by Heather on August 26, 2010
Jaime Hogge:
I don’t have any exciting tales of hiking or fancy hotels, but I think my unintentional summer vacation is just about over, and I’m pretty happy about it. I don’t exactly remember where we left off last time, (my brain has been a little scrambled, I think I need some adult Ritalin) so lets go with some recent events.
This past weekend found me doing some more work for the NFB as well as being a prize once again. I thought last time was hectic, but that term has officially been redefined now. I don’t think I’m that bad at multi-tasking but shooting two vastly different jobs for the same client at the exact same time is a little tricky. It was actually a little weird having to tell my assistant (thanks Landon!) to just set everything up and only pop in occasionally to test things out. I know assistants are supposed to be setting stuff up and all that, but I’m a pretty hands on guy and I usually like to at least help set up as well. While it proved pretty tough to get 5 consecutive minutes to you know, at least get a few test shots in, we eventually got everything nailed down with about 15 seconds to spare before the first subject stepped in. Did I mention there was no air conditioning or fans of any sort? I’m not typically a sweaty person but I don’t think the folks we were shooting would believe that. Not that I was a complete disgusting mess by the time I got around to the portraits, but it was definitely a work out. All in all things worked out in the end, sweaty or not, here’s a portrait and some behind the scenes action:
Outside of that I’ve just been planning things out and getting ready to shoot another assignment for Toronto Life magazine. Well, three actually, but the main large one that is much more labour intensive is where most of my focus has been. I’ve been asked to shoot for the food guide once again this year, a job that I also did last year, which was a good and tasty time. The assignment is even larger this time out, combined with a couple of studio portraits but I’m really looking forward to getting my hands dirty again.
Fall = hockey + work, yay!
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Grant Harder:
It’s been a couple of weeks so lets rewind a bit. I just arrived back in town after being away for nine days. Before I left I was happy to squeeze in another portrait for Vancouver Magazine. The location, time and assistant were all finalized at 7PM the night before the shoot. It was a fairly quick business portrait. We shot in BC Place, which is a massive construction site at the moment as they are putting on a new retractable roof.
The enRoute job (the reason I was out of town) was a fantastic experience. A good part of the trip was spent hiking but we also traveled by horseback and canoe. Half of my time away there was no internet or cell service, which provided a good mix of frustration and escapism. The landscape in The Rockies blows my mind. The food was plentiful and consistently tasty. It was hard to come home and get back to cooking for myself and having to do my own dishes. Life is tough. I mentioned last week that I would be working with a writer. I met up with Taras Grescoe at the airport and we spent a good part of the following nine days together. Good thing we got along. He doesn’t do as many travel assignments these days as he is spending more time writing books. His latest release is called Bottomfeeder. I encourage you to check out his site and his Q interview with Jian Ghomeshi. Do to long lead times this article won’t be out until next summer’s tourist season. I really hope to keep getting work like this. It’s pretty satisfying to be completely immersed in a job you love for multiple days and have the opportunity to travel, eat good food, meet new people and keep active.
I’m settling back into Vancouver life with a portfolio meeting this afternoon. With no jobs on the immediate horizon hopefully a couple nuggets will come my way soon. I can’t believe September is lurking.
Lastly, I started a Tumblr site a while ago. It’s called THE WEIGHT OF BLANKETS and, for now, it’s a home for images taken with my uncle’s Yashica T4. I would like this site to eventually be translated/transferred into some kind of printed form but for now it is what it is.
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The Year in the Life Project follows two junior shooters through their weekly adventures, trying to make a go of it, in the world of commercial photography.
by Heather on August 25, 2010
If I was blogging (which I’m not- too busy with paying work), I would encourage you to visit Westside Studio’s blog to see a little making-of post. Tyler Gray shows you the original layout, location pics, elements he’ll add in post and explains part of his approach to getting the shot. I’d love to see (or show for that matter) more of this kind of thing. Thanks for sharing Tyler.
Go here to see the full post.
by Heather on August 13, 2010
Grant Harder:
This week started off pretty sweet. On Monday I shot a portrait of David Suzuki for Vancouver Magazine. It was a great opportunity all around. I’ve wanted to work with Vancouver Magazine for a while now and to get the call to shoot Suzuki right out of the gate was a blessing. The experience was pleasant, to say the least. I picked him up at his office. We drove to the location (which was ready to roll), shot for twenty to twenty five minutes and then we drove him downtown to the Peruvian Consulate. We chatted about bike lanes and Bolivia (two of my loves). He is on his way to South America to shoot something for The Nature of Things. A big thank you to Taryn Dufalt, AD at Van Mag, for giving me the opportunity and to David for being awesome.
I was supposed to go to Vernon today for a portrait. Unfortunately there were some scheduling conflicts and rapidly approaching deadlines to work with and now I’m not able to do the job. I was really excited for this one so it’s unfortunate to not be able to go. It’s also too bad that I cancelled a couple of other things to set aside this time. What do you do?
BUT…the reason I can’t reschedule for that job is because I am booked and out of town from the 16th to the 24th for enRoute Magazine. I’m really looking forward to this. It’s going to be an interesting experience as I will be working with a writer the entire time. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with a writer. Our itinerary looks amazing! (hiking, eating, paddling…repeat). There is a bit of prep involved, as I won’t be able to pop into a rental house or camera shop to get any replacement gear. I need to figure out a back up digital camera stat. Regardless, I can’t wait to get to the airport.
Now that I have the time today…and my portfolio is back sitting under my desk…I should probably get my hustle on.
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Jaime Hogge:
Sorry, it’s my fault we’re late this week, so much going on. Don’t get too pissed off at me though, there will be no whining this week, I promise. It’s been a long busy week but it’s definitely nice to get back in the swing of things with 3 shoots. I must say though, after having nearly 5 weeks without work I’m exhausted, in a good way.
Things started off pretty quick with some portraits of an actress here in the city. The shoot had been much delayed so it was good to finally get to it, though it was so hot/humid that my glasses were fogging up every time I raised my camera to my eye. It all came together in the end and it was a great way to start off a busy week. Sample sample:
Next up was the first of two shoots for Toronto Life. Relatively simple stuff, both shoots were full body portraits on white. The catch for the first one is that it was a shot of two people together, and it had to be shot on location in an apartment rather than in studio. Twenty-seven floors up we turned the living room into a studio (thanks to short people and high ceilings) in no time. It was a pretty tight squeeze but thankfully I was able to contort myself around a table and didn’t mind being wedged up against the window, so it all worked out. Unfortunately Basil the bulldog had to sit outside on the balcony while all the magic was happening, but she got over it pretty fast judging from all the stumpy tail wagging and kisses I got when she was allowed back in.
Finally the second shoot for Toronto Life was of model/tv lady Stacey McKenzie, quite possibly the tallest woman on earth (though I think the shoes had a lot to do with it). This time around we shot in studio, so things went a little smoother and no puppies had to watch from the sidelines. The shoot went quite smoothly and I think we got some good results, but I suppose I won’t really be the judge of that in the end.
All in all, definitely a great week (even my atrocious hockey team got our first win in the playoffs!) and here’s to hoping it continues. Big thanks to Matt Tammaro for helping out and being an assistant extraordinaire semi-last-minute. We’re from the same small town, how cool is that?
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The Year in the Life Project follows two junior shooters through their weekly adventures, trying to make a go of it, in the world of commercial photography.
by Heather on August 10, 2010
Sorry guys but I’m booked on a super big job for the next month or so. Subsequently, posting will be very very infrequent. Don’t forget, there’s lots in the archives and Jaime and Grant will keep truckin’ on every Friday.
Fashion is not really my thing but in the research of the last few days I’ve fallen in love with John Midgley:
And I love this shot from Levi Brown:
by Heather on August 6, 2010
Jaime Hogge:
I got a job! It’s still summer and I got a job! Shooting a couple portraits for Toronto Life, next week I believe. Why is this exciting? Well, if you read back about 8 entries, you’ll see that it’s been absolutely dead since summer began.
Outside of that little tidbit it’s been a short week of getting re-organized. The shoots I had scheduled for this week have been pushed back once again to next week for various reasons. Apparently you should never trust a weather forecast. Kind of frustrating, but I do appreciate the down time to get prepared for the weeks ahead after a rather hectic long weekend.
One not so great event this week was my second (and last) monitor randomly dying on me. The good news is that I now have 22 inches of super high-res HD amazingness to edit on (pardon the mess):
The bad news is that I had to spend most of the money I barely had to get it. While this summer I was more prepared for the no-work thing, next year I’m going to add: being prepared for important gear going down. Granted it’s not so bad as last year when my shutter crapped out and took 1.5 months to replace, but still a pain nonetheless.
Well, hopefully my new assignments are a sign of things to come and this is my last boring entry. In honour of tonight being the end of my summer teams’ incredibly terrible regular season, I’ll leave you with a hockey stick:
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Grant Harder:
It wasn’t easy getting back to BC. After a day and a half of driving the car had enough and decided to call it quits. Finding a mechanic on a holiday at 4PM in any town is difficult. It was no different in Salmon Arm. Long story short- the hose went in the clutch and the part had to be ordered from Vancouver. Two days later we were on our way again. Besides this little hiccup, the past couple weeks of vacationing and such have been great.
I’ve been a little concerned as of late regarding the slowness of summer. That all turned around today. The dream stays alive. Days like today only come in second to shooting days. I woke up to an email requesting a portrait commission from a small publishing firm out of London. This job sounds like it will be super fun and involves an elite athlete (maybe there will be more on that next week…so secretive, I know). The middle of the day was spent dealing with an upcoming job for enRoute Magazine. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am for this! Later this month I’ll be flying, driving and hiking for a week and I can’t wait. Lastly, this afternoon I had a portfolio meeting with a local magazine that sounds like it will lead to a job as early as next week. So all in all it was a pretty damn good day. I am kind of amazed by the whole thing (and that these updates only amounted to one paragraph).
Marketing works. Who knew? The next two weeks are potentially jam packed with shooting. There was time to market myself and now there will be no time. This staff of one could really use an extra hand. Where to from here? How do I keep this rolling? I suppose the rest of you are trying to figure that out as well…whether you have helping hands/employees/reps or not. Regardless, I am full steam ahead.
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The Year in the Life Project follows two junior shooters through their weekly adventures, trying to make a go of it, in the world of commercial photography.
