Fotographix - Calgary Photographer

Fotographix in Hamilton, Ontario

2011-08-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Fotographix has added a new professional wedding photographer to our team of talented shooters.
Maggie Tremblay is a Hamilton-based wedding photographer who has a reputation for her creativity and warmth. As a photographer, Maggie is relatively new to the competitive business of shooting weddings, but it doesn't show in her work. When you look at her images, it's like she's been doing it for years. Partly it's her ability to compose and frame her subjects with a trained eye, but more importantly, it's about her ability to connect with her subject.

Maggie was born in Europe but grew up in western Canada. Even from an early age she had an interest in photography. After moving out east and raising a family she decided to take her passion to the next level by taking a number of courses on portraiture, studio lighting and wedding photography. Three years ago, Maggie turn pro, and began building an impressive portfolio of work.

We at Fotographix, are happy to have Maggie on our team, and if you're seeking a professional photographer in Hamilton, we hope you'll contact us.

Photo Discs

2011-07-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

With a variety of ways to send image files to clients, Photo Discs are rarely used. For real estate projects we typically upload the files to our server or a Dropbox account. For smaller projects we can use email or YouSendIt. But this summer, Fotographix has been busy shooting weddings with some really fantastic people. For our wedding and engagement clients, we like to hand over something a bit more tangible, which is why we've reverted to using physical media - Photo Discs.

Photo Discs are nice because clients can request a number of copies which makes it easy to distribute copies of the photos to friends and family. A secondary bonus is that the discs can act as a marketing tool which informs future potential clients about your services. Wedding photography is a referral business and it's a good idea to provide you clients with materials, such as business cards and mini-portfolios, that will make it easy for them to point other engaged couples your way.

A Portrait of Gary Mar

2011-05-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

As a photographer, you never know when a photo opportunity will land in your lap. But when they do, you have to make the best of it. That's what happened recently when I was given the opportunity to photograph Gary Mar on location at his campaign headquarters in Calgary, Alberta.

Gary, who is a prime candidate for leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Alberta, was busy being being filmed for his periodical video blog when I arrived. After watching three or four takes, they took a short break. With time being a major factor (I had 5-10 minutes) I positioned Mr. Mar near a large window and using a 50mm F/1.2 lens, I took a few close-up portraits. By opening the lens to a wide aperture I was able to limit the depth of field, thereby burring out the background. Believe it or not, there was actually a TV monitor hanging from the wall in the background. By getting in close, I was able to hide it behind the subject's head!

I was very grateful to meet Mr. Mar and he seems like a really nice guy and down to earth. He has an excellent team around him and with any luck, he will win the election.

Larger Than Life

2011-05-06T15:14:00.001-07:00

Jamie Tilston and Costas Costoulas are Calgary's best kept secret in large-scale fine art printing. Together, the pair has been quietly building a loyal following offering a wide variety of printing solutions through their company Resolve Photo.

I recently visited the Resolve Photo studio, which is situated in a quiet corner of Killarney just off 29th Street SW. Although their shop is limited by size, they've managed to pack a great deal of technology into a small space. Printers and equipment are packed into every corner like a jigsaw puzzle. Fine art prints adorn the walls on all sides and offer up a view into the company's wide array of print finishes and mediums.

During my visit, Jamie showed me a few impressive black and white archival prints mounted on foam board. He explained the printing process, highlighting how the various papers effect tonality and the subtle differences in dynamic range. I was especially impressed by the canvas prints and the resin coated art work.

More and professional photographers have been using Resolve Photo to bring their work to life in a big way. The sky is the limit and when standing in front of a huge print, it's easy to see the appeal. There's just something about art made large. It's immersive and ponderous, often inviting a sense of awe.

If you're interested to learn more about Resolve Photo, be sure to check out their website, or give them a call at: 403.457.5527.

JPG Magazine

2011-05-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've always been a big fan of Flickr. I feel it's still the best site for sharing photos and ideas about photography via their extensive forums. The sheer number of users is great too, as it's relatively easy to acquire much-needed feedback on your work.

Although I earn money taking photos as a professional in Calgary, photography is also my passion and I do a great deal of experimental work and street photography. Obviously this work doesn't appeal to everybody and certainly could confuse commercial clients. My Flickr stream is a melting pot of photographic styles and genres. Enter JPG.

Fotographix has been on JPG for quite some time. Although I don't upload my work there frequently, I've used some restraint in selecting which photos to share there versus what I share on Flickr. JPG could be seen as my mainstream, commercial work, whereas Flickr is a mixed bag. I'll be focusing my efforts on developing the JPG account into a sort of commercially focused portfolio. I hope you'll stop by to see my work there and leave some feedback. Visit my JPG photostream.

Asian Cookbook Cover

2011-04-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Just for kicks and giggles, I decided to mockup a cookbook cover design with a shot I took of my lunch today. My love of photography, design and cooking are a natural combination that often results in crazy ideas - liking making a book cover from photography of your lunch!

Obviously the best part of being a food photographer is getting to eat the food afterwards! Recently I was hired by Austin's Bar in the south of Calgary to shoot some interior shots as well as a few feature dishes and drinks. Afterwards the restaurant owner (Scott) was kind enough to let me sample some of the food and it was fantastic! After a couple drinks I was on my way to download and process the photos.

If you'd like see see more examples of my food photography, please visit my Flickr page.

100 Photography Rules

2011-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

When I set out to create the Photography Rules group on Flickr, I had no idea that the reception to the idea would be so positive. After posting a few random rules just for fun, I decided to create a Flickr Group so that others could participate by authoring rules of their own. It didn't take long to reach 100 rules, after which the group was closed for submissions.

As some time has past, I've noticed quite a few of the rules popping up around the interwebs. The idea was to share, so any rules I created, I shared under the Creative Commons rights agreement which gives website owners the right to reuse the images as long as they post a credit (and hopefully a link).

I invite you to take a look at the rules and share your comments.

Tasty Examples of Food Photography

2011-04-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

One of my passions is good food, especially asian cuisine. The Japanese have an expression, "You eat with your eyes". Food that looks great increases the pleasure of eating and it's only natural to say "Oishisou!" when you see excellent examples of food photography.

Fotographix's photography was recently featured prominent photography website Light Stalking. Our photo (seen above) was show along with 18 other awesome shots.

Interior Objects

2011-04-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

As a photographer I get the opportunity to photograph some really cool objects. On a recent interior design photography assignment, I discovered this great black leather retro style chair. With its thin wooden legs and sculpted shape it really commands attention and was definitely the most interesting object in the room. I was tempted to remove the throw pillow and blanket, but decided to photograph the chair just as I found it.

The side table with its collection of wooden figurines made an interesting photo as well. I've posted that image on the Fotographix Flickr page.

This image was taken using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a EF 16-35mm F/2.8L USM lens.

A Nice Day for a Calgary Wedding

2011-04-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend and I were invited to attend a beautiful wedding ceremony in Calgary. Although the bride and groom had already hired a photographer for the wedding, I decided to take some wedding photos anyway, as my gift to the newlyweds. I decided to bring only one lens - a Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 USM mounted on a Canon EOS 1D Mark III. This would allow me to take photos in low light situations without the use of flash. Since the hired wedding photographer was covering all the group photos and posed shots, I decided to spend some time taking candid photos. All the images were later processed in Adobe Lightroom for a warm, yet low saturation effect.

If you'd like to hire a wedding photographer, please visit our Calgary Wedding Photography page for more information.

Milestone 10,000 Flickr Views

2011-04-01T14:09:00.001-07:00

Model Republic - Canadian Models, a photo by fotographix.ca on Flickr.

Flickr provides photographers with basic statistics related to their photos, such as when they were uploaded, how many people have fav'd the photo, how many views it's had, how many comments and what external sites have linked to it. The portrait of Ariana seen above is one of our most popular images on Flickr and has been viewed over 10000 times

The photo was taken in using a Canon EOS 5D with a EF 135mm f/2L USM lens.

Calgary Architectural Photography

2011-03-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I registered the domain name www.innhabit.com with the intention of building a portal for bed & breakfast establishments and independently owned/operated resorts. A sitemap was designed, along with some initial branding and a coming soon page. After conducting additional market research the idea was put on the back burner as a low priority opportunity. Since the domain was registered for 10 years, I figured it might yet be of some use.

Fotographix has been gaining quite a bit of traction working with Calgary realtors by providing photos for their websites and MLS listings. We've even managed to attract a few luxury home projects which are a lot more work, but really exciting projects. I started to think about how Innhabit might be used to showcase Fotographix's architectural photography and real estate photography. I decided to design a simple one page website with a few samples of our interior and exterior photographs. I included some key words for the search engines and linked the site back to the Fotographix mother ship.

Now the previously unused domain draws in some additional traffic from Google and highlights a specific photography genre (home photography) for our customers.

Marketing Materials

2011-03-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

Photographers rely on their work to speak for itself. However that's not often enough in today's ultra competitive marketplace. Calgary has a very high number of professional photographers per capita and it follows that finding great clients can be challenging.
Fotographix's parent company DDW produces marketing and advertising materials for a range of industries including photographers. Of course, when you have graphic designers at your disposal, you might as well put those skills to use!
The image above is a sample of Fotographix's new Rate Sheet. Business cards have already been completed, and range of other materials are in the works, including recruitment sheets, contracts, model releases, etc.
If you're a pro photographer in Calgary, and you wish to improve your marketing materials, please visit DDW's website.

Magazine Issue 5

2011-03-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

Seeing your photographic work published is really amazing. Fotographix has had a number of photos published in print publications, but by and large most of our work gets used online or for printed advertising campaigns. Magazine covers are the holy grail and having your work take centre stage on news shelves is an honour many photographers will never realize. Thankfully we have Photoshop!

For some time now, I've been creating front page covers for a fictional magazine, aptly titled MAGAZINE. To date I've created five magazine cover designs using photos from various shoots. Most recently I created a cover featuring Calgary singer/songwriter Alisa Yardley. The photo shoot was done ahead of new music material being released by the artist. The images will be used on various websites and promotional items in correlations with Alisa's overall marketing. Photographing musicians and singers is very collaborative as musicians tend to have a unique image, which is carefully controlled and matched to their musical style.

This latest magazine cover design depicts a portrait of Alisa in a classical, and elegant black and white finish.

Stage it. Shoot it. Sell it.

2011-03-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

More and more Calgary realtors are turning to professional real estate photographers to photograph their listings. However as any photographer will tell you, the subject matter counts, and even the best lighting, camera angles and post-production can never make a messy, lived in home look great. That's why smart real estate agents are using a combination of staging and photography to showcase the best attributes of a home.

Fotographix has been working with a number of Calgary realtors, offering professional photography services, however in some cases the sellers have taken matters into their own hands. Recently, I was asked to photograph a home after the listing had sat on the market for over three months. The realtor had taken some snap shots of the home for use on MLS, but these photos were not attracting buyers to the home. For a fee of $125.00 + GST, I re-shot the home using a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens. Because the lens is very wide angle, I was able to enhance the size of rooms and give a wider perspective on the living areas. Once the new photos were ready, they were posted on the listing website. Less than three weeks the home sold. The seller provided this quote:

"Thank you to Jesse Yardley for helping us sell our house in three weeks! We are very pleased with the photos Jesse took to showcase our house. We re-listed our house after the first listing expired and Jesse was able to capture the highlights of our property. We strongly believe this helped us close our sale in the following three weeks. It really freshened our listing on the MLS website. Jesse's creativity brought new buyers through with his artistic and stylish architectural photography." Best Regards, C. & P. Jugdev

I'm always happy to see sellers getting the value they deserve for their home. As a avid fan of interior design and architecture, I very much enjoy seeing what creativity people put into their homes. When that creativity is lacking, it's time to call in the interior designers for a professional staging!

The photos show above where taken in Orange Lofts.
Realtor was Kathleen LaPlante.

Film Fashion Photography

2009-05-04T13:52:00.001-07:00

Although I've taken to shooting digital almost exclusively for clients and fashion work, I still use film for my personal work. During a recent photo-shoot in Calgary, I had the opportunity to shoot a few rolls of film in between shots taken with a digital camera. When I got the film back from the lab I scanned in the negatives using an Epson Perfection 2450 Photo flatbed scanner. Normally I'd remove all the dust and specs in Photoshop, however when I saw the shot (posted above) I was enthralled by the contrasty, gritty look I got from using film. I decided to leave the dust since it added character and seemed to enhance the vintage look of the image.

The effect of grain and contrast can be simulated in Photoshop or even third-party dedicated software. So why shoot with film?

At this point almost every professional photographer would agree that for most applications digital is the way to go. Film has lost it's dominance as the medium on which most pictures are taken. It's a medium in rapid decline, but recently has been showing some signs of life. The bulk of the photos that have molded and shaped our view on life were taken with film. Great fashion photographers like Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier and others all used film. Film has an organic, textual charm that digital seems to lack and more than a few newbies have been buying film to experiment with. Kodak recently released a brand new film called Ektar 100, so it seems that a market for film still exists.

The beauty of photography is that it's all about choices. Hopefully as time goes by, the choice to use film will remain a creative option and companies will continue to invest time and energy in producing it.

I believe the medium matters. The medium shapes and alters our work. Our creations inherit attributes imbued by the medium. It's something that, when embraced, can take your work to a new level of creative exploration. There's something deep within the process of using tangible mediums that affects an artist and the results come through in his or her work.

Over the next few months I will try to shoot a least one roll of film on each photo-shoot. Watch this blog for the results.

Fashion Photography Starts With People

2009-04-27T16:02:00.001-07:00

Fashion photography has become that much easier with the introduction of Model Republic. Model Republic specializes in showcasing models from Calgary and other major Canadian cities including Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Fotographix has begun to use Model Republic exclusively to find Calgary models and other fashion industry professionals for our Calgary fashion photography shoots.

Why use Model Republic as your source for Canadian Models?

Developing a successful fashion photography business requires building a reliable and dependable network of professionals. As Model Republic has grown, it has become a valuable resource for photographers seeking to build connections with models, makeup artists, wardrobe stylists, etc. Many Calgary models have already signed up to the BETA release, and savvy photographers have been quick to leverage the site. Model Republic is more than just a pretty site too. With tools for searching and sorting, finding the right models for your shoot is easy.

For Calgary models, there are a number of ways in which they can showcase their work. The most obvious of which is to upload photos to the free online portfolio, however photos can also be sorted into albums and collections. This is a great tool for keeping projects organized and documenting the various looks a model has. Photos can be commented on and added to a list of favorites for easy reference later.

Social Networking for Fashion Industry Professionals

An important part of building connections in the Canadian fashion industry is to make friends. Social networking has become an excellent way of establishing new contacts and getting your work in front of the right people. Fotographix has made a number of new connections with talented Calgary models and makeup artists in just a few weeks since Model Republic launched.

There are a myriad of other websites that can be utilized to build connections, share ideas or just socialize, however most of these sites are US-based. Model Republic is a uniquely Canadian experience and caters to those of us 'north of the border'.

The Secret to Successful Photography

Working with the right people makes all the difference. Fashion photography should be fun! If you take the time to network and work with lots of people you will begin to establish long term relationships with models, makeup artists, hair stylists and other key players. Over time, your working relationships will grow and so to will your ability to collaborate and be creative. When everyone is comfortable and having fun, creativity blossoms and your pictures will naturally improve as a result.

If you'd like to learn more about Fotographix and our services, please visit: www.fotographix.ca

City Style & Living Magazine Shoot

2009-04-11T16:21:00.001-07:00

Setting up a photo-shoot can be difficult. First you need a model and a makeup artist. Then you have to style the clothes and accessories. After that you need to find the right location. The list goes on and on, but when everything comes together it can be magic! And magic is exactly what Kailash Maharaj and Shivana Maharaj (Co-Editores in Chief - City Style and Living) bring to the party. With an exceptional eye for detail and an ability manage a myriad of moving pieces, Kailash and Shivana make the impossible happen shoot after shoot, year after year.

So when the opportunity arose to collaborate on a shoot for an upcoming issue of the magazine it was a no brainer. "Let's do it!" we said. CSL provided the styling, creative direction, makeup artist and model for the shoot. Derrick Woo took the lead with photography while I provided backup. This gave me ample time to take behind the scenes shots. After a couple of hours we had worked through a few different setups shooting both indoor and outdoor with a combination of flash and natural light. By reviewing the photos at intervals, Kailash and Shivana were able to provide creative direction on the fly and tweak details until we achieved the desired results.

Although both Derrick and I had worked with CSL before, this was the first time we were able to collaborate and work with a model who was a member of Model Republic.

Working with talented, fun and creative individuals is very rewarding. With summer just around the corner, I'm sure the best is yet to come!

A New Option for Calgary Models

2009-04-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

If you're an aspiring model there are a number of places you can go online to promote work. Up until now, many models have been turning to One Model Place and Model Mayhem to showcase their work and find castings. Although there are a few Canadian users on these top sites, the bulk of the user base is south of the border. There seems to be a need for a site that focuses on Canadian Models, which brings us to Model Republic.

Model Republic is a totally new network for models. Photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, fashion designers, and other industry professionals are also involved, with the models acting as the central user group in this community. Although models from all over the world are present, it's clear the site celebrates its Canadian, and especially, Calgarian members. The bulk of the users who have signed up (to date) live and work in Calgary.

As far as social networking sites go in the fashion industry, Model Republic is right up there. With a wide range of features and tools, Model Republic puts the big boys like Model Mayhem to shame. Feedback from members has been widely positive. It's not uncommon to see members of the site make references comparing Model Republic to Model Mayhem. The common consensus is that Model Republic wins hands down on usability and user interface design. The underlying message here is that chaos and mayhem abound on other sites, whereas Model Republic brings order with well thought out design and functionality.

The company that conceived and designed Model Republic, DDW (Defrost Design Works Inc.), is a Calgary-based design firm and has some experience with brand building and creating other social networks. By partnering with Recharge Media, they were able to implement advanced features, (like drag and drop portfolio management) normally reserved to giants like Flickr and Facebook. Their goal is to carve out a niche by offering Canadian Models a place of their own.

Whether or not Canadian models, or even Calgary Models will adopt Model Republic and make it their own is the question, but with the pre-release site being launched just over a week ago the reaction has been good. New users are signing up daily and the buzz has been building. Only time will tell.

If you'd like to see what the fuss is about, please visit: www.modelrepublic.net

A New Leaf

2008-12-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

Fotographix is turning a new leaf. Instead of posting pictures on this blog for comment and review, we will be focusing on developing content that is of interest to both our fellow photographers and our clients. Daily photographic postings will continue, and can be found at our Flickr site (www.flickr.com/defrostca) Our main website (www.fotographix.ca) will continue to feature our top photographic work and information about our services, rates etc.