The 2-Day Photoshoot

I know I haven't had the chance to post anything recent, but this photoshoot in particular was one that required a lot of work and two days of shooting - not to mention I was also in a cast and crutches. For those of you who don't know me, you can only imagine a tiny girl like me trying to do an entire 4th semester with one walking leg, crutches, a cast and a million things to carry on my back.

We (my model and I) split the photoshoot into themes and within those themes we divided them into days. The first day we shot in the studio, formal attire as well as traditional (ex. sari dress). For 45 min we shot using a white and black back drop as well as the back, brick wall using a series of close ups, full length, 1/2 and 3/4 shots.

For day 2 we shot at (model) Sharon's apartment building. Here we did a series of casual attire shot indoors and outdoors. The place was gorgeous. We had many areas to work with using staircases, waterfalls, seating areas, gates and even a balcony.

Altho this is a very small portion as to what I'm allowed to show you, this photoshoot will forever be known to have been an obstacle to my temporary disability that I was still able to overcome with the great amount of help and assistance I had from Sharon and her mother. I had never met Sharon in person (only through a friend on facebook) and to know that a stranger will take 2 days worth of time and a lot of patience to help me out, meant a lot to me. Big thanks to Sharon and her mother.

Of course I know I could have done better had I been able to walk at the time, I am still satisfied with the overall outcome. 

Here is a small selection of the 2 series we did:

New Section: INTERIOR

Hey everyone, there's been a new section to my site now, it's going to be my works of 'interiors'. I've already added some interiors from my trip to the George Eastman Mansion in Rochester NY, as well as an image of my kitchen and 2 restaurants, one in Nova Scotia and The Octagon (Toronto). Check it out.

I hope to expand my collection of interiors this year!

Nature in my Backyard

Today, just before sundown I went outside and just chilled in the backyard. It's a peaceful little place. I can't wait till the gardening gets done and the animals come out so that I can grab my camera and show all of you the beautiful nature that exists in my very own backyard. We've had many different looking fish, a duck, a frog, lots of rabbits, an eagle, and unfortunately a blue heron that ate some of our fish. Some of the images can be found in the Wild Life tab above.

Here's some photos from our pond last year

Personal Postcards

During the 2012 Portfolio Display show at Humber College, I handed out personal, luster-printed postcards to those who came. I designed 2 different types of cards, one to promote my on-location photography skills and one to show my professionalism in the studio.  I didn't see any of my classmates make postcards for the show but many of us handed out business cards. I chose to do postcards because I find that in photography you must visually show people how talented - as well as creative - you are from the rest. To put images on a business cards would be too small. Of course business cards always fit in a wallet better, with postcards I can send them in the mail any time I want in hopes of potential clients and/or job offers. 

The following are the cards I designed, printed and put together using my own images:

Twist + Portflio Display 2012 Recap

Hey everyone, I know it's been awhile sorry I haven't had time to post anything from Twist Gallery or the Humber Portfolio Display 2012. Although,  recently I came across this video and felt like I should share it here. I have a few more things in mind that I will be posting later on this month so stay tuned. As for me, I'm still in recovery but I have a strong belief I will be back on BOTH feet in time for graduation in about a month. =)

Humber College Portfolio Display 2012:

Twist Gallery (I will post more pictures later)

Graduating Class of 2012

Schools finally over and graduation is approaching. Yesterday I moved back home and I still don't feel like unpacking. It kind of feels unreal to me how fast the years have gone by.

To all my fellow classmates (future photographers) and friends, farewell and I wish you all the best! Congratz guys, we made it!

Toronto Steamwhistle Brewery

 

Rochester, NY - George Eastman Mansion

First Year/Semester Portrait Class with Neil Fox

ADAA 2012 Competition

Recently I submitted 2 pieces of work into the 2012 ADAA (Adobe Design Achievement Awards). Wish me luck! (see below to view submissions)

The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards celebrate student and faculty achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition - which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software - honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world's top institutions of higher education. 

http://www.adobeawards.com/us/


I chose Photoshop CS5 where I composed the following two 'surreal-like' images.

Humber Arboretum Bridge

Toronto Steamwhistle Brewery

Humber's Portfolio Show 2012

Humber College is having a Portfolio Show at the North campus (student centre) April 18th, 2-9pm where all the 2012 Creative Photography Grads will be putting their work on display for you, so come check it out!

RSVP AT THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE HERE:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/160523217315690/383870381647638/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_activity#!/events/406230942738153/

Finally a "Professional"

This year was the first time I ever submitted any of my work into any competition and I'm proud to say I was accepted into the PPOC (Professional Photographers of Canada) show.  Today I was listening live for hours and it was kind of intense hearing what the judges had to say. When they reached one of my submissions (image below) I couldn't help but feel surprised as the word "accepted" was announced.


Go to this link to listen live as they continue the rest of the portraits being judged tomorrow:
http://www.ppoc.ca/audio.html You can also view the images while they are being judged live.

Although, some of the classes (categories) are not going to be judged live, I will keep you guys posted as to what the result is to the rest of my images I submitted (4 in total). I submitted in 1 portrait, 1 pictorial, 1 fashion and 1 wild life.

This image means a lot to me. It was my very first creative photoshoot that I did with two Taiwanese girls I lived with on campus last year. Angela and HsuanYun came in with their own traditional outfits, chinese fans and the traditional umbrellas. Their make up was done by Mary Beatty who also does a lot of modeling for me. When I shot this image I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I was trying to show off the make up or maybe I was bringing out an innocence that Angela seemed to have? Overall, I seem to have good feedback on this piece of work and it is definitely one of my favourites.  Goodluck to the rest of you!

I called this image "A Peaceful Elegance"

The Green Living Project

On Wednesday I completed my last commercial photoshoot assignment, also known as the "Green Living" assignment. At first I was a bit worried how my concept would turn out because it did involve a lot of post production work, 1 assistant and a hand model, but with the help of a photographer/friend Tyrone Mitchell and my hand model Connie Wong, the overall image came out a lot better than I had anticipated. 

I started off taking a picture of my hand model holding the water bottle up. I used a green gel for the background, a fill card and 1 soft box (main light). The second image was taken of Connie pouring the water out of the bottle. We had to do this twice to get it right but afterwards came the tricky part. We took the water from the bowl and threw a nickel in the water until the splash came out looking like water was actually being poured with subtle waves. The last image was the globe which I pen tooled out and placed onto the shot I took of the background with the rest of the images. I threw in some text and presto, it was fini.

Camera: Hasselblad, 120
1 backlight (green gel)
1 main light (soft box)
1 fill card

2 full waterbottles
1 glass bowl
1 nickel
1 globe
1 hand model
1 TOWEL!!!

Project: Water Droplets

Before I was back to school in the beginning of September I was in the mood for shooting but as I recall, the weather wasn't so great. I had just moved back on campus and there was nothing to do. I grabbed my Nikon D300s, a desk lamp, my tripod and my SB900 flash and set up a mini shoot in my kitchen (which sadly has no windows in residence). I carefully placed small water droplets of different sizes ontop of a CD and this is what I got. It was until today that I found these images on my external hardrive. Enjoy!

I balanced Flash with Tungsten and took longer exposures with my camera on a tripod.

Twist Gallery: Ubiquity

I'm proud to say this is going to be my first gallery where I can show off my photography works to the public. My theme will be Nova Scotia. Hope to see you all there! For more information, read the description below.

Twist Gallery requests the presence of the public and media for the opening reception of Ubiquity by Humber College. Ubiquity is a collection of personal photographs by students from the graduating class of the Creative Photography Program at Humber.

The students were as...ked to create images referencing their passion for photography and visual communications. With these photographs, the possibilities of people, places, and life, are explored and examined. From simplicity of line and form, shades of black & white, to exploring human emotions with rich colour palettes, Ubiquity is a diverse and eclectic collection. This exhibit celebrates personal photographic work, by Toronto’s next generation of professional photographers.

The show will run from Tuesday April 3rd to Friday April 27th, 2012 with an opening reception on Wednesday April 4th, 2012 from 7-11pm. Please join us for drinks, appetizers and music while welcoming these emerging photographers into the art world.


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Update + Sneak Peak

As I mentioned in my previous post this will be a double post for today just because I've been so swamped with work and assignments I haven't had the chance to share any of them with my fellow readers/followers. There will be plenty of new stuff to post in the month of March but all I ask is that everyone just be patient with me. I already have three photoshoots going on tomorrow and here's a hint as to one of them!

Celebrity Shoot Sneak Peak!

I know it's been a long long wait since today's post so I will make a double post to make up for lost time.

First off, I'd like to say that my celebrity shoots went surprisingly well. The day started off a bit hectic when Massimo arrived over an hour late at the exact moment I left the restaurant Mistura to shoot the Pigott Brothers. Oliver and Sebastian Pigott were very friendly and cooperative even after noticing my injury. Of course, Connie was there assisting me but once the shoot was over I headed back to the restaurant where I finished the photoshoot with Massimo and got a signed book from him before I left.


***The photograph of the Pigott Brothers standing with the Canada flag in the background was the image I submitted for my assignment and in the end, it was picked for display along with a candid shot of Will Farrell and Richard Simmons taken by my classmates!***

Here are some images of that day:

-------------- The Pigott Brothers -------------- 

  

-------------- MASSIMO --------------

Massimo Capra has an amazing personality and true character with a 

great sense of humor. Here's a video of him: 

 

___________________________________________________________________

Images (including mine) picked for display: 

Celebrity Shoots Coming Up!

I'm pleased to say that today I received two emails in response to my celebrity photoshoot. Although I didn't get my original choice Erin Karpluk (Erica from Being Erica), I did get a response from Oliver Piggott (Sebastian Pigott's brother also known as Kai from Being Erica and the Pigott Brothers band)

I'm excited to shoot the Pigott Brothers but it doesn't just end there. I also received an email from the famous Italian chef, Massimo Capra! Although I'm still working out the dates, I'm hoping to atleast get one of them free over the next two weekends. I've never met or seen anyone famous in my entire life and now I'm going to be having a one-on-one photoshoot with 3 celebrities in Toronto!

Can't wait to post the final images. Should be up by March 9th!

________________________________________________________________________________
** UPDATE: Both Photoshoots are scheduled between 12 and 2pm on Saturday March 3rd **

The Pigott Brothers

Massimo Capra

The Corvette Shoot

Thursday morning I went into the studio around 8am to shoot a collectible car. I played around with the lighting but overall I found these two to be my favourite. Despite my injury, I'm lucky to have the best roommates (Connie and Danny) who offered to assist me on the shoot. Without them, I don't know what I would do.

For the assignment, I have to photograph a landscape or street where the car will be placed to look as real as possible. I will post the finish product asap when it's been shot and edited.

Equipment: 
1 strobe light
1 softbox
2-3 reflectors
Hasselblad, 120 lens
Program: Phocus (tethered)

FINAL IMAGE

Illustrative Food Teaser + Final Product

Just a teaser for tomorrow's illustrative food photoshoot as I prep my fruit (models) in my kitchen. Stay tuned for promo pics coming soon!

can you guess which video game this might be?

_________________________________________________________________________________

THE FINAL PRODUCT: PACMAN! 

My photoshoot was postponed another day due to a power outage at Humber. Last year my first food shoot was delayed because of a snowday at the college. I guess sometimes luck isn't always on my side.

1 Soft Box
1 Backlight
1 Fill Light (reflector)
Hasselblad, 150mm
Fresh fruit
1 knife to cut the orange
Permanent black marker
Pins/paper clips to hold fruit together
Sticky tack