I was commissioned by Outcrop Communications out of the Northwest Territories to take a series of white-background portraits for ads that they are creating for NWT Tourism. I had the pleasure of photographing outdoor and northern enthusiasts Randy Gangbar, Aleks Gusev, and Wendy Cecil for the pieces. Each person was a character in their own right, full of stories and enthusiasm for their second homes in the north and quite easy to photograph as well. All three ads ran in Saturday editions of The Globe and Mail.

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Just a few pics from recent shoots. Happy to have a broad range of people in my portraits, from friends to business people to authors and more.

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Since about July of 2011, I made the transition from my Canon-based Speedlite system to Paul C. Buff Einstein lights. Though I still have my Canon lights for various location shoots where nimbleness and portability are important, I didn't like using them in a studio setting; there were too many batteries to keep track of, and not everything fired as reliably as a dedicated radio system like Pocket Wizards of Buff's Cybersyncs. So I made the jump, and with it, bought a heck of a lot of light modifiers to go with the Einsteins.

I'm writing this to help other photogs make up their minds when sifting through all of their options as well as to take stock of what I can and can't live without in my own set-up, and maybe remind myself to exploit some of the gear that's already fallen by the wayside.

First up is the...

64" Soft Silver PLM Umbrella

Whether as a main or fill light, I usually break this out during a head shot session. I almost always use it with the extra diffuser. If my small studio could accomodate the 86" I'd definitely check it out. Until I started using the PLM, I was using the Buff Octaboxes instead. I can't vouch for the differences between "Extreme Silver" and so on as I went the middle path and got the Soft Siver versions, but I can say that I prefer the umbrella shaft version to the center-axis speedring version, the latter which is more cumbersome to store and carry, let alone set-up each time.

48-inch Translucent White Umbrella

Frequency of use: Occasionally, Qty: 1

Not much to say about this. Construction seems extra flimsy compared to other umbrellas, but nothing about it makes it unique. Included here for completeness sake.

Softboxes: Medium and Giant

Frequency of use: Seldom, Qty: 1 medium and 1 giant

These are sturdy, well-built, and easy to deploy with their umbrella-like ribbing but what can I say, I'm not that fond of them or at least don't use them very often. I find them too rectangular for my tastes, and find myself much more partial to the Buff octaboxes. These remind me more of the stripboxes in their narrowness, and since I already have 2 stripboxes, I almost never pull these unless it's to remind myself that I have them.

10" x 36" foldable stripboxes

No complaints. These are sturdy and well-built like the softboxes mentioned above. I use them both gridded and ungridded. I tend to use them as a pair most times.

Foldable Octaboxes, Medium and Large

I will probably revisit the Octaboxes soon, though I almost always use the large version (gridded) when I do.

Beauty Dishes

Frequency of use: Most shoots, Qty: 1 white and 1 silver

What can I say, I gravitate to the beauty dish for most shoots. Not sure if I'm part of a trend, but I enjoy the dish's simplicity and quality of light. I probably should not have bothered with the silver one, though the white diffusion sock is useful to tame it. I highly recommend using the grids for these dishes, as well. They are expensive by Buff standards, but do a great job when you need to control light spill and add extra drama on the subject.

8.5-inch Silver High Output Reflector

I got one of these for each Einstein head I own. I like them plenty, and usually use them gridded. I could have gotten away with 2 max. but no biggie.

White Shovel Background Reflector

I seldom light my backgrounds, if only because my studio is small, but I've yet to put this to great use. Not sure if I'm getting the look I wanted from this, but have not really experimented with it much to really find out. Not essential gear, though.

Umbrella Reflector

Frequency of use: Seldom, Qty: 1

Meant to "block undesired light spill" it may or may not be doing its job. Not sure why I needed to get this one...

Grids

Frequency of use: Often, Qty: various

Grids... get 'em for whatever light you're modding, that is all.

Gear I did not get but am now staying up at night wondering if I should:

The LiteMod System

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Most days I've got the PLM, Beauty Dish, small gridded reflectors and the occsional stripbox deployed on my shoots. I somehow want Buff's softboxes be more "boxy" and right now my previous favourite octaboxes have fallen out of rotation.

Overall I'm happy with the line of modifiers available, though I'm always hungry for more, and starting to wonder what my options are for third party light-mods and how they might attach to my Einsteins. Not that I've mastered my existing gear by any means, but what else am I going to day-dream about?

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Had a great session with Tom McLellan, Principal at online marketing company GrowthClick Inc. Tom was looking for that elusive mix of professional yet approachable and warm, a request I'm getting more and more from my business clients.

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I've been meeting some interesting people from all walks of life since opening my studio. Meet Vishal, a resident of Toronto, with family in Norway, pursuing a modelling and fashion career as well exploring his options in Bollywood. Vishal was a very sincere and dedicated subject and a sight to behold in front of the camera.

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I had the pleasure of photographing Roger early last week for his professional profile. Roger is a young, ambitious entrepreneur currently involved in branding and social media promotions. He was looking for a range of images to promote his professional goals. These are some of my favourites from the shoot.

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I took the plunge a few days ago and invested in a set of Paul C. Buff Einstein lights. Though my Canon Speedlites have been serving me faithfully, and of course have numerous advantages over large studio strobes (lack of cords, for one), I'm finding that the greatest knock against them is probably colour consistency from shot to shot. Though the colour flaw becomes more obvious in some of my more assembly line work where I'm photographing person after person on the same background, the same can be true when I'm photographing just one individual for a headshot session. My last shoot saw me take over 400 frames for just a handful of final images. When you're sifting through that much work to get to the stronger images, it can get pretty irritating having to calibrate the colour temperature from picture to picture.

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I had a great commission for a shoot this weekend. Sisters Kara and Ashley visited my studio to make a portrait for their ailing father, who is in the hospital, and afflicted with a number of serious health conditions. This being my first father's day, and having lost my own dad from lung cancer many years ago, I felt extra concern trying to capture something that would tell K & A's father that they loved him and each other, and hopefully give him strength in the coming trials ahead.

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I came across a pretty fascinating infographic a few nights ago on the frequency of facebook profile photo updates. The graphic comes from a group known as Pixable. Somewhere in my business plan, I'm hoping to capitalize on the perceived importance of a quality and unique profile photo, and I think this graphic is pretty illuminating. However, I have realized over time (in my own facebook usage and that of my friends), many people tire of their photo, however great it might be, and eventually change it out of whatever circumstance, be it boredom or the desire to show something more current. What to do, then? Perhaps offer a subscription of some kind? Buy one portrait, get another free one 3 months from now?

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Does your picture mean business? The idea to photograph a semi-growling businessman for my facebook Welcome page had been bouncing around my head for over a month. Incidentally, you are a fan of my facebook page, aren't you? Don't worry, I'll wait.

I can't remember if this idea came out of a desire to simply shoot the graphically-whiskered Harmen, or my need to contrast a wildman look battened down into a suit and Harmen fit the job. Regardless, after a little bit of cajoling, Harmen agreed to the shoot.

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The shoot was a lot of fun for me, and I'm really happy with the sort of Scooby-Doo quality of the images. They feel like the sort of painting or portrait you might find in a haunted mansion. It didn't take me long to post this on my facebook splash page together with my tagline. Maybe I'll make a promotional mailer out of it.

Special thanks to H. for hamming it up so well!

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Things did not quite go as planned when I shot Michael, new owner of dog-walking business Big City Barks, and his dog Marley. I asked Michael to sit for me since he struck as the prototypical small business owner that I'd like to shoot more of. I'll shoot lawyers and realtors — happily — till the day is long, but I'd like to market to a much broader circle, and convince said broader audience that they could benefit from a quality image.

The initial vision I had for Michael and Marley was a dark background, awash with sunny, yellow gradients, and Michael and Marley sitting with their backs to each other, with a healthy amount of space between them.

rough (very rough) sketch of my planned shot, which had to be abandoned early on

Several difficulties quickly arose. Never mind that wrangling an animal, even a well-trained one like Marley made for a built-in challenge when the chief wrangler is also supposed to be in the frame, but the main problem was I didn't have a big enough studio for this group portrait. I could photograph them closer together, which I ended up doing, but already my image was falling apart. Problem number two, photographing a BLACK dog proved to be very difficult when your backdrop is also on the darker side. Getting a background separation on a dark, velvety pooch was just proving too difficult, especially since I didn't want any extra light to hit Michael as well, so I eventually abandoned my approach, and we switched out to a white background.

We eventually wrangled a few shots, mostly solo images and action shots, and I think they're pretty fun, even if I didn't get to realize my initial creative attempt. We may reconvene in the near future and try this shoot outside, but in the meantime: my thanks to Michael and Marley.

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Left: Marc Maron by Seth Olenick. Right: Jasmine by me.

I'm never sure when it comes to portraits of famous people exactly where my fascination with celebrity ends and my appreciation for a good portrait begins. Annie Liebowitz would be the best example I can think of, right now. Am I captivated by her portrait of Tom Waits because of its epic qualities, or am I all just: "Hey, that's Tom Waits, I wonder what he's like in person?" Definitely both come into play, but it's hard to separate either component with any certainty.

In the case of the image above, I am fascinated by comedian and WTF Podcast host Marc Maron. When I came across this head shot by the excellent Seth Olenick, I quickly placed a copy in my inspirations file. Sure, I dig the portrait, but after listening to nearly every one of Maron's 161 (and counting) podcasts, I can no longer separate the man from his image. Nevertheless, I thought to myself that it would be cool to try and replicate the shot.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago when my stalwart pal Jasmine shows up for coffee wearing a very similar sweater to the Maron picture, and pow, we're in the studio.

This marks maybe the 2nd time I've ever tried this deliberately to mimic a shot. Am I pleased with the results? Not really. Aside from the fact that I did not mimic the Maron pic 100%, I find my version to be pretty stiff and unengaging. I could console myself and say that that's because Jasmine isn't nearly the podcast host that Maron is, but that would mean, I think, that I'm slamming Olenick's picture in the process — something I'm not prepared to do. Was it a useful exercise? Absolutely, but I'm disappointed that my experiment did not match the enigmatic qualities I see in Maron's bearded personage. Still a great podcast, though.

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