A number of weeks ago – Curtis had me assist him on a fun little shoot for Hudsons Taphouse – specifically the one on Whyte Ave. Hudsons was just about to unleash their new food menu (which rocks by the way) – and they wanted some cool shots of a few plates for their website. I think this was prior to the string of restaurants that Curtis had me help him with – so it was the first “food photography” shoot I’d ever been on, I really wasn’t sure what to expect or how this was going to work.

Montreal Steak sandwich - Hudsons Taphouse

Turns out – it was quite cool in that I learned some neat tricks that Curt literally pulled out his proverbial hat. And by hat, I mean a box of gadgets just for this kind of shoot – but if I tell you guys the secrets…I might find myself resorting to being one of those guys on the sides of the streets you see waving promotional signs like clowns. What a weird job. Anyway. These are just a few of the dishes we shot that day – others included a poutine (they have three different poutine dishes on the new menu) and their halibut fish.

I have to admit that food photography has always amused me – especially when you see it on the walls of restaurants or – even funnier – in commercials. The latter being the most comical simply because it ALWAYS looks absolutely perfect. Too perfect…because it never looks that good when you actually end up ordering it. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case here. The best part of this shoot was that after we were done with each dish (particularly the poutine and fish – throwing in an “omnomnom” here for good measure)…we sampled them all. And enjoyed it. Everything we shot was made for us on the spot – and with the exception of some minor arrangements on our part (very little), what you see here is what you’ll get when you order it.

And in the end I think that’s exactly what Curtis was going for – realistic shots of real food. That said – I shall leave you with this salivating piece:

6:00am – I have been flying for 3.5 hrs its actually (3am my time) and I have just woken up from a melatonin induced sleep. Drop a NUSS into a water bottle and slam it back. Should be good to go in about 20 mins. We are supposed to start our decent into Toronto but extreme fog delays us and we are in a holding pattern for an additional 45 mins. We don’t land till 7:20am. No Panic because I don’t need to be at Pattison head office till 9am.

fog was so bad you couldnt see past the tail!

7:55am - Still no luggage…. things are moving very slow, a little leeriness creeps into my thoughts, this is taking too long. Finally luggage comes, I have to rent a luggage cart for $2 which just pisses me off. It’s a damn airport luggage carts should be free!

8:15am – Hertz rental car is the furthest rental lot. I know this from experience… but I got my assistant to book me my car so this is my fault…. Now I’m getting a little worried about time… I start to pick up the pace.

My $2 luggage cart rental... this still pisses me off... luggage carts should be free!!!

8:45am -  Get my car rental throw everything in and head off in search for Pattision head office which is supposed to be 15 mins away. But this is Toronto and I’m heading out into the tail end of Rush Hour!

945am - I arrived at 9 on the dot so things went well with traffic. I load my gear and set everything up. I am ready to roll… first subject comes in at 10am.

1:25pm - Ok I’m tired now. Shooting is rolling along smoothly but I’m pretty bagged… I’m going on 3 hrs sleep, and well the day is dragging on. I pound some coffee another hour to go.

340pm – Shooting is done – 40 people… All is good gear is torn down and packed – ready to go. Client asks me into a surprise meeting to discuss more projects in Calgary and Winnipeg.  Can’t turn that down.

4:20pm – Just left meeting…. went well more work coming… except my plane takes off in 2 hrs and I am on the 5th floor at the Pattision office. Its rush hour and I need to still return my car!!! Time to HAUL ASS.

5pm - I’m fucking lost in a maze of overpasses and lights!!! Returning this car is insane! Little chance of me making my flight! I hate this shit! No time to snap a pic with SLR, but I pull out my bberrry and take a quick one for you!

Maze of overpasses at Pearson Airport

5:50pm – I end up returning my car, hauling ass to the terminal train because of course the car rental is in Terminal 1 and I am flying out of Terminal 3… I make it to the gate and Westjet allows me to check in! Whew.

I make my flight and sleep on the plane all the way home. Back in Edmonton at 8:45pm…

All in all a good day.

With all of the inquisitive emails regarding travel and shooting I figured this would be a great opportunity to answer alot of the questions and bring all of you along for this shoot.

WHATS HAPPENING.

I’m shooting 40 portraits at Pattison outdoor. I need to shoot these at their head office in Toronto and need to be ready to roll at 10am.

So I am leaving Edmonton at 1245 just after midnight and arrive in Toronto at 630am. I hope I get 3-4 hrs sleep on the plane. Grab my car rental and head to the head office for set up. Shoot from 10am – 2pm and then fly back home at 830pm.  I choose not to stay over because I have just flown back from PHX 36 hrs ago and needed some time to settle down, and I need to be back to Edmonton for a shoot on Wednesday.  Hence the one day in and out.

HOW IS IT DONE?

5PM. – Get to the studio and prep my gear. Its important to pack all my gear into 4 checked bags all under 50lbs. WEIGHT is EVERYTHING!! So I bring 2 lights Elinchrom 600 heads, various soft boxes, light stands, cords, reflectors, gels and a grey seamless… I also bring another 2 lights for backup… so I bring the light weight Elinchrom Quadras.  I have this packing down, so I know I’m under 50lbs for all bags.

6PM – Make sure I know where the hell I’m going. So its map time and of course make sure my assistant has booked my car rental.

7PM – Get home, shower and change grab a bit to eat. I am not going to get a shower till 845pm tomorrow…

8PM - Purge my CANON camera bag. I am shooting 35mm on this because of the workload and the final usage. Like my gear, WEIGHT is EVERYTHING, Im shooting tight portraits so I leave over half of my lenses at home. I choose to bring my 70-200mm 2.8 ,  24-70mm 2.8,  85mm 1.2. I leave the 35mm, 24mm, 16-35mm, 50mm back here.

I also bring my laptop and 3 pocket wizards and two camera bodies….. But leave the polarizer, flashes, and AAs.

The most important part of my kit, which keeps me sane, is melatonin which helps me sleep and NUSS, wonderful electrolyte tablets that my pilot friend Capitan Jacob recommended to me. Since I have been using NUSS I can keep my head above water with this heavy travel schedule.

8:30PM Final gear check. SHIT!!!  I’m missing a speed ring!!! I need to go back to the studio.

8:50PM Posy this blog and I’m off to the studio to pick up the dam speed ring. Stay tuned tomorrow when it’s all over ill post a recap with some behind the scene pics!’

Check back tomorrow, I will be posting the second part of the series and more pics post shoot!

Enjoy!

C

Most of them come from VANARTS or Emily Carr University in Vancouver.  Or NAIT and Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton. I like taking on students because they are often eager to work and learn.  And I am constantly blown away at the talent level in terms of photography these schools produce.  Not all schools produce such a high level of talent.

I was in the airport today I just shot a job for Ledcor in Fort Nelson BC. Actually I had to fly into Fort Nelson, then drive 200kms on the Sierra-YoYo Highway… to what equates to GPS coordinates in the middle of nowhere.

Anyways, I was answering an email from a student when I thought I really should post a blog about the answer to a question that all students ask when they are on a practicum.

Students always come around to one basic question. Big Jobs, how do I get them?

sample spread from my Industrial portfolio

I would say Experience is probably the most important aspect to getting big jobs. You simply wont get big jobs unless a client trusts that you have the experience to pull off their project. Its really demoralizing for a young student to hear this but its true.

Like in anything when you gain experience you will inevitably get better. This is how you build a solid portfolio.

So many students have books that show wonderful images only to go after the big jobs too quickly and get turned down. Its not that they cant take great photographs, but clients are always wondering has this person has ever been on a site, on a big set or dealt with heavy productions.

I tell students to “Start small and don’t worry about the big jobs yet. The heavy jobs will come to you when you are ready. “

I do believe however when one wants bigger jobs the best thing to do is get represented by an Agent. For my Industrial work I am repped by M.A.G. and Associates out of Houston. Its great because agents actually go and find you work; they pitch your book and have the credibility with the large firms when presenting you as a viable option. They also ensure that you are compensated properly for each job.

Reps also help you edit your work and build your book

So its pretty simple – Start Small, Get Better and Get Bigger Jobs….. What I posted here are some pics of my Industrial book. Yes, I print a book for every discipline of photography I shoot. So I have a Portrait book an Editorial book…. so on and so on……

Enjoy!

C

The first four weeks has ensured my travel schedule included shoots in;  Jamaica, Grand Prairie, Vancouver, New York, Toronto, Banff and a photography conference in Las Vegas.

It was in Vegas that I got a chance to check out the pre production Canon 1DX. Albeit I had to put up with outlandishly arrogant Canon Camera reps belittling almost everyone that had a question about the Canon 1DX.

Trade show Camera reps always fascinate me. For a few reasons.  First is that its a pre requisite that the Rep on some level actually believes that they have single handedly created the camera you are looking at. And second they always find a way to arrogantly slip into the conversation that they have shot some high end gig. Kind of like when a creepy guy talks to a hot chick, they always find a way to slip something sexual into the conversation.

Example of Canon Camera Rep from Vegas

Rep “The 1DX is a pretty impressive Camera isn’t it!”

Curtis ” Looks like it…”

Rep ” It is. When I shot for National Geographic I wish I had this camera. ”

C  ” Pardon?”

R ” Oh I shot for National Geographic….

C “Ok….”

R ” And I could have used this camera I tell you. It shoots 14frames per second”

C ” That’s cool… But I don’t need 14 frames per second Its a bit of overkill”

R  ” You do need it. When I shot for National Geographic I could have used 14 frames per second”

C ” Yeah man…. But seriously I book out alot and I cant go through 400 images from every job. That would be insane. Id never finish my work…”

R ” When I shot for National Geographic, I shot like 10,000 images….”

C ” Good for you. That’s a lot of images dude…”

R “Well that’s what National Geographic photographers do.”

C ” Can I ask you a question??”

R ” Yeah”

C ” If you shot for GEO then why are you working behind a counter at a Vegas trade show???”

Anyways here are a couple travel images I shot for a story in Jamaica. These are all clean files with absolutly no PS work.

As well as a sample portrait I shot in New York of Dan Giardi from the New York Rangers. This portrait of Dan is not the one that is going to make my NHL book, but I really like it. So I thought I would share it! Dans portrait is also clean with no PS. It was shot with one soft box and one side light against a white wall in his apartment in NY.

Upcoming shoots in the next 3 weeks include works in Toronto, Fort Nelson BC, Phoenix and Cabo San Lucas.  I am going to attempt to post behind the scene blogs and some images from each of these shoots.

Enjoy!

C

Tonights post is a bit of a catching up sort of deal – quite often with work that Curtis does, he can’t actually make use of or show a lot of his work until the photos have been released by the clients, gone to public print, or been stolen by Secret Agents. So a few nights ago I went to the studio and snapped some photos of some of the magazine spreads in Avenue Magazine. I’m just slowly diving into doing studio work – and I have to say that snapping photos of something as simple as a magazine or two on a white seamless isn’t exactly actually the most simple thing.

But – before I end up writing another novel – the photos are as follows:

- Outdoor shots (on ice) with Olympic Medalist Karen Percy Lowe.

- Manulife Place fashion & product spread (small in-let within the Magazine) and -

- An interior table decoration dealy that was styled by the folks at Avenue. I don’t honestly know how else to describe or label this one.

Actually it’s just a story about a crazy adventure in Vancouver – and by adventure I mean Curtis shooting 200 portaits for a company called Kiewit (Construction). Kiewit is one of worlds largest construction companies in the world – who’s project values within Alberta alone number in the billions. With a B. Unfortunately, this a sans-picture story. Sorry kids.

This was so massive that Curtis brought me on to shoot.  We shot at the Vancouver Convention Centre - directly beside (attached to) the Pan Pacific Hotel. In one hand, one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in (with some notable exceptions – like paying $1 for a single sheet of printed paper. Not 10 cents. A dollar), in the other hand, the coolest convention centre building I’ve ever seen.

Anyhoo, the gig was this: Shoot 200 plus portaits in just 2 days.

But before I dive too far into the actual work of this – I have to write about how we got there. Curtis had just been shooting in Mexico for a week and got back in (quite late) the night before we left for Vancouver – but on that same day, he had a full day of shooting to handle – and then had to make his way to the airport to fly to Vancouver. I think he got in at around 10pm and didn’t get to the Pacific until nearly 11pm.

I on the other hand, was tasked with getting all of our gear to Vancouver via the old fashioned way – driving 14 hours – which I was actually really stoked about…I personally love road trips, and driving to Vancouver is always a pleasure simply for the landscape alone. However, doing so after only getting about four hours of sleep is not the wisest thing to do. I ended up having to get a rental car – which we only booked the morning I had to leave – something I decided we wouldn’t ever do again. Reason being? I ended up with a Nissan Versa. Go Google that if you don’t know what kind of vehicle that is – then imagine driving it to Vancouver, through the Rockies, in the winter…fully loaded with camera and lighting equipment. Carry on reading when you’re done laughing at me. To be honest, the drive there was actually near flawless – with the exception of some slightly poor/snow covered highway prior and after the Jasper area. The drive back however, was another matter…

But onto the actual event…

Curtis and I were assigned a specific room to set up our lighting with backdrops that were provided by Kiewit themselves. The room ended up being large enough – but barely. In order to get the proper kind of framing and angles Curtis wanted, along with the right lighting (two identical setups), Curtis and I were basically shooting back-to-back aiming at our respective subjects at 200mm.

At times, it was quite slow and we only had a few people at a time to handle together – but when the wave of people came…it was just bonkers. Thankfully, we had our markers on the floor – standing and posed body positions for everyone arranged ahead of time – which I’ll say was probably the key element in making this all go smoothly. I can’t stress enough how important it is to plan ahead. Curtis made this point very clear right from the start – but it didn’t really click for me until after the first big wave of people were finished. I’m pretty sure my thoughts after that were “Shit…that was intense.”

This was literally the first time I’d ever done anything like this so my time to learn was incredibly limited – so one big thing Curtis mentioned after that first wave was the need to resist taking creative liberties on the shots. One has to understand what we’re doing here to understand that – when you’re taking corporate headshot images for such a large number of people, the main thing you have to be concerned with is consistency – the same look, for every person, every time. Ignoring the influence of chaos theory in this reality – there will always be slight variations and quirks about some shots, some people are very short while some people are quite tall and you have to make the portraits basically look the same. Curtis and I are both fairly short  guys – so we had to actually stand on chairs sometimes for the guys (and some women) that were well over six feet.

But back to the main point – when you’re shooting so many photos that all have to look the same, you literally have to fight the urge do just…do something different. Duck down low and shoot up, or start using the “rule of thirds” shot style – anything to break the repetition. But you can’t. You have to be conscious of what you’re there to accomplish and shoot accordingly.

In the end of it, Curtis flew back to Edmonton for some other work… and I after visiting with some friends for a day, embarked on my drive back through the mountains…which itself could be another story all together. I just thank the Music Gods for the likes of Tool and Radiohead – they got me through the drives awake and alive. Not to mention the numerous energy drinks.

28 hrs of driving and two 14 hr days is enought to make most people quit….. Me, I’d do all again any day.

Twitter Addictt #1 - Check back later for more Twitter Addict photos.

I’m not a Facebook guy and I don’t really buy into the whole social media thing in terms of marketing oneself. I kind of see it as offering ones services on Craig’s List or Kijiji – Kind of ghetto. However the main reason for not networking on social media like Facebook is that I really don’t need old high school friends, crazy family members and clients all interacting with one another.

That being said; I had some downtime the other day onset and out of boredom I decided to use my bberry and singed up to twitter.

My twitter handle is fortunately CurtisComeau so it worked out well. Twitter proved to be quite fun during my downtime, but I quickly put it away and moved on with my day when I needed to. Although twitter is enjoyable enough some people are seriously addicted to it. This addiction inspired me to take a photo for all the addicts out there. I call it “The Twitter Addict #1″.

Enjoy!

I have also come up with some opinions in my limited time on Twitter.

1. Most people use twitter as a tool to let the world know how “Awesome” oneself is… which is fine but don’t tweet stupid shit like how you “just woke up” or are “going to bed”. Make it interesting at least…

2. Select few use twitter properly – to post random thoughts, interesting facts or simply funny shit.

3. Very few people actually tweet their honest thoughts about controversial issues… (myself included)

4. When you choose to follow anews or media outlet YOU WILL get bombarded by up to the minute tweets that are written by some unpaid intern.

Oh and follow me because that way you can see how “Awesome I am”

Sometimes it turns into something, much, much more…

This all started when Curtis was recently hired by a video company out of Toronto called Triple Threat Entertainment – who have been working with Nike for nearly a decade. So Curtis shot a bunch of their clothing store outlets at WEM for the new campaign that Nike was putting on – with a large focus on the new Team Canada jersey design (which is pretty badass I’d have to say). So that was that. Easy gig.

Following that, the videographer with TTE – Matt Mitchell – was going to be doing some videography work at the Juniors games here in Edmonton, at Rexal – and was in dire need of an assistant. So rather than making Matt frantically search around for someone with half a brain to help him out, Curtis simply suggested me. And that again, was that. The plan was that I would simply end up doing the basic of basics when it comes to assisting – literally just helping Matt around Rexal for a couple of hours.

Ahh, how quickly things can change. Day 1 turned into a few hours of scouting Rexal for video locations, checking out all the outlets inside Rexal with the new swag,  and generally just being prepared for Saturday – the day of Canada vs. USA. While Matt and I were being toured around the site…things started building up, changing, being added on, and basically morphing into: Now I have to be a dedicated photographer to cover the entire day, not just an assistant to Matt. Thankfully Matt was half prepared for this and had just bought a new 5D Mark II with a nice 24-105 f/4.0 IS lens – so that combined with my own gear made it an easy transition.

Sidenote: I met Matt on the Friday at his hotel – when he very quickly realized he had left the bag with his brand new camera, which had just been insured that day, at the airport. Thankfully the attendant at Hertz saw it first and had it there waiting…so our day actually started with me driving us back to the airport to rescue his nearly-lost camera. I had to tell that bit though…sorry Matt.

The really comical part ended up coming up on Saturday when we got into Rexal nice and early to shoot the clothing outlets before the crowds rushed in – Matt ended up almost being my assistant; placing the clothing in nice spots, moving things out of the way, getting the stores ready for photos. We joked about it and carried on…

The biggest focus of this entire project was to really cover the “Pressure is Power” slogan that Nike was using to promote the Canadian team this year – it was everywhere. At one point during the day, we had to make a mad dash from Rexal to the West End to cover the printing of one of the board covers inside the rink – then get our way back to Rexal to continue shooting…and get video of them putting the printed piece onto the boards. Did you know those things are just giant stickers? Neither did I.

I could literally sit here all night and write about this one single day – but to make a long story short: I was incredibly fun and I’ll be lucky if I ever manage to top this anytime soon. Working with Matt was a real pleasure – very professional, competent and just an all around great guy – but both of us getting free tickets for the Canada vs USA game for all our hard work over the day – that pretty much topped it off.

So the moral the story is – sometimes you just never know what can happen on a shoot, and sometimes the most mundane assignment turns into the coolest shoot you’ve ever done. I think one of the reasons I’m personally so attracted to this life/work style is the real spontaneous aspect to it – the possibility that the unexpected can and may very well happen, and that you have to be on your game and be prepared for it. I joke about it being dull or mundane, but it’s really not at all. (CURTIS NOTE: Sure its cool to have a shoot fall in your lap, but what impressed me was Kevs decision to take the assisting job. You see this all took place New Years Eve. The original assisting gig didnt entail extra pay nor did it have any promise of shooting. But because Kev took the job regardless. He effectively created an opportunity for himself and it worked out. Thats what impressed me. – Creating an opportunity regardless of sacrificing personal time for New Years.) 

During the  game, I tried to snap some photos off, but it’s quite hard from seat level. I did try to ninja some shots out of the small photo holes cut into the glass that the journalists use – but I got booted off by the Sun photographer after I’d snapped one photo. And it wasn’t even in focus. Bummer. In hindsight – what I should have done was gone and asked the shooter that was opposite of the Nike board if I could take a few quick snaps of it during game play…I bet Nike really would have loved that. Lesson learned.

Anyway – history lesson and personal promo aside, I will be taking up the efforts of posting all about our work together – from an assistants viewpoint.

Most recently Curtis had me help him out with an outdoor shoot at the local Royal Glenora Club here in Edmonton. The aim of the shoot was to take some outdoor portrait shots of former Olympic medalist (Apline Skiing) Karen Percy Lowe, wife of former Edmonton Oiler – Kevin Lowe. The shoot was for Avenue magazine.

Originally, the idea of the shoot was to have the river in the background along with some of the south side tree line – but we couldn’t really find a suitable vantage point, so we were left scratching our heads for a bit while we drove around trying to scout out a location. This is the part of the shoot when we kinda make things up on the fly. Professional what? Fortunately, and by some sheer luck, we noticed the outdoor skating rink that the Glenora Club was making for the speed skating athletes – some of whom were working towards Olympic level skating. In context, it seemed pretty suitable, albeit an entirely different sport.

While Karen was busy with make up and wardrobe – we  quickly set up two individual lighting setups, and me, being the only other guy around on this huge flat of ice with Curtis – was once again nominated to stand in so he could nail down his angles and lighting. Curt wasn’t entirely pleased with the lighting we were getting with the lightboxes alone – so he decided to throw in his ring light on a stand and wabam – it was perfect. Here’s a couple of the test photos of me looking awesome that actually turned out really well.

My biggest concern on this entire shoot were the Ranger battery packs being in the cold and on the ice for so long – and beyond that, having all our gear slowly melt into the ice…ice that had to be perfectly flat for the skaters once it was finished, fortunately it was still slightly below zero degrees so it wasn’t a huge deal. We ended up either hanging the packs on the stands via straps, or having them sit on top of our wheeled cases – and when we weren’t using them…keeping them warm in the vehicle. Still, cold weather and ice will quickly eat up your battery life…so Curtis had to be pretty fast with his shots once Karen and the rest of the crew showed up.

As with the majority of material from Curt’s shoots – we can’t yet post the actual photos of Karen until they’re made available to the public through Avenue – but I’ll be sure to follow up on this with the final images that Curtis captured that day.

Thanks for reading my first post – aka novel. More to come soon!