Portraits with Salty Western in Waimea

Ethan likes to say that I (Stef) am unable to have “just a normal vacation”. While Ethan is always on the hunt for our next life adventure together, I’m always searching our next photo opportunity. (In my own defence: we typically travel with our gear anyways and there’s just something so inspiring about shooting in a new location that makes me feel excited) I’m happy to say that this time the tables turned and it was actually Ethan who pitched shooting with Taira, which to our joyous surprise she was on board for!

Taira runs a beautiful leather goods company called Salty Western— “Salty Western was created by islander Taira Barron Cran. She grew up on the North Shore of Oahu and surfed before she could walk. Everyday revolved around the ocean, though her love for horses and the country life grew just as strong. Eventually, she moved to a 35,000 acre cattle ranch on the Big Island of Hawai’i. In her new little cowboy house, she started to use her creativity through leather. Experimenting with it, she began wetting it, dying it, cutting it up, and carving it. She drew inspiration in from her versatile lifestyle; from coming out of the Pacific ocean with dripping salty hair, to sitting by a fire with dirty cowboy boots, sipping whiskey after a long cattle drive. Much like living through an old western movie, though this one is surrounded by Hawaiian salt in the air. This was how Salty Western was born.”

We spent an evening with Taira at her ranch (after first going to the wrong ranch lol) where we photographed her working on, and with, some her of products. Waimea is also known as Hawaiian cowboy county, full of rolling green pastures, and home to lots of cowboy and cattle ranches so this was truly the perfect backdrop to shoot with Taira considering her brand ethos. What is it about watching other artists work that is so beautiful and interesting? Because that’s how photographing Taira felt. We walked around the ranch, said hi to a horse (!!), and later watched the sunset after we parted ways. It was such an honour to do this and we’re so thankful for Taira’s invitation to visit, we look forward to returning one day!

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Ralph Nigro for Ontario Principals Council

One of our favourite shoots of the year is always with the Ontario Principals Council. It is always a joy working with the same team over the years, and in this case we always have a new face to photograph. The acting President of this year is Ralph Nigro, who we photographed at OPC housing HQ in downtown Toronto. Principals come from all around the province and with OPC’s office based right beside the Eaton Centre they have a condo unit for those who spend their term working in the city.

It can be a bit difficult working in the same space year after year and finding something new to do. Our last few sessions have been on the same rooftop but I think we have lucked out with having such an amazing view of the city from that high up that using the same backdrop over and over still looks as beautiful as the first time. Ralph was warm and welcoming, and very generous with his time. It’s no secret that photographers will often say “ok just 1 more thing” and then think of one more thing to do, and one more thing, and one more thing, and Ralph was incredibly patient with this. We had a beautiful and bright morning on our shoot day which ordinarily would be great but in this case was just a biiiit too bright for anyone to open their eyes all the way so we used a scrim to diffuse as necessary.

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Portrait Session with Fran at The Guild

it’s been such a long time since we’ve had a no pressure, casual, photo session

So when Fran approached us about shooting we were so excited! We had a few ideas of location but narrowed it down to The Guild as it was somewhere both sentimental and familiar to her. We worked on a few other logistics like outfit changes and then later popping back into her house for a few extra indoor photos, but overall it was a hang out with a camera more than an actual formal photo session. This was something that we didn’t know we needed and was a really great refresh to our creative juices.

When we planned this session we didn’t know for certain what the weather was going to be like. We had actually planned to shoot more in summer but kept (unintentionally) scheduling on days with severe heat warnings that we felt just wasn’t safe, or comfortable, to be outside in sunlight for a couple of hours. We lucked out on this day in that there wasn’t any end of summer storms happening, but it wasn’t a crystal clear day either. We worked with what we had though and shot with the ambient, sometimes overcast light. We did not have a permit to shoot around The Guild so we opted to not use any off camera lighting in case we had to pack up and quickly leave.

See more photos down below, click the photos to enlarge and browse through

In Office Session with Rebecca Hay Designs

FOR THIS SESSION WITH REBECCA HAY WE DECIDED TO TAKE OVER THEIR OFFICE FOR THE AFTERNOON!

In previous shoots (here and here) we’ve met Rebecca and her team on location and have shot her at the properties she’s worked on, but this time we switched things up did an in-office/at work session! Rebecca wanted these photos to reflect their day-to-day activities (team meeting, running through drafts, answering emails, etc.) and overall their office culture.

Their studio is quite bright but when we were in the boardroom (first group of photos) we weren’t getting enough light as we’d like so we added in a soft flash on the other side of the window. We mixed these clean, crisp, shots with naturally lit photos (pushed in post of course) with a low depth of field so they have the option of both styles to use!

Rebecca is so naturally radiant in front of the camera it always feels so easy that our biggest hurdle with these sessions is trying to pack in as many outfit changes as we can so that they can use the photos for as many posts, programs, blogging, etc. as possible.