How I Shot the Rendezvous Magazine Cover

I have had a few people asking me for some more details on the how I shot the rendezvous cover, so I thought I would do a post on it.

Ok so I knew what I wanted: 1 image of 4 girls and an antique car all looking amazing with a 1940’s feel too it. So the fist step was to draw-up some sort of mock-up to have it approved by the Rendezvous people (Turns out Brianne has mad stick-people drawing skills too).

ya.....

Once the idea was approved we had to figure out how to make it happen.... with a tight budget and a tight shooting timeline. So the options were to shoot it all at once, or to shoot it in pieces and put it together later as a composite. The problem with shooting it all at once is that that it would take allot of money, people, gear and time... funny... all things which we don't have! So composite it was! The key to a composite of this nature is to make sure you have everything consistent allowing for an easier time in photoshop piecing all back together. So that starts with your camera on a tripod which never gets moved, and a manual exposure and a fixed focal length lens... then the only thing that changes is lighting, focus and models! First I had 4 photo doubles stand in for the ladies so we could figure out our composition.... which I knew was vertical orientation with negative space on top and bottom of the frame to allow for text. Once we figured out that part, I locked down the tripod.... duct-taped the crap out of it to the floor and hooked up a pocket wizard with a motor drive cable (to remotely fire it and the lighting). 

You can see the high teck duct-tape !

Then it was shooting time... So on manual exposure and focus (again so nothing changes) I shot a ton of images of the car and of the luggage only changing the lighting position and type. With the pocket wizard this worked really well, cause I was able to do this all very fast and by myself. I was able to just run around with 1 light on a wheeled boom stand shooting and repositioning the light. 

Me wheeling the boom stand around

I didn't care about light direction cause my plan was just to light the crap out of it and make a surrealistic nighttime type look anyways... so having the light coming from a specific direction didn't matter for this shot. Once the car was done we setup up and shot each of the girls separately... making sure we got the best possible image of each of them. The girls lighting setup was pretty simple... I used one 4’ soft box as the main in front of them, then had a bare bulb kicker on the sides to give them a little bit of highlight and separation from the dark background. Interesting thing I learnt was that dark fur is like a black hole for light.... it takes allot of light to register on the fur... but then by that time your blowing out the skin... was tough to balance. Doing it this way also had other logistical pluses, like while I shot the car the first model was having hair and make-up done... then when I was shooting her the next one was being prepped, this way we needed only one make-up person and one stylist...cheaper! 

Brianne doing an amazing job on the props

Sharon and Denali

who is this guy?

Over all view of where we were working

Next came the photoshop stuff and that was pretty straight forward process of a million layers and just painting in things I liked from each different shot. The only cool thing was I was able to use gravel from another shoot in the summer and place in the bottom of the image while maintaining all proper shadows... I was stoked that it worked out so well.

So thats about it.... 

I would like to thank: 

- Mike Collins at Rendezvous Society for great ideas, art direction, and tasty snack table

- Brianne Meister for being an awesome photo assistant and stylist, and set designer, and mad stick-man drawing skills

- Lyndsey Hamilton for her super resourceful stylist skills, and knowledge

- Sharon Speiss for all the lovely make-up and hair work she did for us.

Setup:

Canon 5d mk2

85mm 

Tethered to laptop shooting to Lightroom 3

Fired by motor-drive Pocketwizard

Lights used - 3 Alien Bee B800’s controlled by more pocket wizards

Finished Image

Bras for a Cause...

For the past few years we've been involved with a local event called Mardi Bra-a breast cancer fundraising event which raises money for 'Karen's Fund'.  This is a funding pot which is available to Yukon women undergoing breast cancer treatment.  The great thing about this fund is that it's no questions asked...it's there to help women and their families who are having to deal with, upon everything else, the financial pressures of having to leave the Territory for treatment. So whether its' childcare, travel costs, or even pet care, women have access to Karen's Fund to help them during this time.

SO needless to say, we're always more than happy to donate our services to the event. We've done a photo-booth at it for the past few years (photos of which will be available in a future post as it's always a fantastic time...you wouldn't BELIEVE the amazing costumes people rocked this year), however, this year we also did some product shots for one of the new pieces of the event: The 'Art Bras'.

This year, the committee teamed up with 7 local artists who donated their time and talent to creating "Art Bras" which were then modelled in a mini-fashion show during the event by lovely local ladies!

The diversity in the pieces were amazing as you'll see by the shots...everything from feathers, to paint, to body casts...all unique and incredibly crafted!

They were modelled at the event and then put on display for the silent auction-all of which were snapped up by some lucky bidders by the end of the night! (I totally got out-bid on a few of them...don't worry this is Brianne writing this not Gary)

So check em' out! HUGE thank you to the artists and the models who donated their time to this event...we're already looking forward to next year!

Artist: Rosemary Scanlon   http://www.rosemaryscanlon.com/  

Artist: Jessica Vellenga  http://jessicavellenga.com/

 Artist: Janelle Hardy

Artist: Amber Church  http://craftchick.wordpress.com/

Artist: Amber Walker

Artist: Claire Strauss

Artist: Shauna Jones http://www.angrysheepdesigns.com/

Staff, corporate, or even family group photos... GBP style!

We have been doing more of this style of group photos lately, so I thought maybe I should tell you guys a bit about it.

Above is an example of a staff/corporate group photo... but done in a different way. Instead of lining everyone up in front of the office plant collection, we shoot everyone separately, or in groups of 2 or 3. We then later cut them out and piece them back together in a any sort of position. This has a few key advantages:

1. Not all of your staff has to be shot at the same, time allowing your business to keep running.
2. We can make sure that each person looks their best.... rather than having 7 people looking great and that one guy in mid blink... which is normal of larger group photos.
3. If you have staff turn-over.... no need to reshoot the whole thing.. we can just take that person out and add the new person in.
4. Eliminates distracting elements from your group photo, and focuses the viewer on your staff.

Plus we can shoot this just about anywhere there is enough room to set up our equipment! So if you're saying to yourself "Dang Gary that is a sweet idea... how do I get a shot like that for my office?" just shoot us an email.

info@garybremner.com

GB

Couples in the Cold...

So in gearing up for theYukon wedding season, we're also starting to book up fast with engagement shoots...

This means we've had to learn to be strategic...finding places hidden out of the wind, (or at least rest areas in between shots), finding gloves that allow us to still work our trigger fingers without getting frost-bite, and of course it always helps when we work with couples who are willing to brave the elements and still look great!

This brings me to one of our latest...these guys were only in town for a week over the holidays, so even though it was frigid outside, they wanted to brave it to make sure we got some out-door shots. Luckily, even though the wind was relentless, the lighting that day was beautiful and we were able to hit up a few different locations before we all called it quits and needed to warm up.

Looking forward to working with these guys again this summer in some warmer temps...

Newfoundlander Nuptials

Well believe it or not, even though it's been a balmy -38 here in Whitehorse these past few days, it's that time of year again that we start getting booked up for the summer wedding season! This is kind of nice because as we start having our consultations and prepping for our summer schedule, we get to envision the sunshine, the ability to wear dresses with sandals again (well, that's mostly me, but who knows, maybe Gary will show off more leg this summer after all), and of course beautiful outdoor shoots where we don't just about loose fingers due to frost bite!! Ohhhhhh summer...how we love you...

And that's why we figured we'd give you all a taste of one of our last weddings we shot this past summer to take you to a nice warm place, even if just for a few minutes...

As you may have noticed from one of our earlier posts, we got the chance to shoot a few east coast weddings this summer, the last of which being this one we did in Corner Brook Newfoundland!  Having gone to school out east (I'm an X grad) it's always so fun to get back out to that side of Canada and it's amazing  people...whether it's Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, or PEI you're bound to find some friendly faces, and this wedding was chalk full of them.  The other bonus is that in NFLD, they call everyone 'my love'...Who wouldn't love that!?!?

Anyways, back to the point...here's a few photos to take you back to summer and hopefully warm you up on these cold winter days...

Yukon Winter

One of our favourite things about living in the Yukon is that summer or winter, it is always beautiful.  I know it sounds cliche, but I swear it's actually the truth is it not!?  So even though we battle with the cold and the snow from time to time, we try to take advantage of on-location/outdoor shoots every chance we get...

This family shoot we did before Christmas was no exception.  We have a series of trails right behind our place so we were able to take a short walk to get some great shots of these guys hanging out, making snowmen, and just spending time together as a family.  When things got too cold we just resorted to some relay races and group huddles...

And as a side note, although it looks like we abandoned the baby in the snow we did not...he was just so comfy chillin' by himself we had to get a shot of it!

2012 Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Queen Candidates!

Welcome to the first GBP Blog post of the new year.... hope you all had a great holiday season and are back and feeling refreshed. Now on to the meat and potatoes.... Rendezvous... Ya, I know its still a bit early to be thinking about this Yukon institution of old timey goodness.... however it's getting closer and I cant wait any longer to share some pictures with you. We are super excited this year because we have had the opportunity to hook up with the Rendezvous Society, who has been working hard to make some changes to the festival and we are stoked to be a part of it! One of the parts we got to shoot this year is the famous Queen candidate portraits. We shot all 12 ladies in a span of 2 days in early Dec right here in our studio. It was probably the 2 busiest days that we have ever had here at GBP. Bill Murray (our Newfoundland Dog studio mascot) has never had so many new friends and belly scratches in such a short period of time. Thanks to all of the girls for being so great to work with. Oh and please let us know what you think of the new look this year by way of the comments below.

Here you go the 2012 Queen Candidates........

How quickly do these kids grow up anyways!?

It's a question we often ask ourselves...
As family photographers, we've gotten the chance to be a part of some very special moments in our clients lives...from engagements to marriages to first children, we're able to be there to see them grow, change and experience 'firsts'. To this day we're still amazed at how quickly these little ones are able to grow not only in height, but in personality over just a few months...mini people are the.best.ever.

This family is no exception. So far we've done a maternity shoot, a newborn shoot, and even a pet shoot with them!   This fall, we were able to hang out with them for this little lady's 6 month birthday, and we were blown away by how much she's grown! The smiles were non-stop, and i must say she has the most diverse set of stuffed animals we've seen yet...(note the ant eater...and the fact that her parents are both biologists!)

We can't wait to see what she's up to in another 6 months! Or what her first real pet is going to be...

T'is the season...

Now this isn't scientifically based or anything, but i'm pretty sure there's been a baby boom happening here in Whitehorse over the past few months...

Our maternity and newborn sessions have been booking up like crazy, which is never a bad thing because if babies know how to do do one thing as soon as they come into this world, it's be cute...Yes, that's whether they're awake or sleeping, crying or smiling,  or even pooping for that matter...THAT part IS science.  They've got a good life goin on...what can we say....

So what better way to celebrate the baby boom than to show you some photos from one of our most recent newborn shoots.  We had the pleasure of doing these guy's maternity photos as well, which makes the newborn session all that more special as we've been patiently waiting for the new arrival. (You see we get to have the excitement and anticipation without having to go through the labour...this job has it's perks after all!)

As you can see, she's about to become the family's  favourite christmas present...

Yukon Arts...

One of the things we love the most about living in the Yukon is the amazing arts community that we have.   We are so lucky to be surrounded by a huge variety of incredibly talented, passionate and artistic people.  So, anytime we get to work with artists, be it headshots, band promotional shots, event coverage, theatre work, etc. we are stoked to be able to be contributing and supporting this amazing community.

The variety of events we get to cover/shoot don't hurt either...just this past month we both got to see our very first opera show! (Did you know their voices could go that high without cracking!? Impressive to say the least...)

Anyways, we thought we would take the time to share a few images from one of our recent headshot sessions with the always lovely and talented Katherine McCallum.  Katherine is currently in the Sour Brides Theatre and Guild Hall co-production of "Boston Marriage". The show runs until Dec. 3rd here in Whitehorse, with a show in Dawson on Nov. 28th as well.  Check it out if you get the chance...what better way to spend a wintery Yukon evening than at the theatre!