Palettera Grand Opening...

I was lucky enough to shoot the Palettera Grand Opening this past Saturday.  The event was heavily attended from start to finish and proved to be a challenge to photograph.  With so many patrons visiting and the owners wanting to try to get as many candid and posed shots as possible with the attendees I was quite lucky to work with someone on this event.  My partner in crime that night was Phil Pang, Photographer/Videographer extraordinaire!  

For the majority of the night we were stationed in opposite sides of the studio trying to get in all the action we could.  By the middle of the night however, it proved difficult to maintain this plan of attack as I was often pulled off to take more specific photos for the evening.  In the end I believe we captured a full range of photos; candid, artistic and posed. 

A few of our photos were submitted to the magazine WedLuxe.  WedLuxe is luxury wedding magazine in Canada that often does features on major trends and provides a wide rage of reviews on various aspects of weddings.  To check out some of the photos and the editorial used click here:  Palettera Grand Opening.

Now onto the event.  It was a fantastic event put on by Palettera with loads of food/snacks and wine flowing freely as guests were able to mingle and check out the large studio decorated with vintage writing/letter press items and furniture.  It began at 4pm and ended at nearly 12 and throughout this time the studio was a buzz with activity.    There was a steady flow of attendees congratulating the owners on their opening and taking a look  at the stationary and cards for sale that evening.  All proceeds for that evening went to charity.  The Grand Opening was a success and the studio is now official open for  business.  If there are any initiation or card needs in your future and custom cards are in the budget, I highly recommend Palettera, as they will tailor to your budget and ideas to create a truly extravagant custom correspondence.  

 

Congrats Palettera!

Food Shooting...

This past Thursday I was asked to take some photo’s of an upcoming menu for the new ‘Lardon Restaurant’.  I’ve never really done anything in terms of food product shots before, other than the normal being at dinner and taking photos in poorly lit dining rooms.   Given this opportunity to create my own ‘set’ of sorts, I was able to do a bit of research in terms of food photography and spent a lot of time just looking at photos of food.  In the end, I decided to go with the setup of 2 flashes with shoot through umbrella’s, one at 2 o’clock and one at 8 o’clock.  I was originally doing some test shots with a reflector but I found that the 2^nd flash helped neutralize some of the harsher aspects of a reflector.   The flash was at a ratio of 1:4 (2oclock:8oclock) to get the light that I wanted and went from there.  I also decided to bring my laptop and hook that up to the camera so the client could see the shots and make any suggestions or adjustments to his food.  Given I don’t have a food stylist I could use all the chef input I could get.  This is definitely something I’d like to try again, after all as with most photography practice makes perfect, if there is any such thing as perfect.  In the end the client was happy with his shots, as was I.  Lardon Restaurant opens officially March 26^th, 2010.  From the samples I had during the shoot, everything tastes delicious! You can also check out some shots of Roncesvalles that I took hanging in the restaurant too!



Winter shooting....

The winter in Toronto has not proven to be very winter-like.  I was hoping to get more images of snowflakes and snow covered streets and locales this year, however Mother Nature seemed to have a different plan.  This past week provided a bit of snow to Toronto and surrounding parts and I tried to take advantage of fact it lasted all of 24 hours.   I was able to head up to Main St. Unionville to take some images of Too Good Pond.  It’s often a place where hockey is played by locals and just a nice area to walk around in the summer.  I was able to get a few nice shots here and there, as well as stalk a flock of various ducks that seemed to be congregating on a hill not too far away.   I was dressed in full waterproof attire as I figured I’d be getting some good snow picks, but it proved even more useful when I took a little step/fall into a river near the pond.  I quickly up righted myself but the waterproof gear proved highly useful, as I had no water damage to my equipment or myself as a result.  Note to self… look for thin ice signs.

2010 Canadian Autoshow....

A huge delay in posting has occurred due to the recent Olympics in Vancouver. As much as I would’ve loved to be there I just couldn’t work it into my schedule.  However, that did not stop me from keeping my eyes glued to the TV.  Now that they are over, I suppose it’s back to the normal grind and to post some images and blogs regarding past adventures.

A few weeks ago I was able to take in the annual Canadian Authoshow held in toronto.  It’s always been a challenge at venues to take photos, as there generally are so many sources of light to take into account.  More so when you are viewing exquisitely polished show cars which provide a wonderful canvas of reflection.  I was able to get rid of several reflective lights by using a polarizer but of course that’s not perfect as it just removes a certain set of lights above.   I’ll be continuing to try to test out different methods but I’m not quite sure if there is anything out there that is perfect. 

Although I’m not a big advocate of HDR to be used to make things look a bit more “cartoony” in my eyes for landscapes and other more natural coloured images, the autoshow seems to have provided a perfect venue to test out some of these HDR techniques.  I’m particularly proud of a few cars, one being a new infinity that had a “tattoo”/paintjob that I instantly thought would be enhanced by HDR.  And of course there is this Mustang (or cobra? i don't know my cars...sorry)  that explodes off the screen.  I’ve posted them below, as well as linked them to my flickr where other images from the show may be seen.