Winter Wedding

Last Saturday I was up in Edmonton to shoot a wedding. I agreed to this wedding a long time ago.. cold weather and snow was the last thing on my mind when I did! The three hour drive up was terrifying as I counted 8 cars in the ditch and drove over 100kms through fog so thick I could barely see anyone on the road. I arrived at the church on time though, and got ready for the big event.

St. Joseph's Basilica is famous in Alberta as being host to Wayne Gretzky's "Royal Wedding" to Janet Jones. It's a great venue, but has horrible lighting. I had gels on my flashes, but I couldn't get the light right and ended up shooting most of the wedding with a 1.4 50mm lens so that I could shoot wide open and let the camera do auto white balance. Without that lens it would have been a white person and a yellow background. Ugly.

After the wedding, the formals began. We did a few inside the church as it was cold outdoors, so we used the venue as much as we could. I set up two lights both bouncing into umbrellas at the same power to cover the whole family. Everyone was great for the shoot. I had an aunt behind me jumping up and down to make the kids smile and keep their attention, and after a smooth in and out of parents, siblings and family, we moved the bridal party to another location.

We used the Alberta Legislature Building for a few formals. I think this shot was just before the girls wore the jackets, and the boys wore the scarves. The strange thing was the girls looked great in the jackets, and the guys pulled the scarves off so well I started to think I should buy one for myself.

We also used a park nearby as dusk took hold. This was fun for me, as I got to turn ambient light a bit blue and shoot them with a cold flash which really suited their white clothes. These photos came out nicely and gave it a real winter feeling. If you ever want to take some pretty photos.. go to Edmonton in the winter and shoot to your heart's content. To my complete surprise, it's a beautiful city. I think previously I had only been to Edmonton to see concerts, or visit the mall.

The reception was another situation where the light was flickering around and I couldn't gel the flash to the correct balance so I ended up shooting it with a higher ISO and a wide open 1.4 lens. I loved the photo of her being surrounded by her friends and smiling as other people look on. Catherine is a beautiful bride and I hope she won't mind me including a photo of her with tears in her eyes as her dad sings the lyrics to a song that they share. A very pretty wedding. Congratulations.

Headshots

Last night, even though it was -30C, I went out to do some headshots of my friends. Normally I am fine with headshots as it isn't hard. Set up a light, get them to twist their body a little bit, tilt the head, chin up, and.. done. But when it comes to friends, I always get nervous.

Usually the subject will simply do whatever you say, but when you are friends with them it becomes a harder task to get them into a pose. I become less directorial and end up just hanging out, trying less drastic things to get it right. Lucky for me it came together really well.

Cai and Anna are twin sisters who are both in journalism and so they need a decent headshot for any contributor pages they are in. Obviously some of these images are just thrown in for fun, but I think it captures their personality well.


This set up was black on black with two lights: a shoot through umbrella at 1/8th power as my key, and a umbrella bounce at 1/128th to fill in shadows. I put a light behind Cai to seperate her from the background. She might not be able to use it as a headshot for a magazine, but she looks amazing with the light coming through her hair like that.

I think the hardest part of this shoot was trying to get a natural smile out of Anna as she tends to smile with her mouth only and eliminates her eyes from the equation. The outtakes are hilarious but the photos where her smile is natural are beautiful.

In the end the photos came out nicely and I worried for nothing. Pretty photos of two elegant girls shouldn't be that hard. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

More to come.

My first post

I started this blog to show what I have been up to and what I have shot recently.

Last Sunday I worked on a friend's school project. She needed to emulate an actress that she admired, and also copy a movie poster. She chose Natalie Wood as her actress which was a great choice as she looks so much like her. Here we shot her on the stairs in a summer dress while it was -23C outside. Put side by side, I think we got the look and the pose right.

This shot looked really cool thanks to a flash behind facing the wall and then another flash on 1/32nd power directly in front of her.

Later, we tackled the Lolita poster... It looks so easy, but it was still challenging to try and get the light right, the pose, the props, etc. I think our version came out nicely seeing as we were working with "Risky Business" shades and a neon pen rather than heart shaped glasses and a seductive sucker.

A really cool project, lots of fun and a good way to spend a cold day inside.

More to come...