New Studio Space

I have recently come across a wonderful studio space for shooting in.  It is called the Anne MacDonald hall and it is part of the Presentation House theatre in North Vancouver.  Originally a church, it was moved to its current location, yes, the entire building was moved, and set up as a rehearsal space.  The original Church of the building is in tact - large stain glass window, hardwood floors, wood wainscoting.  Very charming inside and out.

Primarily I am a location photographer. I have very few times when I actually "need" a studio.  For the times that I do, this is the place.  I can use it for a few hours and have none of the worries of ownership.  Rental is very reasonable.  For more info go to www.phtheatre.org .

Here is a sample of images that I did the on the weekend.


Inside building using natural light coming in through the large window





Outside using natural light





Outside using natural light





Inside building using natural light



January.  A time for planning.  A time to look forward and decide where you want to be this time next year.  This year, I want to do more teaching. 

Last year I started teaching at Focal Point.  I designed and taught a course on commercial portraiture.  I also developed as one day workshop on using hand held strobes. I am looking forward to continuing both of these courses.

New programs that I will be developing this year will be on lighting and posing, and another on using window light to create outstanding portraits.  This blog will continue to have posts on composition and lighting, as well as information on how you can attend my seminars.

Last year I also had growth my photography business.  In a flat economy, this is a huge win. I am continuing with my current business plan over the next year.

Looking forward to a big year.

christmas cards

It's always fun to go searching through your old images.  I was looking for an image to put on a Christmas card last night and I came across this one.  I took it 2 years ago on my way to work.  It was one of the colder December that vancouver has ad in a while and lost lagoon was frozen over.  A beautiful mist was rising from the ice that created this surreal affect.

Enjoy.

Canon XSi  10-22mm lens at 22mm,  f8 @ ISO 400

Get permision

Living in a rain forest makes for some interesting challenges. Last Sunday I was scheduled to do an engagement session.  The weather forcast for that day was not promising so I had to come up with an alternate plan, just in case. Well, the rain held off all day Sunday but an hour before we were going to head out, the skies opened up and it poured.  Fortunately, I had taken the time to come up with a plan.

Indoor shots it had to be but studio shots were out of the question.  Fortunately, I have built up a good relationship with the Pan Pacific Hotel (http://www.panpacific.com/ ) so I gave them a call and got permision to use the hotel for my engagement session.

Many photographers assume that they can go into a venue such as a hotel or conference centre and shoot away.  This is just not so.  These places are private property and the main concern of the people who run them is the comfort and safety of their guests.  They have every right to ask you to leave.  Always get permision to use a venue.  Sometimes they will say no.  There may just be no room to have you there.  Other times they will say yes and give you access through security. Often times you will be directed to places that are just incredible, opening up the opportunity for incredible images. And remember, if you can, give something back - they are doing you a huge favour when they let you in.

Here are a couple of shots that we got while inside the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel we found a maginicent reception area to use.  It was equiped with a fireplace, couches, super high ceilings, a grand piano, and amazing light supplied by huge windows.

The image on the left was taken with the available light only. A vignette was put on it in Lightroom and it was ready to go. The image on the right was taken with available light balanced with a Canon 580exII in a 32" umbrella off to camera left.  The rest of the images from this session were equally as amazing as these.

This couple was so impressed with the Pan Pacific Hotel that they are determined to use them for their wedding.  How did this happen? Because I asked.

Continuing education

What a month. With over 20 years in the photography business, I still find that there is so much to learn.  Especially now with digital innovations changing the industry on what sometimes feels like a daily basis.

This last month I took my annual trip to the WPPI conference in Las Vegas. Check out their site at  http://www.wppionline.com/ . A pretty intimate conference, just me and 14,000 of my closests friends.  When I first started attending these events, there were around 800 attendees.  It is great to see so many photographers from around the world that recognize the importance of continuing education to improve their photographic and business skills. The advantage to having so many attendees is that the organizers are able to support having many excellent instructors talking on a wide range of topics and a photographic specific trade show that is huge. I don't think there is any product in the market that is not represented at the trade show.

Since I've been back, I have taken much of what I learned at WPPI and added to my own course, Portraiture Framework. The course is an intermediate level program that is design to help students learn to create portraits of a consistent level and quality.  It then covers the development of a personal style based on techniques learned in the course.  The course is ten weeks longs and starts on April 13, 2010. It will be held at Focal Point in Vancouver. Log on to http://www.focalpoint.bc.ca/ to get more details and to register.  The course size is limited so don't wait too long.

Only show your best

Editing, probably one of the least loved aspects of photography. When the shoot is over and you have several hundred images to sift through, it can often feel like a chore just to get busy and get it done. Many photographers completely skip this step, showing off all the images they took.

Last week I did a session for my son. He has a profesional actor and he often models for me when I want to do some photographic experimenting. He has also worked with me on many assignments and knows how I work. He knows my rule that nobody sees their images until I have edited them.

There are many reasons for this rule.

1. I will take many exposures of the same images just to get the right expresion. I want to edit out the expresions that are not flattering to the subject.
2. I want to insure that all images with technical problems are removed of fixed.
3. The first impression and the last impression are what people will remeber about their session. Regardless of how much fun they had during the session, what they will mostly remember was if you were ready to go when they were, and how the images looked when they were presented. Therfore, only present the best from the session.
4. People tend to focus on the negative.
5. You are the profesional. Your client is counting on your opinion to help them select the best images. Showing them the "bad" images will undermine their confidence in you.

When it comes to personal images, the same thing holds true.  Make sure to edit them dwn right away.  You will be more likely to make prints from them and they will be ready to show when you want to show them.

My clients are usuall very excited after a session and are anxious to see their images. My son is no exeption. I ad to fight him off while I edited the picture, I decided to run an experiment.  I left a few of the images in that I would have otherwise deleted. True to form, he focused on the bad ones. He agreed that there were several very good images in the bunch but what about those ones. So once again, lesson learned!

Edit Your Images!