Here is the ‘Precious’ music video filmed at the studio.  Except for the obvious location shots,  everything was filmed ‘in house’ from the kitchen and office space to the shower and of course, the amazing wrap-around high key cove.

My friends a Jungle media did a great job producing this video on a very tight budget.  It was filmed entirely on Red cam and this compressed video does not begin to do it justice. . . keep your eyes open on Much Music for the real deal!

I don’t shoot Engagements or Weddings anymore, but my friends asked and i couldn’t say no.  Ildy has been one of my longtime and loyal models . . . if she looks familiar, maybe you’ve seen her in ‘Paycheck’ or a number of movies and tv shows.  Gary i’ve know for a dozen years and he’s been a great friend.  Considering I introduced these two together,  i was honored to do their shoot.

I don’t really do the traditional engagement photography,   but after the ‘Bond’ shots, I pulled out handcuffs and then things got interesting . . . this also gave them a preliminary taste of married life!

I like to break the images into ‘formal’ and ‘casual’ . . . some people are more comfortable with one look over the other so it’s nice to have the variety.  These two work well in whatever i throw at em, and lucky for Gary,  it’s hard to look bad when you have such a beauty drawing your eye. . .notice how i have Ildiko upstage Gary in every pic!

After the studio pics, we went on location.  I have a few favorite locations from my wedding days.  We had limited shooting time in this location which simply involved a fill flash just left of camera angle and my portable mirror giving some accent to Garys back.  I would of loved a 2nd accent on the left, but i was trying to keep low key as we were shooting ‘gorilla’style.

Here is a small excerpt of some of the fun pics. . . and there were many!  I love the spontaneous and ‘in the moment’ shots. . .they are usually the memories of the day!

Gary and Ildy are the founders of Concrete Concepts.  Their projects around the city are too big to list, but they are notable.   If you ever need anything from a heated concrete floor to a supersize retaining wall,  Check out their work!

It was not the work with The Bank of Montreal and Elvis Stoyko,  It wasn’t even the Dussault campaign with Gene Simmons. . . I think i can finally say that i’ve made it to the big time now that i have officially been targeted by an extremist muslim group!  If you happened to log in to my blog last week you may have seen the following page:

It’s great to get validation from the far dark corners of the world.  I just never thought I was big enough to be a threat to those poor sequestered souls so far away.    You can see the magnificent work of this group of and their dancing goats and wonderful music on youtube. . . say hi from me!

It’s going to be pretty funny when upon getting to heaven,  the 72 virgins these guys are expecting turn out to be male computer nerds. . . think about it!

This was one of those days where i felt energetic!  This was all created ‘in studio’ and she was kneeling in a whole lot of water!  At any time i have on hand a few 2″X6″X12′ studs and a roll of black construction plastic to build a water table.  A frame is screwed together and the plastic is simply laid across it and clamped to the wood.  I used to have a hot water tank which was easily drained twice to fill this up,  but the new ‘on demand’ water heater keeps an unlimited supply of hot water which the models definitely like.   The rippling effect is created by a couple fans aimed at the water. . . without the surface texture you would see the plastic underneath.  I used to lay this out right over my concrete floor, but the water quickly went from warm to bone chilling under 10 minutes.  Now i’m laying pink styrofoam sheets underneath which makes a huge difference on maintaining the temperature.

The image in the background  if i remember right relates to the creation of the universe.  I was originally planning an image of mars in the background, so I rolled down a deep red paper  to reflect in the water,  when i came across this hubble telescope image it felt like a nicer fit.  The original image was quite a bit more colorful with blues and yellows so i overlaid the tone reflected in the water to match.   I downloaded this from http://www.nasaimages.org/ which is a great site where Nasa lets you download amazing © free  images from shuttle missions, the hubble telescope and misc. orbiters.

You know those movies where the toaster in thrown in the bathtub and someone gets electrocuted,  well it doesn’t really work like that.  I always give my liability speech and talk about the possibility of a light falling in.  As scary as it may be,  its best to just stay in the water if the worst happens. . .and NOT make contact with the light.  The only time you will get a shock is when you ground yourself,  that would be grabbing a c-stand to climb out of the water for example. . . so it’s always good to discuss the rules before the shoot.

P.S.  Check for a floor drain in your place before you build this one!

A friend of mine is back in the bike game.  Our last shoot was of an amazing demon chopper with a devil tail that got me my first cover of biker magazine.   He’s now taking the more stock approach and adding stylizing touches to existing new Harleys with custom paint, pegs, handle bar ends, etc.   After doing our magazine shoot,  i was fortunate to have it in my studio for a few more days which happened to overlap Selena’s photoshoot.

It’s always a challenge shooting a big reflective bike with a model,  the bike wants soft large light sources which can flatten the models proportions.  I managed to get some small softbox lights with grids to accent her bum and legs without affecting the bike.  I consider these shoots ‘compromised ligting’. . .  you favour the girl or the bike, the question being ‘who is your client’.   I went with a hard overhead light to bring out specularity in her skin, fortunately this worked well with the bike as the paint was reflective and the spot lighting added to it’s depth .   The fire border was an afterthought,  now i’m wishing i had put a fan in her hair which would have tightened the concept with all the movement around her.