Halloween on Davie Street

Gia and Coco
There's no better place to spend halloween than in Vancouver's Gay Village. People really take it seriously there, and it's a way better vibe than on Granville Street, where you risk getting your head caved in if you pull out a camera. In true Vancouver fashion, it was raining like crazy the Saturday night before Halloween when I shot these.











Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D2x
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8

Timothy Taylor

These are from an Urban Pie story on prolific Vancouver writer and best selling author Timothy Taylor. Taylor has a great office in the turn of the century (the last century, that is) Dominion Building, that made for some great photo locations.

When we arrived on the 12th floor, I fell in love with the central staircase that ran through the middle of the foyer. It's one of those old fashion staircases with a central well that you could look all the way down to the ground floor. Timothy warned me that Mark Mushet, another Vancouver photographer, had already photographed him there on the stairs, but I didn't care. The old wooden doors and wood panelled office also made for great locations.





Tech Stuff
This shoot caused me a lot of problems, not so much technically, but that my camera decided to take a dump in the middle of the shoot. I set my flash up, and it wouldn't fire. I grabbed a spare flash, and the same thing. I managed to get it to work for a few shots, and that was enough to get what I needed without having to go to the spare camera. After I finished, I drove straight to Richmond where the Nikon service centre is located, and told them to over haul the camera.

Lighting-wise, I used Honl Snoot on an SB-900, and then SB-800 flash for the B&W images. The Honl is a terrific tool for high contrast, dramatic lighting, especially when you don't have a lot of time to work in. The photo of Timothy in his office was shot with the available lighting during the interview.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 and SB-800 flashes, controlled by SU-800. Honl 9" speed snoot.

Vancouver Buffoonery Workshops

Trilby Jeeves and her VanArts class of Buffoons.
Based on the teachings of Jacques Lecoq of Paris, "Le Bouffon" is a clown of sorts- an intelligent clown, perhaps, from the depths of our earth. Its pleasure is to mock and to imitate the absurdities of the human being (we do strange things!). They get sheer joy at playing their opinions (and they tend to be exaggerated in their appearances!) There is no limit to the expressions of "Le Bouffon".....

I had a great time shooting this story for the Urban Pie. It was actually the first story I had come up, but I wasn't able to catch up with Trilby Jeeves, the course instructor and champion of Vancouver Buffoonery,  until yesterday.  This is the last Buffoonery class of the VanArts acting program, and I was able to sit in on part of it.

I've been working on multimedia slideshows and did a quick one from this shoot.  There's some extra photos and an interview with Trilby here.






Facial expressions are a critical part of the course


The Buffoons don't break character for anything, not even a photo shoot.


Trilby Jeeves


Costumes left over after the class

Terminal City Rollerderby

I'm starting to really enjoy shooting for the Urban Pie, and it hasn't even started to publish yet! Last night I got to spend the evening shooting a Roller Derby match at the Kerisdale Arena between the Faster Pussy Cats and Atomic City, presented by Terminal City Rollergirls. It was an absolute blast, and about 1700 screaming Vancouver hipsters came to enjoy the show.









Tech Stuff:
While the event organizers had provided lighting for the derby, it was woefully inadequate for normal photography, especially of an action sport. For the first time I set the ISO on my Nikon D700 all the way to ISO 8000, or 0.3 boost from the maximum native ISO of 6400. I have to say it worked really well. There was a mix of lighting sources in there, so I did a custom white balance using an Expodisc.

Camera: Nikon d700
Lens: AF-S 70-200mm VR f/2.8

Sweet Soul Burlesque

Crystal Precious and Burgundy Brixx
I've helped to launch two independent newspapers based in Squamish, both published by my friend Alan Forsythe. It's been so much fun that he decided to start another one in Vancouver, the Urban Pie. A part of our lead up to the first edition, I spent yesterday shooting for the first feature stories, Sweet Soul Burlesque and the Rio Theatre.

Crystal Precious, leader of the Sweet Soul Burlesque Troop and Burgundy Brixx are a big part of the vibrant Vancouver burlesque scene, and can be seen in live shows around the city.


MC Purrfessor, Burgundy Brixx, and Crystal Precious

The Rio Theatre

Daniel Gagliano, Alex Chisholm, Corinne Lea, Paul Hendriks, and Chris Redmond.
This is an assignment for an upcoming edition of Urban Pie that we're hoping to launch at the end of April. The Rio Theatre is an old 30's era movie palace that's been restored as a movie theatre and live event venue, and is a really cool looking place. It's right in the heart of Vancouver's Commercial Drive area, and well worth stopping in for a show.


In the projection booth.


Corinne Lea, the diminutive and energetic owner of the Rio

Granville Street, Vancouver

Having spent all of Friday following a couple of government cabinet ministers around, I decided to take some personal time to hang out on Granville Street and take in some of the revelry. A good time was had by all.