Help Portrait Vancouver 2011- A Tradition!

Last Saturday on December 3rd was the third annual Help Portrait Vancouver event at the Union Gospel Mission. This year was bigger and better than ever with 150 volunteers in total we were able to deliver portraits to over 700 people. There was lots of local news media coverage of the event and a dedicated group of volunteers Tweeted and live blogged the event all day. One of the local stations even called our event a tradition for the downtown Eastside. By the excitement and smiles on all the faces of the guests that came through you knew that they look forward to this almost as much as all the volunteers do. They say that many hands makes the lifting easy. Well this year many hands lifted the hearts and spirits of all those that experienced Help Portrait Vancouver! I'm already looking forward to next year.

This was the morning crew of photographers that kicked things off for the day.

Here we are at the end of the day for the group shot with photographers, editors and make up artists. There were many more that day but they couldn't stay for the photo unfortunately.

Help Portrait Vancouver 2011

There is one particular event of the year that I as a photographer look forward to the most and that is Help Portrait Vancouver. I volunteered for this event three years ago and have been part of it since then and each year it just keeps getting better and better. This year will be no exception and on Saturday, December 3rd we'll be putting on the event at the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver's downtown Eastside. Even before this large scale event we put on a smaller event at the BC Children's Hospital on November 2nd. A small group of photographers and makeup artists set up a small studio in the terminally ill ward and invited patients and their families in for portraits sessions. This year we were also very privileged and were welcomed into some of the patients rooms for those that could not make it to the studio. Here are two videos from that day plus a group photo of the team that made it possible.

Help Portrait itself is a world wide event that happens in almost every major city around the world so if you would like to find out more about it or volunteer then check out the site or get online and search for one in your city. There is no greater feeling than to be able to give back doing something that you love.

Pictures for Strathcona Homes website

A little while back I got a chance to provide some pictures for a local realty website called Strathcona Homes which they ended up using a few for their website's masthead. I also did the head shot for one of the realtors. Strathcona is really a very neat historical part of Vancouver and the houses there have amazing character and charm that you just don't find in todays houses anymore. Here are a few examples of the beautiful modern restorations that have been made to some of these houses in that area.

Raw Talent 12x12 2011 Exhibit

After a month and half long wait the day finally came to see all of the 2011 12x12 Vancouver Photo Marathon contestants photos all on exhibit for the first time last night at PhotoHaus Gallery. I was very relieved to see that all my photos actually turned out. It was also very interesting to see all the different interpretations by all the other photographers on the 12 themes that we were given. There were a lot of common elements used but each had its own nuances. Everyone who went to the show were encouraged to be their own judges and to pick their favourite among the 60 exhibits and submit their ballets. I wonder if anyone actually spotted the number 29 in the tile mosaic that I submitted for the first theme that was your entry number plus a different angle. If you missed the show you can still see all the contestants photos now in an online gallery. The winners of each theme received canvas prints and the overall best picture, best theme and best series winners got their prints mounted on aluminum, how cool is that. I'm already thinking about what to do next year. Here's some shots from the exhibit.

Morten making his way through the crowd to start the announcements for the evening.

12x12 Vancouver Photo Marathon 2011

The rules are simple. 12 Hours, 12 Themes and 12 Exposures. ON FILM! Last year I found out about the Vancouver Photo Marathon but unfortunately I was too late at the time to register. This year was different and when the time for online registration was opened I was busy mashing the refresh button on the website and lo and behold I got in. I was going to be one of sixty lucky participants this year and I was thrilled. I dusted off my Canon Rebel film camera and tested it out with a roll of film which ironically I still have yet to develop so I went on faith that all would be good. I knew that on the day of the event that one roll with 12 exposures would be handed out to each participant so you'd have one shot per theme and you need to shoot it in the order that the themes are presented. Must not mess up! As the day unfolded and the themes were announced at the top of every hour I quickly realized that there was not only a huge element of creativity required but also a matter of logistics. How far can you go away from the meeting spot and get back to it and find your subject to photograph? Sometimes I would find something within a few blocks and within the first half hour. Then there were a few challenging themes that really had me creatively struggling. I didn't want to fall behind so I kept pace with one theme per hour and must admit that I compromised on a few shots with ideas that didn't exactly feel great. In the end I was pleased to have finished and each person got a big cheer as they handed in their roll of film. It was a great experience that I will definitely do again next year.

On September 25th all of the photos from all 60 participants will be on display at PhotoHaus Gallery at the Vancouver Photo Workshops: 14 West 7th Ave, Vancouver. It will also be the first time that the participants get to see them so it's going to be exciting.

Here are the 12 Themes and brief description of what I did for them and the P or L in brackets denotes whether I shot it landscape or portrait.

1. My entry number plus different angle - blue tile mosaic "29" (L)

2. The usual suspects - a group of four old guys (L)

3. Human Nature - lemonade stand sour faces (L)

4. Reliable - three firemen in front of fire truck (P)

5. My greatest wish - big yacht (L)

6. Odour - two fish heads (P)

7. Echo - Christine shouting under bridge (P)

8. Trapped - mannequin behind glass (P)

9. Take it to the grave - picture of guy in antique store (P)

10. Second chance - group of VPD prepping (L)

11. Not for sale - old mansion (L)

12. Expectation - girl looking into illuminated box labelled Top Secret

Airbrush Bodypaint Photo Shoot

I met makeup artist Joanne a few months ago and she had a bodypainting project that she was working on that she wanted to shoot. We met a few days before the shoot and discussed some of the designs and colours that she would be using but I had no idea it was going to look so great on model Karmiel until I went to meet them after the airbrushing was all done. I had a few locations in mind for the shoot and one of them was in an alley with a large graffiti mural on it. The weather was starting to change and I could feel the rain about to start so we had to hurry. This location ended up working really well and we did attract a bit of attention from the onlookers. It was almost uncanny how well the colours that Joanne used matched the graffiti on the wall and she hadn't seen it before so it was really a complete stroke of luck. Karmiel not only endured the long make up session but when it came time for the shoot she was a total professional and threw down some awesome poses.

These last two shots were done in the studio using a ring light and two Speedlites behind Karmiel to provide a little bit of accent and separation from the background. We were really crunched for time so these studio shots were set up and done in less than half an hour.

Model Shoot - Renata

Just getting around to posting some work that I did a few weeks ago. I got the opportunity to work with Brazilian beauty Renata who is represented by Liz Bell Agency. She was an absolute joy to work with! It turned out that she brought along makeup artist extraordinaire Jennifer Schulz who I have worked with before so it was a perfect match. We managed to shoot about five different looks and the lighting setups ran from just using a ring light for the close up vibrant eyeshadow makeup look to available light and a reflector for the soft natural headshots. Finally for the full body shots I used a pair of gridded Speedlites and third in a big reflective umbrella.

Moab, Utah

The majestic beauty of the landscape carved by millions and millions of years of erosion is simply breathtaking. If you have never been to Moab, Utah I highly recommend a visit. It's a place I have always wanted to visit. I finally got the chance to go a couple of weeks ago and spend a weekend there. Moab is located in the South Eastern corner of the State of Utah we flew into Salt Lake City and then drove down about four hours to get to Moab.

There are many national parks in that area and we started our adventure driving through Arches National Park. We arrived later on in the day so the sun was almost setting casting an orange glow over the already vibrant red sand and rock formations.

The following day we returned to Arches National Park and hiked an area known as Devils Garden. In this area are two well known arches. First one was Landscape Arch and it is probably one of the longest spanning arches in the park. It's fenced off so you can't really get to close to it due to the fact that in recent years there were sections of the arch that actually collapsed.

The second arch we hiked to is called Double O and you can see why. This one you can walk right up to and even climb if you're adventurous enough.

An area that we did not get a chance to hike through is called the Fiery Furnace. This is only allowed with a Park Ranger guide because there is a lot of climbing through tight areas and the trails are not marked. Unfortunately the tours were all booked up days in advance. I recommend if you do want to do the hike to register online ahead of time. Lesson learned.

The next day we drove out to Canyonlands National Park. There are amazing lookout points along the way and Dead Horse Point is one of the more iconic ones.

This is the huge valley and canyon looking down from the Grand View lookout point.

The most well known arch at Canyonlands is Mesa Arch. The view is simply incredible and this was by far my favourite spot.