Canvas to the Imagination

These are the remaining portraits taken during the same photo shoot as the pink ones in my previous blog post. From the colourful wall of La Casa Gelato Sam and I wandered over to the nearby Strathcona Community garden. This was where I’d hope to shoot all along but I’m glad for the interesting sidetrack by the colour pink.

I’m not sure what purpose is served by the round cement pool I found in one of the garden plots, but I’m guessing it’s a reflecting pool. I’m really glad I found it because it’s a great location. I shot this scene specifically with photo manipulation in mind. I wanted to create something magical and try a slightly different way of processing the image. Along the way I managed to create something that nicely references Alice in Wonderland, which was something Sam and I had talked about ages ago and I’d forgotten.

The final two shots were taken in a different part of the community garden. There wasn’t much else growing at the time because it’s been too cold, but this forsythia bush was happily putting forth it’s first flowers.

At the moment I don’t have anything specific in mind, but I can hardly wait to do another shoot with someone.

When I started the Imaginary Girl series back in September 2009 I’d had in mind to shoot at least twenty-five different women for the project. But over the summer I was side-tracked by other work and the whole thing lost momentum. Only now, a good six months after the previous shoot, have I managed to photograph my twenty-fifth person.

The subject of this portrait is Sam. She recently got married in Vegas and the vintage dress, faux fur shrug, shoes, and crinoline, make up most of the fantastic outfit she wore.

We did this shoot outside on a very cold day and I was really concerned about Sam freezing to death while she posed. Lucky for us the weather was saving the really harsh cold and wind until after we were done, and we just had a long-suffering walk back to my place.

This part of the photo shoot was done against the magnificent pink walls of La Casa Gelato on Venables. We were walking past and I decided to do some “warm up” shots here, because when your model is wearing a pink dress, why not add more pink? The rest of the shoot was at a more subdued location and those photos have a completely different feel. I’ll be sharing them in a separate blog post.

I really found this shoot very invigorating to do. I’d been feeling insecure about my photographic work because I haven’t been doing much of it lately. Now I feel inspired again and hope to continue doing more fun and exciting portraiture in the coming months.

The Imaginary Girl series rises from the creative depths once again, this time with a lovely unposed portrait of Leah. When planning a photo shoot around the ocean I should’ve kept in mind how unpredictable water can be depending on the weather. Leah and I arrived at Jericho Beach to find the waves crashing against the shore and I immediately had to throw my original ideas out the window.

What I came away with from the shoot is so much better than what I’d had in mind. Leah led the way on this one, and most of the shots I love the most are the ones that aren’t posed. She waded around in the water with very little direction from me, and I captured what I could with the camera.

This is the twenty-fourth portrait in the series, and I’m considering moving onto something else after the twenty-fifth. I want to continue working on portraiture in some way, either as a weekly goal or maybe a series featuring men instead of women. I’ve been working on the Imaginary Girl series for a full year now and it’s time to switch things up.