Last Satuday, the 21st of November, a bunch of random artists and performers got together to create Victoria’s first Nuit Blanche.  It was to be an unofficial event, unlike Toronto’s Nuit Blanche sponsored by ScotiaBank and invloving government and galleries.   The idea was to come out around 10pm and create or display something that would disappear by the next morning.  When I first heard about it, I knew I had to be a part of it, but I couldn’t think of what to do.  Photography doesn’t lend itself well to outdoor displays, and it’s not typically a performance art.

I finally came up with an idea to recreate our  Candy for your Portrait experiment, which my friend Irene and I tried randomly one cold day in February at the inner harbour in order to get some group shots for a portrait class I was taking.  Of course, I didn’t come up with this idea until the day that submissions were due, so I spent all day asking friends and coworkers for advice on how to make it happen.  I wanted it to be more than just me with a camera and a friend handing out candy, like it was last time.  I wanted it to be interactive and fun. I wanted people to see what we were doing on the spot.  I had the idea to project the images on a wall as we took them, but I had no idea how to pull it off.   With help, I figured out that we needed a generator to run the projector.  I spent the next few days trying to figure out how to get and use a projector and generator, with the help of many people.

I wasn’t sure if I could get this all together, as I’ve never tried to put together so many elements and people for one event.  But thankfully a lot of people responded to my pleas for help.  I learned that delegating to people who really want to help is super easy.  Aaron volunteered to get the candy and he brought along his studio light.  Phil agreed to rent a generator, since I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how to get or use one (though I did have some great advice on what kind to get).  Lynn brought a folding table that she happened to have in her car.  A bunch of other people showed up to help out and made the whole process a ton of fun:  Irene, Eileen, Khanh, Emily, and Jon.  Other friends stopped by throughout the night and a bunch of wonderful strangers posed for us.  We got a lot of compliments about how fun it was.  I was even surprised how interesting it was to see the photos instantly projected on a building in Trounce Alley.  People were captivated by seeing themselves and their friends up there larger than life.  Another Nuit Blanche group stopped by with their paper mache deer sculptures, people gave us glow necklaces, people played hacky sack with us, and someone left us a cute bouncy ball in exchange for the candy.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped out or posed for us or gave me some technical guidance.

All in all, it was a super fun night.  We checked out the other installations and I was impressed with what can come together in the middle of the night in this often sleepy city: a saucy pirate fire show, origami in trees, random art installations, and a whole bunch of smiling people.

See the individual shots larger (click on the grid above to see the full version of it)  Other photos in lower quality are on Facebook.  Note: I didn’t shoot all of these. Aaron shot a large percentage of them and other members of our group shot some too.  I didn’t want this to be my event, but our event.  All of ours (the photographers, the helpers, and the subjects).

A group of friends and I got together, dragged out a ton of gear (laptop, projector, generator, studio light, cameras, etc), and put on an interactive art project at Victoria’s Nuit Blanche.  We offered people candy to let us take their photo and I’m putting together a grid of headshots, hopefully to be posted soon.  The rest of the photos will be posted on the Facebook event page when they’re ready, also hopefully soon.

Here’s a shot of my posse, and some cool people who came and posed for us.  Jon took this shot.  More about the event later.

Oh, and thanks for the glowsticks!

I shot the wedding ceremony and portraits for Lyndsey and Brennan on Halloween.  I was afraid it would rain, which is typical for Halloween in Victoria, but it was a gorgeous, sunny day.  These two deserved it.  They were so sweet and adorable.  Stylish too.  The red and black colours totally worked with the feel of Halloween.  And his tux had tails.   Awesome.

The ceremony was held at the Pemberton Memorial Chapel at Royal Jubilee in Victoria.  The light in the chapel was really gorgeous and bright enough that I never had to use my flash.  I couldn’t help but snap a few shots of the chapel from different angles.

We headed down to Gonzales Beach for some bridal party portraits in the very bright sun.  This is my first time doing bridal party portraits and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with a group of people.  Anyway, I made some silly suggestions (i.e. “bride and groom kiss and everyone else make a face”, “now everyone point at the couple”).  It worked out pretty well, I think.

I love her tattoos.    I love shooting a girl in a big, girly, white dress with cool tattoos.

I’m going to admit a flaw in my work to you, dear readers (and potential clients, eek!), in the hopes that it will help you better understand me and will help me grow as a photographer.

I suck at posing.

When I shoot portraits, I typically let people pose themselves. I usually ask them to stand or sit in a certain location and then just shoot away. I ask them for suggestions of what kind of shots they what and what kind of poses. I try to get them to show their personalities.  I try to make them laugh and be silly.  Sure, I can pose people in a way to make them look really good. I even have a book on it. But I find traditional poses very boring.  I want to see people for who they truly are.

I find letting people come up with their own poses creates the best photos, really showing off their personalities. For example, for the photo below from a Halloween wedding I just shot, I asked Lyndsey and Brennan to stand on the stairs, with one of them standing a few steps higher and both on opposite sides of the stairs. They were looking at each other and I suggested Brennan reach out his hand toward Lyndsey. I thought it might look cheesy, but sometimes cheesy makes the best photos. I stopped giving instruction and just took a bunch of photos. She took his hand. Then the below happened. Perfect Halloween wedding portrait. And it’s all them. You’re not going to get that if you’re constantly ordering people around. Sometimes our weaknesses can be our strengths.

Note that this probably isn’t the final edit, and the web format isn’t great for dark photos.