vtography.com blog » Published Work

Les Coquettes Present: Cabaret Enchanté

vtography — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:05:20 +0000

Les Coquettes are at it again, with their annual Halloween spectacular — Cabaret Enchanté, happening at Revival on October 23 and 30. Buy your tickets here, or check out the Facebook event here.

Revival was kind enough to loan us their space so we could shoot the ad you see above.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes lighting setup:

Key light was the AB400 in a 24×36 softbox up high on the stand on the right side. Fill flash was the Alien Bees ABR800 Ringflash in front. An AB1600 is that bright spot in the middle of the frame, placed behind the subjects for a wee bit of rim lighting.

Models: Billie Black, Dante Inferno, and Lilli Bubalotovich.
Hair and Makeup: Angela McQueen
Styling, Wardrobe, Art Direction: Catherine Skinner
Poster Design: Sonya

More Published Work in Vantage

vtography — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 23:37:59 +0000

I once again shot some images for Vantage Greater Toronto magazine, the GTMA’s semi-regular publication. Last time I shot for Vantage, my subject was Toronto mayor David Miller; the subjects for this Winter 2010 issue weren’t as high profile but still challenging to shoot.

Traveling light and working fast is the name of the game here, so I used Speedlights, small stands, and small umbrellas to get the job done quickly.

First up was Promation Engineering’s CEO, Mark Zimny:

Next up was Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr:

Ad Campaign for The War On Christmas

vtography — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 07:25:23 +0000

Last week I showed you the poster art for the next Les Coquettes production, The War On Christmas. Below is the continuation of that campaign, as our talented and anonymous designer went to great lengths to devise poster art for most of the characters in the troupe based on my photos. I think they turned out really great and I love seeing my photos come alive in different ways. If you’re planning on coming to the show, don’t hesitate to get your tickets, as the early show is already sold out!

Hair and makeup by Angela McQueen and Blonde Moxie, styling by Catherine Skinner.

Les Coquettes: The War on Christmas

vtography — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:26:38 +0000

Lilli Bubalotovich, La Minouche, The Barback, Georgie Gates, Billie Black, Charity Dawn, and Dante Inferno

I hate Christmas, so it’s only fitting that I’d be involved in this production. What you see above is the promotional poster for the next Les Coquettes show, taking place on December 12, 2010. It’s based around a 1940s USO theme, which should be fairly evident from the poster. All seven performers above were shot separately on a grey background, cut out, and then composited on to the poster. Have a look at what we started with:

That mailing tube made one heck of a good candy cane substitute. Tickets are on sale now — I expect to see all of you there!

Mayor David Miller for Vantage

vtography — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:06:18 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to photograph Toronto’s mayor, David Miller, for Vantage magazine. Vantage is published by the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance to promote foreign business investment in Toronto.

The perils of working for something so high-profile became immediately apparent as I met the mayor in his office. He was in the middle of an interview and I had about five minutes to snap some shots of him talking, answering questions. There would be no posed pictures, no setups. Just candid shots as I circled around the mayor and the interviewer, all while trying not to add any noise to her audio recording of the conversation. I failed miserably at this aspect, as a long, loud beeeeeeep emanated from the wireless flash after each exposure to indicate success. There was no time to switch if off, though — the mayor is a busy guy!

Wait a sec — that last photo looks kinda weird. They mirrored it! If you glance at the top right corner, you’ll notice the “Mayor Miller Way” street sign is completely backwards. A totally bizarre editorial decision. Why not just leave the photo as is? Or crop out the sign? Or Photoshop it away? So many options. For reference, here are both the original photos:

Publishing weirdness aside, I was only able to fire off about 20 decent shots during the time I had. I used my trusty Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens for all the shots. For lighting, I had a Nikon SB-900 mounted on the hot-shoe of my D300S, pointed up for a little ceiling bounce. On a small tripod to the mayor’s right was a Nikon SB-800 with a LumiQuest Pocket Bounce, fired with Nikon’s wireless CLS technology.

Faces Magazine

vtography — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:14:13 +0000

Kristen (seen here previously) emailed me a few weeks ago to tell me she was going to apply for Faces Magazine’s calendar girl contest by submitting one of my photos. Faces is a local Halifax glossy monthly, although I’ve actually never seen it in all my trips there.

Well guess what? Our photo won!

You can download desktop wallpapers at the Faces site.

And yes, this picture was taken at the same shoot where I damn near broke my ankle.

Les Coquettes Strikes Again

vtography — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:50:55 +0000

My pals from Les Coquettes are at it again, presenting a revised and updated version of The Beautiful and The Damned this Sunday. Lo and behold, Toronto Life magazine thought the event was worthy enough to grace the front page of their website… and they featured my photo! Check out The Weekender article as well with my photo credit. Here’s a screencap of the front page in case it’s gone by the time you get there:

Photo: vtography, Models: Georgie Gates and Dew Lily, Makeup: Larissa Palaszczuk, Wardrobe Styling: Matthew Stokes, Art Direction: Catherine Skinner.