Purple on Purple

My partner Jen brought home the most gorgeous purple tulips the other day — instant inspiration! I don't believe I had seen that colour of tulip before, they were just stunningly beautiful.

They had to be photographed!

I really wanted to emphasize the incredible, deep, rich colour so instinctively I stuck them in front of a purple background to really push the colour. However, I did not want to wash out the beauty of the tulips with a big blob of purple so I modified my main light to about a quarter of its size and used a snooted flash to pop a selected circle of background. The final touch was a separation light, directly offsetting the main light, to bring dimension and pop them off the backdrop. Three Canon 580EX II flashes in total.



Keep shooting.

A Beautiful Smile

I make a lot of pictures of people. And as I'm making those pictures I am engaging them with mostly witty banter. I say "mostly" because it's not always witty but I do try, especially if a natural smile is what I am trying to coax forward.

Anyhow, that's not the point. The point is that during a photo session I am constantly engaging my subject in conversation. At some point during that conversation I usually ask them if they like having their picture taken. Yeah, it's a loaded question and unsurprisingly most answer that they do not like it. Even though I usually know the answer before I ask the question, i ask it regardless because it is a good icebreaker and it can help to address the elephant in the room, even if it's a small elephant. It also helps them to relax when I share that I don't like to have my picture taken either.

It is my job as the photographer to extract the best look out of my subject, even the most camera shy. Sometimes, getting that look can be the most difficult and energy sapping part of my job. Every once and a while though, I come across someone who requires little to no coaxing to produce the most naturally beautiful smile.

Today I had that "someone" in front of my camera. With the minimal amount of effort on my part I received an amazing smile that reflected the personality and radiance beautifully, perfectly and ever so easily. I love it when that happens.

Keep shooting.

Bikes, Bikes, Bikes...

Man do I love bikes! When it comes to bikes, the older the better and the more unique the better. Calgary seems to have no shortage of cool, vintage commuter bikes.

Today, I spotted this beauty while waiting to pick up my partner after work. I pulled out the best camera I had with me at the time - my iPhone - and I snapped a bunch of pics of this gorgeous, old bicycle.



Sweet! I just can't get enough of these magnificent machines.

Keep shooting.

A Quick Spin With The 5D Mark III

My friend Amy Thiessen, the lovely and talented gal that she is, was playing a show Ironwood Stage in Calgary last night and I was invited along to shoot pictures. I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out Canon's new 5D Mark III so I rented one from The Camera Store for the day.

Of course, the Mark III was new to me so I spent the day setting it up how I liked and getting familiar with handling it and using some of the new features. Just to be safe though I decided to bring my Mark II along as well and shoot the two cameras side by side. After shooting both cameras for about twenty minutes and comparing the results, there was a clear winner - the 5D Mark III.

Being in a bar, the lighting wasn't great so that meant high ISO. I shot everything at ISO 6400 to have ample shutter speed for my longer lens and the Mark III hands down produced cleaner images but probably even more important than that was it's ability to acquire focus. The Mark II is OK at focusing in well lit places but not so much in dim light. The Mark III on the other hand had no trouble focusing in minimal light and producing many, many more keeper images like the one below.

I didn't have long with the new camera but it was long enough to know it had some clear advantages over the 5D Mark II. Hopefully I will have a chance to use one again in the near future.

Keep shooting.

On The Fly...

I had another fun shoot at a local yoga studio yesterday and this was one of my favourite shots.



More than the lighting, colours or reflections, this one is all about an authentic expression and the joy of the practice. For me, it's the difference between a shot that ends up in the trash or in the keeper pile.

Keep shooting.

Under

Calgary had a lovely bit of spring weather today so I decided it was a good night to head out and make some pictures.

By the time I got organized it was fairly late and being on foot I decided to stick closer to home. Not surprisingly I ended up at the Peace Bridge. Instead of shooting the same old picture from the same old spot I wanted something unique.

I found it.

Keep shooting.

Yet Another Self Portrait

I seems like I have been doing a lot of self portraits lately. So much so that my one-and-only modeling look is starting to get on my nerves. It is getting harder and harder to muster the patience to make another picture of my well photographed mug. And I won't even get in to moving furniture so I can set up the equipment in the first place.

So if they are such a pain, why do I do them? Simply, I do them for a couple of reasons. First is to test and play with new or proven lighting techniques and second is to keep my skills sharp when I don't have a full schedule of work. Mostly though it's the former but the practice never hurts either.

The past couple of weeks I have probably done four or five experimental self portraits. Today was no different. I needed a lighting solution for teacher head shots for a yoga studio and below is what I created.

And the finished self portrait looks like this.

On shoot day I will vary the looks, the poses and the framing but I am confident in the light and that is what matters most.

Keep shooting.