Author Jeff Rubin's New Book: The Carbon Bubble

Detail from book jacket author photo of Jeff Rubin

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph bestselling author and economist Jeff Rubin. His new book The Carbon Bubble What Happens To Us When It Bursts is available May 12, 2015. You can read more about it on Penguin Random House's website. The book is currently available for pre-order online at Amazon, Chapters-Indigo and McNally Robinson.

Jeff was gracious and accommodating as we rearranged his furniture and invaded his personal space for the better part of an afternoon. We had, as usual, brought more equipment than we ultimately needed, which really should always be the case, since otherwise we're using the backup gear, meaning something's gone wrong! 

We knew we wanted a more casual feel so while we started with a jacket we quickly progressed to a couple of different, more casual shirts. As the shoot was scheduled on very short notice Jeff was his own wardrobe stylist, assisted by me. One option we both really liked was his new blue plaid linen shirt (Harry Rosen), but it was so bold we switched out of it pretty quickly. Thankfully I caught the fact that the collar was folded wrong in the first few frames so when we ended up choosing one of those as an option (of course!), although it was a bit of a pain, I was able to composite his head from that frame onto the shirt from another frame to solve the problem. (Honestly, I didn't really need to do this, because they're probably not even using this shot, but I couldn't stand the fact that a potentially usable frame had a giant deal-breaking flaw in it, so I challenged myself to fix it as quickly, but seamlessly as possible. If they want to use this one, now they can!)
 

Finally, a quick thanks to Cedric Swaneck my intrepid assistant who can set up a Photoflex OctoDome way faster than I can. We didn't end up using it. But setting it up for nothing wasted a surprisingly small amount of time!

Available May 12 Penguin Random House

Art of an Actress

After a bit of a break from doing these I was excited to do a new creative-person-in-her-space portrait with my friend Kate who has a background as a professional actress. The potential to do something really fun was obvious. I scouted her house for possible locations. I must say, I cannot help but get a  warm, fuzzy feeling when someone tells me, with some trepidation, that their place is small and kind of cluttered. These words fill me with joyful anticipation and I was not disappointed. The second I saw the family music nook, I knew we had our spot. Fortunately, Kate's family are warm and generous and artists themselves, so they indulged my needing to move their furniture and belongings all over the place without blinking. In fact, they often move the furniture around, themselves, to accommodate various filmic and photographic undertakings, so I admit I was a little thrown when I arrived and discovered that many of the things I remembered being in the nook, and wanted there, were not. Note to self...always bring the reference shots to the shoot. We found most of the props (I'm calling their stuff props), but I knew something was missing and it wasn't until after the shoot that I figured out it was the Christmas garland I had loved and anticipated using. I somewhat made up for its absence by making the hanging triangle move. Then I stressed for a while thinking about where to get a garland and when/how to shoot it so I could add it in during post. But in the end, I decided against doing that, feeling it really wasn't necessary. Now I'm looking at it again and wondering, though...(Stop it! There's enough going on!)

On to lighting. It was always going to be a lot about the lighting. And that's when I hit obstacle number two: hardwood floors. The one thing about this kind of fluid lighting is that nothing can move, not the camera, not the set, and, for at least a few of the frames, not the subject. I realized as I checked focus over and over that something was throwing the focus off, and it had to be some slight movement. It was the floor. Old house, wooden floor: bounce. Not good. But too bad! I decided to do like the artist, played, I think, by Catherine Keener (who I love) in the movie Synecdoche, New York, 2008. Her art exhibit requires viewers to don head-mounted magnifiers so they can see the tiny, tiny art. I LOVED that scene (or scenes...pardon the faulty memory). So, my art will, similarly, just have to be small, too. Not that small. But sadly, this image is just not going to be able to be shown really big, or the slightly compromised sharpness will be apparent. (That said, you can see it a lot bigger than this in the Creative People section of my website.)

This lighting technique, once again, left me needing to take many bits and pieces of different frames and composite them together post-shoot. I'm not even sure how many I ended up using. Quite a few. But I got what I wanted, which was, essentially, one page out of a make- believe illustrated work of fiction and imagination, inspired by a lovely mum and a music nook.

Thanks, again, to the inimitable Christine Cho of Christine Cho Beauty. Collaborating with her is always a joy. 

I'll sign off with a picture of me lighting the triangle...I am not supposed to be showing up there. 

Latest Lensbaby Portrait

I don't know how many years ago it was that I bought my first Lensbaby lens, but I remember being so excited that finally there was going to be a way to somewhat mimic, on a 35mm camera, the tilt and shift aesthetic I used to achieve with my 4x5 view camera. Not exactly, but it was a start. In the case of the Lensbaby, unlike a 4x5, you have to manually bend the lens into position and hold it there with your fingers while you release the shutter. This can be incredibly challenging and depending on the aperture you choose -- the wider ones exacerbate the blurry edge effect -- you can find yourself missing a  lot of shots. I realized immediately that as fun as it was to create images with this lens it wasn't going to have a lot of commercial application. Until Lensbaby came out with the 3G which allows you to lock the lens into position. As long as you weren't shooting anything moving this was a huge leap forward as now you could step away from the set and not lose focus and have to start all over again, every frame.

After my first Lensbaby but before the 3G I bought a 2.0 which incorporated magnetized aperture rings, a big improvement over the cardboard ones in the previous version. I used the 2.0 for many what I'd call candid portraits and got a lot of interesting and flattering portraits of my favourite subjects - people who don't like having their picture taken. Honestly, there's nothing more satisfying than creating a successful portrait of someone who doesn't think that's even possible. And doing it really quickly and in an unusual and creative way. (I also shot a lot of still lifes, but that's another topic for another time.) 

After adding their modular wide angle with macro lens to my kit, I finally bought what I'd say is my favourite Lensbaby lens combo of all, the Control Freak with the Edge 80. I can't be the only customer of theirs who now owns a lens with their secret nickname on it. (No, not "Edge", although I like that.) This combo incorporates a longer lens length than the original Lensbabies, allows focus and position locking, and has replaced the all around blur with more of a pseudo tilt shift capability, in that the focus falls off from one side to another instead of in a circular pattern; in other words, as they say on their website, you get a "slice of sharp focus, bordered by blur."

There aren't a ton of paying jobs for which I've used these lenses, but I still pull them out when I want to take that extra step away from harsh reality and step into a visually modified, more surrealistic realm, where my subject and I can be surprised and delighted by our captures, over and over again.

This portrait of my friend of a zillion years, commercial director Pete Henderson of Someplace Nice, came about because I wanted to test my new hand painted canvas backdrop. Of course, using a focus- destroying (in a good way) lens like the Lensbaby 2.0 kind of negated the testing of the background part of the exercise, as you can hardly see it. But I did, somewhat serendipitously, end up with a few unexpectedly telling and intimate portraits. Thanks, Pete.

Personal Branding Photography

Years and years of shooting for commercial, editorial and corporate clients have resulted in my being very well positioned to offer a high quality version of one of the newest trends in individual self-promotion: personal branding photography. There are two relevant articles from the Globe and Mail to which I can direct you with these links: Article 1, Article 2.

As with any kind of photography for which someone is going to pay, there is going to be, and should be, an expectation of a fully professional approach. The parameters will vary depending on the nature of the client's business(es) and her goals and focus. But as more and more women, in particular, enter the ranks of small, medium and large business owners in Canada, they are requiring more effective ways to brand themselves and, essentially, support their legitimacy in the minds of media savvy clients and customers. Nothing is as reassuring as authentic portraits that exude the professionalism, attitude, and integrity you, as a successful and trustworthy person in business, embody.

It's amazing how many bad photos there are in online profiles (from selfies, to professional photos that are just not flattering). You can think all you want that how you look should not have anything to do with your success in business or in life, but people do, at least initially, judge books by their covers, so you may as well put forth the best cover you can! 

In the case of the successful and well-established independent business owner pictured here, we spent about four hours between scouting her home office, choosing wardrobe, enhancing her make-up (with which I helped personally as we did not hire a make-up artist), setting up in three different spots and shooting. We went with the most pared down version of a session in that it was just the two of us...no assistant, no hair and make-up, no wardrobe stylist, one location. Had it not been mid-winter and snow-covered outside, we may have added an outdoor shot, if appropriate, to round out the profile. Simple as the shoot was was, though, I will just mention that each shot was carefully lit. I can't believe I'm saying this (because there should be no question) but yes, even the simplest shoot requires lighting. 

Once we completed the session Laurie was able to view a password protected web gallery from which she could download unretouched low res Jpegs for her use. She also selected several favourite images with my help which were then professionally retouched. These files were provided as high res master TIFs and will be the ones she uses for print and collateral marketing materials, and specific requests such as those by clients and organizations requiring profile materials in support of speaking engagements, contributions, etc.

I look forward to collaborating on many more of these comfortable, but energetic, intimate but professional shoots with other accomplished, inspiring and entrepreneurial women*, who understand the value of polished personal profile imagery.

*What about men? The next great personal branding shoot I do for a male client I will review on this blog, with his permission, of course.

2015 Mini-Calendar by Finesilver Design

 A huge thanks once again Martin to Finesilver, Mark Smith and Laurie Reifel of Finesilver Design as well as Stew Miller of Ideal Printing for making this year's limited edition mini-calendar possible! The theme for my version of the calendar is captured in this quotation from Junichiro Tanizaki:

"We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, light and darkness which that thing provides."

We had decided to photograph objects that were either mostly or completely white, on a partially white background. And for white on white, lighting is everything!

While the subject matter for the Finesilver version of the calendar included only objects from nature, I spread my net a little wider and opted for simple objects that were basically pretty simple and mostly white, but also just appealed to me visually and for which I could envision interesting and creative treatments. 

Originally, I planned to use different backgrounds for each image, but quickly found that I preferred the effect of the small blue and white acrylic one I had painted for one of the shots. I ended up using that background plus another slightly bigger one I also painted, and actually had to reshoot at least one shot so that the backgrounds would ultimately be consistent. It was worth it, though, as we ended up with a really great little series of still lifes. (To see my favourites click on this link to my website: hollinrake.com) And I, once again, had the satisfaction of succeeding at one of my favourite photographic challenges: starting with something either fairly mundane, or something beautiful but much photographed and rendering it interestingly, and hopefully a bit differently. 

Of course, I must briefly acknowledge that as it happens, I chose for this post the image of the one thing I shot that falls into neither of those categories. This small plaster bust is beautiful but may never have been photographed for all I know. I knew that lighting it carefully, in a specific way would bring out it's beauty in a way that it just didn't effectively project, itself, sitting under ambient room light. I found it in a fantastic gift shop I happened upon totally by accident driving along Queen near Parliament (called Adornments on Queen) which is absolutely overflowing with fabulous "adornments" of all kinds. Coincidentally the friendly, cool guy running the store turned out to be a photographer I hadn't seen in years (exploring his retail side). Oh, and I wanted to acknowledge the sculptor, but there's no indication of who it is. If anyone knows, let me know!

The organza pouches for the calendars have been held for ransom by the courier company competing for the title "most hated by Canadians," but once I get them (I've now paid the shipping/handling fee on top of the shipping/handling fee), I'll have the pleasure of giving these little gifts to my trusted and valued clients. 



 

Happy Holidays!

On the off chance that anyone wondered about the image on this year's Christmas card I thought I'd post a brief explanation here. I know the image looks a little like an illustration, but it's not. It's a photograph of a small paper Christmas tree I made just for the card. I was inspired by my recent photo shoot for the 2015 version of Finesilver Design's, and Hollinrake Photography's mini-calendar featuring white or mostly white objects on a partially white, partially blue painted background. As I often do with still life subjects, I shot the Christmas tree several times, lighting it differently each time, and combined partial layers to create the one final image, thus the slightly surreal effect. I also used a cool light source and enhanced the blueness of the shadows to get the overall blue-ish appearance. And then applied a subtle glow filter to the whole thing. 

This image is a bit more effective viewed larger than this, so hopefully if you are reading this you've already seen it in higher res, and greater detail.

Happy holidays and happy 2015!

Wizard Of Ads

As I write this, my friend of many years Director Pete Henderson has just joined boutique production company Someplace Nice, based in Toronto after a successful run with Steam Films. One of his upcoming projects is a reality TV show, at this stage called Wizard of Ads, being pitched by Fadoo Productions. One of the characters in the show will be Pete's 1970 Chevy Malibu, the pre-souped up version of which he inherited from his grandmother in 1995. (I gather Pete doesn't think his grandmother would approve of the new engine.)

To add to the supporting promotional imagery (I shot Pete in studio for the initial pitch), we thought we'd take some pictures of Pete and the car, ostensibly on one of the road trips which will create the narrative framework for the series. And we thought of this about a week or two too late. Imagining the rich and brilliant fall tableaux we'd find around Caledon and The Forks of The Credit we waited for a perfect weather day, jump-started the Malibu and roared out of the underground parking lot to head off to the countryside. The closer we got, the more clear it became that winter had come, seemingly considerably sooner north of the city than downtown's trees would have suggested.

We searched for a suitable location. But finally, with heaviness in our hearts and a couple of lame pictures in the can, we turned around to head back to Toronto and almost drove right past this lovely hold out. Actually we did drive past it. But Pete spotted it as we whizzed by, and yelled "Is that what you want?!" or something like that. Just in time, I turned my head to his side of the highway and said "Yes!" So we did a safe and legal U-turn and pulled into what looked a lot like an empty lot until we realized that the perfectly leaf covered dirt driveway we were on led straight round to a partially obscured house nestled behind a hedge and a bunch of trees. 

Pete bravely and correctly wandered over to the house and called in a friendly voice to see if anyone was home, and decided nobody was. This was true, until the elderly woman who lives there returned from walking her dog and found us doing a photo shoot in her yard. Luckily, I hadn't got my lights out of the car. We chatted a few minutes and told her what we were doing there (sort of, but not really). (Sorry!) I offered to do a portrait of her and her dog but she declined. We took a few more pictures with her permission and got out of there. 

And I would have been pretty happy with what we got if Pete hadn't been wearing, as part of his shoot wardrobe, a purple sweatshirt, with white trim. ("Bring mid-tones, nothing too dark, no black, something like what you'd actually wear on one of your trips," I'd said. "Some options would be good.") His t-shirt under the sweatshirt was black. And the only other piece of wardrobe he brought was a black Hugo Boss jacket. Really. There'd better be someone taking care of wardrobe if this show happens. 

Anyway, I guess we can always change the colour of the sweatshirt in post if one of these pics is actually needed. I think Pete wants smoke coming out of the engine, too. So we may need to add that. In the meantime, here's hoping the pitches go well and we get to see Pete do his inimitable thing on TV!