My Private Tokyo

Here are some of the individuals I got a chance to shoot the past few days. A few of them were Calgarians no less (we managed to set aside our differences, just this once).

More to come this week! Thank you everyone for the support.

Here's a shoot I did a few weeks back for a makeup creative with a model a friend had introduced me to a few days prior.

As usual, I'm a big fan of doing makeup creatives. I've always said composition wise I'm not terribly creative with them so far but I absolutely love playing and fine tuning the lighting, maybe even to a fault.

These were done with some translucent sheets of plastic and a bit of an odd, if not still standard lighting setup. Fantastic work by the team as always!

Kind of a funny story behind some of these shots. After winding down following a full day in the studio I had just wanted to test a quick look for lighting using a beauty dish and the new grid I got for it. Until I hadn't really had a chance to experiment with it, certainly not for head shots so I grabbed Jenna and used her as a guinea pi....errr subject.

This was kind of a step forward from a previous one light setup I had tried with a model that day. Her outfit at the time screamed strong contrast so after we got the necessary shots we tried a few with just the one light. It went really well and so I used this opportunity to develop on it a little further.

Jenna asked if she could try a particular modelling/teaching technique she came across from the internet and to make a long story short, these were some of the results. Working with people you know and are comfortable around will get you some fantastic results. It was simple and quick but i really enjoyed the look of them and plan on expanding on it further.

Getting a lot of support this week as well as a lot of kind and thankful words from those viewing the sets of pictures. It's been an amazing experience all around and there's plenty more to come. Once again, thank you to everyone who has been a part of it all!

Next up, Calgary!

Quick update today. Here is an ad i shot for Numa Models earlier this month. This one was quite a bit of work as well as a new challenge for me. A lot of preplanning went into the project and a lot more will go into the next one. There were a lot of details to pay attention to in this one and similar to shooting a wedding, there kind of isn't a back up plan if you don't get the shot. I guess by now i'm used to it and don't sweat those kinds of terms any longer.

Regardless there will be a behind the scenes video coming up for this shoot in a few weeks. I'll jump more into the technicals on this one when the video is finished. In the meantime enjoy the shot and if you have any questions in general, feel free to contact me.

So, the project is still coming along quite nicely. The next day or two will be a bit of a slow down as I have a few other shoots that need to be completed. Following that thought were right back on track with some more updates.

Aside from that, from a photographers perspective the project itself has been a rather rewarding experiences. It's quickly forced me to spend a good deal of time anticipating my settings, light sources and conditions, most of which have not been ideal, and reacting to them in a pretty quick manner. I set conditions on myself to only use natural light unless it really needed to be supplemented. That in itself was for several reasons. It made sure i worked quickly and it made me stop and think about what i have at my disposal. At times you stumble a bit but even if you only fired off a few frames in the span of a few minutes you spend a lot of time reviewing what you did and how it affected each image.

Long story the added pressure to move quickly and in varying conditions has helped me to grow in a particular regard.

The project also has a few other rules I've kept in my mind. I'm shooting the whole thing using only a 50mm focal length. In part this was to give he image some breadth and take a step away from the compression of telephoto lenses. On the other hand i had wanted to capture a bit more of the actual environment each shot was taken in. It's been bitter sweet at times but it helps you to think and adjust rather than just swapping out for a different lens.

I want the overall feel of each shot to be generally the same. The goal is not to get a individualistic picture for each person. Well, perhaps that is a little incorrect. Each one is unique but they all fit into a template of guidelines. I want it to be represented as a group, not as individual images. Like i said, it's bitter sweet at times but i'm not giving myself leeway.

The response has been pretty amazing. It's a fantastic feeling hearing people say they've been genuinely touched by the project. I want to keep track of some of the messages and comments and hopefully put it all together down the line. However, i certainly can't take credit for all this work. There are many individuals who have come together to help make this something truly unique and as such you should all finish reading this knowing that you played just a big a role as everyone else who took part.

Theres more to talk about, i will however save that for another entry. Finally, I did get some more great news the other day that I had wanted to share. I don't quite know the weight of it yet, it may in the end be something quite small in a sense but I was asked among others to participate in giving a little bit of a personal background and a message to Japan and those affected by the disasters for a magazine based in Japan.

To me that's pretty amazing. There is a whole heck of pressure behind it to create a message that inspires but it truly feels rewarding to be a part of an international community.

What a crazy weekend! There was a lot of support the past few days which had me running around to all sides of town to meet up with some very generous and genuinely awesome people. The project has seen a lot of growth and I aim to keep that momentum going as much as I can. It feels great to get support from a lot of different circles within Edmonton, whether it be through pictures and donations but overall moral support. A number of friends within Japan have also helped to pass a long the concept and theres been some really positive feedback there.

More to come soon! I want to talk more about as to where i'd like to progress with this and just the overall experience it's helped to bring in different facets.

In the meantime, keep the supporting coming!

A quick update for today. Lots of shots from this weekend. More to come in the next few days. So far over $1000 has been raised by those involved. Thats pretty amazing, especially for only a few days work. Huge thanks to everyone involved and those for those supporting this project.