Victoria Pride Parade

I went downtown to check out the local Pride parade this past weekend. Pride parades world-wide have a reputation for being pretty outrageous, colourful and kinda tasteless, but Victoria's a pretty

 

small town, so it doesn't seem to reach the notoriety of other locations. I have heard that the Pride parade on Salt Spring Island gets the crowd involved, though.

I've been recultivating my skills at shooting street shots of people and events. If you check back a few postings on this BLOG you can see some of my people/street shots from Paris awhile back (Shooting from the Heart, or Hip, or Somewhere).                                                                                                                    

 

       So a Pride parade seemed like a prime event to get some shots of people at their most demonstrative, or colourful. But then, I prefer to shoot these kinda things in black & white.

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...as I see them. Gallery Exhibition

I have a show of my personal work hanging in Discovery Coffee www.discoverycoffee.com , on Oak Bay Avenue, in Victoria, beginning July 1 this year.
The work is a collection of details and abstracts and personal discoveries, with the primary theme of this show being images inspired by the tea and coffee culture that has become so prevalent in all of our lives.

My commercial work has me mainly fulfilling the needs of clients for their advertising campaigns, or for corporate or editorial images with a purpose or direction. But they're usually driven by the needs and imaginations of art directors or marketing programs.

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Campaign shoot for the United Way of Greater Victoria

I've been doing photography for the United Way of Greater Victoria for almost 20 years.

As well as their corporate shots of board members, volunteers, youth groups, etc., I've been shooting the images for their major annual fundraising campaigns.

The United Way http://uwgc.ca is the largest fund-raising charity in my community, and most others across Canada, and they provide funding for almost 50 local agencies and support groups.

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Cowgirl Pin-Up Shoot

With the renewed popularity in burlesque and pin-up art and photographs I recently created a pin-up shot with the assistance of a local model, Jessica.

Jessica had the right look for the cute and innocent feel of a pin-up, with the implied sexiness that gives these images their campy appeal.

I decided on a 'Cowgirl' theme, complete with sixguns, cowboy(girl) hat, boots and chaps. Jessica had most of the props in her own closet, including the vest, neck scarf and Sheriff's badge. Propping can be key in shots where there is no set or location, and pin-ups are all designed with a minimal, white background.

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For The Love of Music

One of my students recently connected me with a woman who has some very unique body art.
Because I have done quite a bit of figure photography and because I'm interested in expressive and creative people, my student felt I might find an opportunity to combine those interests in one shoot.

Karen lost her father to cancer in 2006 and felt a desire to honour him in some special way. She and he both loved music, so Karen found the sheet music for her father's favourite tune.........."Somewhere Over The Rainbow, It's a Wonderful World", and had the music tattooed over her entire body.

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Don't Fear The Flash

For those of you who weren't at the recent Photographers At Painters Lodge/ April Point Lodge you definitely missed out on a full, informative and fun weekend of photography oriented events.

My presentation was on the use of your on and off-camera flash. This is a tool that I feel may photographers often avoid making good use of due to a lack of comfort level. Flashes have become as intricate and computerized as our cameras. But they don't need to scare you away from using them.

For those using small 'happy-snap' cameras your ability to have control over various settings can limit how useful the flash can be for you. It must be remembered that when you use direct flash that the light strength falls off radically within several feet. This usually results in a flatly lit subject isolated in what appears to be a large, black, empty nothingness.

Some smaller pocket cameras have a Nighttime setting, or a Low-Light setting which is, in effect, using a slower shutter speed to record some of the ambient light along with the flash lit subject. Steady hands or a tri-pod are often required to assist in these shots.

Sometimes having the longer exposure has creative results in what is known as Dragging The Shutter, where you can make use of the long exposure to imply movement or action in the shot. I'll explain that a little further on.
 

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Photo Contest for Photographers at April Point

So, before I add too much confusion, I want to clear up that the Photographer At Painters event coming up May 4th, 5th, and 6th this year is actually gonna happen across the water from Painters Lodge at their sister resort on Quadra Island, called April Point Lodge.

I mentioned this weekend a couple of blogs back. We've been presenting this event to photographers of various levels of knowledge and expertise for 7 years now. It is a weekend of seminars, lectures, panel discussion and portfolio critiques put on by about a dozen of the most prominant photographers on the West Coast. Myself included, he said modestly. www.painterslodge.com/lodge/events/photographer-at-painters

The lodge offers a package deal of room, breakfasts, a wine & cheese schmooze and all the photography presentations for the weekend for a very reasonable rate.

Leading up to the weekend is a Facebook photography contest  www.facebook.com/aprilpoint to let some of us who are presenting, as well as many of those who are interested or planning on attending, see the work and talents of photographers interested in participating in the weekend. The presenters judge the submissions weekly, and a winner is chosen to receive their whole weekend package for the event..........FOR FREE!!!!!

So dig out your favourite creative and wonderful shots and share them with us. Then join us in May for a fun, informative, busy and creative weekend.
And they've got an AVEDA spa as well as a sushi bar!!!