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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Landscapes from BC

As a first time BC visiter I (Stef) was asked constantly ‘how do you like it, are you enjoying it?’ and my answer to everyone was, ‘my little city brain can’t comprehend all of this (insert hand motion gesturing to the surrounding area)’. And the funny part is that everyone understood what I meant! I never realized that I hadn’t been around mountains until the first time we were in France, driving in Provence through mountains. Suddenly I was like, ‘wtf is all of this, these aren’t just big hills!?’ and BC very much felt like that but x1000. Being a city gal who’s countryside experience is just going up to the cottage for a handful of weeks a year, having the easiest access to waterfronts, to beautiful scenery, to be able to simply say ‘let’s watch the sunset from the top of the mountain tonight’ and to only put a minimal amount of effort to get there (some spots even in peoples backyard?!) was really astonishing to me!

So of course we had to document it. We’re always on the fence about what gear to bring, if any, when we travel. A couple of years ago we invested in a Fuji X100V to be our dedicated every day / travel camera; it’s light and compact, great quality, and still allows you to shoot in manual mode. Our biggest hang up about having cameras when we travel is that our serious gear is big, is heavy, is clunky, and no one wants to be lugging that around all day, but the Fuji is so slim it easily fits in a sling bag that it feels like there is no excuse to not have it on us at all times.

Since we were doing a couple of actual shoots in BC we did bring our serious gear (a whole packed Pelican, actually) so some of these photos are actually taken with a Nikon Z6II, some with a Fuji X100V.

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Portrait Session at Pitt Meadows

While our trip out to BC this past summer was more to see friends and family, and to admire the mountains, we thought if we could set up a shoot, if the timing worked out, if all of the stars aligned for this then we’d love to do it... and it did, and we did! I can’t tell you the last time that we actually had a personal shoot to ourselves, to just collaborate, hang out in a beautiful location, and have absolutely no pressure or expectations out of it. So even though this wasn’t top priority for our vacation, we were really excited to make the time for this shoot. We connected with our wonderful stylist, Jasmine Kamboj over Instagram (where else do ppl meet these days lol) and she was such an invaluable, boots on the ground, resource for this. In addition to her great styling, she also connected us with Callum’s modelling agency, Richards Models, and badda bing badda boom it all came together.

I (Stef) was eager to shoot somewhere unlike Toronto and the first thing that came to mind was the mountains. Not being from the area I wasn’t sure what the logistics of shooting in the city is (permits, special requests, what times to avoid peak crowds?) so after some quick research we opted for a public area of Pitt Meadows, starting just before the crack of dawn. I was hoping for a clear morning so we could get an epic sunrise over the mountains but 1. it was an overcast morning so there was so no sun, and 2. we were not east facing (which I didn’t realize until leaving lol). The ambience of the clouds added to the session and prompted us to use some fun flash moments I don’t think we would have otherwise done.

It was a fun morning with a fun crew, we’re so thankful for people who go along with our ‘hey call time is 5am is that ok?’ schemes, and we can’t wait to do it again next time we’re in the area! Maybe not at sunrise though haha.

We’re also really excited to have a photo from this session featured on Photo Vogue!

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Model: Callum at Richards Models / Stylist: Jasmine Kamboj