Lisbon 2015

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It has been 5 months since my trip to Europe. I finally got around to Lisbon, Portugal images. To be fair, Lisbon accounted for over 65% of the overall pictures from the whole trip. I condensed it to about 170 photos, which I won't post here obviously. Here are just a few to a more general audience. 

So, I can't say enough about that fuji x100 camera. I took it to Orlando and loved it, and this time I took it to Europe and it was fantastic. It is amazing because I don't care that much about it, so I can bring it everywhere even when I am drinking hard for the night. It is also small enough to put in my jacket or small bag if I get sick of carrying it. The most important part of course is the quality and ease of use and... it passed. The quality is very good especially since I am shooting jpegs with this, and the metering is phenomenal. I wonder, what the more expensive brothers of this camera would be like?  I normally use a Nikon d800 and sure I can slap on a 35mm lens and it is basically the same, but it is not. It is a little heavier, little bulkier, and little everything, but mostly a lot more expensive and not a camera I bring in some unknown alleyway super wasted.  Sure it will take 10 percent of the shots I can't make with the FUJI, but the key here is FUJI is more than good enough. What it lacks in image quality and functionality, it makes up for always being there to take the images I wished I would have taken but didn't because I didn't bring my D800.

Anyhow, Lisbon was truly an amazing city to visit. The climate, the lifestyle, the view and the people are amazing. It is kind of like a warmer, super densely populated version of Ottawa with more history, and a nightlife. Beer was cheap, people were super nice, lots of outdoor hangouts, food was cheap, can walk everywhere, and the place is just beautiful.

Dillon

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Recent shoot with Dillon. Dillon is a director for plays and theatre here in Ottawa. He came to me for a headshot and something non-traditional. We collaborated on a style, and this was what we ended up with. Funny thing was during the first revision,I had it real dark but figured Dillon would not have liked it this dark. So, I sent him a lighter version. He replied back, "Could you make it darker?".  This almost never happens.

Canadian Automobile Association

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CAA was probably one of my biggest jobs for 2015. It was three days of shooting with many people from different office locations. Just coordinating everyone to show up when they were supposed to was a headache, at least I imagine it was as I didn't have anything to do with it. My friend Tessa coordinated the whole thing for me and it definitely didn't seem very fun at all. Anyhow, thank you Tessa for setting this all up and giving me the opportunity to bid on this job. It was a great experience and everyone was super patient and easy going.

I like doing big corporate headshot contracts because it is good money for me and I also get to meet a lot of people and have that familiar feeling of stress I used to get photographing weddings. The stress where you can potentially muck this up and waste the time of many people.  Luckily, this never happened to me.

I have noticed some similarities through a few corporate shoots. This is purely from my limited experience but...

  • 50 % don't want to be photographed and are there because they have to
  • 5 % sabotage their own picture by holding on to their non-interest by not being prepared (didn't do hair, makeup etc), just to realize "oh crap, ready or not these pics are going to be on the website"
  • You know when you see yourself on video and you look and sound weird? Well, this seems to be the case with headshots. Some people are outright shocked at what they look like. 
  • 99 percent of people say "I am not photogenic", right after they say hi to me. Reality is everyone is photogenic in some shape or form.
  • The people who seemingly don't care about how they look, are the people who spend the most time agonizing over their selection, and requesting more time. 

Money is always the killer of creativity. I often spend an hour with people when they come to me for headshots. We usually get something nice within 15 minutes, but in an hour, you keep getting better and better images. It also gives you time to experiment, and relax. Unfortunately with corporate gigs, it would be impossible to stay within budget to allow for that amount of time. I do hope one day I will get a crazy gig where time and budget is not a factor, and non-traditional headshot are the deliverable.