Kevin Thom - Hamilton, Toronto, Ontario Photographer

I took a little bike ride down the street on my bike to Gage Park this afternoon. I took my camera with 50mm f/1.4 lens attached. Sometimes it’s fun to just take a simple lens and just play around to see what you can get.

Have you been thinking about refreshing your headshots? If you do improv, either as a student or a performer, I’m giving you a reason to get off the back wall and act now. If you book a headshot session with me before April 30, 2011, I’m giving a $150 discount off of my regular rate. That means my standard headshot package that normally sells for $350 is yours for only $200.

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.

I got a nice surprise today. I emailed hair and makeup artist Sue Upton to book her for an upcoming shoot. She replied, congratulating me on winning “Gold” in the category of Best Photographer in View Magazine’s Best of Hamilton awards! I had no idea that I’d even been nominated, so winning came as a complete shock. So, to everyone who voted for me, thanks very much! Your support means a lot.

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

I had a shoot with Shan the other day at one of Hamilton’s many waterfalls. Shan wanted to have photos of himself doing yoga at Albion Falls. Albion Falls is a great place to shoot because it’s big and has plenty of dramatic platforms at different levels. We had beautiful weather for the shoot. It was warm, and the sun ducked in and out from behind the occasional cloud to provide a variety of interesting lighting conditions. We hiked down the side of the escarpment to reach the bottom of the waterfall’s bowl. Then, Shan climbed up to the various terraces of the falls to do yoga poses while I shot from on top of some big rocks below. The rushing sound of the water and peaceful surroundings made it a very pleasant and easy shoot. What a pleasure it is to shoot photos of people doing what they are passionate about.

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.

There was a story in the Hamilton Spectator today about the potential changes to traffic in Hamilton if we went ahead with a proposed light rail transit system. Businesses in the city seem concerned about the impact that light rail will have. In my opinion, there will be an impact, but it will be positive.

The thing that excites me most about the proposal is that there will be a pedestrian mall created in the centre of the city. Traffic will be routed around this area, and only the light rail and people on foot will be allowed in. Although this seems radical in our car-centric world, it makes a lot of sense on a human scale, and I think the city will benefit greatly from it. I don’t just say this off the top of my head. I’ve experienced these pedestrian malls in every city in China that I visited, and I found them to be a real eye-opener. In every case, pedestrian malls were the most vibrant hubs of commercial and tourist activity in the city. There were no vacant store-fronts or derelict buildings that are the norm in our North American downtown cores. Businesses were thriving because tens of thousands of people crowd these areas every single day and night to shop, eat and socialize. In each and every city, the real estate in these pedestrian mall areas was the most highly prized… and priced. Pedestrian malls have the potential to become economic engines that drive a city’s economy. Moreover, they can be cultural centres and icons that exemplify a city. Hamilton’s creation of this type of zone would go a long way to erasing its grimy lunch-bucket image.

Having experienced it, it simply makes sense to me now. Pedestrian malls are places where people love to shop because they are not beset on all sides by cars. They’re not choking on diesel fumes and worried about being run over by trucks. They can just relax and enjoy themselves. The result is that people want to be there. When people want to be there, business will want to be there too.

I really hope that Hamiltonians can overcome their fear of change, because the status quo here just does not work. It seems unfair that change is often painted in a negative light in this city. It’s as if people think we’re living in some kind of utopia where milk and honey rain from the skies. We could stand some improvement, and need to look at other places in the world for inspiration. It’s not just China that has had success with traffic restriction in its cities. I’ve heard success stories from London, Copenhagen and other European cities too. I hope Hamilton recognizes that this is a wonderful opportunity to become a leader in North America by embracing this emerging model of urban living.

Here are a couple of photos of pedestrian mall areas in China. After a few cities, I stopped photographing them because it just became such a normal sight. Maybe it will become a normal sight here in Canada too?