Well its’ been a banner year with studio rentals… I think i had my favorite last week when Danny Glover and Bruce Greenwood were in shooting covers for their new movie ‘Donovans Echo’.  In the hopes of getting more of these projects I thought it was time to update some of the studio images.

As you may have read in a previous post,  the studio has had a major sound upgrade including a sprayed ceiling and sound insulated walls.  Not only have these products proven to be very effective,  I think they give the space a great ‘aesthetic’. (click above image to enlarge)

It was hard to give up my gym,  but let me introduce you to the new media room.  This space is adjacent to the studio and makes a great multi purpose room for an additional makeup station, change room, meeting area, or to simply hang out.  You are also able to connect your peripherals to the monitor for presentations and access the internet.

Above is the south facing view as you exit the studio with the media room to the right.  At the end of the hallway is an additional common area which is  just off the entrance of the building… another great multi-purpose room with a kitchenette attached.

This is the north facing view looking into the studio  giving a glimpse of the newly renovated bathroom.  Custom rubber backed matting eliminates  sounds from those hard soled shoes during audio recording, and just looks good when you’re walking in for a photoshoot.

Here is my most recent photoshoot for Rosebud magazine taken at ‘Granville Tattoo’ downtown Vancouver.  I was having a heck of a time finding just the right location for this shoot.   My original pick was ‘Next’ tattoo, but their bad attitudes and simple lack of professionalism kept that from being a possibility.  Granville Tattoo ended up being a great locale for the shoot and they are simply a great bunch of guys.

For fun I added another tattoo to Pinky (digitally) with the impression that she did it to herself.  If you’re not familiar with the process… no, the tattoo guns don’t smoke in real life.   BTW, the chair she is sitting on is 300 lb!!!!!  I’m not kidding.  I saw the chair when i first scoped the shop and thought it would be great to shoot on.  Come the day of,  I seriously thought it was bolted to the floor it was so heavy.  It had to be moved clear across the room.

photoshoots are always full of surprises!

It was a challenge lighting the room.  I was hoping to get some daylight through the front windows for a brighter background, but it turned out into a dreary typical Vancouver fall day.  I went the opposite direction (low key) and focused all the light on Pinky .  An ambient  light bounced off a wall in the background but this did not seem special enough…  I added a blue gel to create separation of her from the background and that gave me the look i was after.

I love mirror shots, I just don’t like the extra retouching

Sheena Marie did most of the styling on this photoshoot.  I made her push the limits into ’sexy’ from what she normally works with. When we went back to the studio I was aiming for a decidedly ’sexy fashion’ look.  Props to her stylish ostrich dress on the final shot, and a special thanks to Sylvery Grey for fashioning the sexy red bikini.

The following image was a 2 part overlay.  This image was first first converted to a standard B&W…  The layer was duplicated and set again to B&W but with ‘maximum blacks’ set.  This gave the ‘tanned’ and shiny appeal to the skin but made the cape too dark.  The top layer was set to 70% and masking was done with the airbrush tool around the cape and some darker areas of the skin which created this alluring image.

Yup,  can’t do a studio shoot with at least one of my signature shots

I’d like to send a special Thanks to Granville tattoo for being so helpful, friendly and generous with their space and time.  Thanks Steve for getting up so early and letting us in the shop.

If you walk through their doors,  remember to say ‘Bryan sent you’.