Chloe & Emilie

A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of having not one, but two lovely ladies in my photography studio.    Having moved to a new studio in May, I sent out a call for a patient model who wouldn't mind hanging out and looking pretty while we walked around the new place to see what setups caught out eye. What I got was so much more than what I had asked, that my little tentative exploration turned into a full-blown photo shoot with two amazing women.

First into the studio was Chloe, my lovely dancer friend who can pull off a an intriguing mischievous look with gorgeous effortlessness, and who had more ideas than I could catch up with. I love her bright green eyes in this shot:



There was much moving around, outfit changing, adding and removing of accessories, furniture arranging and fun girliness involved. Towards the end of the shoot, I wanted to recreate a sort of lady's dressing table, so we assembled every piece of dress-up paraphernalia we could find in the studio, arranged it on an antique desk, and started shooting. But in the end, few things say "dressing room" like a shot of a girl's shoes:



You can see Chloe's full set here.

My second model for the day was Emilie, an accomplished dancer and model with a glamorous look that demanded a grand setting. I'm loving the colour contrast in this shot:



I liked having the chair and scarf in the background pick up the bright colours of her dress, so in our second setup, I tried to do something similar - see if you can spot it.



You can see Emilie's full set here.

All in all, thank you both for a fun day of shooting, and for being such good sports about me only just finding my footing in a new space with new possibilities. Unfortunately this first shoot was also my last in this particular studio, but great things are in the works, and I'm hoping to have a new place come September. And after this wonderful shooting experience, I hope my first photo shoot in my new studio is just as fun and rewarding. In the meantime, let's have some fun in the sun!

Flowers and Anniversaries

Thursday, Jeff and I celebrated our fourth anniversary which, Google informs me, was our Flower anniversary. Since this post is about flowers, and since these images would not have been captured without Jeff’s relentless badgering to get me out of bed far too early on a Sunday morning, it seems fitting that this post would be dedicated to him. Happy 4 years!

What you see here is more than pretty flowers. It is, in fact, the result of partial lunacy.



 2 weeks ago, I had the bright idea that Jeff and I should wake up on a Sunday morning to catch the sunrise, and maybe a few good flower shots at the same time. Our previous attempt at dawn-time photography resulted in a few nice shots, but mainly it left us Cold, Tired and Hungry on the Transitway.



On the chosen Sunday, when the alarm went off at 5:30am, I was beyond eager to turn it off and go right back to sleep; flowers be damned. Jeff, on the other hand, decided that since my idea had him awake at 5:30am, I had better go through with it. (Support borne out of resentment is a rare and wonderful thing, isn’t it?) 



So we went out and walked along the Rideau Canal, stopping to catch some photos of freshly blooming tulips, narcissuses, dandelions and other blossomy prettiness. The plan was to make it all the way to Dow’s Lake and take in the full display of the Tulip Festival. About half way, that plan was abandoned; the sun was too high and bright for pretty flower shots, and the Tired and Hungry were setting in. So we swapped the Canal for the Elgin Street Diner, and their perpetual breakfast menu.

Circus shenanigans

A couple of Fridays ago, Jeff and I got in a car and drove to Montreal to see a circus show. Not just any circus show, but the annual showcase of the Ecole de cirque de Verdun, where my awesome friend Corey (you may have seen him here) has spent a couple of years training and learning circus arts.

I've always had a deep admiration for circus artists, for their dedication and creativity in a field that mixes both incredible athletic feats and personal and artistic expression, and is too often overlooked by both areas. So I took advantage of the opportunity to take some fun shots.


Pssst! That's Corey up there in the silks!

For this year's showcase, the school chose to adapt Jack Kerouac's On the road. The show, called Beat played on the theme of constant movement even beyond exhaustion, as well as the various meanings of "beat" and "béat" (Fr, "elated").

There were, of course, impressive acrobatic acts, eye-twisting juggling, incredible feats of balance and strength, some very fun transitions and interludes, and the overall magic atmosphere that you expect from any circus performance.



All in all, a great way to spend an evening, and I was very happy to be a part of it, even if my most athletic activity that day consisted of sitting up and lifting my lens :)

For the full set, click here.

Mom

This post is an unapologetically gushy tribute to my Mom.

 Last week was my mom's birthday. I'd been threatening to get her in the studio for a long time, and I thought this was a good time to celebrate and show off my mom's boundless awesomeness. So we got together for a little portrait shoot. For those who haven't yet had the privilege to meet her, my mom is perhaps the kindest and most sincerely caring person I know. And this is going on more than just the infinite patience it must have taken to raise me over the last 27 years (and counting).

 

 I've always known my mom to be a beautiful, stylish and expressive lady with more of an artistic streak than she might like to admit. I also knew her as a fairly reserved person, so I wasn't sure how she would feel being in front of a camera. Turns out, my mom is a closet model. Especially when you give her a hat.

 

You can see her, above, giving me the "I'm not sure whether I'm amused or deeply unimpressed with you" look that I got a lot as a teenager.

All in all, my mom is a rock star in and out of the studio, and a fun day was had playing with make-up, pretty dresses, and hats. After all, how can you go wrong with hats?!



Happy birthday, Mom!

Photo walks

A couple of years ago, Jeff and I took a photographic leap: we joined a studio and invested in some studio lights. The world (inside our heads) has never been the same since. While Jeff didn't take as much of a shining to the whole studio thing, I've invested quite a bit of energy into learning how to work those damn lights; it's a process, and it's an ongoing and occasionally very frustrating one at that. But it can also be amazingly rewarding, which is why I've been posting the best (or even least embarrassing) results of my shoots on here.

 The downside of all that is that, until recently, I'd rarely ventured outside the studio with my camera. That changed about a month ago, thanks to the lovely folks at the Ottawa Street Exploration flickr group. They organize monthly photo walks throughout the city, in hopes of cataloging some of the lesser known local spots and getting a few good shots in at the same time. The first outing I joined was on St. Patrick's Day; we explored the ByWard Market and encountered its many festive and not-so-festive inhabitants. My favourite shot from the day has really nothing to do with St. Patrick (or his day), but more to do with the loveliness of taking a walk on a warm day in early spring:

 

 The shot that proved most popular, however, was one of two sales ladies from The Bay, presumably on their smoke break:

 


Check out the full set here.

For its April outing, the group decided to head to Chinatown. There was relatively little activity on the Saturday before Easter, so most of us took to shooting the inanimate side of things. Still, I did manage to snap one guy having a smoke on his front step. It makes me wonder: why do smokers always seem so deep in thought?
 

With the days getting longer, we had to cope with much brighter light and harsher shadows than usual. So I thought I'd make the best of it and play with some shadows:

 

 Full set here.

 All in all, I had a great time joining these photo walks and I'm looking forward to the next outing with this exceptionally fun and supportive group of talented photographers.

Shameless self-advertising

For everyone who had been waiting for my Cuba photos with bated breath, you can now find them here.

I would love to go into stories about the awesomeness of outdoor showers at sunset, under palm trees, with live saxophone music in the background, but I'll refrain.

In other news, I recently had a reason to be in front of a camera, for a change. I recently had the pleasure of contributing a series of articles to Ambition in Transition, a blog offering career and lifestyle tips to 20-somethings caught in the transition period between study and employment. Joining their team required, aside from the implicit brilliance (this is the shameless self-advertising part of this post. Did you guess?), a headshot to go with it. This is where Jeff came in.



Jeff is one of the rare people who can point a camera at me and not have my facial muscles contract into a mix of deer-in-headlights and a young Elmer Fudd. Which is good, considering I'm neither a herbivore, nor am I hunting wabbits (be vewy, vewy quiet). Anyways. Above and below are my two favourite shots from Sunday's shoot. Big thanks to Jeff, once again, for his endless patience and the lovely photos!

Shiny Pretty Things

Happy New Year! (First post of the year, so it's required, no?)

Since my last post, I had a lovely holiday (thanks for asking), and I hope everyone else did as well. I spent a week in Cuba, which far surpassed my expectations; photos will be posted shortly. In the meantime, however, here are the results of a more recent shoot - I know, chronology is not my strong suit!

Jeff decided it would be fun to do a little jewelry shoot, just for fun. So I rounded up a few of my shiny things, and our good friend Diana was also nice enough to contribute a few of her pieces. Jeff took a very methodical approach and focused on one thing at a time or a few like things together.

Then I go in... and promptly turn our little staging area into a girly mess.



This is, admittedly, busier than my shots tend to be most of the time. I think this is probably the first time that I've had, all in the same shot: velvet, paper, china, shells, various precious and non-precious metals, pearls (of the artificial variety), silk, beads... and there was much more outside the frame, believe it or not.

After that was done, I decided to try a few simpler setups, starting with a pair of gold earrings.



The Papery is a great place to get cool paper to serve as interesting backdrops for jewelry, for much cheaper than fabric.

Finally, I borrowed Jeff's setup to take a few photos of my newest ring. In retrospect, it probably needed a better cleaning first, and I need much more practice lighting gems.



The ring is sitting on what looks like wood, but is in fact the side of an Ikea basket. Props to Jeff for thinking that one up!