I had a photoshoot with Lissa Hill of Lissa Hill Leathers last week. The idea was to create some commercial images that could be used to market her line of custom motorcycle leathers. We shot a few “catalog” type shots indoors in the studio at first. We kept these shots neutral so that the images would match the look of her website, and the black and red of the clothing could really pop out. We were blessed with absolutely perfect weather that day, so shooting conditions were ideal once we headed outdoors. We’d planned the shoot so we’d be out at “Golden Hour,” just before sunset. The skies were clear, giving us beautiful, warm light. Lissa had scouted out a perfect location in Ancaster, with open skies, little traffic, and a bit of twisty road. Our gorgeous models Michael and Sarah provided just enough attitude to match the leathers and bikes. In addition to being a great model, Michael also rides, so we took some lifestyle shots of him enjoying the open road on his bike.
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.
Today is Canada Day, the day on which we celebrate the beginnings of our great country. Like most Canadians, Laura Hollick and I are proud to be Canadian. We decided to create a photo to celebrate Canada. We worked with the versatile hair and makeup artist Sue Upton, who also happens to be a highly talented body painter.
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.
We’ve been busy preparing for the Birth Your Dreams Exhibition, and everything is going really well. We finished shooting the final image for the exhibition last weekend, and were treated to perfect weather for that shot. All of our prints arrived on time too. Today, we purchased the materials for framing all the prints. It’s going to look amazing when it’s all done.
We’re going to have some nice publicity too. View Magazine is putting us on the cover of the issue that comes out on August 6, just a day before the exhibition opens. Laura and I collaborated with the fantastic hair and makeup artist Sue Upton to create a really fun image for that cover that ties into some of the themes of Birth Your Dreams. Here’s a video we made during that photoshoot.
