Linh Lee

I recently came across the super talented Linh Lee. Who is a photographer, retoucher, MUAH artist, and model. I asked her if she worked with photographers for her self-portraits, or if she shot them herself. Her answer? "So you mean you want to shoot me?" haha yes, yes I do!So we ventured on down to Vancouver Photo Studios, She threw on some cool outfits and fun tunes, and we rocked out and got some great stuff!All lighting is Elinchrom strobes and modifiers.. I'll pop a BTS for one of the looks at the bottom of the post! :D 

Jelka In London

Last summer I was a groomsman for one of my best friends, Brandon Hart (a great photographer as well!) as he married Faye Smith (amazing makeup and hair artist!) in England.It was an absolutely magical time as we spent a few days beforehand at Faye's parents place in Birmingham, then the wedding at Ettington Park Hotel in Stratford. After the wedding, I jaunted over to London to spend a few days wandering and checking out the city.Since I had my camera with me, I joined a local Facebook group for models and photographers, and worked out a little meet up with the absolutely wonderful Jelka.We met up at King's Cross station (what a mind blowing train station!), and shot there and around the area for about an hour. I'm already dying to get back there to shoot again, the place has endless possibilities for outdoor shoots!! :D 

Honami In Japan

Way back in 2007 when I was just a young lad, I got the crazy idea to move to Japan for a year. I had become interested in the culture and the people after working at a coffee shop mostly staffed by folks from Japan. While there I did what any responsible twenty-something with a brand new credit card would do, bought my first camera :D I got myself a Canon 30D and a 28-135 lens and started learning the ins and outs of the camera.. with lots of horrible photos. Little did I know that 3 years later I'd be pursuing a career as a photographer.Anyways, although the desire to return to Japan has always been strong, I hadn't had the ability to do so.. until the fall of 2017, departing almost 10 years to the day as my original voyage. This time around I had a Nikon D700 (decided to leave the 810 at home), a speedlight, and a photek softlighter. Thanks to my mate Alfie, an extremely talented photographer who has lived in Japan for about 20 years, I was introduced to Kyoko at Bellona Models who in turn organized for Honami to come and shoot with me.We headed out to Asakusa in the area around Senso-ji Temple and got some great shots!! Can't wait to get back there again for more shoots :) 

Marisol Nichols

 I was super excited when C'est Prune Magazine contacted me to shoot a cover with Marisol Nichols. I knew that I'd have to put together a great team, and wewere going to get some killer images. The uber talented Marlayna Pincott  and Carla Pedersen  jumped on board for makeup/hair and styling respectively.The homie Sean Rees parked his mobile home next to Buddhaful, our location for the shoot, and just woke up and helped me with some assisting :PThis shoot was a bit difficult as we initially had intended the location to be closed while we were shooting..welllll it wasn't so we were in a live cafe while shooting, so it was a bit of a challenge to both shoot with no customers in the frame and to not make it look like a cafe.Also I got a bit of a scare as I was on location setting up, Marisol had just arrived, and then Marlayna called me to let me know her and Carla were stuck in her underground parking due to a power outage!! We got the ladies to haul all the makeup and clothing upstairs, jump in a taxi and make their way to North Van!!!All lighting was very simple, an Elinchrom Dlite RX4 head fitted with the 100cm Elinchrom Deep Octa.

Testing the Elinchrom ELB1200

 The first non-speedlight strobe I bought was the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS. An 1100Ws tank of a portable pack and head system that I still utilize today. Elinchrom has updated this piece of kit and renamed it the ELB1200, and I was super stoked and thankful when they told me they were sending out a unit my way to test. I don't want to get too deep into all the tech specs but if you want to totally nerd out, you can check out everything on Elinchrom's site here. But to break down the main goods..
- 1200Ws of flash power
- 4.7 kg with HD battery
- 1.7s recycle time at full power
- 1/8850th flash duration at 172Ws (with Action Head)
- Symmetric and Asymmetric output
-400 full power flashes with HD battery
- OLED digital display
- Weatherproof construction
- Ability to utilize Elinchrom HS with the HS head.
- 4000 lumens daylight balanced LED modelling lights.
BATTERIES-
The ELB1200 comes standard with the 'air' battery, it weighs a measly 1.1kg and will give you 215 full power flashes or 80 mins of LED light.- For a bit more capacity, you can add the 'HD' battery, which comes in at 1.5kg and provides 400 full power flashes or 120 mins of LED light.- Both batteries have a USB port on them which allows you to charge mobile devices.
HEADS-
Elinchrom produced 3 different heads that can be used with the ELB1200, all 3 have the same modelling lamp, exterior casing, and weight of 2.2kg.Where these differ is on the inside and the abilities of the flash tubes.- The 'Action' head provides the fastest flash durations for freezing motion at normal sync speeds, pushing out a very respectable 1/8850 at 172Ws in the B channel.- The 'HS' head is optimized for shooting beyond the normal sync speed of your camera in tandem with the Skyport Pro HS transmitter, and will allow you to shoot up to 1/8000 shutter speeds- The 'Pro' head is the best for all around general photography as the flash durations are fast enough to ensure sharpness of non action photos, but also long enough to allow you to cheat past your sync speed a bit depending on the power output and your camera model. At best, this head will give you a 1/5050 flash duration, and on the slower end it hits 1/2130 which makes it possible to squeeze some extra sync out of the head.I was sent out both the 'Pro' and 'Action' heads, so some of my testing was to see their abilities to either freeze motion, or get me into the HS range.While I like the heads from my Ranger, one part I was never a fan of was the tilt and stand mount bracket as it was plasticky and unable to hold heavier 3rd party modifiers. The new heads are equipped with aluminum tilt mechanisms that employ cork friction pads to ensure your mods are kept up the way you like, there is also a better design for the secondary umbrella shaft than on previous heads.Everything on both the pack and heads feel solid and ready to last in real world shooting for plenty of years, and it's almost comical how light this pack is when you factor in its robustness and sheer power. This is much lighter than the Profoto and Broncolor equivalents, and only 1.7kg heavier than the popular 500Ws battery monoheads, I also much prefer to have a lighter head and the weight down on the pack, than flying a 7lb head on a stand, indoors or outdoors. By using the Snappy holder for the pack, you can just hang it from your stand so it acts as a sandbag. Now for the good stuff!!

My first shoot was with the incredible Danielle Eakins (@danielle_eaks01) whom I've had the pleasure of shooting before. All shots of Danielle were done with the action head, which meant I stuck to a normal sync speed of 1/250th

My next shoot was with the multitalented Tyson Hart (@tysonhartw), we headed out to the track in Kerrisdale and had to work around a soccer match happening in the middle of the field. The first shot here was to test the motion freezing capabilities of the action head, and it did pretty well considering Tyson was cooking along pretty fast!

For the next 2 shots I threw on the Pro head and tested out how much I could push my sync speed. these were done at 1/2500 and 1/5000 respectively.

Testing out the portability of the system, I trekked out with Ollie (@Olliegregoryjones) and Hailey (@haileyelisee) for some mountain biking. Each spot took about 25 mins of hiking to get to. I kept the pack in a backpack and left the head on a stand.. ohh and did I mention that we had to drive up a janky road in a beat up Toyota truck??Here's a crop in on Ollie, look at how tack sharp he is here 1/250 f5.6 isn't fast enough to freeze him with natural light. The action head is doing all the heavy lifting and freezing him. Actually, the pack is doing the heavy lifting as it's putting out quite a bit of power to push through the modifier and light him up from a distance away, probably about 10 feet.We hiked out to another spot that didn't quite work out, so I decided to shoot a couple quick portraits of them.

My next shoot was in studio with my good friend and model Emmie (@emmiewong_) I wanted to show how this unit isn't only for rocking outdoors, but is great inside as well. I don't like having to always find power and run long extensions on location. Having a battery based system makes my life a lot easier and helps to work quicker! Also, this is why I loooooooove my Elinchrom 150cm Indirect Octa, it looks like a big friggin' window!

^^^^^^^I decided to utilize the LED modelling lights and get that softer look with a slow shutter speed and shallow DOF.. And then back to some regular stuff! 100cm Deep Octa and another head banging into a V-flat for some fill.

The last shoot I was able to do was with Corinna (@corinna_alexandra) These shots were about pure power, going between f/9 and f/13. The shots in the grassy area are done with the 150cm indirect, so you need a lot of power to get that much juice through a modifier that large in bright sun. The shots in the red dress are with the 100cm Deep Octa as I wanted more punch to the images

Ohh and I did a quick shot of my homie Trevor Fox (@trevarfox) who has always been a willing test subject for me since I started photography..
I really only had one gripe with the kit, and there's 2 easy solutions to remedy this.. I would like the ability to turn off the strobe from firing while using the LED lights.. this is easily remedied by simply taking the transmitter unit off your camera, or a firmware update that gives you the option..either way, no biggie, just something I'd like as during my test I wanted to run one head with LED light and one head as a strobe, but was not possible.All in all, I think this is an amazing piece of kit, it's built extremely well, is feature rich, versatile for use in almost any situation, and offers the reliability that I've come to know and expect from Elinchrom over the years. I would love to add this to my gear stash in the future!! :D
I couldn't have had such a great time with this beauty if it weren't for the support of Elinchrom, so I send my deepest thanks your way!~Cheers~ 

Test shoot with Tanpreet Parmar

After taking literally forever to dive in and buy myself an 85mm prime, I scooped up the Nikon 85mm 1.8G, and it's a beaut!!I put a call out to see if anybody wanted to do a quick shoot and the lovely Tanpreet hit me up. In the last couple of years she'sbeen crowned Miss India Canada 2016/17 and Miss Charity BC 2014, as well as acting as a host on Joy TV.We shot around Olympic Village here in Vancouver for about an hour and a half, and she was soooo easy to shoot!As for the lens, I'm in love. It's tack sharp wide open, fairly quick AF speed, it's insanely light, and handles backlight quite well.It's quite nice to leave the beastly 70-200 at home and jaunt around with one small lens :DAnd now for some images!!

Vikram Vij

Last year while out on a stroll, I happened upon acclaimed the Chef, Vikram Vij. He was standing outside the newest location of Vij's restaurant staring very contemplatively at an exteriorwall of the building. I kindly introduced myself and said that I'd love to shoot a portrait of him for my own portfolio... and what exactly was he looking at?? He told me he was trying to decide about the design elements for the wall and was thinking of adding some vines to bring some greenery to the space. I left him my card and walked away in a much better headspace than 10 minutes previous as I had been dealing with many personal things and wasn't in the best of spirits at the time.A couple of weeks passed by, and I received and email from Vikram. Not only was he up to shoot, but he wanted me to shoot the cover for his new book that was just about finished!!I was given a brief by the publisher, found myself a studio space, and we were good to go!Vikram was very gracious during the shoot and all went according to plan. Fast forward 9 months, and I finally got to see the book released and my work in print!!All images were shot with an Elinchrom ELC head fitted with a 28" Westcott Apollo softbox. a small white foamcore board was set below for fill. I had black V-flats on either side of Vikram for added contrast, and 2 large softboxes to give me some exposure on the grey backdrop.And now some photos!

Slug, Brother Ali, and Dem Atlas

Slug and I go waaay back.. well, not us personally, but I've been a massive fan of his music since I was 17 years old and still constantly listen to him. Pretty much the samegoes for Brother Ali, as he really came around when I was 19/20 years old.I put out some feelers to my friend F.Virtue who has been friends with them since he was young, to see if I could get a few minutes to shoot a portrait of Slug. I was completely blownaway when he emailed me back personally and put me in touch with his tour manager, who in turn asked if I would like to shoot the other 2 acts on the Fly Fisherman Tour.. mind blown.I knew time would be tight, and you don't really want to take up too much of it with performers who tour as vigorously as these cats do (They had played a show in Victoria the evening before), so I anticipated shooting each guy for about 5 minutes in between sound checks in a small room off to the side of the stage.I had 2 light setups planned, the second of which I was only going to use with Slug (I now wish I had taken an extra moment to run the other two through this setup as well)The main setup was a head with a standard reflector that was gridded for the key light, and a 100cm Elinchrom deep octa for fill, plus a gridded SB800 for a bit of a hair light.The second setup was simply the deep octa brought in close and a white fill board on the opposite side of the frame.We got into the venue a bit later, and time was tight, so we scrambled to get set up as fast as possible, and then went straight into shooting before I even had a chance to try and settle my nerves!I love how the images turned out and am beyond thankful for the opportunity to shoot some of my favourite musicians, they were even so kind to not only hook up tickets to the show, but also provide me with a pass to shoot the show from the photo pit!! And it was awesome to watch all of them perform while peering through my camera.. but Dem Atlas totally blew me away as it was my first time seeing him..holy energy!!!Go listen to the guys here!AtmosphereBrother AliDem AtlasI'm really pushing to seek out the proper avenues for shooting more 'celebrity' portraits as I feel that is what my style of work lends itself to, and I understand that the crux of building such a portfolio isn't always in who you are as a photographer, but rather, finding ways to gain access to the subjects that you want to shoot. Hopefully the future bestows upon more the the same type of luck!!And now for some photos! :D 

Testing the Nikon 85mm 1.4G

I'm going to be honest, I kind of hate my 70-200 2.8 lens. Not because of the amazing quality, the zoom range, or tank like build of the lens, but because it's so freaking heavy!!I've been dying to get myself an 85 prime, and decided to rent out the Nikon 85 1.4G (although to be honest, I'll most likely be getting the 1.8G due to price). Liz Bell models was kind enoughto send out Alex and Victoria for the day, and with some hair and makeup by Lily we were out shooting in East Vancouver.

DJ Goddess

Back in December I was asked by the club smashing DJ Goddess to shoot a few promo images for her. We settled into a location off of South Granville and knocked out a few looks in a couple hours!