 310-DUMP Franchise PackageI first shot 310-DUMP over five years ago making the company my first commercial client. Before that I had only shot weddings and model and actor portfolio work. I met Greg Kirkwood, founder, president, and CEO, at The Standard when I was shooting an event at the night club. All I am going to say about that meeting was that it was an interesting and late night. All delivered photos shot with the Nikon D3 and either the Nikon 24-70mm F/2.8, the 135mm F/2 Defocus Control Nikkor, or the 70-200mm F/2.8 VR Nikkor version 1. Shoot candids taken by Ethan with a Zeiss Ikon, Zeiss Biogon 35mm F/2 on Kodak Ektar.  Matthew's concept drawing of the interior of the franchise package folder. The booklet pulls out and reveals an unobstructed view of the house in the background. Everything is drawn to scale in relation to how it should look in the actual folder. The concept drawing made the end goal easy to understand but finding a house that was tall enough with enough lawn in front to allow for the proper placement of the elements required to print over the folder was nearly impossible. On top of all of this, because of the amount of space and the shooting angle required, ideally you'd want a south-facing house on a slightly overcast day but with blue sky behind the building. We settled for a nice house that was close enough and Matthew "grew" a fence and lawn and composited the family onto the lawn.
 Matthew's concept drawing of the outside of the folder.
 And a sample page of the interior of the drop-in booklet.
 The photo concepts were meant to appeal to specific customer types who would be likely to use 310-DUMP's services. In this photo, Mike Isaak and Brandy act as the happy couple working on home renovations. Interestingly, 310-DUMP doesn't haul paint or any hazardous wastes but Elizabeth's idea to have the couple covered in paint and Nikolas' careful application of the found acrylic paint helped polish up the look of the shot. The photos were shot to allow as wide an aspect ratio as possible to minimize the amount of height consumed on the web pages they would be used on.
 A franchise owner pepping his workers at the beginning of a new day.
 An engineer and construction workers in front of a construction site.
 Christine Hopaluk and another Matt (I hope that's his name) pose as customer and 310-DUMP employee finishing some paperwork.
 Mother and daughter (who aren't actually mother and daughter) spending time together after booking full service waste pickup with 310-DUMP.
 Most of 310-DUMP's full service residential bookings are made by women so most of the full-service oriented imagery feature women as the customers.
 It's a lot of work getting back up after having settled into the ground for the right angle for a shot so Nabeal got down to have a peek. Of course Ethan had to choose the worst possible moment to snap a photo of us discussing composition.
 The shot of the young couple renovating was made from a slightly higher angle. An adjacent home's white wall provided the necessary fill for this shot.
 Sometimes we find the best camera positions in some of the most unlikely places. Ideally I wanted the shade of a tree right where our models would be but Garth did a great job standing in for one with the Scrim Jim and a blocking screen.
Wednesday, February 17. 20102009.09.15: Blue Willow Fusion Lunch MenuIt seems as though Blue Willow Restaurant has been taking large but cautious steps to revamp their offering. Beginning with the build up of a concession trailer to offer specialized foods and desserts at outdoor special events to participating in the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival, Blue Willow is now open for lunch with some Asian fusion menu options. Well . . . was open for lunch. After checking up on the restaurant it seems as though a curious staffing issue is temporarily preventing lunch serving but official speculation suggests that the lunch menu may once again be available sometime in March. Keep checking the Blue Willow Restaurant website to see when it does. Until then I hope that you'll be satisfied drooling over the photos. All delivered photos shot with Horseman #3, a Horseman L frame camera now owned by Adam Neufeld. Lens used was the Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Film used was Kodak Ektachrome EPP and instant film was Fuji's ISO 100 9x12 stuff. Film processing by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver. Camera and styling assistance, scanning, colour correction, and retouching by Sarah Chung. Later in the shoot, Ethan decided to join us and helped eat. Kitchen and candid photos were shot with the Contax G2 and 35mm F/2 Zeiss Planar on Fuji Pro Z and processed by McBain Camera's Kingsway location. Some of the candids were taken by Sarah.
 It's been a while since I shot these but I'll try my best to describe what's in each photo. This is a chicken breast served on a bed of oriental veggie stir fry with a bit of "Chef Jason's Special Sauce." That's what they told me what I asked them what sauce that was . . . but it was delicious.
 Sweet and sour chicken with a combination of stir fried and steamed vegetables and a side of fried rice. In the background you see the then newly-designed lunch menu. Typically I'd try to shoot with lens axis parallel to the table to maintain subject proportions but I was shooting more for something creative than something more explicit. A small amount of front tilt was applied to get the logo on the menu in focus.
 Take 1 of the breaded pork cutlet.
 Jean felt that the first take of the pork cutlet wasn't descriptive enough and had us shoot from a higher angle. We quickly re-plated, rearranged the table, repositioned some lights and then reshot. While this photo is no longer consistent with the other photos from this shoot I agree that it gives a better representation of the relatively flat pork cutlet and sells the dish better than our original shot.
 Beef steak garnished with onions and lettuce with a side of oriental vegetables. Stan surveyed some of their steak eating customers about which sauce should accompany the steak dish. It seemed as though many serious steak eaters wanted to have HP Sauce with their steak so you get a choice of HP Sauce or a gravy.
 The hands of Thomas (left, restaurant manager) and Jason the chef preparing dishes while we were set up in the VIP room with camera and lighting ready. While all food photography is challenging, Chinese food tends to be especially challenging because of how much of it is fried and because of how much of the food ends up looking brown and in small pieces. It's tasty but not always photogenic so we shoot as quickly as possible after preparation and certain other provisions have to be made to compensate for the food's unphotogenic nature.
Continue reading "2009.09.15: Blue Willow Fusion Lunch Menu" Friday, January 8. 20102009.10.30: Art Gallery of Alberta for Avenue Magazine
In October and December of 2009 I had the privilege of photographing the interior of the new Art Gallery of Alberta for Avenue's sneak peek into the interior to be run in their January issue. Art direction by Paige Weir of Avenue Magazine with direction from the AGA by Sarah Hoyles. Ethan Oblak assisted with the October shoot and Rob Lim assisted with the December visit. Shots were made on the Horseman LE 4x5 chassis on Kodak EPP and Fuji Provia 100F or the Linhof Technikardan 45s on Kodak Portra 160VC. There are eight images that I'd like to discuss but my words are governed by a non-disclosure agreement and since the AGA isn't officially open yet I'll only discuss three of the eleven that were published from this day of shooting. I will try to blog again about these photos once the gallery is open.
Another huge thanks goes out to Curtis Comeau for referring me to Avenue so that I would have the opportunity to shoot this project.
 Shot in October. Still a lot of construction going on in what I believe is the main foyer. This was the Fuji 9x12cm instant proof.  A scaled down scan of the frame delivered to Avenue. I wanted an out of focus foreground element and using an ultrawide lens like the All shot through the Calumet Caltar-II N/Rodenstock Sironar-N 75mm F/4.5 allowed me to exaggerate the size of the foreground glass panels. F/11, Fuji Provia 100F.  Shot with the Horseman LE and the 135/5.6 Caltar-II S/Rodenstock APO Sironar-S. There wasn't enough room to back up further to use the 210/5.6 Symmar-S so I used the 135 and applied a bit of front tilt to shallow the depth of field. I also wanted to keep the parallel lines parallel so I needed to apply rear rise to capture more of the lower part of the frame. However, the camera had to stay at a certain height so that there could be some more of the space visible and the image circle of the lens, while fairly large, has its limits. In the dim light I wasn't able to stop down. The dark areas in the bottom are outside the circle of illumination of the lens. In a way, this was an error on my part. There weas another frame with less vignetting but I found this was the most interesting frame. 1/2s exposure, F/5.6, Kodak Ektachrome EPP.  Fuji instant film proof the next shot. Ethan is keeping the film flat for me.  Shot with the Linhof Technikardan 45s on Kodak Portra 160VC with the Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5, this shot provided an interesting challenge for the film. Had this been shot on slide film we would have lost all shadow detail or the film would have to be overexposed so all highlight detail on the white surfaces and metal would be lost. According to the software densitometer in Silverfast while scanning with the Microtek M1, no areas were blown out. And these are the two photos I have posted from this camera. I purchased the Technikardan a few months ago from legendary photographer Juliana Sohn. She has since moved on to shoot a Leaf digital medium format back on an Alpa Max. Sunday, October 25. 20092009.07.20: Nikolas' [unsubmitted] Contessa makeup artistry shoot
Two months before the shoot date Nikolas informed me that he had intentions of entering the 21st Contessa Awards in the makeup artistry category. I was pleased that he was aware of the time and effort required to pull together the models, materials, and time needed to do this shoot properly and that he was still interested in competing in spite already-established recognition for his work amongst my clients and in some parts of the industry in general. I never pass on an opportunity to work with Nikolas and we immediately started creating our list of models that we wanted to work with for this project. The list included many people that we have worked with before and we would have liked to have worked with them all but scheduling prevented us from having more than a single day of shooting. July 20th was our scheduled shoot day. The competition required a day look, a night look, and a look that could be whatever the makeup artist wanted to do. In the end, we didn't produce a night look from this shoot that we felt was strong enough for submission and while we had other options, Nikolas decided not to submit the photos for the competition and I supported his decision. We'd do better work next year and this time we'd have the ideas for the competition brewing in the backs of our minds until summer 2010. Still, I felt that we created some solid makeup-oriented images even though most shots were with very natural makeup. Furthermore, I felt that my yield from this shoot contained some of the best shots of Julie's face that I have ever shot.
Thanks again to our models Whitney Grace, Julie Gillespie, Alteira Evans, and Stephanie Calihoo, photographers Corey Thompson (Yellowjacket Photography) and Rob Lim (Rob & Lauren Photographers) and set designer/prop master Christina Ignacio-Deines (IDBohemia) for making this possible and also to all of the models who agreed to work with us but we were unable to shoot. We will work together sometime soon.  One of the first shots of the day at the shoot location. Nikolas is about to touch up Julie's makeup and Julie looking hot as usual.  Most people's favourite shot of Julie from the shoot. 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor set to the "2R" setting for spherical aberration de-correction. Shot at F/2, nominal sensitivity of the D3 (ISO 200), and around 1/1000-1/2000s. Almost all shots with t he Nikon D3 were shot with these settings and with this lens. Colour photos all untouched outside of Lightroom 2.x. I wanted to experiment a bit with some colour toning and most people seemed to like the "golden" cast that the deliberate white balance offsetting and slight split toning towards yellow for highlights combined with desaturation gave to the photo.  My favourite shot of Alteira from this set. White reflector held above camera and very close to subject to help balance the backlighting of the sun that provides the rimlighting for this photo.  One of Corey's photos and my favourite photo of Stephanie from this shoot. We only met Stephanie this day. She's one of Alteira's friends. Turns out Justin Poulsen knows her, too. Corey was shooting from a low angle through some grass with the D3 and the 70-200/2.8 VR while I was working Rob's Horseman LE.  An experimental shot using no reflector for fill. The ghosting and overall rendition of the 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor is one of the reasons I still shoot small format digital SLR in spite of the availability of 35mm rangefinders, a digital medium format Rollei system, and numerous large format cameras in my equipment collection.  Nikolas was checking the ground glass of the Horseman to ensure that the camera was seeing what he had envisioned when I told him to pose like he was using the camera. Please, someone shoot a shot like this of me one day or else I'm going to Photoshop my face onto Nikolas' body and it's going to be really weird. Zeiss Ikon, 35/2 Biogon, new Kodak TMax 400 @ 1600 in HC-110, dilution B. Many more photos after the jump. Continue reading "2009.07.20: Nikolas' [unsubmitted] Contessa makeup artistry shoot" 2009.06.26: [Getting lost during an] engagement shoot in the woods
The 2009 wedding shooting year wrapped up for Dong and I at the end of September. I'm still working through some colour and silver halide black and white film from the last few weddings and I came across some photos from Vivian's and Aaron's engagement shoot in the mossy forest introduced to me by Cody Tait and Mike Isaak. I started shooting with the Zeiss Ikon at first and then backtracked to pick up my Sinar X and subsequently got lost. Not just a little lost . . . so lost that I had to follow the noise to the high way and then find my way back in, eating up about half an hour of daylight. It was an interesting experience and we got our shots but I'm definitely not wearing sandals into a forest again.
 I eventually found the couple and they were about to leave for a washroom break but they had written me a note: "We are going to the washroom and we have your camera."  This shot gives you a sense of the atmosphere in which the engagement photos were shot. The moss is several inches deep, there's very little direct sunlight entering the forest even when it isn't overcast, and the background consists of muted colours but with high contrast between sky, tree trunks, and moss. Shot on the Zeiss Ikon with the 35/2 Biogon ZM on Fuji Provia 100F push processed to ISO 400 by ABC Photocolour in Vancouver.  This 100% crop of the previous frame performed with the Nikon Coolscan 5000 gives you an idea of the grain structure. It's very well-managed and I find it aesthetically pleasing. I intend to try pushing this film to ISO 800 the next time I shoot it and I will try this with 4x5 sheets as well.  One of the frames shot on a sheet of Ilford HP5+ pushed to ISO 3200 in HC-110 dilution B. For weeks I have been trying to find film and developer combinations to produce film grain that I could resolve using the Microtek M1 scanner and this was the first frame in which I managed to do so. Now the majority of my large format black and white sheet film is push processed. Monday, October 12. 20092009.08.21: Mural Mosaic for Avenue Magazine
As one Avenue art director moves to Vancouver another is moved back from Vancouver to take his place. Curtis Comeau recommended me to Paige Weir during his meeting with her sometime back but we were all too busy to meet up until shooting had started for the October issue of the magazine. By the time we met, fortunately there was still a story to shoot. I was commissioned to shoot for a story about a company called Mural Mosaic based on an acreage north of St. Albert. The full story is available on Avenue's website. In spite of having to fight with clouds when using the Sinar X and the 75/4.5 for a formal group shot, the shoot went fairly quickly. Most of the shots were exposed with existing light. Ethan Oblak who is spending a University of Waterloo Engeering co-op term with me also snapped some photos, one of which was published. Paige was kind enough to credit him also in this issue.
 This image appeared to be one of our art director's favourites, appearing twice in the magazine. It was certainly one of my favourites from the shoot and with this image and some of the other photos shot for this story I started noticing that a lot of my work is created from lower camera angles. This time, the Nikon D3 and 70-200/2.8 VR were use. I was lying on the grass for this shot.  One of the few shots created with anything more than existing light. Depicted here is Lewis Lavoie in one of his studios. The Bowens Explorer and a Quad X head drive a Chimera Pancake lantern to subtly kick up the shadow areas and balance some of the backlighting.  Paige requested some detail shots of some of the work being done and some artist tools. In the end, I believe that only one detail shot was used and Ethan shot it. Hahah.  Ethan's photo that was published. Shot with a Zeiss Ikon on a late pre-APO Aspherical Leica Summicron 90/2 on what I believe is Superia 400 film. Scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED.  I happened to have brought two film range finder cameras with me. While Phil Alain and Paul Lavoie were setting up the area for a photo I snapped a few frames. A frame similar to this one was published. Shot with the Contax G2 and the Zeiss 35/2 Planar on Fuji Pro Z 800 film rated at ISO 640.  One of the photos that didn't make it to press. 2009.05.05: Avenue Magazine Edmonton's Style Q&A with Sam Abouhassan
This day's shoot for Avenue magazine was my first shoot for an editorial publication. I met with Rob Machida and our subject, the renowned tailor Sam Abouhassan before shooting to look at his store and to discuss ideas for the shoot. Rob knew that we needed a photo for a double page spread and we were also shooting with the intent to generate a few options for the cover. Admittedly, nothing went as I had expected (including the issue for which we thought we'd be shooting) but after seeing the published piece I was pleased with the finished product and how Rob put the design of the pages together. Rob was there to do art direction and Nikolas Seyhatheb imaged Sam by helping to piece together some of his outfits after Sam had picked out the major items. Nikolas also handled hair and makeup allowing me to deliver the photos unedited save for a minor eye tweak and the removal of an electrical socket in one photo. Sean Traynor, Corey Thompson, and for a short time, Lillian Patz, were on set to help out with the photography end of shooting.
I brought along my Rollei 6008AF w/ Phase One back and Schneider Xenotar and also the 75/4.5 Calumet Caltar-N II and the 210/5.6 Schneider Symmar-S but all photos selected for publication were shot with the Nikon D3 and either the 24-70/2.8 AF-S Nikkor or the 135/2 Defocus Controll Nikkor. Shots with the 135 were done at ISO 1600 or above and still looked really clean.  Our last shot this day. Sam's tailoring room in the back of his main floor Commerce Place retail front had a lot of interesting artefacts including this wall of thread spools. Lighting was mixed with a longer shutter speed to allow some ambient fluorescent lighting to "contaminate" the purer daylight-balanced light two Bowens Esprit Gemini 500's. One used with the Chimera Pancake to fill in shaodws and another with the Calumet Illuma Medium to key light and contour Sam and to help separate him from the wall.  Part of the first look that we did this day. I used my Bowens Explorer to drive two Quad X heads. One was used with a Chimera small strip and 40degree Lighttools Soft Egg Crate for separation light and the other with a Calumet Illuma Medium for key. Filled with a white reflector. I considered swapping the Illuma Medium for a Large but thought that too much light would spill into the background area. I wish we had more room to back up and light with but we were lighting from the entrance of the store and Sam and the mannequins were already as far from the back wall as we could get them. A photo from this set was chosen as the cover of the July/August issue of Avenue Edmonton.  Another simply lit shot with a single Bowens Esprit Gemini driving a Calumet Illuma Medium soft box with a Lighttools 40degree Soft Egg Crate to prevent spillage.  I was concerned that we didn't give Rob and Avenue a solid cover option so I discussed with Sam the possibility of a reshoot at a different location. Sam agreed and felt it was important that I had created a cover option so we booked some time to shoot at his home after business hours. We experimented with some of the locations in his gorgeous home on Saskatchewan Drive but finally settled on shooting in his mud room because I liked the light gradient cast against the wall leading to his basement. Light was enhanced with a Bowens Esprit Gemini monolight with a Calumet Illuma Medium and 40degree Soft Egg Crate to help spread the light around a wall facing our subject. The exposure time was pretty long even at ISO 1600 and F/2 so this shot was shot with camera mounted on the tripod. Immediately after the first day of shooting I vented to Corey over supper with some of my frustrations from the first day of shooting. There were some judgement calls that I later realized that I should have made but failed to. I should have insisted on a different location and I should have recognized that the subject would be more comfortable shooting in a different location. I am glad that we were able to reshoot and will know better for next time. Shooting in Sam's home was so easy. The subject was fully relaxed and we weren't distracted by the high volume of pedestrian traffic crossing outside his store. Surprisingly a photo from the first day of shooting made it to the cover. To be completely honest I was a bit disappointed by the selection at first but after seeing the finished layout for the cover I was very impressed with what Rob managed to pull off. This issue would be Rob's last with Avenue. Shortly after completing this issue of the magazine Rob relocated to Vancouver with his fiance. A huge thank you to Curtis Comeau for introducing me to Avenue. At time of blog posting, Curtis has referred me to two Avenue art directors. Curiously, as a photographer competing for the same market share, Curtis has done a better job promoting me than I have done for myself and I will always be grateful for that. =) Tuesday, July 28. 20092009.07.11: Leanna North of Bon Accord
Jason Hafso had an iPhone pic of an abandoned house north Bon Accord he cleverly captioned "Wanna buy a house? LOL" When I saw the photo I immediately asked him for details of its location and after doing his headshot he quickly mapped out approximately where this site was and some nearby landmarks. As usual, I scouted the location with Leanna and I kept some lighting and camera equipment in the car in case it was a suitable shoot location. I shot three new rolls of business cards and several large format frames. Below are a couple favourites.
 I scouted out the basement while Leanna changed in the car. There was a window that opened up to waist high grass outside that I immediately wanted to work with so I set up a Calumet Illuma Medium/Plume Wafer 100 softbox with 40degree Lighttools Soft Egg Crate to minimize spillage off the 7foot ceiling. Shot with the Sinar X and the Calumet Caltar-S II 300/5.6 at F/8, 1/125s on Fujichrome Velvia 100F. The lens yielded extremely shallow depth of field which I couldn't achieve on small format on which I shot some of the new business cards.  This is the third of the three buildings on this abandoned homestead. The building the fence in front of it is elegantly decayed and this area backs onto a rolling canola field and it's all framed by poplar forests. I wanted to take in as much of the location as possible without it distracting from the real subject. Shooting 4x5 I was able to use the ultra wide 75/4.5 Calumet Caltar-N/Rodenstock Grandagon lens at F/4.5 and 1/125s and without any tilt or swing maintain very shallow depth of field without anything more than perspective distortion.
Wednesday, July 8. 20092009.06.12: Residential architecture - 9134 Valleyview Drive
Lesa Patermann, a realtor I photographed last year, passed my name along to her colleague Jason Hafso. Jason had an interesting home he was entrusted to sell - it was a home built in the '50's and then redeveloped by Katherine Ball as her family's primary residence. Jason was in a hurry to get these photos shot because he was hoping to have his listing go live within a few days. My preferred medium for shooting interiors is 4x5 film and turn around for colour film is about a week to ten days so I brought along the Nikon D3 and shot some temporary photos that Jason could use in the listing before the film was scanned. We did a walk through the evening before to get a feel for the light in each room and to develop a schedule for the best times to shoot each room. Most rooms would be shot best with direct sunlight entering the windows, some were best shot around dusk, and some were not affected by outdoor ambient light and these could be shot after sun down or whenever there was a free moment between shots with more finicky lighting.
From the moment I realized how serious he was about getting good architectural photos done for this listing I had high expectations for both the property and for this realtor. Jason didn't disappoint me. Jason is one of the most motivated and hardworking realtors that I have met and in spite of the realization that multimillion dollar homes like these are much more involved listings than homes appealing to first time home buyers and the fact that listings like these scare most realtors (perhaps including Jason), I was pleased to see that he was going to do his absolute best to make sure that this listing was done right and would really stand out amongst a surprisingly large number of multi-million dollar homes listed in Edmonton. All photos shot with the Horseman LE and the Calumet Caltar-N II/Rodenstock APO Grandagon 75/4.5 in a Copal #0 on Fuji Pro-S 160, metered to ISO 100, and scanned with the Microtek Artixscan M1. Jason, and the designer her family were instrumental in creating these photos. Thank you.  This kitchen is among the most beautiful kitchens I have seen in this city. Thin granite countertops (I think), uniquely-shaped centre bay sink, and what I believe is a custom face for the refrigerator to allow it to better match the rest of the kitchen's colour scheme. Shot around 5pm, all existing light and with lights in the hallway turned on.  The living room. It's a great meeting space but I experienced a lot of difficulty getting my shot in this room because of deep the room was thus creating a lot of natural light fall off from the window to the end of the room furthest from the window. I wanted to retain natural light from the outside but I still wanted the viewer to have a feel of what the interior lighting was like. I ended up using the Bowens Explorer and two heads with dish reflectors to pump light into the wall furthest from the window that's right beside the camera. If I recall correctly, the wall/fireplace area was built out of tindelstone or a similar stone that had a warm tone to it that would help the daylight balanced flash match the daylight-washed tungsten interior light of the room.  We struggled with a large and stubborn cloud that wouldn't go away for almost an hour before capturing this shot. During this part of the day I wish I had two cameras - one that I could set up in preparation for this shot and another that I could continue shooting the rest of the home with. I used some tilt movement to shallow the depth of field. I wanted to showcase the faucet and the edge of the bath tub while giving the viewer a sense of the light that enters the master bedroom bathroom around this time. The blinds are closed slightly and I believe that most of what you see of the outside is actually a reflection off the top surfaces of the blinds. This bathroom is easily the most beautiful bathroom I have ever seen.  The rest of the master bedroom ensuite bathroom.  The master bedroom. A lot of the home's furniture and accents are inspired by South American designs from the designer's term in South America. Just left of this frame is a cozy nook in the wall.  The balcony off the hallway leading to the master bedroom. Balconies are often awkward areas to shoot and this was no exception. Large evergreens peeked into the frame and the balcony wasn't as deep as I'd like it to be for setting up my camera and the patio door opening to the balcony didn't open the way I needed it to be ideal for setting up the camera but it worked out in the end. Rather than a "this house has a balcony" type photo, I wanted the viewer to feel as though they were lounging on the balcony on a lazy summer afternoon.  I'm still not as good at shooting exteriors as I would like to but this back yard night scene is one of my favourites from the shoot. The exposure time at F/16 and ISO 100 was approximately one minute. I wanted just a bit of light in the sky and I wanted the viewer to imagine how cool it woudl be to host a social gathering in this court yard. We lit some tea lights for the lanterns and turned on the little lights in the trees. Then we waited. Continue reading "2009.06.12: Residential architecture - 9134 Valleyview Drive" Thursday, July 2. 20092009.06.08: Julie's film test
Julie is my favourite blonde model.
I have worked with her extensively in commercial shoots for Derk's and Bridal Fantasy but rarely do we get together to do personal projects. I feel that Nikolas kind of pushed us to do this one in a tighter time frame than I had hoped but I am still glad that we shot. He's using Julie as one of his models for his Contessa entries and I intend to shoot the photographs on 4x5 film. To reduce the uncertainty, I intend to test as many of his models as I can with as many different film types as I can to get a better feel for which films work best for which models. I tested Portra 160VC, Provia 100F, Astia 100F, Velvia 100F, and Pro-S 160. Unfortunately, those were the large film stocks that I had in the fridge and there is absolutely no colour sheet film in stock anywhere at any of the Edmonton camera stores. I shot all of the film frames this day and Nikolas handled the D3 and the 70-200/2.8 VR. I feel that his shots overall were more successful than mine. I'm kicking myself for not putting more into this shoot, subconciously treating it as just a film test when instead I should have been savouring this opportunity to work closely with an accomplished international model and an accomplished international makeup artist/haristylist/fashion stylist. I'll make it up to you guys. I promise. Julie represented by Sabrina Notte. Photos shot in a privately owned and maintained natural reserve scouted by Cody Tait and Mike Isaak. Thank you. Favourites posted up front. Additional images after the jump. One of Nikolas' shots. I asked Julie to find a semi-comfortable spot to lie down on. Working with the longer lens for the lower shots had its benefits. Furthermore, being able to get lower with a small format or medium format camera as opposed to shooting with a 4x5 monorail on uneven ground also had its benefits.  I was preparing the Horseman LE while Nikolas spotted an opportune moment and started working with Julie by some trees. The sun had lowered to just the right level.  I wasn't sure how to direct our for this shot so she just did her own thing. Hahah . . . I think I was pretty lost for most of the day working over technical details in my head. Still, one of my favourite shots of Julie. After scanning the Pro-S frame I contacted the new owner of the Horseman LE and the Calumet Caltar-S II 210/5.6 that with respect to exotic bokeh and flare he may have just hit the jackpot. Continue reading "2009.06.08: Julie's film test" 2009.04.16 Whitney Grace's Headshot
Rina Chan and Anthony Chan of Infused Studios referred Whitney to me. This Red Deer-based actress couldn't find a suitable photographer in her municipality. Her agent suggested a photographer in Calgary and she also considered flying out to Vancouver to get her shots done there. It was my first headshot session of the year and I feel that we saved her a longer trip out and judging from where she's used the photos already I think she was satisfied with the results. Hair, makeup, and styling by Nikolas. Here's a small sampling of what we felt worked. Nikon D3 and 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor used except where noted.
 In spite of other headshot photographers calling a full bleed headshot "tacky", I prefer to create some space naturally in the photograph for the actor's name if he or she decides to put it in as opposed to the recent trend for photographers to make the actual photograph a relatively small proportion of an 8x10 print or to add black or "sloppy" (their words, not mine) edges digitally for the photographs.  We found a spot with good backlight and a time where the sun would enter into the 135/2 DC Nikkor at just the right angle to give me the contrast that I wanted with minimal adjustment. Here I'm holding a 42" circular reflector in my left hand in front and slightly above the model's head and shooting with the D3 in my right at close range. Aperture set at F/2.  We had a number of smiling shots which we felt were important for Whitney because she her smile is so natural and her teeth are absolutely flawless and perfectly aligned. Smiling shots for actors were never my favourite so I'm compromising by posting this photo.  I shot a roll of Fujipress/Superia 800 through the Zeiss Ikon. I wanted to see what kind of funky flare I would get the 90/2.8 Elmarit. I realize that this wouldn't be a headshot candidate but I knew that we already had the shot on the other camera. 2007.06.20: Getting reacquainted with large format film
I doubt that the date in this entry's title is correct but it's my guess as to when these photos were taken. It would be years before the film would see a lab, strangely, I couldn't have been more pleased what the heat and radiation damage has added to these photos. It was unexpected. Had I predicted that there would be so much loss in sensitivity I would have requested that the film be push processed two stops. Fuji NPS 160 metered at ISO 100 and shot on Gordon Henderson's Linhof Technika V (I think) 4x5 and I believe a Voigtlandar APO-Lanthar 210/4.5 with some tilt and swing movement. Leanna, as usual, is my test subject for new film and cameras. It brought a smile to my face to see these photos again having totally forgotten about them.
 Shot in the road next to my apartment which, coincidentally, is just across the alley from my studio.  A slightly tighter crop. Some vertical displacement used to prevent perspective distortion and some tilt movement used. |
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Below you'll find a one-sided discussion of the results of several hours of planning spread over several weeks. We reviewed, or rather, Paige reviewed and I suggested numerous models for this shoot and she finally settled on three beautiful and extraordinary models who had the unlucky fate of having to meet us early at the studio with two of the models coming from out of town and shooting with us for a solid nine hours. Most of these photos didn't make it to the magazine but you can see low resolution versions of the files in the article on 
