Another great assignment from Swerve celebrating the 40th anniversary of the University of Calgary's dance program. Here are a couple of pages from the cover and article as well as some out-takes that didn't make the cut.
Nothing like chasing chickens and pigs around with strobe lights while oxen scrape their hoofs in the ground threatening to charge you and your assistant. This was a great shoot - totally out of the norm of a typical day. Basically I hung out at a farm all day shooting and learning alternative ways to live off the land. The shooting process was a challenge, my original idea was to shoot the portraits and farm animals with strobes. The problem was that there were soo many interesting things to shoot that anxiety got the better of me and I wanted to shoot it all! Available light, strobe, flash; I couldn't decide what was best and in all honesty I questioned whether my original idea would be appropriate for what I was shooting. Farms get shot in beautiful natural light right? What I liked about my original idea of using strobes was that that was the point - it wasn't expected. Eventually I realized the importance of sticking to my original idea of bringing the studio outside and coming away with a solid story that was coherent in lighting. Here are more from the article.
Thanks to Fast Forward Weekly for letting us take creative control on this one. While we no doubt will be taking a little heat on the topic of Fur in these shots, it was great to be able push the styling. Our team consisted of Leah Van Loon on styling, Teslin Ward on hair and makeup, Jason Eng on assisting, and Courtney Baker from Mode Models.
Shot this a while ago for Alberta Beef but the first time I have seen it finished. Appropriate timing since the Stampede just ended here in Calgary. These composites were shot on the beautiful Sutter Ranch, great relaxed shoot.
A start to a very looooong project on Anonymity. This test piece was put together for our Studio Show we (Jason Eng, Greg Gerla and myself) held back in Feb. Over 80 people (random people, friends and family and myself) shot over a 5 day period with an old Jostens portrait polaroid camera that has NO view finder... imagine. Just some target lights... The final piece was printed on news print and printed at 40" x 66".
Here are two beautiful and inspiring clips from two artists who mastered the art of slowing down and taking in the details that make our life interesting.
Stephen Shore talks about how he never crops his images. Sort of a powerful approach to day to day life: "I like playing a game within certain rules, within certain boundaries and for me it makes it more interesting to know that the decisions I make when I take the picture are the decisions I have to live with" - Stephen Shore
...Well, maybe not entirely. Polaroid inspires me, film inspires me. Digital feels like a job. Time for more shooting and less photoshop... more to come.