I was approached by local stylist Tanya Yancie early in the planning stages and helped corral a portion of the 15 photographers who donated their time to document the day via the Alberta Strobist group. Brio salon is beautifully modern, family owned and operated. I was pleasantly surprised at how such a visually stimulating place could lay inside an unassuming retail storefront on one of the busiest streets in Lethbridge.

Rather than take portraits for the kids, I took a documentary approach so Brio could have an album to share their contribution with the community. 200 kids were affected by the movement this year, and were sent home with many grooming supplies donated from local businesses. I feel strongly that this will be an annual event, and I can’t wait to help out next Summer to help kids feel great about themselves, and give them a fresh start for the coming school year.

18 Athletes, 10 Photographers, 5 Models, 1 Designer and 1 Make up artist met at the University of Lethbridge Pool last Sunday for a full day shoot of everything wet.

It all started innocently enough as a discussion between likeminded photographers on flickr, a website for photosharing and photographer community. We had been discussing a similar European shoot and wanted to try it locally – but alone were without the resources to pull it off.

Slowly, we began discussing the idea with anyone who would listen. My old business partner is now a PADI certified rescue diver, the thought of assisting 5 beautiful models from Red Deer was incentive enough for him to drive the 6 hours and help out for the day. Calgary photographer Eric Au had connections in the fashion scene with wardrobe, makeup and talent – and I connected the dots with University of Lethbridge Sport & Recreation, as well as organized both local and out of town shooters.

We spent the early portion of the shoot creating portraits for the athletes of the University of Lethbridge swim team, then broke into smaller groups to shoot action shots of the athletes – and shoot some surface shots of our models.

[video://http://vimeo.com/3161288]

After a few failed attempts at lighting the pool, we found success in an 800 watt studio light (at full power) on a boom above our models in the water, combined with a 400 watt ringlight on half power – taped to the dive window. The cheers you see on the video are from the sweet spot – the perfect moment where our lighting was dead-on, and the models were comfortable enough to pose through a few cycles.

As a special bonus, we made the front page of the Lethbridge Herald the next day. Special thanks to Eric Au, Chris Caldwell (Northwest SCUBA), the Calgary Strobist Shooters, and the rest of the local team that showed up to make this THE shoot to beat for 2009!

A few initial frames from the shoot and more available on my flickr stream:

[flickr-photo:id=3272268478,size=-][flickr-photo:id=3265783416,size=-] [flickr-photo:id=3265880456,size=-]

Lethbridge hosted “Fashion Weekend” this week. The event featured a weekend of fashion shows, designer sales, and events intended to build and support the fashion industry in Lethbridge.

My friends Eric and Robin, who regularly shoot with the Calgary Strobist group – came down to shoot a runway show held at the Zoo at the Unviersity of Lethbridge. I dropped by to say hello, and had a chance to spend the evening with both of them before their shoot at Nicholai – a new retail store in Lethbridge’s downtown core.

Eric is fully equipped with off camera lighting gear (Alien Bees and Pocket Wizards), and provided stellar photo documentation of both events. You can see his 2 hour shoot from Nicholai on flickr

McNally – best known for his location-lighting techniques, killer body of work, and numerous training video segments was in Vancouver for a week-long “location lighting” seminar held at Vancouver Photoworkshops (If you’ve not had the chance to take a workshop from VPW, I strongly encourage it – great pros, reasonable rates!)

Two hours before his official class begun, Joe dropped by the meeting to showcase some lighting ideas with speedlights placed outside a window, simulating late sun. With the addition of a large reflector, Model Mayhem volunteer Cindy Fay was lit in a variety of unique ways – putting one more lighting trick in the back pocket of the 20 photographers in attendance.

Vancouver now gets bragging rights for the coolest rockstar “drop in” to a local, underground lighting event – easily topping Seattle’s recent meetup featuring David Hobby and Chase Jarvis.

How do we get these guys to visit Calgary or the Windy City?