TORONTO CORPORATE PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN PIETERS

Mining shoot Lima, Peru

2012-01-22T13:17:00.000-05:00

I must say it was quite a pleasure to hear that we would be travelling to Peru to shoot stills and video for a Canadian mining company and escape winter for a week. Our assignment would take us to photograph some of the lifestyle of the city of Lima and then into the Andes mountains to shoot the mine site and surrounding community. One of the challenges of shooting in the mountains would be working at almost 12 000 feet and the risk of altitude sickness. An uncomfortable condition caused by the body holding onto additional fluids in the brain amongst other areas. This leads to dizziness, insomnia, headaches and disorientation. At the very least you are constantly out of breath at the mildest exertion causing you to move slowly and cautiously. Simple things like lifting your camera bag and hefting it onto your shoulder leave you breathless. We were given a course of medication by our travel clinic to combat any symptoms of altitude sickness which I begrudgingly took as I loathe chemicals in my body. However considering I would only be in the mountains for 3 days faced with a very full shooting schedule I could not afford losing time to not feeling well.

Travelling to another country to shoot contains many challenges ranging from obtaining visas to enter and work in another country, insurance for your equipment, customs documents to leave your own country and enter a foreign country, medical vaccinations, language barriers and last but not least which of my many items of equipment shall I pack. We always need to pack light to minimize baggage costs and also to stay light and manoeuvrable while in the field. This always hard as you want to take everything you might need to get that great shot but you just can't. You have to slim down the gear to the absolute essentials. For this trip we would take our 4 battery operated lights as well as some on camera flash, stills and video tripod and 3 camera bodies and primary lenses. I always ensure that the cameras travel with us as carry on luggage together with some on camera flash and the big equipment is carefully packed in sturdy pelican travel cases, this way if our luggage does not arrive at destination I have enough equipment to shoot with in a worst case scenario way.

So after numerous preparatory emails and conference calls arranging our shoot and required support we arrived after a 8 hour flight to a warm and friendly Lima. Thanks to excellent ground support from the company we breazed through customs with our equipment and were on our way to our hotel. Driving in Lima is NUTS! I have travelled to many countries France, Italy, Cambodia, Vietnam, Carribean, Africa but I must say driving in Lima appeared to be some bizzare orchestration of automotive gladiators all competing for the same spot in the road. I am confused as to why there are white lines on the roads as no one pays attention to them instead drivers push, honk, squeeze and create four lanes of traffic where you and I could have sworn there was only supposed to be two. So with a wry smile and a slightly elevated heart rate I arrived at my hotel and fought hard to refrain from kissing the ground in front of the welcoming doorman.

Our first day of shooting was in the companies new offices. We had to shoot numerous office lifestyle shots, some headshots and some video interviews. All went well including a heavenly lunch at a nearby restaurant. Interestingly Peruvian cuisine is influenced by Spanish ( obviously ), Italian, Chinese and Japanese culture as immigrants to the country substituted local ingredients in their traditional foods, the most famous being cerviche, the raw fish dish served in Lime juice and drawing from Japanese sushi. This dish has its roots in chinese food but looks a bit like faijita.

Time to head to the mountains. After a 5am start to get to our charter flight and check in our equipment at the airlines cargo division we were finally airborne and on our way to the mountains. We had to carefully specify our equipment dimensions and weight to ensure that we were within the limits of our twin engined Piper Cheyenne. The take off from Yauri airport in the mountains is especially concerning as it is the worlds highest airport at 11 500 feet. At this altitude aircraft lose half of their engine thrust, so how much weight we are carrying is pretty critical. After weighing our luggage at check in we had to climb on the scale too, to provide our exact weight contribution. Yep. I was glad the check in agent was the only one who could see the scales weights.

After a one and half hour flight we started our descent through the clouds into Yauri. The descent from 25 000 feet was pretty hairy with the pilots wrestling a bucking bronco as the aircraft banked, yawed and dropped wildly through the turbulent mountain air currents. I do confess a little bead of sweat rolled down my brow as the runway danced seductively in front of our gyrating aircraft. Our wild descent smoothed our dramatically as we got close to the ground and abruptly we were on the ground and rolling towards the end of the runway where a collection of the mines vehicles and personnel were waiting to greet us. We later learned that some of these people were there to check the runway for stones as well as form up along the runway to prevent animals from running in front of the plane as it landed at 200 mph. Nice! Present too were a doctor and a paramedic who immediately, after us collecting our baggage from the plane, sat us down checked our blood pressure, heart rate and breathing. We were declared fit and the convoy of vehicles formed up on us ready to head into the mountains.

The drive along single lane tarred roads took us from a gentle valley passed Yauri and slowly wound up into the mountains.

With each curve in the road the unfolding view became more and more spectacular and I am sure I drove the convoy crazy asking to stop frequently so that I could shoot the many stunning landscapes.

On arrival at the mine site we were shown to our spartan but comfortable rooms. Each room was equipped with two single beds a wash basin, shared adjoining bathroom and a small electrical heater. My first night ended up being quite a chilly one as I could not get my heater to plug in. No worries I thought, I'll sleep in my fleece longs with a T-shirt. I figured I would be warm under my double layer of Alpaca wool blankets. Whew ever slept under two Alpaca wool blankets? Its like the Alpaca itself was sleeping on me all night. Heavy! I was relatively warm though except for the bits that stuck out of course.

After an afternoon of shooting we had dinner in the camp kitchen of lamb stew and spicy mustard potatoes. Delicious. Did you know that Peru has almost 4000 different kinds of potatoes? The food in the camp was varied and very tasty, I have to say I enjoyed every meal. The kitchen crew were highly professional in preparing excellent meals to the highest standards of taste and hygiene.

Driving around the mine site required an experienced 4x4 driver as the rocky dirt roads were pitted and scoured by rainfall. Getting up to a vantage point to shoot down on the mine camp was a bone jarring, organ rattling experience. The view however was worth it.

Our last day proved tough to shoot as dark clouds moved in turning into heavy rains. I chose to use our time to shoot some indoor geology shots. The light in the core shack was pretty good so with my assistant holding a portable strobe we got some great shots of the geologists and workers examining and sorting core samples.

With not much time left in our day I realised we also needed some happy working people shots. I noticed a shed we had shot in the day before had some great window light and the walls provided an interesting backdrop. Using the natural light and a little fill light we coralled a few "happy" workers and got some great interacting people shots out of the location.

With very little time left we still had to shoot some shots of the community relations people interacting with the community and leave for the drive to Yauri to meet up with our plane. I sensed the drivers where getting anxious as fog was beginning to roll into the hills. While I finished off a few more shots of the camp my assistant packed up our gear and the driver pulled up to grab me and my tripod to head into the community. To my dismay it had started to rain again and quite steadily. This was going to be hard to shoot people outside in their environment. I had given my guide Carlos strict instructions as to what I was looking for as we had less than 45 minutes to get our shot and head for the airport. I wanted the community relations person talking to someone in traditional dress outside one of those quaint little thatched houses surrounded by stone walls. After another bone jarring drive into the hills we pulled up on a steep slope where a dozen or so people dressed in safety helmets, overalls and yellow rain ponchos were clearing a drill site.... not what I was looking for and now we had used up almost 20 minutes of our 45 available minutes. After a quick exchange between myself the guide and relations person we headed back into the village which was a loose collection of concrete houses some in various stages of construction or disarray. Not pretty. I now had less than 10 minutes of time lefy and one of the convoy vehicles pulled up asking whats going on and pointing to his watch. Our driver assured him we would be leaving shortly. Great. I realised I was not going to get my ideal shot and now the rain was pelting down. Our community relations person waved us over to an un assuming concrete house with a blue metal door. I tucked my camera under my jacket and and ran over to the house. Inside a pretty, young woman from the Chillaroya community was talking to our community relations person. With less than 5 minutes to get the shot and move out with our anxious convoy my mind raced for a good shot. I connected the beautiful blue hat she was wearing to her door of a similar colour and asked her to move out of the dark interior of the house into the soft light of the doorway .... and got my shot. Whew. Close one.

orphanage exhibition

2011-10-20T01:28:00.004-04:00

As some of you know I travelled to Uganda last December to photograph the Nzirambi orphanage in southern Uganda to help raise funds and awareness for student education.

Please join me on October 27th at 7pm at the Pikto gallery in the Distillery for the opening of our fund raising exhibition.

It’s going to be a fabulous night. Our sponsors include many fine Toronto restaurants, including Bloom, Pangaea, Nota Bene as well as Caplansky's Deli, St Louis, Mill Street as well as Underdog Winery, Steam Whistle and Starbucks. More than $5000 in sponsored gifts for raffle/silent auction. Gorgeous earrings from Fairtrade Jewellery, plus retail gift cards, watches and other special gems.

Tickets are only $20. Come! Listen to live African drumming, check out the gorgeous images, eat, drink – have fun. Don’t forget cash because I promise you will want to bid on some of these auction items!

It would be most helpful if you buy your ticket early. Tickets can be purchased online at: orphanage.eventbrite.com

Please feel free to forward this to a friend.

Thank you! I hope to see you there.

shooting under pressure

2011-07-15T16:48:00.001-04:00

We recently had the pleasure of shooting David Mondragon CEO of Ford Canada for Costco magazine. We did a technical scout before the shoot to determine potential shot angles and lighting requirements. This was essential as we had to do 3 setups in the half hour of time we had with David. Pretty tight considering one shot was a cover.

We arrived early on the day of the shoot knowing we had to have 3 set ups lit, locked down and ready to go. Our set up went very smoothly, David arrived on time, well groomed and dressed and after a brief introduction and explanation as to what we would be requiring of him we went straight into the cover shot. This being the most important shot I chose to do it first in case we ran into any time snags. I could always improvise on the additional shots but not the cover. With a little powder dusting and some tweaks we got David relaxed and settling into the cover shot with some direction on body and hand positions. I already knew what we were going for so it was just a question of making sure I left enough space for the magazines masthead as well as some type around the subject. Ten minutes later, a few camera variations and different body positions we had the cover in the bag and moved onto the second shot.

The second shot was a slight variation in position from the cover so that we could save time by not having to move too far from where were set up, yet get a different look. A few small lighting adjustments and voila. Another nice shot.

It was now 25 past the hour and we had about 5 minutes left to move, reconfigure and get the last shot. While David went off to change his shirt on my suggestion, to change the shot up a little, we moved the camera and computer cart to our set at the opposite end of the room and by the time David returned we were ready. We started shooting, I waited for David to relax and feel more comfortable and then gave him some direction on hand and head positions. Our 5 minutes were almost up, I checked with David who said not to worry he could spare another 5 minutes. Bonus. I took the camera off the tripod and went loose, moving around looking for the perfect angle. I think we got it.

Great shoot, great subject. David was a really nice guy and a pleasure to shoot.

Wildebeest migration

2011-01-03T14:30:00.002-05:00

I had the pleasure of flying over the Serengeti with Guy Rowe in his recently purchased Cessna 182. We were going to look for the Wildebeest in their famous migration following the rains over the Serengeti grasslands. Serengeti by the way means "endless grasslands in Swahili" and thats exactlly what it is.

We flew out from Arusha just before 9am and were soon flying over the Eastern rim of the Ngorongoro crater. I was amazed at how huge the crater was, it stretched for miles and miles of open grassland and waterholes. You could see various safari vehicles stopped along the crater's crisscrossing roads, looking at animals. We had still not seen any sign of the wildebeest herds.

After a few more minutes flying time Guy turned and pointed to the left wing, below were the first signs of the herds. I marveled at the number of animals but Guy and Gwyn said no, this is nothing, wait. I found this hard to believe as I looked out over the line of wildebeest stretching back over the grasslands their hooves raising a long plume of dust across the landscape.

We dropped lower in altitude and I was able to pick out the animals moving across the landscape in large groups.

Moments later my jaw dropped as we passed over a larger mass of animals, these ones though were not an isolated herd but rather a part of a sea of animals that extended as far as the eye could see. Take note in the image below. The small dots at the top of the frame close to the tree line are thousands of wildebeest. Unbelievable.

Following the wildebeest herds were many other animals too. Large groups of eland, zebras, gazelles and elephant were embedded with the seething mass of wildebeest.

We had one last chance to soak in the extraordinary sight as we turned and headed to our next site on the way back towards Arusha. Our flight path was taking us over Lengai volcano, the sacred mountain of the Masai and then on to Lake Natron which would prove to be an equally breath taking sight.

Lake Natron

2011-01-03T05:15:00.001-05:00

We left the wildebeest and the Serengeti behind us and flew towards Lake Natron and Lengai mountain the sacred mountain of the Masai.

As we approached Lengai through the clouds I was reminded that less than three years ago it was active and spewing ash and lava out of its crater and yes, we were going to fly right around it. Unlike all the other volcanoes around it, Lengai, has an almost perfect conical shape.

We started a slow turn around the volcano, over the ash covered crest until the crusty crater appeared. We all yelled out loud when we saw black molten magma boiling in one of the holes in the crust of the crater. As we passed downwind of the volcano we could smell the strong sulphur gases it was still emitting.

Leaving the ash strewn slopes of Lengai we set course for Lake Natron. I have to admit I was totally unprepared for the splendid sights that awaited us. Lake Natron is a long shallow lake, a favoured breeding ground of the lesser pink flamingo. Large flocks took to flight as we passed over the lake.

The lakes clear blue colour changes rapidly in the shallow areas providing an astounding display of textures and colours. As water evaporates during the dry season, salinity levels increase to the point that salt-loving microorganisms begin to thrive. Salt-loving organisms include some cyanobacteria, tiny bacteria that grow in water and make their own food with photosynthesis as plants do. The red pigment in the cyanobacteria produce deep reds in the open water of the lake, and orange colors in the shallow parts of the lake. The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is also often colored red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there.

I could barely believe my eyes that such incredible

Photographing the children

2010-12-30T02:52:00.003-05:00

I woke early this morning to the sounds of roosters crowing and soft bird song. I made myself a cup of coffee with the hot water in the thermos Milly had left me last night and munched a quick slice of rye bread and almond butter I had brought with me as I doubted I would have time for breakfast once I started shooting.

The orphanage was fairly quiet, dew glistened on the grass as I approached the five houses containing the children and house mothers. Sleepy little faces were starting to appear in the doorways, yawning and waving shy hello's as I walked by. As I rounded a corner of house two I came across the boys lined up against the wall. They were captivated each time the shutter went off they gave a cheer and rushed to see what was on the back of the camera.

I had planned to make my first stop at house one which was that of the infants. It was already a beehive of activity as the house mothers Jessica and Florence were already up feeding some of the infants. I was struck by the fact that taking care of these infants was what Jessica and Florence did day and night. They lived ate and slept with these babies. Two women caring for almost 8 babies each. No small task, and again the amazing thing was I could tell by the interaction between them that they performed this mammoth task not for the tiny salary they received but for the love of these small children.

Many of the infants were still sleeping in their mosquito net covered cribs as Florence took me around and introduced each baby to me. Moses was just waking up when I got to his crib, I later took quite a few pictures of his happy little chap.

While I was moving around the children's two bedrooms the house's central common area was becoming a beehive of activity as the senior girls started filing in and began to prepare plastic basins of hot water, towels, fresh diapers and clean clothing for the infants. It was the role of the senior girls to wash and change the infants every day.

I was touched by the warm and loving bond between the infants and these girls. I sensed nothing but genuine love from them for these small children. This was not something they did because they had to, they loved these children as their own little brothers and sisters. Each child was stripped down and placed into a basin on the floor filled with warm water. The child would then be soaped and rinsed in the basin and passed on to another senior who would dry and clothe the child.

The light in the room was a little dark as the children were being washed deep into the room forcing me to shoot at around 800 ISO, a lot higher than I would prefer but the Canon 5D and MK III perform extremely well in low light especially when combined with a fast lens like the 50mm f1.2. I decided I would return the next morning and position the children in better light closer to a doorway which would create a beautiful soft main light complemented by the weaker back light from the opposite single window.

After spending quite a while photographing the morning bathing of the infants I moved on to shooting some video of the orphanage founder Dorothy and her sister Milly who currently runs the orphanage. I had brought lights, Canon portable strobes and small portable soft boxes but I decided to set up in the chapel, a large classroom adjacent to the admin offices as it had beautiful wrap around window light which I felt I could use to light my subjects in very flattering but natural way. I placed the subjects close to the window with my back to the window so that the subjects received beautiful modeling light with a wide edge light from the more distant windows on the opposite wall. I decided to take the curtains from my bedroom to soften the strong window light from over exposing my background, they also added a lovely dappled effect around the subject. I had brought my lav microphones and zoom sound recorder for the interviews. I set up for a dual source sound recording with a Senheiser shotgun mic on the 5D. Both Milly and Dorothy proved to be great subjects. Milly spoke at length about the challenges of running the orphanage and Dorothy recollected the first child she took in having no food and living in a run down mud house with a leaking roof. She had come a long way from that first child almost 20 years ago, scrounging baby formula at the local hospital to todays orphanage with 85 children and five houses and a staff of over 10 people.

I ended my first day shooting some pics of the kids playing outside as the sun sank slowly behind the Rhinzori mountains. It was heart warming to watch the different age groups playing together while some of the teenagers carried infants on their hips, laughter and squeeling filled the evening air. House mothers sitting on the porches kept a watchful eye as kids ran back and forth chasing each other around the lawn and shrubs.

After a warm bucket bath and a delicious meal of rice, fried peanut porridge and cassava I headed to bed. I crept into my mosquito net covered bed tired but feeling good that I had some great video and a lot of gorgeous shots of the kids.

Kampala to Kasese

2010-12-25T14:25:00.004-05:00

Arrived in Kasese finally at 8.30pm after 7 hours on the road. If you could call it a road that is. I was picked up at the airport by Samson and my driver Johnny. We drove through chaotic traffic for a while until we reached a restaurant Samson knew, he and Johnny were quite hungry as they had arrived about three hours early to pick me up at the airport at 12.30pm. I could tell they were concerned about the prices so I offered to pay for lunch in appreciation for them guiding me to Kasese. Here is Samson eating a type of beef stew cooked in banana leaves.

I ordered something called matoko which is basically fried green bananas and beans with a side of stewed chicken. The matoko was good, the chicken however was decidedly tough and stringy.

We started out from Kampala in the sweltering heat, Johnny attacked the road in a style that would continue for the next 7 hours. Driving in Africa is nothing like what we know in North America. Its a war. It's you against the road, the mission is to maintain the highest speed and forward motion possible. This requires constant use of the horn, daredevil timing, weaving, dodging, pushing and constant challenges to oncoming vehicles. Solid lines, blind rises, bends in the road, potholes, speed bumps, oncoming vehicles all mean nothing in the battle for forward motion. Within an hour my legs were stiff from pumping airbrakes as I tensed and squirmed as we pulled out against oncoming traffic overtaking slow moving overladen trucks and taxis, swerved potholes and attacked the numerous speedbumps in the road designed to slow the Johnny's of the world.

Part of the road to Kasese was under construction, which basically means there was no road. A dirt track on one side and piles of stone and sand on the other. If a vehicle approaches from the opposite direction you have to both squeeze by in the dust. Pretty hair raising when its a giant truck approaching you at breakneck speed.

The road takes you through many villages which are nothing more than rows of crumbling blockhouses housing pubs, general stores, repair shops and other small cottage industries.

Towards the end of the drive we began to climb through the beautiful Rhinzori mountains. The area reminded me a lot of Natal, in South Africa, green rolling hills and valleys. Many slopes were covered in tea plantations. I have been told that at the height of British colonialism Uganda was planned to be the bread basket that would feed the British Empire this however never transpired. Kenya instead became the trading powerhouse of East Africa.

Nearing Kasese I was surprised pass by the equator, I knew it was nearby but it was a pleasant surprise to actually stop on the Equatorial line.

After a tense but short stop at a police roadblock were waved on and arrived at the orphanage in the dark. My eyes strained to make out where I was and get a senses of the surroundings. Alas this would have to wait until morning. I was greeted by Aunty Milly who offered me some tea and fruit and after we had sat and chatted I was offered a warm bucket bath and a some supper. Lovely. One of the house mothers had made fried green bananas, some stewed chicken and potatoes with pineapple for dessert. Delicous.

I thanked my hosts with great appreciation and set of down the track lit by a very bright moon to my room in a small converted school room. I went over my gear for the next day, brushed my teeth, popped an anti malaria pill and flopped into bed under my mosquito net. I planned to be up at 7am to start shooting. Excited

Arrived in sunny Tanzania

2010-12-19T02:42:00.000-05:00

Just landed a few hours ago in the dark at Killimanjaro airport. Its small and typical of many African airports, no ramps and walkways, just a set of worn stairs and a walk across the hot tarmac to the terminal. Inside its a mad press on the visa window. 20 odd people elbowing forward under a slow moving ceiling fan, no lines or barriers, its Africa, every man for himself. The visa is a formality, fill in a form, pay $50 and off you go.

I am staying overnight at the Kia lodge next to the airport as I leave tomorrow morning for Uganda. Its dark and I am itching to see the landscape but I will have to wait until morning. All I can see is bush and the pathway leading to my bungalow. A tall Masai man is helping me to my room. Already the smells and sounds of the African bush are filling my senses, the warm dusty air carries sweet bouganvillia scents and the darkness is alive with the sounds of frogs and crickets.

Woke this morning to the sounds of chirping birds and African sunshine peaking through my curtains. I jumped out of bed almost forgetting to first part the mosquito net surrounding my bed, which reminded me to do a quick inventory of myself and to my surprise, no bites, excellent.

The gardens surrounding the lodge are just stunning, thorn trees, cactus and flowering vines infusing saturated colours into the dusty foliage.

After breakfast and a quick walk around the lodge I am off to pack up and head for the airport for my flight to Entebbe, Uganda where a driver will pick me up for the 5 hour drive to Kasese to the orphanage.

heading to the airport

2010-12-14T12:04:00.002-05:00

Wow I can't believe its time to go. In less than 24 hours I will be in Africa again.

Selecting what equipment to take has been very hard for me as I love to work with a lot of gear. Its always a drag when an idea pops into your head but when you reach for the tool to make it happen its not there. Guess I just don't like to compromise but I did I have slimmed the gear down to a few choice lenses, 2 bodies and a whole lot of extra gear to shoot video. Its amazing how much support, microphones, sound recorders and bits and pieces shooting video requires. I am hoping to shoot a short film while I am at the orphanage as well as some great stills. All this in less than two days, what am I thinking.

Here are some test shots of a light tent we have built to help me shoot out in the open African sun. It will diffuse the light for a more pleasing portrait. Heather, my assistant put a lot of time into dismantling 2 small tents to use the parts to build our light tent with the help of some fabric we bought.

At least I will be setting it up in much warmer weather. I think its going to work quite well.

Well off to finish final packing of gear and goodies. Next post Tanzania,

Nzirambi Orphans Talent Development Centre

2010-12-12T21:47:00.002-05:00

I left Africa, South Africa specifically, in 1989. I went back once in 1995 for a visit and haven't returned since then so I am extremely excited to be going back to the continent of my birth. I won't be visiting South Africa this year, but instead will be seeing Tanzania and Uganda.

The trip to Tanzania is to see friends and I will of course share that adventure with you here. What I'm most excited about however, is my trip to Uganda and the Nzirambi Orphans Talent Development Centre (NOTDEC). There are currently 83 children at the orphanage. Ages range from newborns to teens. Most have been there since birth, usually because their mothers have died during childbirth.

Over the last year, I've met some amazing people here in Toronto who have been raising funds for NOTDEC. There's Monica, who's mother and aunt run the orphanage, and Karen, who's spent hours making bookmarks and jewelry, organized yoga classes and art shows for fundraising as well as traveled to the orphanage to spend time with the children and work there.

NOTDEC is also supported by a charity in the UK, which means that funds raised by people here in Toronto can go directly towards an education fund. School is free in Uganda up until Grade 10. The goal is to ensure every child at the orphanage attends school past grade 10 including an university education or trade school. Grade 11 and 12 cost $700 a year, and university or trade school is $2,500. To make this happen, $10,000 a year is needed. Happily, this year that goal has been met.

I met Karen and Monica when I attended a Pilates for Men class that was a fundraiser for the orphanage. We started talking at that time about an art exhibit of photos of the children and possible ways we could make that happen. And so here we are, with me 2 days away from heading to Uganda.

I'm extremely grateful to my clients for trusting me to carry out their visions and for the work we produce. To be able to do what I love is truly a gift. I'm thrilled that I am able to travel to the orphanage, meet these wonderful kids and the incredible people who look after them. None of this would be possible without the support of my clients.

I will be holding a black and white exhibit at Pikto some time in the new year. thanks to Johan at Pikto who has graciously offered the studio space. This exhibit will be an important avenue for the fundraising efforts of NOTDEC. I'll be updating this blog when I can while I travel. Stay tuned for more on this exciting adventure.
In gratitude, Brian

teva ad campaign

2010-10-03T21:48:00.004-04:00

It’s always nice to work on social or environmenta projects. So we were very excited to work with Teva Canada to produce images for an ad series outlining their accomplishments in the area of sustainability. The ads, which are currently running in national pharmacy magazines, don’t simply list Teva’s “green” initiatives (although these are certainly one factor); instead, they pose a thought-provoking question about what the word “sustainability” really means, from a variety of perspectives.

portrait of Margaret Trudeau

2010-09-07T11:19:00.001-04:00

We recently photographed Margaret Trudeau, the wife of Canada's past Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for the cover of Costco magazine. Margaret was a pleasure to work with and full of good suggestions. Despite a small restrictive hotel suite and a narrow time window we managed to get three great portraits of Margaret.

Shooting Robert Herjavec

2010-08-06T13:43:00.002-04:00

We recently had the pleasure of photographing Robert Herjavec of CBC Televisions Dragons Den fame, for the cover of Costco magazine. Robert is a great guy, easy to talk to and a pleasure to shoot. The shoot wasn't without its moment of panic though, we had to think on our feet when our location became unavailable at the 11th hour. A quick scout of Roberts office building together with some creative lighting provided great alternative shots to our original cover concept.

Book cover

2009-08-25T19:19:00.005-04:00

Wow. Just heard today that the book cover I shot for Harlequins - The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf has reached #4 on the New York Times Best sellers list.

Iceland

2009-08-15T12:12:00.005-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of stopping over in Iceland for a few days on the way back from a trip to Denmark.

Despite 3 days of rain and almost not having a rental car I was thrilled by the unspoiled, natural beauty of this fascinating island.

Landscapes change every 10 minutes from rolling green hills and waterfalls to fields of black volcanic rock covered in soft green moss shadowed by jagged cliffs. It wasn't surprising to find out that an Apollo crew used this landscape to practice moon walking.

The highlight of the trip was spending an hour soaking in the blue lagoons mineral waters. Hard to believe this man made wonder is really the downstream waters of a power station.

CNG mining shoot in Guatemala

2009-03-23T11:19:00.027-04:00

During an extremely busy Annual Report season we recently had the pleasure of travelling to Guatemala to shoot a nickel mine for an Annual Report we were working on.

After finishing a 4 day shoot in Flin Flon, Manitoba we thinned our gear down as much as possible to reduce weight and cost, threw in some T shirts, sun block and insect repellant and raced for the airport. We arrived in Guatemala City at noon and were met by Carlos the company driver to be taken to head office to shoot a portrait of the CEO. One problem. One of our equipment bags was still in Atlanta, thanks to US customs and would only be arriving the next

day and we were scheduled to be at the mine 5 hours away by then. What to do? This bag contained our tripod, light stands, soft boxes and other grip equipment. Fortunately we always carry all our camera gear on board with us, so we had everything we needed to shoot with

except grip gear. We could not wait a day so I decided to forge ahead and shoot the CEO with my portable camera strobes ( I always carry two with me as supplemental fill lights ) and wait for the bag to be forwarded to us by the mining company, although it looked like it would arrive just in time for us to return to Toronto.

This would call for some tricky use of available light and small strobes to match some of the exec shots we had already shot in Toronto. I carry a set of diffusers for the camera flash which I knew would allow me to finesse the light a bit. Here is the result, I think we

did quite well, considering this was shot with two small strobes.

As we only had two days to get our shots, we hit the ground running, so to speak. Our first day of shooting involved driving around the mine looking for things and places that would make great shots. Not having much lighting I focussed on using the available light with supplemental strobe as much as possible.

Kung Fu shooting with the EOS strobes.

The following day was spent driving around in the community shooting environmental shots. A local school funded by the mine allowed me the opportunity to play Peter Pan. Available window light and fill flash proved sufficient for all my shots.

Shooting in the vegetable patch was a challenge with the changing light and heat. With a temperature around 35 C it was tough shooting with perspiration dripping in your eyes and bugs hovering around your head. The local people did not speak Spanish, only a mayan dialect called K'chee, I quickly learned that, thank you, is banti osh.

All in all a very successful shoot, Guatemalan people were extremely warm and friendly, we got some great shots and escaped winter for 4 days. Awesome.

bio hazards and other chalenges

2009-01-12T13:05:00.018-05:00

Every assignment has its own particular set of challenges but every now and then a job comes up that tests every drop of skill, strength and professionalism a photographer has.

We recently received an assignment shooting in a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. Simple one might think. Go in, shoot some cool, dramatically lit shots of people at their work stations and thats it? Yeah, right!

I have shot 100's of feet underground in the dark and mud and deep inside nuclear reactors but this assignment would test every trick I had in my creative toolbox. This environment was full of potentially harmful ingredients that would require careful scouting and planning to make sure we got the shots we wanted and did not cross contaminate any of the production rooms. Each pressurised air tight production room housed sensitive equipment that produced capsules or tablets. Medicines that had to be produced to strictly monitored and controlled specifications. We would need to be low profile and low impact.

First challenge: Restricted equipment.

In this sort of environment is the risk of cross contaminating one production area with medicinal components from another area. We therefore have to be extremely careful of what we touch, where we go and what gear we take in. All equipment has to be kept contaminant free as we move about, so as you can imagine the manufacturing staff would really prefer that you go in with just a camera and nothing else. Well yeah ... me too but great images in dimly lit manufacturing plants don't happen because I have a more expensive camera than the next guy. Great images have to be created with the proper tools.

To minimize our impact I decided to keep things simple and light with two heads powered by a Profoto battery pack and use as much available light as I could and when necessary, use available light supplemented by small on camera strobe, all colour balanced to the ambient light.

Second challenge: Restricted access

Only the photographer could go into the production room in order to keep contamination down to a minimum . This made lighting and set up, as well as art direction, really tedious as my assistant and client had to stand outside the rooms while I set up each shot and used sign language through the air tight glass doors to communicate changes and adjustments. We kept the laptop outside the room with the firewire cable fed through the doors to the camera. This was vital in making sure that the shots were going in a direction that satisfied the art director. If I started drifting too far creatively my assistant would bang on the glass to bring my attention to the laptop which I could view through the glass doors of the production room.

Third challenge. Restricted movement

Proper personal protective gear dictated that I wear a full protective suit and and hood and at times a respirator. Try peering through a 1 inch viewfinder past a plexi screen 3 inches from your eyes to compose and then feel for focus and controls wearing rubber gloves. This combined with severe heat and resultant fogging of the plexi visor was an ongoing challenge. The respirator was very hard to pull air through and kept getting in the way of the camera eyepiece so that I had to tilt my head to get my eye into the eyepiece in order to see the composition. At times this was still easier than looking through the visor that did not allow me to get my eye up to the eyepiece. The ongoing heat and restricted movement was a severe test of patience and mental focus. In 20 years of shooting however I have learned that allowing myself to be irritated by any challenge on assignment will take me nowhere really fast. Best approach is to get a good grip on your attitude, smile, breathe, crack a joke and go get the shot.

Shooting in adverse conditions tests not only your skills as a photographer but it stresses your professional persona. No matter how much strain you are under it is essential that you keep your cool and control. Lose that and you lose your passion, your vision and your creativity. Not a good place to be and doesn't make for a pleasant day on the job.

Despite the fact that it was an exhausting long, hot, noisy day, we came away with awesome images which made every one of those challenge well worth the struggle.

how I work

2008-11-06T21:22:00.009-05:00

I am still surprised when I hear of digital photographers shooting to flash cards instead of tethered to a computer. Shooting tethered is an essential part of my workflow, its Polaroid on steroids.

Shooting tethered provides me with constant visual feedback, I can adjust composition lighting and direction within seconds. I value a collaborative approach to my commercial assignments, after all, I am shooting for my client and I want to be sure they are going to be happy when my folder full of images opens up on their screen. Being able to stop and review a frame at any stage of the shoot as well as showing my subject what is working and what isn’t, is invaluable at times. I still remember the classic Polaroid shooting scenario. You’re standing at the camera after the last frame, your assistant starts to wrap the set and you turn to the art director …. ( visualize in slow motion ) and these words echo from your lips .. yeah .. that was good .. I think we got some great stuff.

THINK! I don’t want to think I got good stuff, I want to KNOW that when I pack my gear away … I GOT good stuff. You don’t build a business on hope and prayers, you build it on good solid results.

Technically speaking, having a large screen to view and colour balance lighting is not just convenient its essential. You can filter ambient light anytime but if lighting and ambient don’t match you will find yourself coffee cup in hand at your work station with that distasteful … why the hell didn’t I see that on set .. feeling, right? We have all had those moments, bad day at the office. Yep, I prefer to avoid those moments thank you.

The more information you have on set the more opportunities you have to correct and improve your shot, sounds like a winning plan to me.

on location

2008-09-07T18:25:00.023-04:00

A recent assignment involved shooting a variety of portraits for a large industrial client to produce posters for a safety campaign. This involved travel to a number of remote hydro generating stations around the country to shoot environmental portraits of the various accomplished individuals.

Packing expensive camera and lighting equipment for flight is always a challenge. You're going on location, what will you be faced with, what will you need and what should you take? These are the recurring questions. The instinct is always to take as much as you can and be prepared for anything, however arriving at the check in counter with 10 trunks reminiscent of a 1920's steamship cruise to Vladivostok, will not win you any favours with the sweet, charming check in lady. Shrinking airline baggage allowances are now bordering on the ridiculous, I mean I doubt whether George Castanza could fit his infamous wallet into that ever shrinking luggage, size tester, thingy. The trick is pack light, pack tight. Take only essentials and plan to keep lighting basic.

We still take back up camera bodies and lenses, all mission critical equipment has to have a back up or alternative. All gear is securely packed in Lightware cases, while cameras go in a Thinktag bag with us into the aircraft. We never check our camera equipment for two reasons. One, too many times I have watched helplessly as some baggage handling gorilla tosses my metal camera case onto a cart or belt regardless of the countless red fragile stickers plastered all over it and two, having the most essential part of my toolkit with me when I arrive avoids that sickening, sinking feeling of disbelief as you stand alone in the baggage hall with an empty carousel going round and round. If you have to, you can shoot most things without lights but nothing without a camera.

On arrival at our location we always do an initial scout, both creative and technical. We will usually have a shot list or "wish" list of shots we want to achieve in the time allowed. The scout helps us determine which shots we can do where and what technical restrictions we may be facing. I will always take a camera body with me on a scout to shoot some reference shots for the client or art director to see. Its important that they know what I am thinking and that I know I have interpreted their shot list correctly. Once we have mapped out our shoot day and touched base with all the shot subjects and area supervisors we are ready to roll.

Once we are at our chosen spot we will set up camera, tripod and computer cart. I always shoot tethered to a laptop and for this my sturdy camera cart doubles as a work bench to mount the laptop on. To me it is essential to shoot tethered for a variety of reasons, firstly I like to see what I am shooting, its sort of my digital polaroid and secondly it is vital that my client can see what I am shooting, if they are not happy, I need to know, no point in shooting dozens of frames that are not telling the right story. Shooting tethered also allows me to step back and rethink or work a shot further, which often leads me to an even better shot. Shooting tethered also allows me to colour balance and colour manage my shot on the spot. I can make corrective and creative filtration changes immediately.

While I refine my composition, my assistant will rough in lighting, hook up power and make sure all equipment is correctly and safely positioned. Nothing worse than having curious employees or your subject, fall over cables or stands. I like my set to be safe, organised and tidy.

Shooting in an industrial environment often requires many skills beyond those photographic. It can be very frustrating looking through the viewfinder wearing a cumbersome hard hat and safety glasses, restricting your vision and movement. Ever tried doing yoga with a salad bowl on your head. A huh! Loud ambient noise often makes it very difficult to communicate with your subject and excessive heat or cold takes its toll on equipment and crew. Subjects shyness or unwillingness to be photographed, degree of co-operation and availability, can often create a bigger challenge than the environmental ones. Production schedules and safety rules are very important considerations, you are a guest in someone's facility and have to respect all pertinent rules and codes of conduct. Patience and flexibility are key to getting the shot and keeping every one happy.

At the end of the day as you skip through the images on the laptop, there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you rolled with the punches, met the challenges and came out on top with great shots.

toronto corporate photographer

aerials of toronto

2008-08-27T18:07:00.012-04:00

I thought I would start this blog with something I don't do too often, hang out of a helicopter and shoot pictures of nuclear stations. As a commercial photographer I get to see and do some pretty interesting things, including dressing up in a rubber suit and shooting a nuclear reactor face, Freaky! This week I got to spend almost 4 hours in a Bell Long Ranger helicopter. Sweet!

We took off at about 5 pm and were soon heading out over downtown Toronto, I am always amazed at how the world looks from an aircraft, definitely an exercise in perspective.

Shooting from a helicopter is much more demanding than shooting from fixed wing aircraft. The biggest challenge a photographer faces, is contending with the excessive vibration during helicopter flight. One way of combating this is to mount your camera on a gyroscopic mount to absorb and counter the aircraft motion. However unless you're Arnold Schwartzenegger this can be a difficult and tiring process if you are going to be shooting for a long period of time as I was. Gyroscopes are heavy and the gyroscopic forces often feel like you are wrestling a wild boar in your hands. For optimum results with large format cameras however ie: 2 1/4 format, this is the way to go. Wild boar or not.

I was shooting with my trusty Canon EOS Mk II and III. These bodies are relatively light and provide high shutter speeds, one of the two important criteria for getting sharp pictures from a helicopter without a gyro. Shooting at least 1/800th of a second is critical, the other is to try and shoot with IS ( Image Stabilized ) lenses. This will greatly improve your success rate, in addition stay away from long lenses as much as possible.

Position your body comfortably in the seat, avoid leaning up against the aircraft body or window as vibration will be transmitted through your body into the camera. Finally the most important item of equipment, for some photographers anyway, Gravol. Yep, not fun getting the queezies after an hour in the air. If you get motion sick, pop these puppies before you go up.

I was using my 70 -200 IS lens at 70mm and my 24-70 lens, I did get quite a few good shots on the 24- 70 but the 70 -200 IS was awesome, producing most of my sharp pictures. After almost getting arrested by air One, during a refueling landing, due to corporate miscommunications because someone didn't tell someone that we did have permission to fly over a nuclear station, Gee don't understand why they are so picky over that, we returned to Toronto at sunset and I grabbed some awesome city scapes.

I was concerned that I would not be able to keep the shots of the Rogers Centre/ Skydome sharp in the dwindling evening light but with the ISO turned up to 800 the Mk III and 70-200 IS delivered.