Zombie Hannah is hungry for Jane Austen

May 7, 2010 | Filed Under photo | 2 Comments 

Click to Enlarge

The CBC Book Club is celebrating Jane Austen’s work, and the work she’s inspired, for the month of May. This includes the monster-remakes of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters, and Dawn of the Dreadfuls. When taking pictures to help promote the month I had an idea, and that was to get my colleague Hannah (who works with our online literary unit) to walk with a zombie gait while holding the books. I desaturated her skin tones, eviled up the contrast of everything, and proceeded to dodge, burn, and paint all over her for the desired zombification. No fancy lighting here, just an on-camera SB600 bouncing off the walls.

INCIDENTALLY! Congratulations to the lovely zombie above are in order - Hannah’s getting married to her long-time love, Dr. Science, tomorrow, May 8, 2010!

Buck 65 and Broken Social Scene

May 5, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click to Enlarge

Rich “Buck 65″ Terfry, host of Radio 2 Drive, joined Broken Social Scene for an impromptu jam for the show on May 6, 2010. Tune into Radio 2 at 3:30pm to hear the in-studio shenanigans. I used three or four lights here, darned if I can remember what the settings were as there were about a dozen frickin’ people in the studio. Big band, indeed.

K’naan World Cup Tour in Toronto

April 29, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click to Enlarge

K’naan’s World Cup Trophy Tour stopped by the CBC’s Glenn Gould studio concert hall yesterday. I was assigned to shoot some video during a radio appearance for R2 Drive (see the photo below), but I also shot the concert as well. The Somali-Canadian star played five songs and closed with his updated version of Wavin’ Flag. The above shot was taken during the last few seconds of the final song, and you can see me in the video scoot up in the front of the stage at around the 2 minute mark online.

Click to Enlarge

Hannah Georgas in studio

April 27, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click to Enlarge

I love Hannah’s music. You should listen to her online. This was shot in CBC Toronto’s Studio 210. It’s kind of bland - not as open and grandiose as 211, not as friendly and intimate as 205, and not filled with an insane amount of Q’s as the Q studio (possibly a good thing, as this was for Radio 2 Drive) - so I tend to prefer tighter shots instead of trying to incorporate the grey walls and “scenery.” This shot used three lights: one SB600 to Hannah’s left pointed right at her from a bit behind her, one SB600 behind me bouncing off the ceiling and hitting direct (24mm spread, so a bit likely hit her direct), and a bit of on-camera pop-up for fill. How can you not smile when you see a keyboard as old and Radio Shack-ish like that?

Bar Volo for Tongue & Cheek

April 26, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Didn’t use a flash for any of these shots at Bar Volo, a couple of them use a Lensbaby Muse. These were for an upcoming interview/podcast for Tongue & Cheek which should be going live soon. Here’s one more below that wasn’t used for the slideshow, but that I personally like a lot

Click to Enlarge

Traditional Indian dancer

April 22, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click to enlarge

Taken at a wedding last November (remind me to post other shots of the happy couple later, as I haven’t yet). Saw some sketches by Jori and the dress reminded me of these shots, figured I’d post’em online. Following the dance, she gave all the guests a Bollywood dance lesson to Jai Ho, and held a contest that pitted the men against the women. Not entirely sure what the lighting setup was, but I’d wager it was a cross-light setup with the dancer much closer to the one behind her, with another at the opposite corner of the hall.

Slow Decade in his apartment

April 20, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click to Enlarge

Slow Decade reporter/artist and CBC colleague Anshuman let me into his new place, which is currently undergoing Anshuman-esque renovations. This shoot was done to give him some new visuals to use for his website, which I hear is also undergoing Anshuman-esque renovations. The shots all had varied lighting setups, all of them improvised on the fly during the two hours that I was in the space. I had two SB600s, two grid snoots, and one diffuser flash cover - no light stands or umbrellas.

I can’t recall most of the lighting setups (there were many) but I do remember the first one; the upper-left shot was a two-light setup with one pointed at his face from camera left (tungsten gel, and inside a gridded snoot) with another light to his right (ungelled, also in a grid snoot). The camera white balance was set to tungsten, lens at 50mm, ISO 200, F/8 at 1/160.

There were 52 photos delivered to Anshuman out of 239 shots (or left undeleted before leaving his apartment). Normally I’d cut them down more, except I wanted to give him lots of choice for his site.

Click to Enlarge

Matthew Barber on Radio 2 Drive

April 15, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click the pic to enlarge

Can’t remember what the lighting set up for this was, but I’d wager two lights plus on camera fill. Likely moved the lights between shots, too. Matthew Barber is Jill’s brother, and both produce musical snazziness. Both links go to their R2 Drive appearances and performances.

Hopeful Monster

April 14, 2010 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment 

Click the monster to enlarge the monster

Taking lots of pictures, forgetting to post them online; life is busy. This shot of Hopeful Monster in studio 211 for Drive was a 3ish light setup using Nikon CLS. Catch light was set to TTL 0.0, and the main to his right was set to TTL -1.7 ( I think). Also, had a touch of on-camera fill at 1/60 power. There was a fourth light in the studio, but it wasn’t really pointed at or near him (other players in the studio), and it doesn’t look like it had any effect on this shot… ISO 800 at F/5.6.