Archive for September, 2009
The Palliser Motel
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 26th, 2009
Isn’t that a great name for a motel? It instantly evokes vague memory, history, and maybe even regal things. Sounds like the setting for a movie made before I was born. The Palliser is in Truro, Nova Scotia, on the bank of Salmon River, which is one of the best places in the world to see a tidal bore. According to Wikipedia, a tidal bore is a “tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travel up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the current.” In other words, you can watch the flow of a river reverse directions rather spontaneously.
In 2007, I came for the tidal bore.
In 2009, I came for Kristen.
The following photos were all shot in my motel room at the Palliser in a very limited time frame. Although I was expecting to spend a lot longer shooting Kristen, she had to attend to another matter that night… which meant I rushed to get in all the scenes and setups I had in mind. The purpose of my trip to Nova Scotia was solely shooting models, so I was pretty annoyed to travel all that way and then have it cut short.
But I digress. On to the photos!
First, the bed:
Then one against the fabulous wood paneling:
And finally, on to the bathroom:
The bathtub shot in particular was difficult to get. I had badly sprained my ankle five days earlier; it was swollen and weak and I had to balance myself on the edge of a chair to get high enough. I was shooting blind, holding the camera at arm’s length in front of me, hoping that it was fairly straight and the lines would be parallel. All this while shooting at fairly slow shutter speeds due to using the incandescent light in the bathroom. A light, it should be noted, that I had to make sure not to block with my head or body as I teetered on the chair. Luckily I sustained no further injuries and I think the results were totally worth it.
Aren’t those shoes fabulous?
To see more of Kristen, check out her profiles on ModelMayhem and deviantArt.
One Year Ago Today
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 24th, 2009
This is a previously unseen photo from my September 24, 2008 photoshoot with Brandi Latimer. This was three days after Brandi’s first fitness competition. Much like this September, the weather was amazingly hot when we shot — I somehow think this is Mother Nature’s way of rewarding us for our hideous winters.
Swimwear: Mayra Collection.
Samantha Saturday
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 19th, 2009
I’ve posted a lot of Samantha before, so why not a few more? First, two shots from our Toronto Islands swimwear shoot:
And then two new photos from our recent lingerie shoot on Labour Day weekend:
This last shot on the bed was particularly amusing, as Samantha’s top was about two sizes too small and provided some interesting post-production challenges in Photoshop. 
All shots done with natural light except the first, which was with an Alien Bees 1600 in a shoot-through umbrella. All shots done using my 85mm f/1.8 lens.
Krystal & Curtis
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Weddings on September 17th, 2009
Krystal’s been a dear friend of mine since 2004 when we met at the Miss Molson Indy Toronto competition. So when she asked me to photograph an engagement session with her fiancée Curtis, I was more than happy to travel to Waterloo to do so. Curiously, whenever I go to Waterloo to see Krystal, I end up having nightmare-worthy travel experiences. For this shoot, a traffic jam of epic proportions delayed me a lot; torrential rains significantly delayed my previous visit; snow, wind, and ice the time before that ensured that my trip had many moments where my life flashed before my eyes.
I’ve photographed Krystal a zillion times but only met Curtis on a couple occasions, so he wasn’t sure what to expect. During the engagement sessions, Curtis and I teamed up to shoot down some of Krystal’s cheesier photos ideas. She gets to make all the wedding decisions, after all.
Aww, aren’t they cute? I can barely wait to photograph their wedding next year. July 2010, hurry up! I’ve already planned to be there a day early so that my traveling curse won’t impact the wedding day.
This last shot of the day was their favourite. I suggested they embrace as the train rushed past us, and then I processed the hell out of the photo in Lightroom to add a little drama. Winner!
I won’t go into the technical mumbo jumbo of every shot here, but I will tell you that I used four different lenses on this shoot: Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 AF-S DX, Nikon 10-24mm AF-S DX, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR, and a Nikon 85mm f/1.8.
Swimwear September: Samantha III
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 15th, 2009
I talked about the mad dash that Sam and I made to the Toronto Islands in my last post about her. This photo was towards the end of our very abbreviated shoot, but turned out fabulously.
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/3.5, 1/200 with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. Lighting in front from an Alien Bees 1600 with a shoot-through umbrella.
Swimwear September: Shya II
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 12th, 2009
I shot Shya twice in a week — once at the beach that you see here, and once in a nice hotel room in lingerie. She’s a fearless, shameless gal, and I’ll post some of those results soon.
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/11, 1/200 with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. Alien Bees 1600 with standard reflector to overpower the sun.
Lauren in Playboy?
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 11th, 2009
No way.
Lauren, seen here on the blog previously, has never been in Playboy. But someone out there thinks she has. See, it’s funny — every week when I check my server logs, I see that someone has searched for the term “lauren potts playboy” in Google and landed at my site as a result. The search always comes from the same place — Maryland. I can only deduce that it’s the same person, week after week, searching and clicking on my site.
Now, I’m not naive. There could very well be some hot girl in Maryland named Lauren Potts that this person is searching for. But it ain’t this one.
Here’s Lauren in her underwear, which is as close as she’s gonna get to Playboy. Sorry to disappoint.
Swimwear September: Randall II
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 11th, 2009
Last year, Randall was a part of a small promo for the fashion label DSQUARED², and there was some hope early on that I would photograph it. That fell through, but it prompted Randall to note that had we worked together on that, we could have called ourselves RSQUARED. Ryan + Randall! We’ve used it as an affectionate nickname for our shoots since then, even though they have nothing to do with DSQUARED².
Randall is wearing a purple one-piece swimsuit from my collection of H&M items.
Tech details: Nikon D200, f/10, 1/200 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens set to 90mm. Sunrise in the back, Alien Bees 1600 with standard reflector in the front.
Swimwear September: Shannon II
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 11th, 2009
Shannon is a hideously awkward jumper and happy to admit it. It took a good 50 or 60 jumps to get this one, which looks pretty good. Next time with Shannon: a different wig (she has a collection).
Amy in Blue
Posted by Ryan in On Location, Pretty Girls on September 7th, 2009
My day job is working in a photo lab and occasionally a roll of photo paper gets exposed or damaged and becomes unusable. I took one of these damaged rolls with me on my road trip to Nova Scotia this past July and put it to good use in a photoshoot with Amy. Amy is one of my best friends on this planet, despite living a million miles away from me. We trekked up to a gazebo on the top of a hill overlooking the Halifax harbour. This wasn’t the best idea, as the higher elevation meant stronger winds, which temporarily wreaked havoc with my umbrella lighting setup until I found a way to secure it.
Here’s the setup… Amy builds our paper nest as her superhero alter-ego, “FujiFilm Girl”:
Amy was a trooper, on the mend from a bad cough and sore throat. She did her own hair and makeup, and wore the H&M party dress that I brought along with me from Toronto. I foolishly forgot the matching black gloves to go with it. For lighting, I put a Nikon SB-800 in a shoot-thru umbrella to camera left and triggered it with the SB-900 on my D200. The result:
What does one do with 180m of unspooled photo paper? We couldn’t just leave it there. See for yourself: