entrepreneur

Dumplings...but make it fashion.

One of our favourite things about working with small business owners is getting to know the people behind the businesses we all frequent.

We first met Anne through her work at Solvest (a northern based solar company) a few years ago, but recently got to know that before moving to the Yukon, she actually worked in Fashion both in England,Toronto, then remotely from Yukon, right up until Covid when she decided to follow her other passion…food!

So now we’ve witnessed her grow her newest venture, Anne’s Dumplings, over the past year into the bustling and ever growing company that it is today! (If you haven’t tried them yet, please get on it…you are missing out!)

So when we were asked to do an editorial shoot of Anne, we knew we wanted to try to bring in some elements of fashion (because you KNOW she showed up with some gorgeous shoes to show off) and make this ‘foodie’ shoot elegant.

We wanted to ensure we had a minimalist set (her pristine commercial kitchen was perfect-we got in early before the dumpling making begins!) , and used a bit darker of lighting to set a more glamorous mood to the shoot. We were so happy with how they worked out and as always, Anne was amazing to work with. We absolutely can’t wait to see where she takes this venture next…

21-04-20_Annes Dumplings120773_GBP__website.jpg

Cheers to Polarity

in

Whether you’re celebrating the start of a fresh new month, the fact we’ve made it through this week, or you’re just excited about this glorious sunshine that’s coming back to us a little more each day…we are lucky to have some pretty great places to treat ourselves in this fine community of ours.

One of the newer ones on the block is Polarity Brewing! They started up last year…admittedly a bit of a difficult time to open up a pub, but nothing can stop delicious brews, and awesome meals featuring as many local farm products as possible!

They even have an outdoor deck you can cozy up to a fire table at to stay Covid-safe while you toast to your weekly accomplishments!

We always love celebrating our local businesses, but especially during a time that has been so difficult on the food/beverage industry, we’d like to cheers to all you hard working businesses owners out there still making it work and providing us with little local escapes.

Here’s to Friday everyone-cheers!

Spark Coaching and Consulting

We hear a lot of family photographers talk about how special it is for them to be able to capture families growing together over the years, and with us…we feel the exact same way, we just happen to document people’s business ‘babies’ instead…

We’ve been lucky enough to work with a number of clients over the years who we’ve watched first hand as they grow and develop from that initial leap of faith, just starting out , getting their first head shots as they take the leap into a new career…all the way to them hustling with a full time business, landing dream clients and developing marketing campaigns to grow even further!


We recently got to work with the wonderful Jennifer England of Spark Coaching again who is one of those clients we’ve witnessed excel at what she does and grow her business into something so meaningful and rewarding. As she was planning a website re-fresh, she wanted to get a new set of imagery that would really capture her personality and depth, as her work as a leadership strategist and coach involves really being able to connect with her clients and she wanted imagery that would let people get a glimpse into who she is.

She was even willing to brave a doozy of a wind storm during one of our last weeks of fall here to capture that golden light and connection to nature…and we’re sure happy she did because we are stoked with how the shoot all turned out.

We love being able to be part of celebrating the work people do-the causes they are committed to, and the passion that goes into being an entrepreneur.

New look...who dis?

Ok, we can all agree, it’s been a rough year so far…I think it’s about time we all take a deep breath, put our feet up and get some pampering done….and have we got the spot for you….

We were SO stoked when we were asked by the wonderful Ammanda Partridge of Elements Spa to work with her on some new imagery for a website upgrade the company was doing. Ammanda and her team are one of the many incredible small businesses we have here in Yukon who, in the face of extreme uncertainty and challenges this spring, found a way to keep fighting through it and are now back open, and thriving. With support through the PIVOT program at Yukon University, we were able to team up with Ammanda to help her showcase the range of services and service providers she has on her team.

Ammanda wanted to make sure her new imagery was authentic (and not just use stock images), and we didn’t want to just go with the expected either…it would have been easy to simply grab a few shots of their facility (which is gorgeous), along with some traditional head shots of her staff, but instead we went in a more stylized direction. We wanted to highlight the services they offer, but use Yukon models (and real customers!) and also plan them so that they would fit the aesthetic of her new site which was clean, calm and spacious.

SO with that in mind, we spent the day with an incredible group of people creating this new set of imagery below that we’re so excited with.

We cannot recommend the Elements Spa team enough if you’re looking to treat yourself or someone you love….they’re a wonderful team (who happen to make excellent models too)

Check them out at: https://www.elementshairandspa.ca/

Northern Solar

in

Not everyone knows this, but Gary’s former career before he took the leap and started GBP, was actually as a Journeyman Electrician. He had spent years before that installing communication towers throughout western Canada, and then when he moved to the Yukon, he switched gears into the electrical trade.

Specifically, he wanted be an electrician so he could specialize in renewable energies, and in particular the growing field of solar.

So needless to say, now over 10 years later, when we were able to team up with Solvest, a northern Canadian based solar company, to create some new imagery for them, Gary was pretty stoked!

We’ve actually had our eye on the Solvest team for quite a while. They’re a super cool company that not only specializes in residential, commercial and industrial solar installs, but also is working on northern food security issues through their Cropbox product, as well as research and consultation.

Part of the reason we love working in industrial settings, and in this case specifically with solar installation, is that Gary feels at home on the work sites. He knows the safety standards, he understands the principals behind the systems, and this allows him a unique perspective and the ability to really know which elements to highlight when photographing both the site and the employees on the job.

On this particular project, he was even able to work along side some of the crew he used to work with as an electrician, just this time, he was behind a camera instead of helping with the install itself!

So on that note, here are a few of the images we got to create of the Old Crow solar project. This project is expected to offset annual diesel consumption by up to 30% for the community! It’s a super unique system, custom to Old Crow as it’s east/west facing to take advantage of the long summer days, generating power at the time of day when people are at home, utilizing it the most!





Klondike Kettle Corn

One of our favourite projects so far this year was getting to work with Klondike Kettle Corn to develop some new imagery for their upcoming website re-launch and marketing materials!

Anyone who follows the work we do, knows we love working with small businesses and entrepreneurs, and getting to know Katie and her family was no exception. We got to do some lifestyle images with them, and they even braved the -40 weather we happened to get that weekend so that we could get some authentic Yukon Outdoor lifestyle shots! They were total pros the whole time. Our computer/tether system, however of course decided it didn’t want to work in -40, so we just did without….

Then, we went into a new realm that we haven’t tried before…food photography! For this set, we partnered up with Tara Kolla, a local stylist, who came to the GBP studio and worked with us for the day. We were so happy with how these turned out…and we can also confirm these flavours do in fact taste as good as they look. There was a LOT of taste testing going down…And our computer/tether system enjoyed this temperature a lot more.









So...what do you do?

Ahhh networking...and the, what 'should' be an easy answer, that is actually more complex than you think....

I went to an "Un-Networking" event this week hosted by the oh-so-awesome SMRT Pop Ups team which sought to give local female entrepreneurs a chance to connect, share, and in some cases, just straight up practice answering the question "What do you do?"

The expected/easy answer for me?: We are a photography company that specializes in commercial, corporate and editorial photography.  

Even more broad? Well, we photograph people. People at work, people at play, and people doing the activities that matter most to them and their community.

But after taking some time to really think about it, I realized that still just didn't feel like it fully explains what we do. It felt flat to me, and it got me thinking about the reason we do the work we do...the reason we work specifically with businesses and organizations. 

Now that is because we love getting to the heart of WHY people do what they do.

We understand that we, as a society, crave connection. We crave authenticity and experience, and so when a business or organization wants to engage with their audience, the best way to do that is by personalizing themselves, and creating that actual human connection to their organization. By showcasing employees, or the people behind what you do, you can not only show your audience what you do, but more importantly, WHY you do it. 

As entrepreneurs ourselves, we love to celebrate  businesses and organizations and the people behind them that build our communities, that are providing for their families and that are making a difference in this world in their own unique way. We can connect with their experience, their struggles, and their determination, and so it's our job to then take that connection and create images that can reflect that back to a broader audience.

Needless to say, the event left me thinking a lot about our work here at GBP. About the complexities of it-the human connection and interpersonal skills it takes, the mix of both technical and artistic sides of our business that constantly keep us on our toes. It was a great night to reflect on not only WHAT we do, but the WHY we do it. And it's got us feeling pretty grateful to have such a strong community of entrepreneurs and community leaders that we get to hold up and celebrate.