Picked up that cross at Forever 21 for about $7. Win!

Lighting here was an AB1600 bounced off the ceiling. Tight squeeze in this bathroom, lemme tell ya.

1. I love Sam.
2. I love bathtubs.

So the only logical thing to do while we were in Montreal was to put Sam in a bathtub.

From my first trip to Nova Scotia many years ago and the very first time I’d met Christine in person, after talking to her online for over a year. Can’t believe I’ve never posted this here on the blog, as it’s one of my all-time favourite shots.

Photographed in the bathroom of a Dalhousie University student residence. The lighting was ambient — whatever bulbs the bathroom had — I didn’t add anything from my arsenal.

Above shots were lit with an SB-900 via CLS through a white Photoflex 30″ umbrella to camera left. The flash was fired in TTL mode, but with a lot of negative compensation dialled in so it didn’t overwhelm the shot. It was all mounted on a small Cameron W-804 light stand that just barely fit into my suitcase. I can’t take my Alien Bees and huge light stands with me when I travel by air, but as you can see, the smaller solutions work out quite well.

On to the bathroom:

Precariously balancing on the edges of the tub as I’m wont to do, I lit these with the SB-900 on camera, paired with a Gary Fong Lightsphere Collapsible.

Dress was from Urban Planet in Toronto.

]]> http://www.vtography.com/blog/2010/08/06/the-last-of-marietta-for-now/feed/ 0 http://www.vtography.com/blog/2009/09/26/the-palliser-motel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-palliser-motel http://www.vtography.com/blog/2009/09/26/the-palliser-motel/#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:10:32 +0000 vtography http://www.vtography.com/blog/?p=764

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.

“Talking about art is like dancing about architecture.”

I’ve put off starting a blog for a long, long time because I hate talking about my photography and photos in general. I’m more than willing to spill the technical details of a shot, but don’t ask me about my motivations, about subtext, about themes — because you’re not going to get anywhere.

So why blog? Well it’s an easy way to promote my photos, an easy way to keep people updated, and a good way to network with other industry people. The higher Google ranking, the better, right?

The photo at the top is of Andreea, now living back home in Romania. She’s an interesting creature and you’ll hear more about her later. I’ve displayed that photo more often than any other since I started taking pictures. I consider it pretty representative of what I do. It’s my signature image, if you will, but only because I say it is.