This great couple drove in from the Brooks, Alberta area to create an engagement session that reflected their love for rural roots.

As luck would have it, behind my house is a set of old farm buildings and abandoned vehicles. Derek was adamant that we choose a “Chevy” truck for the background (hate for Fords run deep?), and the rusted carcass left in the field gave great visual texture for their set. We chased the sunset to grab the last remaining bit of light for the day, resulting in warm, backlight images. Stay tuned for more of this couple as we shoot their wedding in 2010.

As a warm-up to the Lethbridge Streetwheelers show, I had the opportunity to light and photograph a fantastic Ford street rod – a consistent winner for “best paint” in shows around the country.

Having teamed up with Brien Gehring as a lighting assist, I was eager to photograph it – as I hadn’t professionally lit a car before (let alone a black one, the hardest of all). The landscape scene in the door is intentional, and I lit this car as I would a portrait for a human subject.

Kudos to Brien for his work on securing the location at the old Galt Mine #8 after hours. It really fit this ride.

The idea started innocently enough as a group of fellow photographers began discussing a photo shoot done for a European triathalon team. What would it take to do something similar in Southern Alberta? Has anyone shot under water before? How do you light it? What are the challenges?

Then a few of us turned the idea into reality. Through luck, networking, and a bit of old fashioned elbow grease – we’ve received permission to use the diving windows this Sunday to coordinate what I belive will be Lethbridge’s largest photographer collaboration of the year. One of the photographers shoots fashion, and was able to have a local designer create two unique peices just for this event. My old business partner has his SCUBA certification, so we will be able to work at longer intervals.

The local paper is ready to cover it, I’m itching to post some of the early frames right from the shoot location. Now if only we could convince a recent bride to trash the dress in the pool!

Stay tuned, big things are coming, look for sample frames early next week.

Did I mention the food is phenomenal? Clean, modern, great service – and serves more than pizza…
[mappress]

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Ian & Amber, our couple for the day were certianly easy to work with, what a great looking couple! My job was to hang back and capture candids with the long lens (wedding paparazzi) which was a ton of fun. I started the day at St. Pat’s for the ceremony (beautiful setting, lots of stained glass and pale contrasting tones) and then off to Henderson Lake and the Galt Museum for wedding party photos.

This was the first wedding of 2009 for me, and was a great warmup for some of the solo couples I’ve booked through the year. Ian & Amber are off to Thailand for their honeymoon, for a well deserved break.

I hope to work with Tanya again in this capacity, it really was low stress, high quality results.

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These two are naturals in front of the lens, needing very little direction to get some great material to show their parents overseas. Sugwon mentioned that they didn’t have photos previously, so I’m excited that this level of photography will be well received as they send electronic versions away via email, and commission a large print or two for themselves.

Here’s a few frames from our session at Lethbridge’s “Sugar Bowl” tunnel and walkway.

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There is a growing movement with photographers everywhere to learn more about light, forget about all the gear, take that light source off the camera and use your brain to create better light in all photographs. Forgetting common fears around lighting or mixing flash with ambient light is the goal of the “Strobist” movement, coined by blogger and photojournalist – David Hobby.

I’ve been shooting with a loose collective of photographers in Calgary, who’ve organized themselves on Flickr (a social photography community). Lately I’ve been dreaming of bigger things for the Alberta strobist shooters, a group that seeks to create strobist communities beyond Calgary – one that fosters local meetups everywhere and comes together for large scale shoots in major centres.

This weekend was the launch of Alberta Strobist, a new Flickr community dedicated to off-camera lighting with small speedlights and studio light. Our first event is April 29th at Shutterbug, a local photography studio and is limited to 15 people. Participants will go through the basic course assembled by Hobby’s strobist.com called “lighting 101″, and we will follow it up with a larger group of more experienced shooters for “lighting 102″, and then on to a larger, collaborative shoot.

If you are attending “lighting 101″ expect to bring your gear and do some shooting yourself. Holding an event like this in a working studio provides us great access to models, gear and other photographers – so use the time to its best advantage. I will be speaking among others, and shoot tethered with my Nikon gear onto a projection for all to see. This is a class heavy on “doing” vs. “talking”, so if you learn visually – this is the class for you.

Cost to attend is $5, which covers refreshments and materials. I hope to update you further on the success of Alberta Strobist in the coming weeks.

If you’ve not visited Hotel Arts or any of its dining options I urge you to do so next trip in. The amount of fine detail and displayed work is phenomenal, and one must remind themselves that they are not in a gallery – but a commercial hotel. The creative energy in the hotel helped to fuel some of my best frames to date.

A giant thank you to my other shooters Tanya Plonka and Eric Au for such a seamless shoot. Assistants Melissa Belter and Torin Segstro were indispensible, and often running back to the suite for forgotten gear, or light change ups. Makeup Artist Kada Issa did such a phenomenal job on the bodypaint that I had no reservations posing model Cayley Turnbull topless in public (no one even blinked – camoflage at its finest).

Dallen Flexhaug, Guest Services Manager and Fraser Abbott, Director of Sales & Marketing were instrumental in securing the location, as well as ensuring our shoot ran seamlessly, thank you so much!

After our shoot, we ate in Calgary and discussed the next opportunity. I think there was mention of exotic cars in High River…stay tuned.

M.

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I was somewhat cynical about Photoshopworld as a conference to attend this year. I’ve been certified for years as an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) and ATCP (Adobe Certified Training Provider) in both Adobe Photoshop and InDesign – so I thought it would be nothing but a huge review session.

Boy was I wrong.

The first thing that struck me was the “play book” attendees receive upon registration. Each instructor (the “who’s who” of photography and photo editing) had outlined every session with notes and screenshots – meaning I could relax and enjoy the sessions, or read the notes from conflicting sessions. I would encourage every conference to follow suit.

There’s so many new features in the new version of Photoshop that even seasoned vetrans need time to reorient, or modify their workflow. I took in a ton of new subtle retouching techniques, to make sure your photos look like you – only the best representation of you! There are so many fake, pancake-faced wedding photos you can look at before wanting something a little more subtle. Only you should know a retoucher has worked their magic on your frames.

I had booked sessions with a few models to shoot in my off hours. I collaborated with the lovely and talented Tanya Plonka on some great shoots – it was fantastic having someone who can shoot alongside you and have completley original frames after the shoot. Tanya also took pity on me one night and modeled herself, thanks girl! Some local photographers are growing sick of my mantra of collaboration, but the quality really shows when you work together, proof is in the final frames.

I’m off to at least one more conference session this year in June, Don Gianatti is coming to Montana for his lighting-essentials.com workshops. I’m getting darn good at nailing studio lighting on location, but I think a few days spent with Don will bring my skills from good to great.

I leave you with a few frames from the evening shoots:

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A solid 20 year career was evident in the performance given by both Treach, and Vin Rock – currently touring to support thier new album.

A Quick Video Slideshow