Friday, August 26, 2011

It never hurts to ask.

A few weeks ago I was at the Cowichan Sportsplex with my son Kole, experimenting with some lighting arrangements and just checking out the scene in general. I had wanted to get started on doing photos of athletes, but not just during a game or event. I wanted to have the behind the scenes stuff.
It ended up being my lucky day. After I had packed up my lighting gear and camera Kole and I just played in the playground. We were almost about to leave when I noticed a very serious looking athlete roll in. I knew she must be a fairly elite level judging by the top-end equipment she was using. Then her coach arrived. I was intrigued. I didn't really want to go up to the lady and ask if I could take her picture but when her coach was there with her I felt I (along with my 3 year old son) would seem less of a threat :)
So after their workout was over Kole and I went over and introduced ourselves and they were happy to have some photos taken.
The coach (Peter Lawless) asked me if I knew who this athlete was. I sheepishly said no. He then went on to tell me she has set nine world records on the track and her name is Michelle Stilwell (http://www.mikeystilwell.com/).
Later Michelle asked if I'd be interested in coming back and doing some action shots of her and she'd wear her Team Canada kit. I was not going to turn this down!
So a few weeks passed and today Michelle was back in Duncan after flying all over North America doing speeches, PR stuff, etc...

I managed to get a few motion blur shots in focus, which is not very easy, at least for me. I like showing some motion for sports, otherwise you end up with a photo that looks like it could have been taken with the subject standing still. That to me is boring, unless it is a portrait, and that doesn't need to be blurred. That is unless it's a portrait of me, then it might actually look better...
The shot above has a lot of blur, the one below has much less, but you can still see a little blur from the spinning wheels.

Today Michelle was really working on her 100m sprints. After each run, she would stop and talk it over with Peter.


It was pretty hot out for this part of the world. 29 Celsius for Duncan is really warm. After the speed drills Michelle had time to just relax and tell me more about how she got into the sport. I really like to get people into this relaxed state as you can get some nice photos that don't look posed. The photo at the very top is Michelle just about to start munching on a bunch of blueberries (on her lap). It's always interesting to hear stories of how people get to where they are. 

And this was just one more person who I met just because I had my camera with me and I wasn't afraid to ask. I wish Michelle all the best in her Olympic dreams and I'm sure this is a name I'll never forget!


Friday, August 19, 2011

Going Public

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday while driving through town. I ended up behind a public transit bus featuring an ad for the Lighthouse Mortgage group - a photo that I took. Unfortunately my camera was in the back of my van so I couldn't grab a photo. Today I made sure to have the camera at my side as I was in town just in case I spotted the bus again. And sure enough, I found it. I just had to catch up to it and wait for it to turn north-bound so I could get the right light on the back of the bus and get a shot slightly from the side all while carefully adhering to the laws of the road. Maybe I bent the rules a little when I raised my camera for almost one second to get this photo...
The photo shoot for this was a couple months ago on a windy day. I remember weighing down my monster lighting stand and hoping the gusts would not topple it over and destroy my speedlite and 60" lighting umbrella. 60" umbrellas really love the wind... The original shot is below.

 

And in other somewhat "public" related matters, I had an editorial/news type photo in the paper a couple days ago. I was just on my way to the beach with my son when fire trucks raced by and we saw the plume of smoke in the direction they were travelling. Since we were already going this way I decided to pull over and take a couple shots. Luck for the Cowichan Valley Citizen newspaper as they didn't have their staff reports on the scene. Good news is nobody was injured. Just a silly mistake leading to a roasted RV...


So with all this high-level publicity in the big town of Duncan will I become a famous photographer. Nope. But it is something to ad to my portfolio.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Talkin shop.

Lately I've been thinking of some commercial sort of shots I'd like to try in a shop setting. I wanted to do something that looked more interesting than what you'd expect to see in your average car dealership shop. Lucky for me, my friend Todd has a Chrysler dealership here in Duncan and he was keen on letting me do as I liked as long as I didn't cause any trouble. As you might imagine, there are countless ways to get into trouble in an automotive shop, not to mention getting injured. There are power tools everywhere, splatters of oil and fluids here and there and big lifts with heavy vehicles being raised and lowered when needed.

So I promised to be good and made sure to communicate with the mechanics of what I was doing and to be sure that my gear was not going to be in their way.
Like most shops, the doors had nice big windows to let a lot of natural light in and there were big high pressure sodium lights above which just happened to be balanced to daylight Kelvin (warmth) level to make things easier for me.

One mechanic asked me why I was taking the photos of a shop and that he thought it was a rather boring subject. I told him that was the challenge. Make something really normal look interesting. Hopefully I met my goal. In the photo above you can see a nice tropical house plant riding shotgun in the passenger seat. The customer was having cooling troubles. Not good when you have a plant as a passenger...

Three of these photos were taken with a flash (speedlite in a softbox) to create a bit more contrast and detail. Two used natural (ambient) light to capture the mood. Here's the challenge: guess which are lit with flash and which are lit with ambient.


Monday, August 1, 2011

Oh Baby!

It looks like my photography is taking me in a couple distinct directions these days. I've been busy with weddings recently and I love that. There are so many great photos that come out of a wedding.
And now baby/maternity photos are going to be a significant part of what I do. And that is fantastic! I love the emotion that can be captured between a newborn and family. There is a lot that can be artistically too.
I've been doing a lot of maternity shots of Nina lately and baby shots of Rhys but now I'm partnering with the Cowichan Midwifery Group to do studio and outdoor shots for their (and my) clients at their great new location in downtown Duncan.
Kate and Selina (the owners of Cowichan Midwifery) recently purchased a fantastic character building and completely renovated it. It is honestly my favorite building in town. It looks great on the outside, being all-brick and quite classy, but inside it is just incredible. It is like nothing else in town. I will be using a studio space downstairs for maternity, newborn, mom and baby type photos. When weather permits, there is a very nice new garden courtyard for outdoor shots.
To top it off, Kate and Selina are two fantastic people (and midwives) to work with. They are super friendly and down to earth and they delivered my sons, Kole and Rhys so they are almost like family now.
For convenience, I'll be doing these 1 hour photo sessions on Sundays so most people are more likely to be available. There are also a number of great coffee shops within a one-block radius for clients to enjoy before their appointments.

Bookings can be made by contacting Cowichan Midwifery (Matraea Centre) at 250-597-0085.