Power Control

Last week was a week of hanging out with students mostly, but we had a
fun departure on Thursday. An industrial departure in the Power Plant
for the University of Ottawa. It was fun, because it reminded me of all the
oil & gas plants I used to shoot in when I had the studio in Calgary. The
environment was loud, precariously full of hazards, but so fun visually.

I'm always amazed that these incredibly complex systems are entirely
controlled by a couple of guys in blue coveralls in a small control room
about the size of most people's living rooms. This control room was extra
cool though, the way it was perched high above and over seeing the plant.
Lucky for me anyway, it helped my shot out. :)

Fall Campus

It's been an incredibly busy and fun October. Busy shooting loads of
school imagery - imagery for our friends at uOttawa, Carleton, Algonquin,
Ashbury and Elmwood. I love shooting students young and old, and I
love spending time in these learning environments. One of the cool
things about this month is that all five of these 'schools' have such
obviously and significantly different offerings, and our job was to help
identify the overall feeling and tone - then capture it.

I feel so fortunate to be helping these schools to share and present their
unique offerings and in a way as a photographer influence people's
perceptions of these schools. It reminds me just how powerful
photography can be. Not to mention FUN!

Rest - Shoot - Share

I took the day off and did some serious relaxing at the infamous Le Nordik
spa in the Gatineaus. I did my best to turn my head off, but I couldn't resist
to do a few snaps. The place is so beautiful and picturesque, but I was more
taken with details around me and the sky. The SKY was just amazing today,
crisp blue and super cool ripply clouds.

The massage was great - the spa was great - the pools were great - lunch
was great, but a day like today teaches me, or maybe re-teaches me that I
am most relaxed when I'm shooting. And it's just impossible to turn off the
seeing part of the brain - it's just way too fun. :)

Heroic Teamwork

Is there anything more heroic than firefighters?




While shooting at Algonquin College yesterday, we photographed the
firefighting program. It was an cool close-up view of the tight teamwork
and camaraderie being developed as part of the program. We learned
that firefighting is very technical, super hard work and extremely reliant
on trust.

Since they were of course just training, it allowed me a great close-up
opportunity to capture the symbiotic relationship between the men. I
think the biggest thing I pulled from the experience was that when banded
as a close synchronized team you can accomplish even the most daunting
challenges, perhaps that's where the romance comes into it for me. :)

Brownstock's Fall Face Lift

I thought it was high time, despite how busy we've been shooting
assignment projects, to put some attention back to Brownstock.
First things first - a few new images for the homepage.



I'll also be spending some dedicated time to shooting a bunch of new
imagery and reviewing our pricing. Any suggestions on content ideas
would be so very welcomed! (feel free to leave any comments below)
If you have a few minutes to take a peek and/or if you're in need of very
natural 'non-stock' looking stock imagery we have loads of it on the
Brownstock site.


If you haven't had a chance to look at the Brownstock site or haven't yet
heard about it, it's a small independent stock agency/site. Representing
a couple dozen photographers - a few in the UK, a bunch in the US, and
the rest here in Canada.

- creatively independent -

Power Towers

A quick snap, or I guess I should say a long exposure snap,
of some cool power towers, on the way home the other night.

Twenty Four

I was shooting a basketball game for Ashbury College this afternoon,
and since I'm no sports photographer I tend to look for other vignettes
to help tell a story. While in that process, I noticed the girls had their
jersey numbers drawn on their legs. I thought it made an interesting image.

Ashbury College River Run

Had some fun shooting this afternoon. Photographed the Ashbury College
rowing team on the Ottawa River, the day before their big race. What a
better way to spend a fall afternoon?

Industrial Illumination.

A nice happy accident happened tonight. I was out shooting some night
shots of the Parliament Buildings from the Chaudière Bridge, when I
got in a little trouble with security. Apparently the bridge is private
property owned by Domtar and they don't like folks taking photos from
it. Bizarre hey?

Anyway...when I was putting my camera back in the truck I noticed this
cool industrial building across the road reflecting in the hood of the truck.
It ended up making a much better image than the usual and familiar
Parliament Buildings.

Ashbury College Spirit

It's been a back to school month so far. Private schools like Ashbury
and loads of University shooting. Lot's of fun!

The Collaborative Shooting Experience

Anyone that knows me, knows that the process of collaboration is so
important to me. I believe it's such a necessary method - component to
creating imagery that communicates.
The collaborative process relies so heavily on trust and relationships,
and I'm so fortunate to have so many of these relationships with our
clients (such as Romeo Godin from the University of Ottawa), as well
as the various teams we pull together for different projects.

Radius 30x30

My Thanksgiving holiday Monday has been spent mostly on my own,
catching up on stuff. It's nice to have the opportunity - but as I was
getting a little stir crazy in my studio, I thought I'd try an experiment.
Take 30 minutes and see what kind of images I could capture, while
not traveling more than 30 feet from my building. A photo experiment
I call Radius.

Mostly Wrong, is it the New Mostly Right?

I read a really good blog post today by a local photographer about
film vs digital, and the idea of how important content is. A good photo
is a good photo whether it was shot with film or digital. And of course
the opposite is also true (probably more true).

But, what do I know? I haven't shot film in ages. Although I had been
shooting film longer than some of these young photographers have been
able to walk. Shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone though. Anyway, I thought I
better shoot a roll so I could at least feel like I was part of the young
group romanced by the old ways.

The cool thing about it all or the experience is, that it's made me not think
so much about film vs digital, but more about the rules I was taught not to
break. Today it's all about breaking the rules - but the young photographers
coming out of school don't even know there were rules. (Rule number 56.
Don't shoot into the sun, it'll give you flare in your lens)

It also makes me think or compare the idea of rules vs risks. When we all
shot film we had more rules and we were less likely to take risks. Film is and
was expensive and you couldn't see the results or rewards of risk until the film
was developed and printed.

For me shooting digital allows me to take tons of risks - way more than in
the days of film. So for that reason, shooting digital has way more romance
for me than film. It may not be as seductive, but the dance is much funner
with less rules - with 'super' results. But at the end of the day, life is a journey
and I always applaud those who risk to explore, whether it's with an old
Hasselblad with film or a new digital Nikon.

Exposure Architecture Show

Lindsay, Brent and I (the rose beside the thorns).


The Thyme & Again Exposure gallery is such a nice warm environment
for a show, and Carrie Colton did an awesome job putting the show
together.


What's a photo show without a photo of Tony taking a photo? ;)


Tonight's EXPOSURE GALLERY'S architecture show opening was a
huge success. A great turn out and some super imagery. Not sure if
the whole 'put stuff on a wall and have folks come and look at it' is
totally me, but what the heck it's great to share imagery!

My favorite work was presented by a fine-art photographer named
CHANTAL SANSCARTIER. Beautiful shots of the War Museum.

A special thanks to Sheila Whyte for twisting my arm to get me to
participate during such a busy period, it was an awesome experience,
and I strongly recommend taking a peek, while it's up.

From Mathematics to Zombie Attacks?

Tonight Brent and I had fun photographing Robert Smith?, a professor
of Mathematics at uOttawa for the university's homepage. Professor
Smith? isn't your everyday boring math prof. He's young, he's cool and
he's creative. He's even been written about in Wired magazine. Cool I say!

He's found a fun and creative idea to help illustrate the mathematical
modeling of an outbreak of infectious disease, by paralleling the
mathematical concept to an outbreak of Zombies. And yes that is a
mouthful of words to really just say we got to shoot a mathematician
in a cool and fun way.

Another super fun day!

Carleton - Canada's Capital University

A nice simple 'Canadian Fall' vignette from our Carleton shoot yesterday.

Creative Minds

Another day - another fun shoot! Photographing students for Carleton
University. It was fun to have a loose plan to follow, yet the freedom to
explore some of our own ideas. It's often best to just let that freedom
guide you as well as the folks you're shooting......and always enjoy the
creative collaborative process.

Thanks to Greg(G_Mac) and Mandy, we had an awesome group of real
students to 'play' with - all great and super photogenic kids.

Parliamentry Sunset

Fall seems to be arriving a little late this year. Brent and I were out
doing some location scouting this evening for some Ontario and Ottawa
tourism business later this week, but the leaves just haven't changed
enough. Not sure if that's good or bad......I want color to shoot, but after
color comes white snow.

Still.......the sun setting sure was pretty! :)

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

A little wisdom and inspiration tucked away in a fortune cookie. Just
words on a small piece of paper or a powerful message........depends
on how you allow yourself to see it, I guess.

October Nocturnal

The October night air is cool, moist and so enveloping. Tonight's shot
was kind of a happy accident. Accidentally at the right place and the
right time. The full moon, the clouds and the right light on the trees.

Good photography is about trying to be in that right place at the right
time as often as possible!