This is a brief look back at the last year as a photographer, and a look ahead at new and exciting projects.
TOO LONG
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2019: Filled with a great deal of photographic and professional growth, as well as some serious personal trials.
2020: Hang onto your hats. You don’t want to miss this.
Whew. What a year. I guess everyone says that, but, well, it was.
One year ago I found myself writing a blog post detailing my hopes and plans for 2019. I’m thrilled to be able to say that I was able to achieve them all. I taught myself studio photography, I learned how to capture action with strobes, I hosted my first photography workshop (with the always-amazing Claudio Piccoli), I was able to develop my business and I was able to further hone my style and photographic skills.
first foray into studio photography
Viva the Malinois showed us her very best house elf impersonation at her shoot. Don’t worry, we got plenty of elegant photos as well.
The biggest goal I set for myself was to learn studio photography. Before ~February 2019, I’d never touched a strobe/flash/speedlight before, let alone used them in my work. I had avoided them up until this point because I was intimidated by them. I was nervous about finding myself at the bottom of the learning curve all over again. But I decided to bite the bullet and dedicate myself to learning another skill.
Now, I can’t get enough of it! I think I’ve taken to it pretty well. I find much of it intuitive and exciting to learn. Though, periodically, I find myself missing the days when I could show up to a photo shoot armed with nothing more than my camera and a lens or two. Now, packing for a shoot, my poor tiny car is filled to the brim with equipment which takes me ages to organize, pack, set up, tear down, etc. Ah well! It can’t be all good.
coloured powder
No write-up of my 2019 photography would be complete without mentioning coloured powder photography. At the very start of 2019, a small group of friends (+their very talented dogs) and I organized a coloured powder photo shoot, and the images quickly took off and were seen by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. I’ve learned a lot as I continue to practice using this unusual medium. I work hard to ensure that my art sets itself apart, and my clients always enjoy the experience. I focus on a dog’s natural form, dynamic lighting, and a rich spectrum of colours in my work, and of course I always keep the safety of the subjects paramount in my mind.
Then & Now
I find it fascinating to compare these two photographs. I think they do a good job of contrasting where I started, and what I learned as I developed my skill. Both dogs are utterly stunning, but my early series suffered from flat and dull light, which I’ve tried to improve upon going forward.
National CBC Arts video feature
A piece about my work was released on the CBC. (This is our national Canadian broadcaster, for the non-Canadians in the room.) I worked with a producer & video crew for a few days to capture the footage they included in the video.
It was a bit surreal to have a piece about me be released because I still feel like a clueless young person who barely knows how to work a camera sometimes. Perhaps I’m not as clueless as I once thought I was. (I’m certainly not as young as I once thought I was!)
best shots of 2019
These are some of my favourite photos taken in 2019. Thank you so much to all my friends who have helped me create these vivid and striking images.
2020 resolutions
Wild at heart
A personal project for 2020 is to get more exotic/undomesticated animals in front of my lens in a studio environment. If you are the owner/handler of an exotic, undomesticated, tame animal, I welcome you to contact me to discuss potential modelling opportunities. Of particular interest are wild canids, big cats, birds of prey, exotic ungulates, but all are welcome. My studio is mobile and I can travel to a safe location for such a project.
More colour, more light, more action
I’ve fallen in love with the sunrise (perhaps to my models’ chagrin). The light and colour present with the rise of the sun is magical. Some of the best advice I was ever given when it came to photography was that “without great light, you cannot create great photos”. I will continue to sacrifice a bit of sleep to create the very best photos that I can.
