Here’s the final video. This is the first video in which I also produced the music. I dug back over 20 years to my high school days when I used to write electronic music and dusted off those rusty skills to put together an instrumental track to accompany the video. After watching the video, check out the 3 questions to unlock your inner soul artist.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

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2011 was a big one for me. I learned a lot of new things and worked with many fantastic people. This was the year I took my first serious steps into the world of video production. This year, I plan to continue that work to expand my high definition video capabilities and skills. I also plan to revisit music production, something that my passionate hobby over 20 years ago. I find that my work with the amazing Laura Hollick, who is my partner in so many ways, has allowed me to dovetail all of my creative pursuits and give them direction, purpose and outlet.

Finally, I’d like to present a video collage showing some of the results of some of the many photo shoots that I did during 2011. It was great fun sorting through my archive to pull out these images. Just like last year, I want to thank everyone who entrusted me with the task of capturing a lasting image. I’m looking forward to working with you all again soon!

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We shot all of this at “Golden Hour,” which is that magical period just before sunset when everything looks like a fairy tale. Unfortunately, because of cloud cover, golden hour didn’t materialize in quite the striking way it usually does at this time of year. However, it was still a good time to shoot. When it’s a little overcast, the brightness of foreground and sky are close enough at this time of day so you can get some nice sky details in your backgrounds rather than boring white.

The video is a visual poem. It was fun shooting this, because it really challenged me to find new and interesting ways to frame shots and move the camera. This was the first attempt at using our new Blackbird DSLR camera stabilizer. It was a challenging test. The Blackbird has a piece that dangles down beneath the camera. That piece has a crossbar on it. While moving through the field, the crossbar would constantly touch or impact on grasses and other plants, often making the shots waver unpredictably. In the end, because we didn’t need a lot of footage, it wasn’t a problem. However, my arm was so numb after holding this stabilized rig steady for about an hour, I could barely operate the camera for the regular photos! Using this thing regularly is going to make my left bicep humongous.

Admittedly, I’m relatively new at shooting and editing video, but today’s tools make both so easy and intuitive. It wasn’t hard to get a result that we were both happy with.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Feel free to watch this over at Youtube in HD if that is more to your liking.

Here are the cover and the artistic shot that we also took the same day.

To see how Laura used these things, run on over to her blog and have a look.

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Millions of tiny dramas are happening every day in New York City. Turn your lens in any direction, focus on even the smallest fragment, and you’re bound to capture them.

Shot with Canon 5D MkII with Hartblei 65mm f3.5 Super-Rotator. You can view it in HD on Youtube.

Music: Life with Lights by Ballerina Black – from www.musicalley.com

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We brought in hair and makeup artist Tim Wilkins to help prepare Laura for the shoot. He did a great job creating a subtle, shimmering and almost elfish look to integrate her silver wig and silver leaf dress.

Once Tim was done with the hair and makeup, Laura and I hopped in cab and headed midtown and into the madness. Anyone who’s been there knows that it’s a total zoo at all hours of day and night. We quickly scouted the area and staked out some sidewalk for our shoot.

I wanted to show the very famous billboards and neon in the background, but allow a close crop that would put the focus on Laura. Shooting from a low angle allowed this to happen. I chose a low shutter speed (1/30) to slightly blur the action around her, and a wide angle lens (24mm) to create some slightly supernatural drama. The wide aperture of f/2.8 created the shallow-ish depth of field effect to separate her from the background as much as possible, but because the lens is wide, the background is still distinguishable. As you might know, the wider your lens, the harder it is to get really shallow depth of field. That was fine though, since I wanted to keep Times Square recognizable as our setting.

The general lighting of the scene was amply provided by the bright billboards all around, and I set them to be slightly over-exposed. I didn’t want the contents of the signs to be too distracting. Over-exposing them slightly allowed them to appear mostly white, with some minor details in them that weren’t terribly distinguishable. All of this meant that Laura was in silhouette, so I added a fill light to make her pop. I set up my trusty little Vivitar 283 flash up high on a light stand and put a diffusing lens in front of it to soften it a bit. With such bright backlighting and no modeling light to preview the foreground, it was like shooting in the dark. I could only see her dark form against the bright background in the viewfinder. I trusted my camera’s autofocus to keep Laura in focus, and just posed her based on her silhouetted shape.

We shot for about half an hour. I didn’t think that our little photo shoot would create even the tiniest stir amidst all of the madness of Times Square, but I was wrong. We amassed a pretty-good sized audience, who mostly stood behind me. Often, people wanted to pose with photos with Laura and ask us questions.

It was a little distracting, but also fun to think that we added something to the experience of a few New York City visitors. When we finished shooting, I was surprised by a loud round of applause that broke out behind us! It was quite a night. Here’s the final image we selected from the shoot.

Here’s another image I shot after I was sure we’d gotten what we’d intended to shoot. I experimented by putting on a super-wide lens (12mm) and moved the camera during the long exposure. I still used the flash to sort of freeze a portion of the action. I like the vibrant, semi-abstract feel of this one.

We also shot some video to promote Laura’s Soul Art® Certification program.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

If you’re interested, read more about the Soul Art® Certification program.

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Here are some of my photos of the Standard Hotel and the High Line.

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Here was a chance for me to combine my love of traveling to hot tropical climates with my love of capturing emotion and beauty. I didn’t want to provide typical wedding photography, so I pledged to myself that I would seek out opportunities to do things that were different and fun and would offer Rachel and Blair a variety of unique photos.

The first opportunity came up early. I had brought a waterproof camera bag, so I could shoot at the beach and in the water without worrying about saltwater and sand wrecking the camera. I saddled up my old Canon 5D with a 24mm lens and headed into the water with Rachel, Blair and a bunch of their friends. Here are a couple of photos from that sunny day in the sea.



The beach really was spectacular, with clean blue skies and azure water. I really wanted to see what it would look like early in the morning, which is why I got up at 5:45am the second day there and made the trek down to the shore. I filmed a little video of the sunrise to share. But, my real reason to be there was to scout out the location for what I imagined would be some beautiful photos of the couple. Sure enough, the first golden hour of the day provided perfect light for shooting romantic portraits. A couple of days later, I persuaded Blair and Rachel to join me at the beach for a casual session.



There were other fun events during the week too. Rachel had a bit of a bachelorette party on the beach, where she had to complete some fun and silly tasks like drawing a portrait of a stranger, and then selling it to him. She also had to retrieve drinks from the bar with a seashell tucked between her knees.



Finally, the day of the big ceremony arrived. I thought it would be fun to do a short photo session with the bride and her bridesmaids on the beach while they were all dressed up. The girls were game for it, of course. As we baked in the sun and midday heat during the short walk to the beach, it was fun to see Rachel get plenty of admiring stares and comments from supportive guests. We took a few photos, and then I hustled back to the lobby, where the guys were sequestered, waiting for the big moment. I took a few photos of them, and then went back to meet up with the girls again. There were some tense moments, broken by occasional shenanigans and imitations of the Queen. Eventually, the wedding planner arrived, and led us through the hallways of the hotel to where the ceremony was to begin. On cue, Rachel and her bridesmaids descended the stairs from the lobby. Understandably, Rachel was nervous. But as her dad escorted out into the sun and to the gazebo where Blair was waiting, her joy in the moment was irrepressible.

The ceremony was all in Spanish, led by a smiling Mexican official, and loosely translated by one of the groomsmen. It was done quite quickly, and everyone celebrated with smiles and high fives, as the newly married couple danced down the steps of the gazebo.



Later that evening, at the resort’s steakhouse, the bride and groom hosted a reception. As the gorgeous Caribbean dusk gave way to night, there were laughs, dancing, and the occasional joyful tear.



Finally, the happy couple indulged me with one final photo shoot in the spectacular lobby of the hotel. I had wanted to do this shot since first seeing the rich decor and the magnificent chandelier lit up at night.

It was incredible fun to work with Rachel and Blair. It’s not hard to see that they’re made for each other, and I was honored to be able to capture this important milestone in their lives together. My week with them and their tight-knit family and friends was enough to convince me that I should break my “no weddings” rule more often. If you’d like to talk to me about shooting your destination wedding, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you.

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I just got back from a fantastic trip shooting in Playa del Carmen. I went to the beach at 5:45 one morning to check out the pre-dawn light and to see what the sunrise was like. I brought my camera and recorded the sunrise, because I had a feeling it might be kind of spectacular. Here’s what I brought back.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

The music in the video is Sol y la Luna by Criz from Music Alley.

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NOTE: Our appointment to shoot doesn’t need to be before April 30.  You just have to book and confirm it before then.

Why such a big discount?

I think improv is a life-changing artform. I know that because it changed my life. I want to do what I can to promote improv and the amazing people who embrace it. The improv community has been so instrumental to my success as a photographer. This is my way of saying thanks.

What do I get?

The package comes with a headshot photo shoot. We’ll shoot headshots of you in about three different outfits. From this shoot, you’ll choose two final images for touchups and color corrections. I’ll provide these images in high res and web resolution JPG format, as well as a layout that you can print at 8×10 to hand out with your resume. If you’d like to book professional hair and makeup, that’s $100 extra.

Not an improviser?

If you’re not an improviser, maybe this is a reason for you to get started? Sign up for some improv classes and you’ll be eligible for this discount. Some of my favorite people in the world run improv classes at:

• Impatient Theatre Company
• Bad Dog Theatre Company
• Second City Training Centre Toronto
• The Staircase Theatre Hamilton

Yes, and!

If you’d like more information about booking a session, please fill out the form below.

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The Eee Slate EP121 hardware

The Asus Eee Slate EP121 is a beautiful piece of kit that seems to be tailor-made for mobile photo professionals.

The device itself is beautiful. It’s got a brilliant 12.1″ LED-backlit 1280×800 screen, which is protected by a sheet of Gorilla Glass. This screen is pretty special, because not only is it capacitive multi-touch, but it also includes a built-in pressure-sensitive Wacom digitizer. The screen is surrounded by a narrow aluminum bezel, with very thin speaker grills on either side. There’s a small grill for the built-in microphone. There’s a tiny webcam lens in the black border around the screen. There’s a half moon-shaped button on one end of the device. This button activates the Aero Flip 3D feature in Windows 7. Other buttons include a volume rocker, a sliding power switch, a button to activate the on-screen keyboard, and another slider to lock or enable automatic screen orientation. There are two USB 2.0 ports, a mini-HDMI port, an SD card slot, as well as headphone and microphone jacks. Inside the device is a Core i5 470UM processor at 1.33GHz, Bluetooth 3.0 and wifi networking (b/g/n). I chose the model that comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and 64GB Intel SSD. There’s another model with 32GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, but those limited specs would pretty much cripple the pre-loaded Windows 7 Home Premium.

Included accessories

The EP121 comes with the necessary Wacom pen, along with a nib removal tool and a bundle of several spare nibs. There’s also a small and flat Bluetooth keyboard, powered by two (included) AAA batteries. The keyboard appears to be made by Microsoft, but is branded by Asus. The included power brick is quite small and white, and to my delight includes a USB port for charging devices. The best of the included accessories is the protective sleeve, which is open on the sides to allow the air vents to breathe, but flips closed to protect the screen. It can also be folded backwards so the EP121 can stand up on a table when you’re using the keyboard, and has a loop for storing the pen. There are also some flip-out panels on this sleeve that will allow you to prop it up in either horizontal or vertical orientations at the correct angle for pen use.

Using the Eee Slate EP121

The general impression of this machine is that it’s rock solid. It’s built very solidly with no flex; it feels quite rigid. Although at 2.56 lbs, it would be considered light for a laptop computer, it feels extremely substantial in the hands. I wouldn’t want to hold it with one hand for a prolonged period of time. I found the best way to hold it is to cradle it on my left forearm and use the pen with my right hand.

Speaking of the pen, this is the feature I was most excited to use. I tested it first with the included ArtRage program, which is quite a neat little painting/drawing simulator. The touch sensitivity worked beautifully in ArtRage, allowing nuanced and natural drawing directly on the screen. I was more excited, however, to try it out in Photoshop CS5. It didn’t take long to install CS5 on the EP121. Photoshop loaded pretty quickly. I’m growing to love the quick and silent performance of the SSD (if not its limited storage space). Here’s where I ran into problems. When I tried touched the screen lightly with the brush tool, it immediately made a large circular blotch. Uh oh. Touch sensitivity was clearly not working. This was exactly like using a mouse, and completely negated the usefulness of the pen. I fiddled around with Photoshop’s settings for a while with no success getting it to recognize touch input. As usual, I turned to the Internet for answers. I found help at this site. After many failed attempts with different versions of Wacom’s drivers, I found that an elderly 5.0 release from the Asian Wacom site worked brilliantly. With the correct drivers installed, Photoshop CS5 responds smoothly and quickly to touch sensitive pen input.

[UPDATE: The pen drivers from the Asian Wacom site would stop working after resuming from Hibernation. I uninstalled them and installed the Wacom pen drivers for the Fujitsu T4410 tablet. Touch is working, but the computer hasn't hibernated yet, so I'll let you know how it goes...]

A lack of proper drivers is not all that’s wrong with the EP121′s pen input, unfortunately. The pen included with the EP121 seems to be the cheapest possible Wacom pen. It doesn’t even have the little rocker switch on the side, which is essential for natural tablet use. On my old Bamboo tablet, and my new Wireless Intuos4, I use one side of this switch to activate the “hand” to drag the canvas around on the screen, and the other side of the switch to right-click. Without the switch, you need access to the physical keyboard to press the space bar to activate the hand. Apparently, you can buy a Wacom or a third-party pen with this switch to use with the EP121, but come on Asus, omitting the correct drivers and including a handicapped pen seem like nonsensical corners to cut. These problems aren’t impossible to overcome, but since Asus was clearly aiming this product at graphics professionals, they should have given these things some more thought.

As I spent more time with the Eee Slate EP121, I was able to appreciate some of the finer things about it. The screen is indeed quite beautiful. After calibrating it with Spyder3 Pro, the colors are rich and accurate. Although the screen is quite glossy, it doesn’t throw back any distracting reflections. Also, because it uses AFFS+ technology, it’s easy to view even in direct sunlight. In a dark room with plain black filling the screen, there’s some evidence of light leakage on the top left corner, where you can see some uneven illumination showing where it should be pitch black. It doesn’t seem to be a major issue during typical use though. When there’s a picture on the screen, I can’t even see the light leakage.

Performance is very good. I never felt like I was waiting a long time for anything to happen. Dragging 21MP images around on the screen in Photoshop was always smooth and never laggy.

Battery life is not spectacular. I haven’t run it out completely, but it seems that most people are getting less than four hours from a single charge. I expect that in most cases, I’d be using it plugged in.

Most power Photoshop users use the keyboard quite a bit. This, combined with the fact that the pen is missing that ever-important rocker switch, makes me quite glad that Asus included the Bluetooth keyboard. The keyboard is extremely light and plasticky. It feels slightly cheap, but it’s comfortble and quiet to type on, and at least it won’t weigh you down! Because it’s Bluetooth, it has some power-saving features built in. It goes to sleep after a minute or so of idle time, and you have to hit a key to wake it up again. There’s a couple seconds of delay while it reconnects to the Eee Slate, and this can be mildly annoying, but I suppose better than wasting battery power.

The built-in Intel HD video is supposed to be able to handle 1080p video. I found it had some trouble playing high definition Youtube streams. The picture would freeze, but the sound would continue. I’m not sure what that’s about. Playing HD Netflix streams was trouble-free, and 1080P video recorded on my Canon 5D Mk II was buttery smooth. The tiny speakers, evident only by their very thin grills on either side of the screen, provide surprisingly rich sound. You’re not going to fill a room with that sound, but it’s much better than I expected.

I’m glad to see that there’s an SDXC card reader built-in. My 5D Mk II uses CF cards, so I’m stuck using an external card reader dangling off of a USB cable, but I think the future lies in SD cards. Plus, the SD card reader gives the opportunity to expand the limited 64GB internal SSD storage.

Conclusion

The Eee Slate EP121 is not quite perfect, but I have to applaud Asus for being bold enough to create something like this. I think professional photographers will really appreciate the Eee Slate EP121′s unique feature set. If I were to change anything, it would be to include a better quality pen, or at least one with the switch on the side. I’d also get those pen driver issues sorted out, so that users don’t need to pull their hair out trying to figure it out themselves. I don’t know if Asus plans a followup to the EP121, but it would be nice to see a higher resolution screen. 12.1″ at 1280×800 is touch-friendly, but can feel somewhat cramped. I hope future versions will also have bigger SSD storage. 64GB is pretty tiny these days. I understand that currently, SSD storage is quite expensive, but for this machine to be really useful, I need to be augmenting its built-in storage with an SD card. Speaking of added storage, it would be nice to see a USB 3.0 port. They’re becoming increasingly common, and I for one would welcome access to speedy external hard drives.

I also hope that the Windows 7 touch experience will improve in the future. Microsoft seems to be hell-bent on competing in the tablet market with Windows 7, and personally, I’m glad. After all, it’s the only tablet OS that will run a full-fledged Adobe Creative Suite so that I can work on my raw files in the field and then come back to the studio with all of those settings intact. However, Windows 7 was not designed exclusively for touch use. Some OS elements are difficult to adjust with touch input. The on-screen keyboard can be awkward.

Overall, the EP121 is a high-quality and unique piece of gear. And, at CAD $1199, I feel like it was a very reasonable buy. I’m certain that it’ll have a valued place in my travel bag for at least a couple of years.

I did a little photo shoot with my Asus Eee Slate EP121. The images are below.

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We did a few test shots to get an idea of the composition of the final image.

We had to work quickly. Although the thermometer read above zero, the wind was whipping in towards the camera, and quite violently too. I would estimate it was coming in at about 60-70 km/h, making it feel much colder than the true temperature. My light stands kept blowing over, and I had to dig them deep into the snow so that they would stay up. It’s a good thing hair and makeup artist Sue Upton affixed the wig very securely to Laura’s head, otherwise we could have had a real hair disaster that day!

Our plan was to wrap Laura tightly with white fabrics to create the tree costume. I moved as quickly as possible to clamp the fabrics around her using plastic clips. Canvas cones would create the “root” system of the tree. However, because the wind was so strong, the fabric kept blowing loose. We decided that we were going to work with what nature gave us, and I shot a number of frames of Laura dancing with the flapping fabrics. The tree quickly transformed into a winter wind angel. We couldn’t shoot for long, because it was extremely cold, and there was real risk of windburn and frostbite to Laura’s exposed skin.

After reviewing the images in the car, we decided that the canvas cones weren’t “reading” as well as we’d imagined, so we went out again to shoot some more photos of the base of the dress without the cones. I later blended one of these cone-less  bases into the image using Photoshop.

This image is technically a little different from my other ones. Usually, I shoot with lenses wide open so that I get shallow depth of field and can isolate my subject. In this case, because I needed a shutter speed of 1/200 to sync with the strobes, the aperture had to be set to the polar opposite, f/22.0. This was the about one stop underexposed for the natural light, and it gave us a very mysterious looking sky, with the winter sun struggling to gleam through the low clouds. I lit Laura using two Alien Bees B800 strobes at nearly full intensity, powered by the Vagabond II battery pack.

Here’s the final image.

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• Better autofocus. I want autofocus at least as good as what’s available on the 7D. That means more autofocus points and faster performance.
• Support for SDHC cards.
• The LCD overlay of grid lines in the viewfinder, like the 7D.
• The ability to give metadata star ratings to images in camera, like the 60D.
• An articulating LCD like the 60D. I highly doubt this will happen, but maybe… just maybe…
• 100% viewfinder coverage.

That’s not so much to ask, is it? Anyway, regardless of what specs the 5D Mark III carries when it’s finally released, I’ll be the first in line to get it. Come on Canon, bring it on!

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Have a wonderful holiday season, and I’m looking forward to shooting with you in the new year!

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Initially, Nico wasn't convinced that she wanted to participate in the photo shoot.

Most of the time, I try to get the shot right in the camera. I’ve never thought of myself as a Photoshop artist, although I use Photoshop on a daily basis for minor things like removing blemishes and adjusting color. However, sometimes an idea just calls out for a change to the “normal” policy.

Heidi came to me with the idea of doing some fun and slightly surreal portraits with her family. We would use some Photoshop tricks to make an unusual final image. The key was to convince the talent, her daughter Nico, to go along with the shoot. Nico’s a little bit camera shy. However, with the promise that she could dress up like a princess, and wear a little makeup, a deal was struck. We decided to shoot the photos with a “tea party” theme, to match the princess outfit. The final image was going to be Nico holding a teacup with her parents inside.

Because Nico needed a little bit of encouragement to warm up to the idea of being in front of the camera, we practiced by taking some pictures of Heidi and David. Not only did seeing Mom and Dad in their photos allow Nico to get more comfortable with the studio, but it also gave me the opportunity to practice some of the techniques we’d use to create the final composite image.

Eventually, with the aid of Heidi and David’s skillful persuasive skills, Nico felt comfortable enough to pose for her photo. She did a great job imagining she was holding her parents in the cup, and keeping her pinkie fingers out like a proper lady. Next, we photographed Mom and Dad. I put them against a light colored background so that it would be easier to blend them with Nico’s dress. I had them hold a sheet of cardboard in front of them on the same angle as the edge of the teacup in Nico’s photo, so that it would keep their hands in line and help the pose look  more natural.

Finally, we put it all together in Photoshop. I cut Heidi and David out of their background and dropped them into the photo of Nico. I used a layer mask to clip around the fingers as closely as possible. I used Photoshop’s puppet warp feature to adjust David’s arm a little so it looked like he was leaning on the edge of the cup. I duplicated Heidi and David’s layer, clicked on the “preserve transparency” button, and filled it with black. This created a silhouette of them, which I dropped underneath their original image layer. By applying a Gaussian blur and dropping its opacity down to about 20%, it created a shadow. I masked out all of this shadow except the areas around the fingertips. This added a little bit of depth to that transition between them and the cup. I also brought in a little bit of this shadow under David’s elbow, so it looked like he was casting a shadow on the right side of the cup. Next, I created another shadow layer, with even more Gaussian blur, and dropped it behind David and Heidi’s layer onto Nico’s dress. The higher level of blur implies a greater distance, and I found this improved the impression of depth. Finally, I used the blur tool to blur David and Heidi’s fingertips a little bit, so they’d match the slightly out-of-focus appearance of the edge of the cup.

The final image is pretty entertaining, I think, and is definitely not your average family portrait. Thanks to Heidi and David and Nico for helping me to create something a little different.

Bonus images

Here are the two “practice images” we shot to help warm Nico up to the idea.

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Here’s a full list of Best of Hamilton Gold and Silver winners.

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I was a bit nervous about Laura doing these leaps in the gold high heels, but she was confident that she could do it, and they definitely added a glamorous punch to this vibrant image.

You don’t have to want to be a model to have a modeling portfolio. Sometimes you just want to have some great photos of yourself. That was the case for Laura Lim, who drove down from Kingston to shoot a beginner modeling portfolio with me. Laura’s never been in front of the camera before, at least not in a professional setting. When I met her for her pre-shoot meeting–which I think is an important step for getting both of us on the same page before the shoot–she didn’t know exactly what she was going to do with the photos. She just knew that she wanted them.

Sue Upton creating Laura Lim's first look of the day.

Laura showed up at my studio with bags of shoes and accessories and a giant suitcase full of clothes. I encourage models to bring as much stuff as they want, because we can always sort through it to find just the right looks for the shoot. Laura took to this assignment like a fish to water, and as you can see, within a span of an afternoon, we were able to capture a number of very different photos for her. We worked with renowned hair and makeup artist Sue Upton, who is a master of transforming the girl next door into a femme fatale, sophisticated debutante, or any other look in-between. The super-sassy orange background shots are closest to Laura’s actual personality, but she easily pulled off the other looks with style and grace too.

I’m a huge fan of working with people who’ve never been professionally photographed. There’s something very appealing about unlocking a person’s photogenic potential and creating photos that make them excited about how they look on camera.

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(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

It was Laura’s idea to create this film, to show feathers of multiple colors migrating to eventually return home as part of her rainbow feather dress. We didn’t know exactly where the feathers were going to start their journey, or how they were going to get where they were going, or what it was all going to look like, but that’s really the fun of creating something like this. The possibilities are almost endless. We hiked up to The Peak, which has a spectacular view overlooking the Dundas Valley, and talked for hours about how it might be done. We didn’t really come to any conclusions though. When we got up to leave, I saw a very interesting outcropping of rock on the edge of a cliff, just to the side of The Peak. It was entirely surrounded by lush, green vegetation. “Can you get over there?” I asked Laura.

“Yes,” she said.

“We need to put the rainbow bird on the edge of that cliff.”

“YES!”

Finally, we knew where the feathers were going to go. They were going to make a journey from their artistic origins, through the city, and into the forest, finally ending up at home as part of the rainbow bird, perched on the edge of this spectacular cliff. We were pumped.

It would have been quite possible to create enough scenes to make a feature-length film about our feather friends. We had so many ideas about where they could come from and where they could go.  We only had a few days to create this film, and I knew it was going to take a lot of time to do, so our first step in organizing all of these ideas was to create some simple sketches and select only our favorites to shoot. Here are a couple of Laura’s sketches. You might recognize the genesis of the Red Feather in these outlines, as well as a list of our “characters.”

The next step was to find the actual locations for shooting. We looked near and far, and drove around the city, finding possible spots to shoot. I snapped some quick frames to get an idea for composition so that we could create a storyboard that made visual sense. Here are the snapshots we used to compose the Red Feather scene.

With some of the initial planning done, we were ready to start shooting the next day. We didn’t stop for the next four days. I was shooting constantly, and when I wasn’t shooting, I was processing the photos and assembling them into stop-motion video clips. We shot the feather scenes at Laura’s studio, Laura’s parents’ home, my own studio, and outdoors at the beautiful Tews Falls Conservation Area, whose shady forest paths lead up to The Peak. Here’s a video of me working with Lissa Hill, who did a great job assisting us in hauling camera gear and costume materials, and animating the feathers up on The Peak. She kept her cool, even though it was often frustrating to work with our lightweight actors in very windy conditions.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

In the end, I’d shot about 1500 photos and processed them to 1080i high definition stop-motion clips of each scene. Some scenes ended up on the digital cutting-room floor. There’s this scene, for instance, that didn’t make it into the film. We shot it as an alternate beginning for the Blue Feather’s journey, just in case the weather didn’t co-operate with our plans to shoot Blue crying out of the graffiti wall.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

After assembling all of the stop-motion clips into their proper sequence, I auditioned a number of different musical tracks. I settled on Under the Kadam Tree from Stockmusic.com. It is one of those rare stock music pieces that doesn’t sound like stock music. I thought the slightly mystical feel created by the tabla and sitar instrumentation, combined with a sort of unexpected jaunty tempo really lent itself well to the mood we were trying to create in the film.

The last step was to create the credits. This was the only segment shot at my studio using studio light. The rest had all been done using natural light, to keep the feel and color as consistent as possible. I designed the credits in PowerPoint and printed them out on cream-colored textured paper. When Laura saw that I’d created one that said “The End,” she was slightly appalled. “It’s not the end,” she said, “It’s the beginning.” Of course, she was exactly right. I quickly replaced that slide with a new one that was more appropriate, and in the end, we found our beginning.

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We had to shoot quickly as the sun was going down, but I think we got lots of great results from our session. Here’s a selection of my favorite photos from the day.

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While we were in California, we wanted to do a photo shoot on the beach. She found a couple of sticks on the ground, and with a few scraps of fabric from a local textile store, she fashioned a brilliant flying rainbow bird costume. We scouted an amazing location: the Torrey Pines State Reserve, in La Jolla. The reserve is home to a stunning beach, backed with high cliffs. Boulders, layered with gold and purple hues had tumbled down the cliffs, and lay in ruggedly beautiful disarray on the sand. They seemed the perfect backdrop for our initial photos of the rainbow bird.

Next, I wanted to see the rainbow bird fly, so Laura headed into the surf for some leaps. A lot of leaps, actually. It took a lot of trial and error to find the right angle, pose, and to time the shots and leaps with the waves. I think Laura leaped about 120 times before we figured we had the right combination of sky, sea, sand and rainbow bird. The sky was overcast, the sun being obscured by the thick marine layer that invades the So-Cal shores at this time of year. There was still ample light, though, allowing very fast shutter speeds for freezing those leaps in mid-air. After we’d exhausted our quota of leaps, it was time to cool off by splashing into the Pacific Ocean. As a side note, jumping into the ocean in your clothes is only fun until about five minutes after you get out. Then it’s just damp and clammy. It was still worth it though!

Later on, I reviewed the images on my laptop. I couldn’t help but wonder if the photos of the colorful rainbow bird would have been better with a bright blue sky. The next day, after we’d moved up the coast to San Clemente, and checked into a motel that can only be described as “kitschy,” the sun came out. It had turned into the perfect blue-sky California day that I’d envisioned when we’d started talking about this shoot. I persuaded Laura to don the rainbow bird costume once again and we walked down to the beach.

Many more leaps ensued. Finally, a hundred and fifty more leaps into the shoot, Laura announced that it was enough.

Here’s the final image that we chose from the many that we shot over those two glorious days at the beach. I feel that it captures the mystical character of the rainbow bird with a slightly unusual perspective. I shot it from a low angle, close to Laura with my 24-70mm f2.8L lens at 24mm. I asked her to leap as close to me as she could, so the wings would brush over my head as she passed me. This is what it took to exaggerate the perspective and get that shot that stood out from the others. To obscure her footprints in the wet sand, we timed it so she would leap just as the white foam surf washed under her while she was in the air. This helped to further the illusion of flight. I’m very happy with this image. I think all the elements finally came together in the moment to create a photo better than either of us could have imagined ahead of time. That’s my favorite way to work.

This rainbow bird photo is the final photo that we shot for our book Live Your Spirit, which is now available at Blurb.

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Like Canada itself, this image is made up of many different parts, and took a long time to come together. We started shooting it in September last year, and I just finished it yesterday! Let me explain…

We weren’t totally happy with the composition after our shoot in September, because the tail was cut off at the bottom of the frame, and everything was too close to the bottom of the frame. Laura was sitting on a stool, which was necessary because of the number of hours required to complete the painting, but that made the bottom of the photo look a bit awkwardly cropped too. There didn’t seem to be any other way to shoot it though. She wouldn’t have been able to stand perfectly still for that period of time. We decided to re-shoot Laura’s bottom half and add a tail to the bird to balance it out.

After I’d assembled all the pieces in Photoshop and smoothed out all the transitions, the final image was complete.

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Sarah's professionalism earned her a role as Lissa Hill Leather's official model.

So, you want to be a model? I’m going to start by saying I’m not a model. However, as a photographer, I’ve worked with lots of them. I specialize in shooting portfolios for beginner models. Some of the models I’ve helped to get started have taken off into phenomenal careers that have them jet-setting all around the world. I’ve also seen some disappear into anonymity. I’ve been around long enough to put the pieces together, and have a sense of what it takes to succeed in the industry. It didn’t take me long to see that having a beautiful face and body is not enough to make a model’s career take off. As you might expect, there’s more to it than that. Here’s my no-punches-pulled advice for anyone who wants to be a model.

1. Be professional and reliable.

It should go without saying, but sadly, a lot of people don’t really get it. Modeling is a business, so you have to treat it that way. If you’re booked for a shoot, show up on time. Don’t call at the last minute and say your car broke down and you can’t make it. Do everything you can to be the most professional and organized person on the shoot. Follow up on phone calls and confirm your appointments. Arrive five minutes early for your meetings. A model who develops a reputation for being flaky won’t last long, but a model who is professional and committed to the job will turn everyone’s head! If you’re working freelance, your clients will recommend you to their associates, or hire you again themselves. If you’re represented by an agency, word will get back to your agent, who will be more likely to recommend you for other jobs if you’ve gotten good feedback.

When you’re just getting started, hire the best photographer you can find to shoot your portfolio. A good portfolio is a solid investment. If you are serious about modeling, you’ll make that money back quickly in bookings. If you’re trying to get by with snapshots and poor quality photos, you’ll have a much harder time booking work.

2. Learn about clothing.

Unless you’re going to specialize in nude modeling, you’re going to have to know about clothes! Learn what looks best on you. Learn what cuts of clothing are the most flattering on your body. If there are certain types of clothing that don’t look good on you, then know about that too. Even better, find ways to wear that unflattering clothing so it fits you better. Figure out which labels and brands suit you best. Know your sizes and always be honest about them. Lying to wardrobe people about your measurements means extra embarrassment later when you’re popping buttons on your jeans! Keep an eye on fashion magazines so you can follow trends and keep your wardrobe current. The added bonus of flipping through fashion magazines is that you get to be inspired by the world’s top models at work!

3. Know your job.

A lot of people get into modeling because they think that they’re good looking. Beyond that, they don’t think much about the job. It takes much more than being gorgeous to be a model. It takes a real understanding of what a model’s job is. At least in the commercial world, a model’s job is to sell a product. Whether it’s jeans, perfume, jewelery, cars, cell phones, pencils, or whatever,  a model is only there because they are promoting the product. When you’re doing commercial modeling work, you should not be thinking, “How can I look better?” Rather, you should be thinking, “How can I make this product look better?” Don’t be afraid to share your ideas and make suggestions about poses and angles.

Learn as much as you can about modeling and the industry. Read and watch interviews with models and photographers in the media. Talk to other models. Join modeling communities online. Take classes. Learn new skills that apply to your job. One of the most important skills model should learn in order to do their job better is how to convey emotion and attitude through pose and facial expression. The best models are able match the mood or feeling of the image the team is trying to create. This takes some practice, but if a model can master it, it becomes a very powerful tool.

Great models understand that they’re just one part of the team. Every person on that team–including hair dresser, makeup artist, photographer, art directors–is there for the same purpose too: to sell the product. Models who realize that they’re no more or less important than anyone else on that team end up being the most successful.

4. Take care of your body.

Realize that your body is your product. I said before that looking good is not a model’s entire job, but it certainly is a big part of it! As a model, you have to take better care of yourself than the average person. Learn everything you can about nutrition. I’m not saying you should starve yourself into anorexia,  or that you should be perfect. I mean, what is “perfect” anyway? It’s a crazy ideal that no one can match. But you do need to have some discipline about your lifestyle. You’ll need to eat healthy and nutritious food to keep yourself looking and feeling your best. Exercise regularly to stay fit and toned so your body matches the image of the type of modeling work you want to do. Care for your hair with quality products that don’t damage it. Your hairdresser can help you with this.

Your health and well-being extend beyond those obvious points about nutrition and exercise too. It’s also important to get enough sleep and to try to reduce stress in your life. If you take care of those things, it’ll make it easier for you to follow through on the next tip…

5. Have fun!

Modeling should be fun, and if it’s not, you’re probably not doing it right! I know a lot of the stuff I said above might seem a bit heavy, but it’s actually not. When you’ve taken care of the business side of modeling, and you are comfortable with your position in the job, it’s actually pretty easy to relax and have a good time in front of the camera. It’s really obvious when someone is comfortable in front of the camera, and that’s when a model can really shine. Enjoy your job! It’s a dream to be a model, and if it’s not your dream, then you’re probably in the wrong line of work!

Anyway, those are my tips. Based on my experience, that’s pretty good advice. If you’re still interested in being a model after reading all of that, then congratulations! You’re already off to a great start. If you don’t have one already, your next step would be to get your portfolio started. I can certainly help you with that. For more information, check out my beginner modeling portfolio package.

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Technically, the shoot was pretty simple. I shot in aperture priority mode so I could control the depth of field. I would decrease the aperture for some of the shots to lengthen the shutter speed, giving a little more blur to the fast-moving water. A stabilized lens helps in this situation so you can shoot hand-held at long focal lengths without worrying about camera shake. Shooting at the right time of day really helps. We were there in the late afternoon, when the sun was still high enough to get over the lip of the waterfall and into our shooting area, but still low enough to provide a nice rim light on Shan, and a soft glow to the water droplets. It wasn’t quite golden hour, but still late enough for the atmosphere to filter out those ugly UV rays.

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Shooting contre jour in that brilliant California sun provided dramatic accent to the already spectacular setting. The ample light also afforded me the luxury of high shutter speeds, even with my camera dialed down to ISO 50. One of the reasons I really like Canon DSLRs is that they have the ability to shoot at ISO 50. Sure, high ISO speeds are desirable in low light conditions, but low ISO speeds are also handy because they allow me to stop down to f2.8 in sunny conditions. Anyway, because of the bright light, I took the opportunity to encourage Shirley to move, jump and dance. Freezing action amps up the fun and energy levels of a photo.

Shirley’s in the process of choosing her final images from the shoot, but I couldn’t resist sharing these few samples of our fun afternoon on the beach.

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Heading north on I-5, I made a stop in San Clemente to dip my feet into the Pacific, walk the pier, and to have a delicious seafood salad at the Beach Garden Cafe. I particularly enjoyed walking the beach, feeling the pull of the tide eroding the sand beneath my feet, the ocean breeze through my hair, and the sun on my face. Children pelted noisily by, kicking up sand, splashing into the surf, fueled by new discovery. Their excitement fortified my own desire for exploration. In the distance, dark dolphin shapes looped lazily above the waves before disappearing again into azure.

For the next couple of nights, I’ll hang out with my talented Uncle Wayne in Los Angeles. Wayne has 40 years of experience in architectural photography, and is a great source of professional and artistic knowledge.

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Anyway, Laura is a bursting fountain of ideas. She’ll bring an idea to me, and it’s up to me to compress it into the rectangular frame of a photo. In a recent shoot, Laura wanted to put a black fairy in a swamp with an interesting dead tree. She’d found this location on a drive in the country, and asked if we could do a photo there. I scouted the location with her, and we decided the tree would make a great counter-balance to a sculptural costume piece she’d made in her studio. The sculpture, along with the tree, would form the wings of the black fairy, and communicate the concept of her connection to nature. Whenever there’s an opportunity to scout a location before the shoot, I do it. Sometimes time constraints or other circumstances don’t allow this, but if it’s at all possible, I’ll take the opportunity. Scouting a location allows you to come prepared for any difficulties the site may present, as well as giving you an idea what time of day and weather conditions will yield the best shooting conditions.

I took the photos above on the day of the shoot. These “sketches” are an important part of my editing process as we move towards getting the final shot. I tried various combinations of pose and camera position and orientation. I experimented with different focal lengths to try to come up with a good balance between drama and distraction.

As a side note, one factor of primary importance to me is the comfort of the model or subject of the photo. If the person you’re shooting is uncomfortable, you’re almost certain to get a bad photo of them. This is one reason Laura wasn’t wearing her costume in the sketch photos until we needed it to figure out the composition. I don’t want to feel rushed because she might be feeling uncomfortable or awkward in a costume. So, we avoid putting the costume on until absolutely necessary.

There were a lot of competing elements in this location, including trees, bushes, tall grasses, reflections, clouds, etc. I wanted to keep the black fairy clear of distractions, but in balance with other environmental elements so she would stand out. At the same time, we were limited by the fact that the tree had to be in the right position in the frame to form that other wing. In the end, I found just the right spot and focal length to get the shot. Laura was standing on a chair, which was slowly but surely sinking into the marshy ground; we had to work quickly once her costume was in place, otherwise our whole setup would have toppled into the swamp! Laura did a great job of looking serene, even as the chair inexorably tilted towards the water. We’d been blessed by a stormy-looking sky that day, so I snapped a series of bracketed shots so I could maintain the detail of those beautiful clouds. Later, I discovered that judicious processing of the RAW file allowed me to extract the detail from just a single exposure.

Here's the final image of Laura Hollick as the Black Fairy in the swamp.

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Before I start using a new tool on clients, I normally do some experimentation to get a handle on its operation. Usually, this involves taking pictures of inanimate objects and doing self-portraits before actually showing anyone the results.

The photo above is one of those experiments that I did with the Hartblei. It took a lot of fiddling under pressure, because this kid was biking around like a maniac, and I really wanted to capture him in front of the car before he gave up the game and went to do something else. With the Hartblei’s nearly infinite combination of tilts, shifts and rotations, it did take a few tries to get this effect predictably. Fortunately, on the kid’s last pass, I got the shot. The area in focus is thrown diagonally from the foreground to the background, with other areas rendered in a very pleasant bokeh, which is just a fancy way of saying “out of focus.”

Getting this shot of the Flatiron Building in Manhattan was a little easier, because I had all the time in the world to mess around with the lens to get the right areas in focus.

After a great deal of experimentation and failed attempts, I finally felt ready to use this lens with a client, in the studio. The client is a musician, who is releasing an album in the next month or two. We needed to shoot some portraits to use in the CD liner notes. My goal with this particular shoot was to get a kind of low-contrast feel which I felt matched the melancholy mood of his music, as well as the cover art for the CD. I envisioned everything being a sort of monotone beige, with the clarity of his eyes being the most outstanding features of the image. The eyes would already be isolated because of color, but isolating them further with focus and shallow depth of field really adds a lot to the laid-back mood, I think.

It was pretty easy to accomplish this with the 50mm f1.2 lens when he was more or less face-front to the camera. The area of focus is at a constant distance from the back of the camera, producing a very traditional shallow depth of field effect.

However, he had a great profile, and I wanted to be able to shoot this angle without losing the focus that fell mainly on the eyes and not elsewhere. This is where the Hartblei really came in handy.

By bending the lens so that it threw the area of focus across the front of his face, even though I was facing the side of his face, I was able to keep his eyes isolated in focus, while the rest of him softly blended away.

I remember sitting with a friend years ago, marveling at a book of Karsh’s portraiture, admiring his masterful control of depth of field. At that time, I wondered how he achieved this effect. Now I know it’s because he was using a massive 8×10 view camera with bellows that allowed him to similarly throw focus onto whichever plane he wished. Those cameras were cumbersome and difficult to adjust. These days, with small SLR cameras, it’s possible to get similar results, but in a more spontaneous and casual fashion. I’m looking forward to using this new trick more often in the future.

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You can get some really unusual results when you take long exposures. In reality, the color was most like the first of the three images below. Pulling the white balance way towards the “cool” end while processing the third photo made the tree look a bit more like its real daytime color.

Maybe these aren’t the most exciting photos in the world, or the most elaborate I’ve ever taken, but often I find the joy of photography in the act of pure creation, with no goal other than to see something familiar in a new way.

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