Scruff Social with Save Our Scruff

IF THERE’S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT US IT’S THAT WE’RE OBSESSED WITH DOGS

I (Stef) have had family dogs my whole life up until moving downtown about 4 years ago and honestly the only reason we don’t have our own dog now is because of living in “not pet friendly” apartments (ugh). Ethan and I are big followers of Save Our Scruff and who we’re pretty committed to adopting from the second we can, so when they were looking for a photographer to shoot their Scruff Social I jumped at it! How could I say no to hanging out with dogs all night and donating my time to a cause I wholeheartedly support?!

See more photos down below (click to enlarge and scroll through)

By the end of the night the Scruff Social raised over $61,000 and they couldn’t have done it without their incredible sponsors:

G Adventures - RNMKR Agency - Dogtopia - District 28 - Tito's Vodka - Aviation American Gin - Ezra Brooks Bourbon - Pommies Cider - Amsterdam Brewery - ROAR Organics - Panago Pizza - Lifford Wine - Montecito Restaurant - Juice Concepts - Mirror Moments - Carte Blanche Bar - Dachshund Wine - Hopes End

 

Lifestyle Session with Rebecca Hay Designs

ONE OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS IS TO WORK WITH REPEATING CLIENTS TO CONTINUE BUILDING OUR RELATIONSHIP TOGETHER

The last time we shot with Rebecca and her team things were different. There were contractors finishing up, plastic wrap everywhere, and it was chaotic. When we started planning this new shoot we said, let’s slow things down. Rebecca Hay Designs were working on putting together a showroom for a new development in Aurora and before going in to shoot we made a game plan that included a moodboard, outfit changes, and even a make up artist!

Our last session together was very documentary focused, shooting as things were happening and being a fly on the wall but for this session we took a more intentional and lifestyle approach to shooting.

Rebecca put herself into her showroom demonstrating how this model home can be used everyday by the on-the-go, always working, woman and even the “where do these toys even come from?!” real life mom.

For most of this shoot we rotated between individually shooting setups, reflecting, giving direction, and even a little bit of prop styling (a la effortless throwing toys everywhere).

See more photos down below…

Hatel Patel for Registered Nurse Journal

EVEN THOUGH THIS SHOOT WAS A WHILE AGO, I ALWAYS THINK BACK ON HATEL AS BEING ONE OF THE KINDEST PEOPLE WE’VE EVER MET

We met him at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa early one winter morning to photograph him for a feature for the RNAO about Registered Practical Nurses’ (RPNs) going back to school to become Registered Nurse (RN).

Hatel was so honoured to be featured he told us all about himself- his life, working 3 jobs (on top of being a student) to support himself and his family, how excited he was to graduate soon- and even showed us around his school, taking us into his classrooms and demonstrating a few moves for us, and he even booked out his “favourite lecture hall” for us to shoot in!

We don’t usually have an inside man/producer to help us with these kind of logistics, especially when the locations we’re shooting at are outside of the city, so generally we’ll arrive an hour or so before we begin to shooting to walk around, scout things out, and test shoot in a few different spots but Hatel had it all figured out for us!

It was a bright and sunny day when we shot (one of those blindingly bright days actually) so we ended up shooting all natural light. The lecture hall had this beautiful streak of light that was shining through the windows and there were floor to ceiling windows in the little stairwell that we shot that was too bright and beautiful to pass up.

See some photos from this shoot (+a couple behind the scenes phone snaps) down below

Headshots for Square One Shopping Centre

THE LAST JOB I (stef) HAD BEFORE DIVING FULL TIME INTO PHOTOGRAPHY WAS WORKING AT SQUARE ONE…

So getting a call from one of my old co-workers asking to come back and shoot some of the staff felt like a full circle moment. Oxford (the parent company of Square One) has an online directory of all of its staff, headshot included, and I remember getting mine taken once or twice in my time there. Turns out this year was the year of getting photos updated so when Suzie, the marketing assistant, caught wind she immediately thought of us and reached out. It was almost surreal going back to work at the mall but not quite for the mall in the same way as before. It was also so nice to see so many familiar faces and catch up in between shooting!

Since we were shooting everyone employed by Oxford (management, housekeeping, guest services, maintenance staff, security, etc.) we embarked on a multi-day shoot to try and get in as many people as possible. We had a little studio set up (either in the boardroom or whatever office space was available) with a large softbox for some soft even light, and staff came during or between their shift while we were there.

While we can’t share all of the staff (there’d be way too many photos) check out a handful of them down below…