Well it was nice to see Jason Dussault again after a long absense.  I would have seen him sooner but  unfortunately could not make the Vegas party with Chris Angel and Gene Simmons because of an overlapping holiday to mexico.  (yes,  that really sucked!)

It is always fun however doing a shoot with Jason and Mashia.  We were off to a modest start with some low key studio images and lots of post production styling.  These images were shot, retouched and laid out all in the last few hours. . . hows that for turnaround?

The distressed look came from a crumpled piece of paper with a darkened and worn edges. . kinda like something you might find in your jean pockets after a mud fight.  The image was inverted and the highlights (apple/click on the rgb layer) were selected and set to ‘liner light’ on a separate layer over Jason.  I used Alien Skins ‘brushed metal’ filter for the ‘Next’ logo, and deleted portions of with a custom brush i made on a masking layer.  Additional distressing was brushed on the metal with various shades of grey.  The write up came from the mind of Jason. . .

This Concept of Mashia I pretty much had to come up with on the spot.  They brought in a big white comforter and wanted to go for a bedroom ’snuggly’ look with teddy bear and all.  I would have gone that direction if the hoodie was white or cream, but the contrast of black on white did not speak ’soft’ in my mind.  I’m glad they trusted me to take it another direction. . . I also think it’s a better match next to the ad of Jason.

If you’d like to learn any more about this clothing line and see more of my work,  check out  DussaultApparel.com and their blog at Nippermulberry.com

What can i say,  these two rock!  Alyssa and Abby are best buddies and  think they had a ton of fun ‘playing’ together on this shoot.  I went on the road last year to shoot in my home town of Edmonton.  That week was anything but easy,  I forgot about the windstorms, dust storms,  sudden thunderstorms. . .oh and did I mention storms?  Well here’s the day that everything worked out,  including the sun!

The bottom right pic is them in front of a 1 million BTU burner. . . When i say it was hot in there with the door open,  that is an understatement!

It took a bit to get permission, but i managed to get into the concrete plant in Edmonton.  It helps when you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  When i shoot at locations like these,  Everyone including the models signs a ‘Liability Release’ . . . this makes it much easier to get on the properties with the owners knowing we won’t hold them liable if someone falls into the concrete shredder.

I was rather amused when the foreman starting cleaning up the shop for me. . . I picked this location specifically for the  dusty windows and abundance of grease.  He didn’t understand why i wanted a dirty shop to shoot in and kept trying to clean, so i gave him the hose and asked him to keep the girls misted for the photo. . . maybe a little over zealous or too excited, but he sprayed them in the face and almost ruined the makup!

The lighting from this image came mostly from an open garage door to the left and a silver blanket on the ground.  The light was a little strong from the bottom and i needed to retouch a little bit of shadow under their eyes,  but overall i think it worked rather well for all natural lighting.  Normally i would be adding an accent light to their bodies, but space was constricted and i liked the darker outline in this instance.

If you’re curious about the subtle look of this one,  I selected the highlights on the channels layer (Apple + click on RGB layer) Selected the inverse (shift +Apple+I),  clicked back on the layers pallet,  copied and pasted, and set the new layer to ‘overlay’.  Everything was then desaturated slightly.   The image was expanded with a white border, the outside edges were selected and the ‘chalk and charcoal’ effect was used.

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.

Here is a fun pair . . . Kelsey and Lola booked me for the week with their friend and did a series of solo, duo and trio photoshoots ranging from pinup to High Fashion.  This is an excerpt of one of my favorite pics. . . it still needs a name, but i was thinking someting simple like ‘picnic’

As an afterthought i added the radio with one of  Marilyn Monroe’s famous quotes.   To achieve the pinup quality was thanks to some of Photoshops new filters. . .especially ’smart blur’ which maintains nice edge detail and softens everything else.  This is followed with using the smudge brush to remove additional detail in the hair and some highlights.  The whole layer is duplicated and set to ‘overlay’ and this starts getting you closer to the final look.  Then i select the hilights duplicate the layer and set to ‘Vivid light’.  Highlights are selected again, filled with white, and set to soft light. . . Done . . . simple eh?

In this Closeup, you can see how much subtle detail was removed which gives it an overall ‘painted’ effect.