Christmas Day - pictures of ice and water

Christmas day 2009 - decided I needed to go for a walk and see what pictures were waiting for me. I live in Calgary near the Bow River and that's where I headed figuring the ice on the water always makes for something interesting to look at. While I was wondering around beside the river, one of the many people out walking their dogs through the area stopped and asked "What are you seeing?" Interesting question - not "what are you shooting."

I replied that I was seeing "shapes and forms, shadows and textures, stillness and movement - I like the contrast of the still ice and the motion of the water."

A few executive portraits

Had the pleasure last week of photographing RBC Investment Adviser Warren Armstrong and his assistant at the their downtown Calgary offices.

Cantaloupe shot

A piece of cantaloupe, a martini glass, a hammered aluminum bowl - grab the camera and see what comes out. Nice photographic diversion in the afternoon.

Family shots

A couple of shots from a recent family session I did in their home. They loved the shot of their son hamming it up. Very fun working with each of them - which I knew even before taking out the camera.

Kiva.org

I just did my first loan through Kiva.org to help a woman in Cambodia to buy seeds in order to become self sufficient. You too can help entrepreneurs in developing countries to move forward through these micro-loans.

Erin in the studio

A couple fo the shots I did this weekend with Erin who is studying contemporary dance and ballet.

Business portraits - three looks

Worked with recent MBA grad and entrepreneur Loreen Sherman to get a new look for her for a variety of uses - great to have the time to work with someone so willing to try things out of the ordinary for their business. The top shot was your straight up headshot done with soft box and rim light. The second was done using a hotshoe flash on a stand and set to very tight light, while the third was natural light in a corner of some space I'm using - strong backlight. So far that is everyone's favourite.

Busted watch

I was out doing some family portraits the other day, everything went pretty well, got lots of nice shots of them. Packed up my gear and was headed home when I checked my watch - I have no idea how or when this happened. It was fine on my way there, I checked the time to make sure I wasn't late. I don't remember hitting anything while I was there or getting back into the car. Must have tapped it just right on the edge of some furniture and it just smucked my poor watch. Sad. Really liked this watch - not the most expensive in the world, but did spend a fair amount on it at the time.

Thoughtful words

While I'm not a religious person as a rule, I did find this quote to be very good advice and something we should all aspire to:

A portion of John Baillie's A Diary of Private Prayer . . .

Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life today that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.

Let me use disappointment as material for patience;

Let me use success as material for thankfulness;

Let me use suspense as material for perseverance;

Let me use danger as material for courage;

Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering;

Let me use praise as material for humility;

Let me use pleasures as material for temperance;

Let me use pains as material for endurance.

Music promo shoot - behind the scenes

Did a little taping of my shoot with AMP Radio's Rockstar 2010 winners Frankie McQueen. In the back of my Yaris, I fit a suitcase with three mono-lights (a White Lightening and two old Elinchroms), a "golf club travel bag" that I use to haul all the stands, soft-boxes and umbrellas, a backdrop stand, my camera backback which holds my 5D, spare body, 5 lenses, two flashes, cords, etc., a bag of reflectors, a bag with the drop cloth I used for the background (which blew out by the lights) and a bag for the camcorder, and still had room in the front seat to pick up my friend and assistant for the day - Dave.



These are a couple of shots from the day.



Loved the arc of skylights at the top of the atrium.

Wisdom by Andrew Zuckerman

Gorgeous photos and essential wisdom from those who've experienced life and have made a difference, photographed and produced by New York photographer Andrew Zuckerman.

We should all take these lessons to heart - and for the photographers, be inspired both by the photography and scope of this book, which includes a DVD with the interviews.


The Trailer:








Also see the web site for the book if you want to learn more and see the "making of" - great for us photographers. www.wisdombook.org

Rebuilding my commercial photography site

Wow, was that a lot of work. The design part was easy. So was assembling the parts. Rearranging photos was okay. Then came the tweaking. And more tweaking. And then some more. And corrections. But now I can leave it alone for a bit. At least until tomorrow when I'll look at it and say "Hey what if I....."

Family portraits

Although most of my work is commercial photography, I still often do family portraits. These are a couple from a session I just did. I'd shot the couple a few years ago, very fun pair wanting more than the usual staid shots. Same thing now with the new baby, and I have to say I've never seen an eight month old willing to put up with that long a shoot; she was a champ. I'd told them beforehand that babies usually don't do well on long shoots, and we might have to split it up to one or two extra shoots, but three hours and she was fine. Of course, she wasn't in front of the camera the whole time.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Did a picture a while ago, thought I'd show it off again. The idea was to send a custom piece to the design firm, Rock Paper Scissors. Discussed the concept with the wonderful model Rupi Sood about the concept - I wanted to make sure I was respectful of her culture but still have fun with the idea. Fun shoot, several hours to get natural looking armpits.

Seeing best colors when looking at photos on web sites

If you want to see the best colours for photos on web sites, you have the best chance using Firefox 3 or better and going to http://news.datacolor.eu/en/archives/2009/02/get-your-colors.html to turn on the ability to use ICC profiles.

A few recent shots from sessions.







These two are of Nathan Rogers, an excellent Canadian singer/songwriter based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He wanted an "industrial feel" to the shots. That's a very sharp Japanese sword he's holding, by the way. Not an ancient one, but pretty lethal in any case.


Here is one of the shots I did of international speaker and business coach Don Steirer.

Strange collisions and other accidents

The collision between two communications over Siberia this week (http://tinyurl.com/cxu2v9) brought to mind some pictures my dad had of two tracked vehicles in the Arctic. He was flying by in a helicopter and photographed one heading south, and one heading west, they got closer, then collided. In the middle of nowhere, they hit each other. Last picture of the two drivers standing and presumably arguing over whose fault it was.

I remember stories of one tree in the desert in Africa that got hit repeatedly by military drivers - it was the only tree in hundreds of miles.

Then there's these pictures of Strange and Stupid accidents.

Also found this listing of Weird and Freak Accidents. Like the woman who was crushed by a car falling from second floor of a parking garage.

Amazing.

half a Nikon D3

Interesting pic on TokyoBling's blog about a Nikon D3 cut in half for display.

http://tokyobling.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/nikon-d3-cut-in-half/

Bed and Breakfast

I was staying and shooting at the wonderful Bilodeau Bed and Breakfast in Kelowna, BC last weekend, this was one of my breakfasts. After shooting it, I gobbled it down and it was good. Of course I was stuffed, and then Sid said most people share it. Still, really enjoyed my stay with Sid and Emily.

New page for event photography

I've added a page to my site specifically for promoting event photography. You can see it at event_photos.speersphoto.com/ (Yes, its event underscore photos). If you're an event manager or event planner, please check out the page.