An Afternoon With Zak

Its been quite some time since I've blogged. I know I promised myself I would keep it up, so I hope the nice weather continues so I can get out and shoot some more.

With that being said - yesterday was a beautiful day! I had rented a few lenses to have some fun with and called out for volunteers to have a fun late afternoon photoshoot. Thank goodness for good friends and acquaintances! I had volunteer in no time!

Her name is Zak. Beautiful personality. Loves yoga and operates her own business in Markham. I met her through two really good friends of mine Marsha and Chandra who are sisters that I have photographed in the past, so I knew that any friends of Marsha and Chandra where going to be fun to be around and of course photograph!

The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Zak and I decided to do a late afternoon shoot at Unionville Main Street. A beautiful, quaint historic neighbourhood in the heart of Markham. Lots of old Victorian-style structures transformed into little shops adorned with authentic clothing peices, and fun little candy and ice-cream shops, and stylish pubs and restaurants that would catch anyone's eye.

It was Zak's first time doing a photoshoot, and for someone's first time, she did WONDERFULLY! I was so pleased with the end results, that couldn't resist sharing the images with all of you!

Thanks again Zak for being Superwoman for a day :)

Airing Out Our Finest : The Design Exchange - April 11-25th 2011

Hello to all my blog followers! Sorry I haven't written in awhile. I've been bogged down with work and school, and well, many of us know how that can be!

This year is the 10th installment of this exhibit profiling work from Durham College's Graphic Design graduating students. The exhibit will include work that covers all disciplines of the graphic design industry.

The 2010 third place winners of the National PAC competition will also have their design exhibited, as well as the winners of Durham College's first "crow" awards for creative video design from second year students.

 If you skim back a few blog posts to the write up I did about "Urban Laundry", you'll read how I collaborated with my long time friend Dawn to create a visual concept of doing a photoshoot in an old run down laundromat with our models decked out in fashionable clothing to create a strong contrast between grungy, and 'urban' and the spread contains a brief discussion about human geography having a great impact on human behaviour and the logic of behavioural analysis.

While shooting for the spread, we also ventured into many other laundromats in search of old grungy retro washing machines and dryers. Dawn had asked me to take some detail shots of the different washers and dryers and other surroundings in these various laundromats, so that she could apply her graphic design to the images and prepare them for the possibility of being chosen for the exhibit!

Now totally off topic but in relation to the shoot:

 

I met up with Dawn on St. Patrick's Day, and she finally completed the 'mock-up' Tank Magazine spread! It looks fabulous! Dawn did an exceptional job making my photography come to life, and I owe her a huge heartfelt THANK-YOU for working so hard and being so good at what she does. It really gives me a sense of accomplishment to see my work being looked at in a whole new way.

I would also like to make special mention to my beautiful dear friend Marsha Jodrell for volunteering to model for us in the shoot, along with Dawn's 2 friends Lisa and Marcel. Marsha worked really well with them, and I know I can always count on her if I ever had a photography project that required a model!

With that being said - WE'VE BEEN CHOSEN FOR THE EXHIBIT at the Design Exchange! It runs from April 11-25th, 2011 with the opening reception being on April 12th.

The exhibit is open to the public and and I'm spreading the word for anyone interested in attending. I will keep you all posted on Facebook as the date approaches.

Signing off for now. I have some smiling to do :)

How I became photography, and how photography became ME.

I guess I could start off by saying, I've been a lover of photography for many years. Probably as far back as highschool.

In early 2007, I decided to buy my first digital Canon Rebel XT, and although I've come a long way since then in the way of upgrading my camera bodies (now owning a Canon 40d and a Canon 5DMarkII). I was ready to take on the challenge of a more advanced level of photography and was anxious to produce a higher quality of images that a point and shoot could not do for me. Or at least I thought.

I started throwing myself into books, and looking at images of people, and how those images where achieved. I was hungry and anxious all at once to find my sense of style. But how was I able to do that? I now owned this advanced piece of equipment, and I felt I needed to produce incredible images in order to be able to push the limits of how good this camera would perform against all cameras I had owned in the past. I was thirsty to learn.

I was introduced to this couple, in the fall of 2007 while photographing some friends downtown just for kicks and to play with the settings on my camera and learn how they worked.  The couple was getting married in the winter time and had asked me if ‘I had a business card’. A business card? I wasn’t even self-employed as a photographer, and they wanted my business card? Something told me, that the comment my friend made to me long ago was starting to make sense – so, I offered to shoot my first wedding in December 2007. And from that moment on, I ventured into the world of wedding photography.

My sense of style is that of emotion. I aim to achieve emotional photographs that tell the story of how the couple’s day unfolded.  I’ve often had my clients tell me that they felt as if they were revisiting their wedding day all over again. I’ve had testimonials where they’ve cried, they’ve been overjoyed and they notice that I don’t just ‘take photographs’, I ‘make photographs’ and that I engage myself in the days festivities to gain a good perspective of how it unfolds.  To me, that is a very powerful statement that I’ve inherited in my daily habits as a photographer. I believe having a relentless passion for photography in order to achieve the desired result plays a huge role in how I shape my style and my vision. How I approach my clients is based on an understanding from a bride’s standpoint how she would envision her wedding photographs to look and communicate with her as best as I can to bring forward HER sense of style as well as my own. I believe that if I don’t have passion, I cannot achieve my dream of being a successful wedding photographer.

I’ve read endless blogs of other photographers, watched endless interviews of world renowned wedding photographers, and became heavily inspired by the works of Australian photographer Rob Heyman. I watched an excerpt from a series of interviews from a video called “Masters of Wedding Photography”, and his interview really captured me. I was able to resonate with him simply because his key component in his photography was emotion, his ‘as-it-happens’ style, and the way he interacted with his subjects and his adventurous personality,  and his use of natural light that gave way to the expression of his photography. I appreciated his marketing approach of how he does not ‘sell’ his work, but that people ‘buy’ his work. His photography speaks for itself, and his exceptional use of color and black and white in his photographs inspires me to utilize color and black and white as part of expression in a photograph and to perfect this skill. Expression draws the viewer in. Black and white photography creates drama, while color accentuates the subject by way of contrast and makes the photograph come alive. Coupled with the relaxed and real-life style of his photography, I’m inspired by his belief that a photograph does not necessarily need to be tack sharp at all times, but if properly done, and artistically applied, you can capture the essence of the subject ‘in the moment’ and that even the slightest motion blur and grain in a photograph can be very artistic in nature, and in the end, it’s the ‘moment’ captured that counts.

"Urban" Laundry!

I know I mentioned I only do wedding photography and portraits, but one of my long time friends Dawn had asked me to help her out with a concept piece she was doing for her school project for the Graphic Arts Program at Durham College. I JUMPED on the idea!

If her concept gets chosen, it will be shown at an Exhibit at The Design Exchange! I haven't ironed out all the details yet, but I know she will also be designing a mock-up magazine spread with some of the photos I took for her concept.

It was a fun day! Dawn and I had scouted out old retro-style laundromats around the Toronto area the weekend prior to the shoot at the end of February 2010. And I must say, the laundromats around The Beaches area (Queen Street), where quite modern looking in some, and not big enough for what we wanted in others.

So we decided to go further west. We hit Landsdown & Bloor, after my boyfriend suggested we try scouting out there for something a little more grungier! And BINGO! We found one! It was called "Coin Laundry" (yes..thats it. Just "Coin Laundry") and we hit the target on the exact look we were aiming for. Dim, somber lighting, with old retro-style washing machines, and albeit many upgraded dryers but it was a great size to work with and we had full run of the place and no one bothered us!

So the following weekend, we rounded up my beautiful model and dear friend Marsha and Dawn's two friends Lisa and Marcel to give the concept of "fashionable" clothing against, a dark, urban and lonely laundromat.

I definitely had some fun shots from that day!



So I finally decided to start a blog!

Well, I figured it was time that I finally start a blog so we could communicate better and I could share what I love to do! Photography!

Let me start by sharing with you what drives me to be a wedding photographer and a portrait photographer. I've always loved photographing people. What I find so visually appealing are the timeless emotions that are portrayed in wedding photography. I've long yearned to establish my style as one who could capture emotion as naturally as possible, and found it to be a struggle in the beginning, but I'm finding the more weddings I shoot, the more it's able to somewhat predict these moments to capture the right emotion in a photograph. I enjoy the people I meet who put their trust in me to capture their day as they remembered. I like to be flexible when working with them, as I find this so important to be able to tap into their own individual styles and personality, while I add my artistic flare. Personality is so important in photographs. You must capture the subjects as they really are.I also need to feel the importance of how they view their day, in order to capture those images. So, feeling passionate about someone's wedding day allows me to escape into a beautiful world where documenting a day full of love with a bride and groom's family and friends means just as much to ME as it does to them. This is what I thrive on.