Custom Creations: Gucci Purse


A quick series of shots I did for a local friend for one of the custom cakes she had made for a customer. I got a chance to grab a few shots and sample some left over "material" in the process.

Needless to say, it was as delicious as it looked!

For those interested you can find more of Lily's fantastic work on her Facebook page: Custom Creations Cakes & Pastries

A view from down below

5:40 PM Posted by Hikari Studio 0 comments


Some friends and I took a trip to Jasper over the long weekend. While there we did a trek up Maligne Canyon. For me this was something new. I had visited the canyon in the summer when I was much younger. Even then it was a rather unique and interesting place. Visiting it during the winter and getting a chance to hike up the actual river is a different experience all together though and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been before.

These shots were done hand held with the 14-24mm f2.8. I had originally planned to bring my tripod but forgot it in the car.

Telling a story



There has been a bit of a change of perspective as of late for me and my overall approach when photographing people in general. There is always a time and place for the standard approach of posing people in very archaic ways. I don't want to frame it in a negative light, there is an application to it. The problem crops up however when you try and use this method on situations where you strive for emotion or natural reaction.

A certain air has to exist. The subject has to be in a comfortable frame of mind and there's a sort of energy that bounces back between the model and photographer. This is not something easily established when the photographer has to guide the subject to very specific posing. The flow ceases to exist and the overall feeling becomes rigid, something that shows in the final product.

When you try and create a story within your shots they have to be filled with movement. There has to be a sort of freedom for the subject to play within.

With that I mind I'm beginning to try and shift my overall approach to create scenes or stories. Give the subject a feeling, a simple story or just an overall scene and create the comfort and will for them to be themselves, to act and react to the flow of things rather than be guided. I want to guide them initially, before the camera is even in my hand. Once that is established it then becomes my job to capture that as an observer, regardless of whether the technicals of photography are aligned in my favor or not. A photograph with emotion will always win out over technical virtuosity for me.

Now, this of course takes a certain level of comfort within both the subject as well as the photographer. Initially as a photographer you have to be able to create that within the person you're working with and that brings to the forefront a lot of refinement on people skills and interaction. It means developing vision and developing stories and tales. It brings together a lot of different elements from outside of photography in general and focuses a lot more on personal character development.

It's however something that will push so many other aspects of ones own photography. It translates to practically any sub genre within photography. Regardless of what you shoot, it is ultimately about people.

Yoga!







This was a personal project between me and Sandy. For a while I had an approach I had never really thought of attempting a commercial look, especially to activity/sports/fitness related photography. I found that for the longest time my scope had been so narrowly focused on "fashion" that I didn't really look beyond models and designers. The idea initially sounded less than glamourous but that quickly changed when I realized the challenge involved with creating a very specific industry tailored look.

It's one thing to swear off popular styles and looks in exchange for ones own vision. I'm no exception to that mentality. However, I'm finding a value in trying to appeal to what's popular as well. It creates drive with a particular direction. It's focus.

Mini Spa


Some of the shots from the spa themed shoot we did last month. As I somewhat talked about in an earlier post the goal of this shoot was mainly for the sake of learning and experimenting with a few new ideas and looks. We ended up getting some great images in the process and got the chance to put together a bigger project. Jumping out of your comfort zone for those sorts of situation builds you up a little at a time. Each time you revisit such bigger projects you become more familiar with the flow of them. Planning and managing them becomes a less stressful process. Suddenly they don't seem like all that much work.