I also shot at two performances of the Millarville rodeo, which was great fun as always.

And another horse doing a different job………….

Three very different shots, different treatments all good fun and with enough detail that you can count the stitches in the Wranglers and the thread count of the Polo shirt.

Two weeks ago I was at a rodeo in Arrowwood, Alberta, population about 250. Competitors come from all over however. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, Sunday 17th. The events passed, as they do, until the programme came to the bullriding, when everyone’s excitement level rises.
My bullriding friend Kayum from Manchester, England had already ridden one bull and had a short ride, so when there was the chance to do an exhibition ride on a spare bull at the end, he took it.
Three jumps after this one he was thrown to the ground and the bull came down with his rear hooves on Kayums torso. For about an eternity his body was rigid. The medics ran in and a small crowd of people jumped in to keep the bull contained at the other end of the arena.
I thought I had just watched my friend die.
He was airlfted to the Foothills hospital in Calgary where he was found to have internal injuries.
Two weeks later and he looks though he is going to be OK, although he is far from healed and in a lot of pain.
This is a serious game.

One thing that I am acutely aware of when shooting, especially documentary/editorial type stuff is that I don’t want to wade in with all guns blazing and possibly destroy what it was that first caught my eye.  I think that when we make pictures we have the option of presenting a version of reality that is only a version, but it can have solidity, resonance, maybe some inherent “realness”.  That option rapidly disappears though if you change the nature of the environment  or the behaviour of your subject(s).  It is a fine line between observing in a very passive way and engaging thoroughly.  Too far one way and you’ve blown it, too far the other and you may as well have stayed at home.

This is a shot that I took a while ago and have re-visited this evening in looking at some tweaks to my workflow.  Shot using available light (which was pretty decent here) with a lensbaby, and to my knowledge the young lady did not know that I was shooting her.  Hopefully I was not important enough for her to notice.

The Wales Theatre has been a feature of my home town of High River, Alberta for many years.  Many many years.  Probably.  They are shortly to dispense with the old film projection equipment in favour of a digital “upgrade”.  Jordan here will be the last film projectionist at the cinema.  I was asked to take some shots of him at the theatre – a place of kitschy authenticity and genuine family owned charm.  This was one of my favourites given a bit of a dated feel.  Why is it a favourite?  I like the atmosphere of it, it’s flash lit and it doesn’t look as though it is.  There’s just something very cool about being able to get a shot like this because it’s there.  Set builders would struggle to get anything that looked as authentic as this.

A local business owner contacted me recently to get a shot together for advertising purposes -  with specific dimensions required and room to overlay some text.  We met and shot through some ideas over a couple of coffees and decided that a headshot type image would be best.  I thought about it for a short time and presented my ideas to Chris.  I wanted to show some context and give it a funky vibrant feel.  Chris bought a few new frying pans and we fixed these to a shelf that was hanging on one of his restaurant walls using teaspoons and gaffer tape.  He took the place of one of the pans against the wall, a couple of props and we’re good to go.

Using a ringflash gave the light a funky edge often found in fashion shots, some final editing and voila!  One happy client.  Cheers Chris!

So I recently had an assignment to shoot a feature for Routes magazine.  Several in fact, but this image comes from the cover story about artist Paul Rasporich and his spritual journey.  Hop over to Routes to check out the full story, or pick up an issue.  In fact, why not subscribe if you live in the Foothills of Alberta.  Routes magazine.

I had given some thought as to how I was going to approach this – after all he is an artist, much more used to depicting others than sitting for a portrait.  Luckily he was absolutely charming and very accomodating, especially as the day of the shoot was his sons birthday………..

I talked my ideas over with him and began (as often) getting some “safe” shots before heading into more creative territory with a lensbaby.  A lensbaby has one sweet spot of focus, the lens itself being constructed to allow you manipulate the out of focus areas (known in lensbaby circles as “bending”).  I obviously wanted to include his artwork but still frame the shot so that it could be used as a cover without all the neccessary titling etc. intruding on the shot too much.  There was a large window giving soft diffused light to camera left but unfortunately not in sufficient amount to give the depth of focus and shutter speed that I wanted, so I supplemented this with a radio triggered  diffused speedlight bounced off the ceiling.

The finished shot made a nice cover, and hats off to Sandra Wiebe for choosing something a little left field for the cover image.

You can check out Paul and his work here.

]]> http://www.reflectiveeye.com/?feed=rss2&p=234 2 http://www.reflectiveeye.com/?p=228 http://www.reflectiveeye.com/?p=228#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:20:33 +0000 Neville http://www.reflectiveeye.com/?p=228 Working with the latest gear, sweating over details, minute details, details people probably won’t notice.  I love it.  And this week I remembered why I love it.  It was my daughters 3rd birthday and I found for her an old Polaroid camera on sale with 6 packs of very outdated film.

There’s no way of telling what the colour will be like.  Or the contrast.

All you can do is try to get the subject in the very small frame so that the plastic lens can “focus”.

The picture is pushed out the bottom and develops in front of your eyes in a couple of minutes.  It’s magic.  I thought it was magic when I first saw this 30 years ago (or whenever it was).  And I still do.  Grace also thinks it’s magic.  She can be a photographer just like her Dad, without waiting for Dad to develop a film, or download a digital file.  She can push the button and she can make it happen.  No exposure worries, no deadlines, no location difficulties, no manipulation, no lighting plans, just the magic of pushing a button and getting a picture.

Polaroid 600 camera with 6 packs of old film – $20

Driving to pick it up – $30

The look on my little girls face when her picture comes out – priceless.

This is a somewhat old picture of my wife and daughter.  Well not that old – perhaps 2 years old but it’s all relative.  For my daughter it was three quarters of a lifetime ago…………It was taken on a Canon G9 point and shoot type thingy using natural light from the living room window and a blank piece of wall, which really shows that you don’t need a gazillion bucks of equipment to take a beautiful shot.  Did I just say that?  Well it’s true.

Anyway, we watched a movie a couple of days ago called Food Inc. which is really an exposé about the industrialisation of our food and how we are becoming more and more subjected to the will and whims of un-elected big business.  I am a realist, or at least I think I am.  I know that industrial chemistry provides a great proportion of our daily calories and for the most part, as a family, we try to eat healthily.  We always have.  At almost 3 years old little Grace knows that cookies aren’t real food, that bacon comes from pigs and vegetables contain vitamins which keep you healthy.  She likes proper food, and as a result she is a fabulously healthy, robust toddler with a very active brain and inexhaustable energy.

It would seem though that just trying to make healthy food choices isn’t enough to maintain good health.  Just look at the statistics.  We are becoming further and further removed from our own humanity by greedy corporations who don’t care about any future other than their own.

We have made a decision to buy organic where possible, to eat organic, to plant a garden this summer and to fight back in whatever small ways that we can, so that our little girl can maybe have an option other than re-arranged protein strings from some indeterminate source as she grows up.  So that she can have a choice about whether or not she wants to eat GM material.  And so that she is raised in an environment where she feels she can fight back when she feels it is right.

As a business owner I would also like to fight back on another front.  If you are an organic food producer, or are trying to effect a change in our environment so that our children can have a better planet that the one we currently inhabit, and you need high quality images for promotional use or advertising please get in touch.

Last week was a pretty cool week for me, as I had 2 magazine covers appear on the same day – one for Routes magazine (for whom I shoot regularly) and the cover of a magazine that is part of the Calgary Herald 3 times a year.  Waheeeh…………

Since Christmas I have been busy upgrading my studio and office, new floor in the studio, and various bits of re-modelling which is now finally complete.  Another Waheeeh………

So in celebration here is a composite of the last 4 covers for Routes magazine.