Portrait Session with Toronto Actor, Neel Nash

YOU KNOW THOSE PEOPLE WHO YOU INSTANTLY VIBE AND FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH?

Neel’s one of them! The week that we were trying to shoot was a complete mess (for me) and I honestly didn’t think that we were going to make things work, but Neel had an audition coming up and needed new portraits ASAP.

Neel is so open and charismatic, he started off our session telling me all about himself and then asking about me… he more specifically said ‘who is Stef?’ which made me feel like that meme or tweet that’s says “that feeling when someone says ‘tell me about yourself’ and you suddenly don’t know who you are”.

We don’t often get the chance to sit and talk with people before we start shooting. Our subjects are usually on the go and only have a limited amount of time to spare, and sometimes don’t even really want to get their photo taken so they can be quiet and antsy for everything to be over. It’s refreshing when we have people who are eager to shoot, who are talkative, and who genuinely want to go in depth about who we are and what we do.

Despite this week being hectic I’m so happy to have met Neel and spent time getting to know him, even just for a bit, because he really reminded me about how much photography/shooting puts me at ease and makes me feel calm (more often than not haha).

We definitely spent more time talking than we did shooting, but when we did shoot we walked around both inside and outside of his condo, and even went down the common/event space area of the building- which believe you me, in this building is insanely beautiful!- using all natural light to create a few different portraits of him that he could use for his audition and even general self-promotion.

See a few photos from our shoot down below

HOST Clothing

IS THERE ANYTHING BETTER THAN WORKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS?

Definitely not! Our good friend Al started a little clothing company called Host a while ago and has been building up his collection with a few statement pieces as he prepares to launch. When he asked us to shoot we were super excited but also the first to admit that product isn’t our most favourite thing to do. Fortunately for us, Al was just looking for a few clean and bright product shots on white to showcase what each item is, which was something simple and straightforward that we could get on board with.

We tried a few different variations with each piece- overhead static shots, hanging, and even a few with Al in frame holding the hanger, or even when he was styling (our personal faves).

We started with our usual set up- a single umbrella and flash- but quickly realized that soft shadows weren’t going to work well for this shoot. We switched to shooting with just an external high powered flash for that bright and gritty look with harsh lines and dark shadows.

See more from the shoot below and follow HOST here to keep an eye out for their launch!

Waterfront Condo Project with Rebecca Hay Designs

WE WERE QUITE EXCITED WHEN REBECCA REACHED OUT TO US ABOUT SHOOTING HER NEW PROJECT…

And even more excited to hear that it didn’t involve professionally shooting the interior (that’s not our schtick), but rather shooting the real life work that goes into bringing a new space to life. She wanted photos that captured her and her teams efforts by documenting their hard work, and the overall meticulousness of putting all of the final touches- unwrapping furniture, cleaning countertops, putting out flowers and filling jars with fresh coffee beans- on how to truly make a house a home.

This project was a condo right in the heart of downtown Toronto all the way up on the 60-something floor! The team had a lot to do, contractors were still cleaning up all of their tools and things when we arrived, and to be honest it was a little difficult to imagine how everything was going to be ready for later that day.

It was fun being a fly on the wall for a couple of hours and seeing how other people work and become so focused and enveloped in what their doing (I wonder if we look like that too as we shoot?). The condo was a corner unit so it was flooded with a ton of natural light coming in from the floor to ceiling windows and doors, despite it being cloudy outside.

Ethan shot wide throughout the day which was great for overall room shots, and because there were so many people in tighter spaces, and I shot with a fixed 50mm lens, focusing on tighter crops with a shallower depth of field.

See more photos throughout the day down below, and see the final condo here!

Registered Nurse Journal November/December 2018

IN LIGHT OF BELL LET’S TALK WE THOUGHT THERE’S NO BETTER DAY LIKE TODAY TO SHARE THE MOST RECENT STORY WE SHOT FOR THE RNAO…

Lhamo Dolkar is a full time nurse in Toronto and a mother of 4 young boys, and about 10 months after having her youngest son, she began to feel depressed. She came forward to share her story in October after the RNAO announced the release of it’s second edition “Assessment and Interventions for Perinatal Depression Best Practice Guideline” in hopes that she can share her story and “help others avoid an illness that can sometimes consume the lives of mothers and children.”

Something Lhamo said to writer, Jonathan Sher, for this feature really stood out: “People expect (me) to be strong, (I’ve) always been strong… Mothers are the foundation of families.”

This could not ring more true. When we went to Lhamo’s home in Whitby to shoot last month, she was calm, friendly, warm, and incredibly inviting… all while having 4 kids running around her. She was enthusiastic when we talked about her work and even more happy and proud when she talked about her children.

We set up a small backdrop in her kitchen with a single light to shoot Lhamo and her family. The kids were a bit antsy and before we could even turn the light off to take a few naturally lit photos of everyone, they were already (somehow?) eating chocolate ice cream from the freezer haha. We then moved onto shooting a few different set ups of just Lhamo and her youngest, as that’s the main focus of the feature.

See the spread and some outtakes down below…