Late last summer I worked with Canadian House & Home and Senior Editor Meg Crossely to photograph the amazing work of Designer Nam Dang-Mitchell. This is the third time Nam has been featured in the magazine in almost as many months. I've been shooting interiors for some time now and it is always a pleasure shooting with Nam as her spaces are so well considered and creative. I will be putting a new 'Interiors' section on my website soon - stay tuned.
I'd like to be able to say this is a pic of me as an entuhusiastic kid magically knowing how to operate a Hassleblad... at least the shutter button anyway, but this little guy was actually one of our willing and patient models who had to sit still with a box on his head for a few hours! In between shots he was more interested in this "toy" than the others we had on set.
The box was for in fact wrapped as a present and was for this years Chinook Centre Christmas Campaign. The concept and final shots were to look something like this:
I was asked by Art Director Erin Belton from Trigger Communications to take this on and to really make these pop, the presents were key and they had to look believable - not some random photoshopped on box. I was excited about this project because it was an opportunity to build sets, props and flex some creative muscle. After a lot of planning, sourcing, back and forth, help from the multi talented Luke Moillet and many trips to home depot, the building began.
Meanwhile our talented stylist Lindsay Sutton was doing her best to test and build multiple sized boxes for our range of models - we even had one for the teddy bear. I don't think her test subjects were as amused as we were though:
The shoot consisted of 3 executions and all shot on the same day. The ads went in local newspaper, magazines, web and billboard. Thanks to our models, our stylist Lindsay Sutton, assistant Luke Moillet, Trigger, Chinook Centre and Art Director Erin Belton. Here are the final executions:
Erik Guay is one of Canada's premier World Cup Downhill Racers and has won numerous World Cup and international races alike. No doubt Erik is getting some media attention especially with the new race season just starting. I was asked to shoot Erik for Westjets Up! magazine and Audi Magazine.
The Audi shoot was shot at the Germaine Hotel in Calgary and Up! in Montreal at the top of Mount Royal. Thanks to Carl Abad (styling) and Teslin Ward (HMU) on the Audi shoot as well as Lisa Turner for her help on the Up! shoot.
Here are some shots from both:
Back in February of this year I got a fun assignment photographing Kelly Oxford for some various media materials. For those of you who don't know (I'm sure there aren't many) Kelly writes a hilarious blog, was named by TIME as one of 140 best twitter feeds, is writing at least one book and is working on a new sitcom for CBS. Needless to say she is one busy person.
The shots were initially to be run in Grazia Magazine in the UK but somehow ended up in Cosmo Australia of all places... only 1 image and only as a 3 x 3 inch image! Oh well. Regardless we ended up shooting for the day and came away with some great images. Kelly was great to work with, I also had the pleasure of meeting and photographing her kids who were awesome and definitely have Kelly's great sense of humour. Special thanks to Leah Van Loon for styling and Hed Kandi Salon for hair and makeup.
Here are a few favourites:
Recently shot for Konzuk and the new collection 'Sway' which just came out. Local jewellery designer Karen Konzuk does amazing work and it was a pleasure to work again with her and Dwayne Dobson from Combine. Thanks to model Kim Noseworthy and our hair and makeup artist Teslin Ward.
Congrats to Phillip Elliott who yet again was a finalist in this years Contessa contest. Phillip was up for mens hair stylist of the year. The images below are a selection of ones we shot and entered in the contest. Styling was by Carl Abad and clothes were provided by Henry Singer. Thanks to our models who braved the clippers.
The September cover for Avenue is out and despite what the photo credit says, I got the opportunity to photograph the talented band Raleigh for the style Q & A feature. I've posted some of the shots below from the feature as well as a polaroid I shot of them at this years Folk Fest in Calgary - Raleigh was also kind enough to particpate in my Colin Way Goes Folk Project. (hear their newest album here)
©colinway2011
It's that time of the year again. The Calgary Folk Music Festival is about to start this evening and I'm in the midst of preparing to shoot it with nothing but instant film and and my iphone. This year I am taking a more low fi approach than I have in the previous years and will be shooting on the fly with a Polaroid 600 SE. I will then be posting them to a tumbr blog here. Of course, I understand the irony of shooting everything in a tangible film medium and then immediately converting that to a disposable digital one... but the exercise in itself will be an interesting one in patience and creativity.
Be sure to check out the blog over the weekend, I will also be tweeting as I go which you can follow @colinwayphoto. There is also an archive of the past 2 years at the festival on the blog from 2010 and 2009.
In the meantime here are a few of my favourites from last year:
Mayor Nenshi was voted yet again as the Calgary public favourite and was voted for the recent July cover of Avenue Magazine. I had the pleasure of meeting the Mayor and photographing him for this months feature Style Q & A. As expected, he was gracious with his time and had a great many things to talk about - see his full interview here. Our shoot was a quick one and over and done before we knew it but a memorable shoot none the less. The magazine article and more shots from the shoot are here.
Styling by Carl Abad and Hair/makeup by Teslin Ward.
Here is the Cover and an outtake that I thought just might be a shot of Mayor Nenshi scheming the future of Calgary...
©colinway2011
This months issue of Chatelaine features the wonderful and talented Connie DeSousa who is co-owner and chef at Charcut Roast House. I had the pleasure of photographing Connie in her restaurant for this feature and hearing her great stories of culinary competition and past life as a ballet dancer. Connie is also starring in Top Chef Canada, battling it out with the last 6 remaining chefs (as of today).
Chatelaine ran 2 shots from the shoot but passed on the shot with the pigs head (attached below)... I knew it probably wouldn't run in the magazine but I had to get a shot of it. Connie can carve a pigs head faster than most of us cut up a tomato!
Thanks to Leah Van Loon for styling, Teslin Ward for hair and makeup, and Will Young for assisting. Also thanks to Connie for hooking us up with some great appetizers post shoot - Charcut has easily become a favourite restaurant and lucky for me I will be back shooting next week for another magazine.
©colinway2011
