i am precious

meet jacob. he just turned one year old not too long ago and has perfected his camera smile. he's a lot easier to work with than some of the model types i've shot in the past. he's an absolute natural in front of the lens and these photos prove it.

getting him to smile was easier than... taking candy from a baby?

he insisted that this was his favourite pose - who was i to argue?

a little easily distracted, but photogenic nonetheless!

working it

ah - the perfect picture!

thanks, jacob, for letting me take pictures of you! your professionalism is outstanding, and i look forward to seeing you on the cover of a magazine one of these days (just remember to tell them you already have a photographer ;)

we are enthusiastic

meet the Legal family. they have the most unique dynamic of any family i have ever had the pleasure of meeting. as an anniversary gift to their parents, the children decided to have family portraits done. what a great idea!

the Legal family - complete with matching attire: two daughters, one son, and one son-in-law.

ladies first, of course

and then the guys

the first kissing photo i've ever posted

kids at play

my favourite montage

brother and sister

husband and wife

mother and father

this photo says it all

congratulations on your anniversary! there was never a dull moment photographing all of you.

we are the class of 2007

summer is almost over, but before summer started some friends graduated from high school and they gave me the honour of photographing them before their grad dinner and dance. the day would prove to be quite challenging as the sun was rather scarce and the rain was falling heavily. nevertheless it was a fun shoot!

you can't even tell it's pouring!

looking spiffy!

don't they look classy?

the matching tie and dress - coincidence or design? perhaps great minds think alike.

spontenaity translates well in photos

had to keep that rain off her dress.

congratulations guys - i had a great time with all of you. i wish you all the success in your futures.

absolut photography

ok, this is where it gets fun!

we were given a magazine ad to mimic using some of the things we learned last session (glass, metal, texture). my group was given an advertisement for absolut vodka in which a magazine ad magically drips into a martini glass (see below). our assignment was only to have the bottle and glass. we didn't need to have the magazine or the water drop.
we began by shooting just the bottle above the glass. this took many different setups. for the "vodka" in the bottle, we used a fast-setting resin.
next we took the shot from the same position, but this time had a mechanism designed to drip water into the martini glass. as you can see, the glass started getting drops all over it from the splashing, but the timing had to be just right. i originally had a photo of the droplet that looked like the one in the original ad, but opted to used this "crown" shaped droplet instead. you have to click on this photo to see the drop up close - even i was impressed!
of course, the 2 photos aren't much good without the other, so i used some basic photoshop skills to take the "crown" from the droplet shot and place it into the "clean" shot with the bottle. the result? have a look for yourself:
here is a shot of our setup. we used a boom to hold the coke bottle that had water and a tube with a regulator at the end to time the drips. we had a stand which we clamped the bottle to and a pane of glass on a black blanket for the "table."
this was probably the most fun i've had in a studio session. it was easy to see how this one photo shoot could have lasted several days. given the time, we could have mimiced the original ad campaign.

glass metal texture

so this studio session wasn't the most satisfying, but at least the theory behind the techniques was interesting. we were asked to bring our own props for these shots: glass, metal and texture.

here's the glassware shot. materials used: glasses, straws, lemons, lime, blanket, glass tray. the theory for shooting glass is to have a backlight to light up the contents of the glass (or to otherwise show its transparency) and one or more lights in front of the glass to provide reflected highlights (to add depth)
for the metal shot, i decided to go with a ratchet set. the theory for metal photography is that metal acts like a mirror. to get the highlights in this photo, i had to place a strobe with a large soft box over it. without the large light source, the tools would appear completely black and "lifeless." another difficulty with shooting metal (particularly larger objects) is to avoid photographing yourself in the reflection.
for the texture shot, i used a box made of coconut skins held together with stitching. there wasn't much time left for this shoot, so this photo wound up rather rushed but still achieved the effect. the theory behind shooting textures is to use a hard light at a right angle to the object. that way, the texture's peaks and valleys are dramatically shown by highlights and shadows.
during this session, it was evident that photo shoots could last days. i had to shoot 3 photos in 3 hours and that was not enough time.