Alicia Warrington – Paiste Sponsorship

I was able to reconnect with one of my favorite ladies recently, Alicia Warrington is one hell of a drummer (one glance at the list of projects she’s been involved with and you’ll understand this is an understatement) and her new sponsorship with Paiste is certainly well deserved.

The circumstances in which this photo came to be was something of a comedy of errors, but I’ll just give you a quick overview.  When we drove up to her rehearsal space where we were going to shoot, there was a car literally hanging from a power line a half block from the space.  An odd sight, but we drove by and carried on with the day and set up to shoot.  I took a couple test shots and just as I said “alright, lets start taking some shots” the power went out in the whole windowless building.  So that wrapped our one minute shoot, and this was one of our test shots that ended up being a final shot.

As soon as we packed up in the dark, using my laptop as the only source of light, we had to deal with a bunch of locks to secure the room. As she pulled her key out of the last lock, all the lights came back on and full power had returned… but we figured we nailed it with our one minute photo shoot.

Carpaccio Guide Vol. 7

I received an email today from Carpaccio Magazine that they’ve published their Carpaccio Guide to emerging illustrators, photographers & artists Vol. 7 and a few of my self portraits are included.  I had completely forgotten about submitting to this project, so that’s a fun surprise.  It’s out today and available for order, I haven’t seen it yet.. who wants to get me a copy?!

Front Page of the Vancouver Sun

The awe-inspiring Heidi Krutzen made it onto the cover of today’s Vancouver Sun.  The article details a really incredible task she’s embarked upon- shipping 126 musical instruments to Africa.  It’s definitely worth taking a read, it was on the front page after all… and my photo of Heidi accompanied the article.  I’m so fortunate to work with such incredible people!

SonReal

About a week or so ago I finally got to catch up with one of my buddies Sonreal.  It had been ages since we had gotten together for some face time, but I’d been keeping tabs on him online and he on me.  I brought my camera along and we took a wander after we grabbed coffee… I took a few snaps of the man who is making waves in the hip hop scene.  Hopefully we’ll be doing a real collaboration in the near future.

Follow him on twitter, he’s throwing down new stuff all the time!

Georgia Straight Cover – Veda Hille

First post of 2012!  This year has started with a bang, I’ve been busy busy with loads of projects on the go and exciting plans on the horizon.  I’ll start my year of blogging with sharing this week’s Georgia Straight cover I photographed of Veda Hille.

She and Bill Richardson (CBC Radio Host & Author) have paired up for a performance I personally cannot wait to check out at Vancouver’s Push Festival this year.  It’s called Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata.  I was lucky enough to get a little teaser of the performance while I was photographing Veda at her piano, and I have to admit it was difficult to keep my camera steady while I was giggling through her lyrics.

I highly recommend seeing this show if you spend any time on Craigslist, or even if you don’t!  Check out the interview and article HERE, or pick up a copy this week!

 

Shai Mate

I’m way behind on this release unfortunately, the past few weeks have been buuuusy!  I wanted to share a link to local up-and-coming hip hop artist, Shai Mate.  Last Friday he released a free download of Extended Play Vol. 1 and we shot the cover image together recently along with some fun portraits of the artist in my studio.  Keep tabs on this guy!  He’s on facebook and twitter and has plans to release Vol. 2 early in the new year.

Wishing Well

I’m honoured to be interviewed and featured in the first issue of the new mag WISHING WELL, created by the incredible Sophia Danai (pictured below) with the support of The Hastings Set.  So many favorite people involved with this project, please check it out!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE MAGAZINE

The Shoes

I keep meaning to update my blog with something fresh, but I’ve been so busy with shoots and various projects, it keeps getting the back burner.  I have also been meaning to post a photo from a beautiful wedding I was invited to photograph alongside my friend and fellow Photographer, Mathew Smith, on Sept 25th.

I was told that the shoes were an important feature to capture that day, so I wanted to grab a dramatic image for the lovely bride.  Her husband (to-be, at that time) had sent a big boquet of flowers to her earlier that day, so I brought the shoes and flowers outside when the rain and clouds had cleared and the sun revealed itself to help me light the shot.  Below is the feature shot of the shoes..

Martin Starr, a Lion, and a Baguette

Quite a while back I had the opportunity to work with Martin Starr.  While we were shooting toward THIS PHOTO, I also took a couple snaps of him in between.  I came across this one the other day, and it made me laugh…

Piece Showcased in COVET Exhibit

Thanks to the many guests who came through Chapel Arts to check out the COVET exhibit this past Friday, what an incredible turn out!  For those who missed it, Brendan Meadows was the brains behind the concept and task of the show that had each Photographer submit a muse and a location they covet. Each contributor was then given another person’s subject matter and setting at random.

I wanted to share my piece and the story.  When I first received my package, I was told I had an 8 year boy who wasn’t allowed to leave his property, and the setting I was given was a small park in Kerrisdale.  Off the top I assumed I would have to do a composite based on my model’s limitations.  I checked out the location and started brainstorming imagery that would work with an 8 year old.  When I spoke to my model’s mother she told me she had no problem bringing him to the location and that he was 13 years old and 6ft tall!  This changed my vision, so I went back to the drawing board.  I was having a difficult time with the location too, but when I met my model there and had him bring all kinds of props and a little tickle trunk of clothes we had a blast.  I had him in a cape up in a tree, laying on the ground in a suit, posing in the parking lot with a grass skirt around his neck and blowing into a conch shell.  The latter is what you see in the image.

To incorporate the location I decided to take the empty shots of the park I took when I first scouted it, and overlay them with an effect to create the textures you see.  As I found out from the Photographer who submitted my location when we chatted at the exhibit, the location I should have been given was a beach in Tsawwassen that had the same name as the park in Kerrisdale.  Quite different!  But the experience pushed me to move outside my comfort zone and create something I never could have planned any other way.

Thanks again to the crew involved with the show for having me on board!