I was recently asked to create album artwork for the latest album by RecordBreaker, a band from Toronto, Canada. Clicking on the image above will reveal a brief animation showcasing the details of the image. We started with some sketches and concepts based on their music, history and symbolic nature of the bands third album. This is the main image from our shoot and we’re all very happy with the unique and character look we managed to achieve. The album is due to be released very soon so check out their website for more info. Click through for a little more information and pictures on the process we took to create this image. Great work guys and can’t wait to hear the finished record!
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It all started with this: based on some drawings and discussion with the band we decided on the feel of a “movie theatre performance venue” for the whole album package. This main image was to be the main character piece. I began with a scale drawing of it to demonstrate a realistic direction to the band and to figure out perspectives for myself. It soon became apparent that this was going to be a very elaborate composite project in order to get in every idea we all got excited about. The sketching stage is a crucial one to make sure the minds eye actually matches reality.

It was then onto the process of scouting a location. This was surprisingly difficult. None of the several places I went to had the exact character or features I was looking for, so it turned out to be a combination of two: the beautiful marquee from the Royal Cinema, and the vintage looking entrance of the Allenby. Part of the trouble of finding an appropriate space was due to fitting features into the square aspect ratio required and none of the scouting tests I did could get exactly what I was after. Things that had to be fit into the image frame were things like: marquee lettering, previous album covers as posters on the sides, secondary character placements, instruments, etc. Another example of the importance of pre-production.


Finally, we could book the shoot: in these behind the scenes snapshots we were getting everyone’s character poses including the three iterations of each band member (an aspect that ties into an underlying trio theme for their 3rd release) and the instruments. Lighting setups varied significantly (despite the two similar shots above) depending on what we were doing, but the general setup can be seen in here. The setups were adjusted to match (and more importantly stylize) the lighting that would have been present at the actual location. Special thanks goes to my amazing assistants of the day that helped the process go as smoothly as possible.


The final composite: after some necessary blending and manual painting and colouring to give it the illustrated look. Click the image above to see a little animation showcasing the various elements of the image in a more detailed way.
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Kit Dynamo, a local custom drum company just made a new snare for Toronto drummer Jesse Labovitz of Ride the Tiger. I was asked to shoot a quick series of images of this beautiful piece for the ongoing catalogue of work done by Jon Fedorsen at Kit Dynamo. More work from him to come here as we’re planning an upcoming shoot of a few of his recent full kits. Read More...

Here’s a little event trailer I did for the GWN Dragonboat Challenge after spending the day shooting some of the event last week. It’s a very short but dramatic segment that shows some of the intensity and really great sportsmanship of the day.

This is an animation I made for Herbal Infusions, a great tea shop in downtown Toronto. It’s intended to be a video bumper for the companies upcoming videoblog and is based on the logo design by the talented Kevin Matheson. Click on the image above to see the 10-second bumper.

After my trip to Montreal (that I posted about below), I realized I had actually spent a lot more time than I expected shooting motion. It was a really great experience and Montreal is now one of my favourite places. I put together a quick 3 minute edit of the trip that plays out four different excursions during my time there. Among other places, the video highlights the trip to Old Montreal, the Biodome, the view from the Olympic tower, and the beautiful evening experience of Mont-Royal. Click here or on the image above to play it in a new window.

I’m just in Montreal for a few days and am trying to create some images everyday while visiting the beautiful sights here. I’m also exploring some new techniques and collecting some video content along the way. Today was a trip up Mont Royal near sunset. It turned out to be a really great night (despite the heavy rain during the day while waiting for a tasty Montreal smoked meat sandwich at the famous Schwartz’s Deli) and a great way to see an overview of the city that I hope to be exploring over the next few days. Hopefully I’ll also be able to update this blog entry with a quick video edit once I’m back in the studio....more to come...
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Just wanted to post a few detail images I shot for Enuka Okuma and Joe Gasparik’s wedding. These were made easy by the beautiful work on their part on creating these classy and creative elements. They really stylistically tied the whole event together for those lucky enough to attend. These will appear in a few upcoming wedding magazine publications along with the work of the talented wedding day photographer Donat Barbe.

I’ve recently been working with Catalyst Design in creating short spots for Loote.com, a company that provides weekly deals on promotional business ware. The video posted above is just a test reel of the footage I shot and lit from the day. I’m involved as the Director of Photography on the small crew of people creating the funny and quirky videos developed and produced by Catalyst Design. These short shoot days have been a lot of fun; combining the talents of various people in spontaneous and sometimes improvised scenarios. Can’t wait to see what the final product will look like after their post production schedule! I’m sure they will be posted shortly over at the official Loote website, so feel free to check that out too.

A little while ago I was asked to recreate famous movie posters for a themed wedding at the Capitol Events theatre in Toronto. The hall is an old and beautifully converted movie theatre and these posters would be the first glimpse into the beautiful reception inside. Congratulations to Enuka Okuma and Joe Gasparik on a wonderful day. It was a lot of fun creating these posters so click through below to see larger versions and the originals from which these were modelled.
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Below you can find the slightly larger images of the movie posters next to the originals that inspired them. The modelling wasn’t a problem thanks to the talent and experience of Enuka Okuma (who can currently be seen on ABC’s Rookie Blue). She also went through the laborious process of finding all the great wardrobe pieces. I don’t know where she found those boots, but they look like they were taken directly from Julia Roberts!

The rest of the shoot process was one of stylistically matching the look, colours and lighting of the various inspirations. That was an enjoyable challenge due to the very different time periods in which these movies were released. There was definitely a very different approach in each one which also extended into the graphic design that finished off the posters. I took the liberty of incorporating some humorous references for the couple in the credits and it was a riot to see these as huge prints on display in front of the vintage Capitol Events theatre.

Congratulations again to Enuka Okuma and Joe Gasparik on a perfect day!

Pretty Actress (inspired by Pretty Woman)

When Joe Met Enuka... (inspired by When Harry Met Sally...)

Last Tango in Toronto (inspired by Last Tango in Paris)

While not a normal entry in my SnapBlog, I thought I’d post a quick video anyways. I’ve been working on few motion image projects and this is likely the first of several things of this nature I’ll be sharing. This was just a casual capture of a set by Reed Holland at the Hard Rock Cafe that I happened to stumble across. I thought I’d edit together a quick cut of some of the shots as a creative thanks for an entertaining evening. Keep up the fun live shows guys! Click here or on the image above to see the video.

Just shot some new images for Goodies Gourmet Soaps of a new naturally scented soap line. Almost edible and contain actual bits of the ingredients sitting in front of them!

I imagine I’ll be posting a lot of images from the Fuji X100 over the next little bit. This is just one example of the advantage of just having a camera with you and capturing chance scenes. The quality of this camera was also a big advantage here and is not something I could have captured with my traditional SnapBlog camera, the iPhone.

I recently picked up the Fuji X100. It’s a type of camera that I’ve been waiting for someone to develop in an affordable package. Fuji has done a great job at delivering amazing image quality with this, and has thrown in some other interesting technology as well. After a few days of shooting I just wanted to share my experiences with it. This is not a comprehensive review by any means, but just a few of my thoughts. More pictures will be posted from this camera as well in the future but please click below to read more.
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I'm not typically one for writing gear reviews, but this camera seems to fit into a category that I know will lead to images that I normally would not create so I can't help sharing something about it. And shifting creativity is a good thing. I probably won't be listing anything near the full list of features here, but wanted to share the things that I felt are a benefit to this camera from my normal way of working.

I've long been searching for something that will give me the quality of my SLR in a smaller package so that, if anything, I can always have it with me and create professional work. Alongside the physical size, I also wanted the following that can be found in the Fuji X100:

- large sensor/image quality: the APS-C size yields higher quality image with less noise and more control over depth of field than most point and shoots (especially if coupled with a faster lens). I am actually amazed at the high ISO quality and don't hesitate to go near the top of it's range. Additionally, I didn't expect in camera JPEG's to be this good. Some tweaking of settings were necessary to get good quality JPEG's while still retaining some post processing latitude if necessary. Highlight and Shadow tone were a little too aggressive for me, and softening them a bit was immensely helpful.

- quiet shutter: self explanatory...it’s very quiet!

- optical viewfinder: I really much prefer not looking at an EVF, especially in extreme lighting conditions and other demanding situations. It takes getting used to for those accustomed to looking through the lens and not having to take into consideration parallax issues, but the benefits and joys of an optical viewfinder outweigh these to me. The ability to quickly switch to an EVF was something I didn't expect to use often but it's great to be able to review images in bright conditions, to use the electronic focus verification in manual focus (switches to EVF and zooms in), and for instances where you need a more accurate viewfinder view (close focusing primarily).

- fast aperture lens: useful for many obvious reasons. The focal length on this sensor size also strikes a nice balance towards a useable depth of field range that allows isolation but not so much that focus is difficult when you need lots of light. I admit to sometimes wishing there was a slightly longer lens (I really enjoy 50mm) on the camera for my work but would probably find reasons to argue if things were the other way around too.

- quick manual control: something that was lacking in most point and shoots I've tried. I can adjust things on this camera without having to take my eye from the optical viewfinder! And with a dedicated exposure compensation dial I can get creative exposures right before even putting my eye to the viewfinder. Having a dedicated control for focus modes is also a very useful control for me, and I’m happy I don’t have to dig around menus to find it. In fact, Once I leave the house, I hardly ever use the menu system at all.

- autofocus: admittedly, not many cameras neglect to have autofocus. Although I loved shooting with my old leicas, I've become quite accustomed to shooting methods with autofocus. Though I confess that I wish the manual focus was better on this camera for certain instances where I want to go right to a specific focus distance. However, that's easy enough to work around and the X100 sort of makes up for it by actually having a very useful depth of field indication system. To me between the "focus and reframe" method and the ability to still engage autofocus even in manual mode, I rarely actually use manual focus.

All this is not to say that the camera doesn't leave things to be desired. Things like wishing for an assignable RAW button, manual focus confirmation, better manual focus "gearing", better battery indication among other smaller things. If Fuji gets behind some of these things they can pretty much fix all my complaints in firmware. In the end it's as simple as: the image quality is fantastic and I can control the capture very quickly in a form factor that allows me to have this with me all the time. The first time I've been happy with all three!

This is one of the images from a series of themed portraits I shot today. Click through the link below to see the other two telling the story of a passionate...or is it a crazy baker.
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I just finished a shoot for the band “Charge of the Light Brigade”. It’s definitely a character image but came together nicely; just in time for their new album release. Follow through the link below to find out a little more about this one.
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Just to give everyone an idea of the planning involved in some of the “simplest” shoots, I thought I’d post the following sketch to illustrate how much I like to set a roadmap for my images. This was my quick concept drawing for the band that not only gave them a visual representation of the meeting we had regarding concepts, but also allows me to accurately plan the lighting, staging, tone, etc. of all the elements. In this case it was especially important since we were working in very tight quarters and had to work very close to the walls of the space.

The day of the shoot should be about capturing the characters and is akin to a performance. I like to leave as little to chance as possible to make sure as much attention can be focused on that as necessary. Of course, there are always moments that something in the space inspires a change, but again preparation allows me to be open to that.

The last picture is just a snapshot of the setup just before lights were really put into place. Spacing was critical here so the scene was set up quite accurately first while also trying to leave options so I can sneak lights and modifiers around the talent.

I just did a quick last minute shoot for a friend at a media event for his new store: Herbal Infusions, a great new herbal tea shop at 404 Adelaids St. W. in Toronto. I was there just casually capturing the activities and treats that were offered for those lucky enough to attend. Great job on the event and on the business Dan!