Toronto Auto Show Mercedes SLS AMG Photo

The Toronto Auto Show is a great place to see exciting cars in an easy to photograph environment. Unfortunately the clutter of the show, with competing manufacturers and photographers makes for a pretty dull image. This image breaks that mould with several versions of a Mercedes SLS AMG roadster convertible composited to create an HDR image, which was then itself composited onto an image of the Toronto skyline taken from a waterfront parking lot. The HDR image was created using layers and layer masks rather than the heavy handed HDR automation of Photoshop. The HDR images were shot with available light ( lots of it but all from above ), at speeds of 1/3 second at f16 and iso ranging from 100 to 250 using a 24-105 mm lens. The bright sunny exterior shot matches the lighting in the show pretty well. The star burst refection of one of the stage lights on the windshield adds sparkle.

Architectural Photo - Bauer Warehouse Building at Night

This industrial building was photographed at night with a one second exposure ISO 500 with car lights streaking by.

Architectural Photography - ORNGE Head Office

I drove by Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and was struck by the bright orange of the ORNGE Air Ambulance Head Office building on Explorer Drive in Mississauga. It is a striking looking building, and recently reported management troubles made it almost voyeuristic photography. I wasn't alone with a camera. Out of the frame was a TV remote truck, and several other photographers shooting the bright orange signage as well. It was a grey day, so I composited in a bluer sky to bring out the white frames of the glass walls. Shot with a Canon 5D Mark 2 with a 24-105 mm lens.

Interior Photography - King Edward Hotel Toronto

While taping green screen interviews for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non Fiction, I took a few minutes to photograph some of the old elegance of the 100+ year old King Edward Hotel. The videotaping took place in the lower level Windsor Ballroom, and this photo is of the reception lobby area outside the entrance to the Ballroom. The walls are covered with mirrors, and this photo shows the repeated reflections of the sofa and another sofa behind the camera.

Shot with a 24-105 Canon lens.

Interior Photography - Trump Toronto Hotel Room

17-40 mm wide angle lens @ 17 mm

24-105 mm @24 mmlens

I had the pleasure of staying in the new Trump Toronto Hotel at Bay and Adelaide in Toronto. The beautifully appointed room was amazingly quiet, with recessed lights, leather, heated floor. It is a land locked hotel, next to the Scotia Plaza, with the upper floors to be condos, but the view up Adelaide and Bay Streets was still inspiring from 20 floors up. There is amazing stonework and gargoyles on the upper floors of the old The Canada Permanent Trust Building at 320 Bay Street

These shots were taken with a Canon 5D II, using a very long exposure and just a bit of kick from a flash.

Residential Interior Photography - Narrow Bathroom

Another instalment of a residential architectural photography portfolio. This bathroom is about 6 feet wide. The Canon L series 17-40 mm wide angle lens on a full frame canon 5D Mark II provides good coverage of three walls. Lit by a Canon 580 EX-II flash on the camera, and a Canon 550 EX Speedlight with a shoot through umbrella on the floor to the left pf the camera.

Residential Interior Photography - Tiled Bathroom Shower

Another part of a residential architectural photography portfolio. Shot with a Canon 5DII, 24-105, with an Elinchrome D-Lite with a shoot through umbrella under the camera and a tiny Opus flash in the sink at right. This bathroom is less than five feet wide, but still gets good coverage from this lens.

Residential Interior Photography - Master Bedroom

This photo was taken for a residential architectural photography portfolio with 2 Speedlights and then HDR processing to bring out the highlights. Shot with a Canon 5D II, 24-105 lens. Shot in the winter, the exterior trees seen through the windows were composited into the final image in Photoshop

Green Screen Shoot for Professional Promo

Theresa Dietrich, owner of People Talking Market Research, wanted a video promo to introduce herself and her methodology to prospective customers and to rekindle relations with past clients.

I shot her on a green screen to allow a variety of backgrounds to be tested to see what works best. In the end she chose plain white, and the keyed out image of her speaking could easily be composited into the presentation exactly as desired.
The studio was lit entirely with cool lights - daylight balanced fluorescents to light up the background, and LED panels to light the speaker. Much better to work under than hot incandescents.

Pegasus Community Project Christmas / Holiday Party Shoot

I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful group of people at the Pegasus Community Project Holiday Lunch in Toronto. They wanted an event photo booth style shoot to let participants keep a memento of the event. I don't ask for testimonials but some people say the nicest things:

"The photos are wonderful. You have captured at least 6 of our participants in the best way I have ever seen and the others are just as brilliant. I am beyond pleased with this work."

Shot with a Canon 5DII, 24-105 lens, white backdrop, 2 Elinchrome D Lites with umbrellas and Skyport wireless trigger.

Residential Interior Photography - Kitchen Sun Room

Another Canon 17-40 workout of a newly renovated kitchen sun room in a 100 year old home. The window and door mouldings replicate the original gumwood trim in the rest of the home.

Shot with a Canon 5DII with Canon 17-40 lens at 17 mm. Lit by two Elinchrom D-Lites, one behind the camera, one at the right of the camera.

Toronto downtown at night

Canon 5D Mk2 with Canon 17-40 lens from the second floor of the parking lot of Loblaws downtown. Shows the CN Tower, CIBC, and the new Telus building, Fairmont Royal York and the elevated Gardiner Expressway cutting through it all.
Car light streaks are as a result of the 1 second exposure.

Beauty and the Booth at Graphics Canada

Beautiful women attract trade show visitors to learn about printing services at the Boss Logo booth at Graphics Canada 2011.



A beautiful 2 level booth attracts visitors to the Fujifilm exhibit at Graphics Canada 2011.

These examples of trade show photography doneout for Graphics Canada and Aplphaform

Trade Show Video for Lumber at Home Hardware Marketplace

OWL Distribution, wholesale lumber distributor, wanted a high impact video presenting both major product lines and features of the company itself to attract attention at the Home Hardware marketplace, a tradeshow for suppliers to Home hardware, attended by buyers from the Home Hardware stores. The 8 minute video was played on two 55 inch TVs in the booth. A 5 minute shorter version is featured here.

The video was created from footage shot at the OWL yard, clips from suppliers' product installation videos, stills provided by suppliers and HD stock footage from Digital Juice, Artbeats and FootageFirm. On site footage was shot with a Sony NX5 and V1U. The V1U was mounted on a Cobra Crane. Some of the dramatic yard shots were taken with a Canon 5D mounted on a car driving through the yard. All in all, there were 1000 elements composited over 18 layers of video and graphics in Premiere Pro. Many of the supplied still were animated, and enhanced with keyed in stock footage.

The video will be re-edited into versions for YouTube, PowerPoint, and other trade shows.

There is a bridge in Hamiton

Francis Fougere Photography needed a drive by video of a bridge in Hamilton Ontario that the City of Hamilton wanted to document. The objective was to show what the bridge looked like to drivers passing under it on the QEW.

We shot the video in HD while driving down the QEW with the camera on a tripod projection through the sun roof of the camera car. Delivered in HD mp4 and as a windows media file for PowerPoint.

Music from Digital Juice.

Focus Group Becomes Conference Speaker Support Video

Theresa Dietrich of PeopleTalking Market Research Services wanted to capture the essence of a focus group's deliberations to support a conference presentation. I recorded the a two camera shoot of the focus group, and edited two hours into four minutes. The AV group at the conference were provided with a DVD of the video, as well as an HD mp4.

Downtown Toronto Construction

Surrounded by glass towers, a new construction site springs up at Bay and Lakeshore.

Shot from the Harbourfront Parkade with a canon 5D 24-105 lens

Halifax Refinery with Canon 2x

I spent a few nights at the Westin Hotel in Halifax and was amazed at the lights on the refinery stacks at the Esso refinery across the harbour in Dartmouth. It is a pretty wide harbour, and a Canon 2x extender on a 70-200 made it effectively a 400 mm lens. Not as clear as the native 70-200, but nice enough to reach out across the water. These shots were taken from warf at the Halifax Seaport.

More Caribbean Carnival - Junior Carnival

The Yorkgate Mall preview of 2011 Junior Carnival brought out bright costumes and smiling faces. Kids and adults.

Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival

Denise Herera-JacksonScotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival CEO	Chris Alexander Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival CFO
Chris Alexander	MPP Mike Colle
Toronto Councillor Joe Mihevic	Caribbean Tourism Roanne Argyle

Beautiful Caribbean Dancer

The event formerly known as Caribana's new name was announced this week, complete with pan music and girls in costume, what little of it there is. I took photos for pres purposes, including this gorgeous dancer.

Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival is the new name

Canon 5DII, 70-200 with 2x, no flash

Contact @ ROM

Photographer Ed Burtynsky and admirers at the opening for Scotiabank Contact 2011 of his exhibition at the ROM.

Irony is photographing a photographer.

Toronto City Hall HDR

Continuing the photographic journey to see how HDR enhances the look of otherwise ordinary scenes, I went back to Toronto City Hall on a bright sunny day. I shot a series of 3 images, bracketed by 2 f stops. Photoshop's HDR Pro merged the three exposures to generate a surrealistic image that emphasized the highlights. To see what the photo looked like on a larger scale, I printed it at 18 by 12 at Pikto in Distillery District. The large image revealed gorgeous smooth tones on the windows, almost like water colors.

Before, top, after, bottom.

Event Headshots

A client had a dinner event and I shot candid photos of the guests. Including Dawn and Mike.

Canon 5DII, flash, f4.0