Well maybe not exactly. . . it was more a hellish year building this kitchen starting with heated flooring and working on up.  Good news is its done and ready to be used. The Cabinetry was all custom thanks to my friends at David Lane Office Furniture. I’m so glad i didn’t go the Ikea route. . . what a quality difference!

With the exception of the fridge,  all the handles run horizontally.  I wanted a very linear look.  The cabinets are tall and narrow contrasting the handles.  The countertops, are all ‘Silestone’ with quartz. . . one of the toughest countertops that never needs sealing – I got them at a great deal as offcuts from a Vancouver apartment project.

As my dad used to say “now you’re cooking with gas!”.   The instant heat is amazing to cook with and brings life to the kitchen.  The stainless steel looks fabulous against the dark cabinets and floor, but the combination has proven to be quite a challenge to keep looking clean.

Here’s the reverse angle.  The slate wall was brought from China, it’s hard to believe that it is cheaper to produce and ship from half way round the world than to buy locally (about 1/2 $).  The flat screens channel cable and video surveillance in every room. . . I’ll never miss a moment of Top Model or Heroes!

For reference,  here’s the kitchen i endured for the last 12 years,  This Reno was a welcome change!

Ok, so this is the farthest thing from photography,  but it is just so unusual that i had to share.

“Okay, so a lemon and a tomato aren’t the most natural of pairs, but that didn’t stop Israeli researchers from bringing us the Lemato! Unlike other genetically altered fruits and veggies (which were created primarily for health reasons), it appears that the lemato was solely an experiment to determine if it was possible to make tomatos give off the scent of lemons. Mission accomplished!”

It had the makings for a classic biker magazine cover:  A sexy blonde, an amazing custom Harley and a greasy bar.   Klarinka approached me with the idea of shooting in the Lynwood pub in North Vancouver.  This place had certainly seen its days of bar brawls, spilled beer and inebriated patrons. . . it was perfect!

We had to make due with low ceilings,  but i had just enough room to get a silver umbrella overhead and a small softbox below.  I normally use an egg crate grid on the soft box, but the reflections are not as appealing in the bike.  It’s always a compromise to favour the girl or the bike as they each require different lighting,  but since Klarinka was paying for the shot,  i figured i should make her look best.  A few reflectors were scattered around to help with the bike highlights.

I did have one complaint during this shoot:  The bar opened at 11 and we had to start at 7am.  I think most women will agree when i say ‘it’s hard to look sexy at 7am’. . .but I’ll say Klarinka did pretty well!

I also want to thank max for donating his bike to the shoot.  Sorry for putting all the bum and breast prints all over the chrome!

I haven’t done much with fire, but it’s definitely a fun medium to play with. . . just make sure a fire extinguisher is nearby.  Miko does a fire show and wanted to bring in her batons and fire fans and see what we could come up with.  I shot the fire fans and twirling batons, but i think my favorite effect came from the fire poi balls (fiery balls at the end of chains).  This image came from two exposures: the first she swung the ball around while slowly lifting and tightening the spiral during a 2 second exposure.  The 2nd was with flash exposure mimicking the final pose without fire.  The composite was then finished in photoshop.

This is a raw 1.5 sec. exposure.  Getting the exposure on the flames was quite the task as speed affected the brightness and as the fuel burnt off, the flame started turning blue.

I’ve shot Hailey now going back 5 – 6 years and we’ve done lots of variety but seem to keep coming back to ‘pinup’ as one of her best looks. . . i guess she was born in the wrong decade!   Hailey figures this is her last professional career shoot cuz she thinks she’s getting ‘old’, but i think there’s lots of sexy left. . . the pictures don’t lie!

Its amazing how it just takes a couple simple ‘era’ props to give that pinup feel.  These are in the ‘Alberto Vargas’ style with minimalist sets and furniture that blend into the background.  I love the dark features of a brunette against a high key look!

in contrast here is our first shoot together when she was a blonde. . . would you have ever guessed it was the same girl?

Insulating the studio was and still is big on the mandate. . . phase two is energy consumption!  I”ve long been looking at Solar and Geothermal options, but  right now upgrading the equipment is a much more reasonable option.  I was quite suprised to learn that the old furnace (30 years old now) could be operating at an efficiency as low as 50%!!!!!

I decided to go with this Marvel of the furnace world. . . a Lennox!  Where my old furnace produced very hot exhaust,  this one makes water and a warm steam. . . i’m not kidding when i tell you its a most pleasant exhaust!  This baby is 98% efficient. .  almost twice as efficient as the old unit.

this is the other unit,  a Bosch BWH C 800 Tankless hot water heater.   Hot water is now by on demand and unlimited. The efficiency is 92% compared with a tank around 60%.   Another advantage was getting rid of the big water tank and creating more room, the downside with these units however is a 20 second warm up time  for hot water and temperature fluctuations based on load, but all in all i think the savings are a good trade off.  I’m considering a solar preheat for the water which would raise the efficiency even further.

One pet peeve i want to share is that there were no incentive programs for any of my upgrades.  I will probably never see the payoff by the time i sell the building other than the satisfaction of leaving less impact on the world.  If you purchase the same furnace as a homeowner you get approx $700 back from bc hydro and the gov’t., but none of this applies if you own a commercial building!  No wonder so many buildings are still poorly insulated and running on outdated equipment.

I’m pleased to announce that we have done our bit to reduce the studio’s CO2 footprint with a series of upgrades over the last year.  Its been a pretty hefty investment . . . approx $42000 so far with a few more changes to go.  The biggest project was stripping off 2 complete roofs . . . we filled over 2 – 20 yard containers taking off 33 years of obsolete roofing!

The Roof was upgraded with an additional 2.5″ of insulation giving us approximately  R18 in addition to the sprayed on ceiling insulation of R20.

It took about a week of scrapes, heavy lifting, and that wonderful smell of burning tar. . . with of course a couple major rainfalls ( it’s like washing your car), but it was worth it to finally  have an insulated watertight roof!

Its not too bad a view from the top. . . Now i just have to establish a garden with raspberries and vegetables

Thanx to John from Trimstyle roofing consultation for helping coordinate me and my friends in what would have been a gong show without him.  This is a special shot as all i ever see of him is behind a computer.