bailwardphotography.com blogs

Studio Lighting with MVP Workshops Part 2

alan — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:22:05 +0000

The second studio session with MVP Workshops happened last weekend, and while I didn't get to shoot as much as I wanted (I was playing helper this weekend) I got a couple of shots I'd like to share.

Studio Lighting with MVP Workshops

alan — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:25:48 +0000

Last weekend I spent the day out with my buddy Chris at an event he set up through the Metro Vancouver Photography Workshops out at East Van Studios. First of all, a great event, and if you're in Vancouver and interested in lighting and photography, join this meetup group, it's well setup and essentailly you walk in and have amazing models and makeup artists to work with plus a great group of friendly people of all skill levels. Ok, that's enough of a plug, here are some of the shots from the day!

Joyan was a joy (I had to do it) to work with. Amazing skin and I loved her rings in this shot.

Angelina had a great, strong face and amazing peircing eyes. I wanted to go a bit retro on her too, so the second shot below got a bit of black and white treatment.

Last and certainly not least is Alexa, who (don't tell anyone) was maybe a bit of my favorite to shoot. Amazing body and the light just flowed around her like she was made for it.

Sending Pintrest Pins into Evernote

alan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:30:02 +0000

There doesn't seem to be a way to "nicely" funnel pins on Pintrest (which I've been using a lot lately to collect ideas for shots, posing, and lighting) into Evernote (which I use as my always-synced collection of ideas, shots, and external memory, article with more details on this coming up), so after using some ideas in the Evernote forum I created an If This Then That recipe that takes entries from your RSS feed and puts them into a notebook in Evernote. Simple but seems to be nicely effective. You can grab the IFTT recipe at http://ifttt.com/recipes/17504. Let me know how you like it!

If you're a photographer, model or makeup artist and you're not using either Evernote or Pintrest already to collect ideas for shoots, posing, makeup, looks, styles, and pretty much anything, you really should be! I'll be writing a full article on how I use Evernote in the next couple of days to go through the details on how to be more efficient in your use of these excellent online tools.

Snowy Photowalk

alan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:41:25 +0000

Spent some time at lunch today wandering along the dyke near my work, until the cold was bad enough (and my lack of proper winter clothes enough of an issue) that I retrated into the car. Along the way though I met Petra from Slovakia, who allowed me to photograph her and her 8 year old dog who was having a great time in the snow.

As I was leaving I had to admit that the landscape was absolutely gorgeous, but man, it was cold!

Studio Shoot with Azam

alan — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:19:58 +0000

I met Abbotsford model Azam Nokhandan through her Model Mayhem page, and shot her in my home studio. She was a trooper, doing great modelling work even with an audience! A pleasure to shoot and some amazing images were produced, and I am completely in love with her amazing beautiful eyes!

Click below for more images from the shoot.

Azam works as a professional model with local Punjabi designers and magazines, modelling funky clothes like this dress.

One of my favorite headshots. Black and white and pure gorgeousness!

Story of the Watch

alan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:51:48 +0000

I was at my regular wednesday programming geek meeting. We get together at a coffee shop in Abbotsford to ostensibly talk about programming and working on projects, but in reality, well, there's a lot of browsing websites, drinking coffee, and talking about everything from tech to religion. A gentleman a table over decided to talk to us, imagine a bit of Carl (the old guy) from Pixar's Up, not really understanding that we were doing our own thing.

Him: "So what you fellas doing? You playing dem computer games?"

Us: "Nope, just doing some things…." <continue to go about our stuff>

Him: "Ah'm computer ILLITrit you know. You fellas with your screens, I'd have no idea what's going on"

Us: "Uh huh…. well…. it's all about practice I guess… we're just computer geeks playing around" <go back to our own stuff once again>

Him: "Oh yea, I'm a geek as well, ah repair watches!"

Us: "Yup, just practice, computers are just like watches." <why does this guy not get that we don't want to talk to him?>

Him: "I have an old watch 'ere… 80 odd years old."

Now I wish I could say that I was the one of us who had said "I should talk to this guy, I should hear his story and delve into a strangers world" at the start, but I can't, because I didn't. I did perk up when I saw the watch be passed over though, as it was a gorgeous old pocket watch.

And I happened to have a camera and a flash with me.

So with the help of my friend @curtismchale acting as a VAL I got a few shots of it before sending it back to the old guy, who by this point his wife had realized we weren't interested in talking to him (of course at this point I was) and moved him to the other side of the coffee shop. Still, I got a couple of great shots out of it and a bit of a story to tell. More importantly a lesson in hindsight about being more open to talking to the crazy old man at the coffee shop.

Looking Back on 2011

alan — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:57:27 +0000

I think in the grand scheme of things, 2011 will be the year that things really got started for me. It really was the last 12 months when I took portrait photography from something that was mostly scary to something that was joyful and awesome, and the pictures I've been creating went from snapshots to great shots (to steal a phrase).

Here's a quick look back at the last year.

January started with taking some headshots for my buddy James for his social media sites. It was a great experience and I got a few of the ins and outs of "location" photography (in this case, his apartment).
February was my first introduction to the Metro Vancouver Photography Workshops and my now good buddy Chris Pike. We shoot a "James Dean" shoot and I got a bunch of images that still adorn my Model Mayhem profile page. A fun experience and I also met a bunch of other folks (Anna, Wilson, Adrian) whom I still shoot with often.
In march the most epic thing was The Flash Bus, a day long seminar with photography lighting legends Joe McNally and David Hobby. This was spent with my friend Jim, and Chris Anna and Wilson spending all day absorbing a ton of lighting information. Brain overload.
April the strobist group met up at a farm we had access to and we shot with a set of awesome models among farm animals and green fields. A great time all born out of the thought of "would that ugly blue bathtub be good to stick a model in and shoot her?".
In May I volunteered for the Run for Water, shooting in and around the crowds with my wife.
June brought what I feel is really the start of portraits. I went to Seattle and shot with my friend Jim again who had brought in a model for a shoot of his own. In some down time I set up my own gear, and with some great collaboration with the model Justine Mariiie, we made some awesome shots. There was also a bunch of other shooting that went on this month with other models and other groups and people. I think my wife forgot what I looked like that month.
For July more shooting with local models ensued, shooting most memorably Dylaina, who shot with me in the Matsqui park where we fought off mosquitoes the size of VWs.
August and September I shot with Bry Jensen twice. Once was a Gym and fitness oriented shoot, the other was "Autumn". One of the shots from the former went on to be published in Natural Muscle magazine, something I'm very proud of.
October, of course, was Halloween, and I collaborated with a local makeup artist and made a bunch of images of local goblins and ghouls all dressed up and with full makeup done. Lots of fun
In November one of the local groups I hang with put together a boudoir meet and greet, where a bunch of photographers and a bunch of models got together in an awesome log house and did just that boudoir shots. Great fun and I had a great time meeting up with Peter, Victor, Randy and a bunch of other folks that I'd only known online.
December finally rolls along and the best shoot was with the amazing Terra Jean, who spent a few hours with me making some just incredible images. Some of my best work yet I think.

So that's it, the year in review. A lot happened and looking forward I'm incredibly excited about what the next year will bring!

Happy New Years from Bailward Photography!

New Kitten!

alan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:24:01 +0000

Not the best example of photography, but I like to mix things up a bit now and then. A kitten was abandoned by the barn my wife has horses at and through a series of events (specifically, it being cute and adorable), it ended up home with us and our other cats :) Here are a few shots of the little sweetie (still in need of a name too, any suggestions?)...

Caitlind Preview

alan — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:03:31 +0000

Got to shoot with a new model in the Abbotsford area over the weekend, here's a quick preview of one of the images from that. Enjoy!

Halloween Makeup

alan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:16:15 +0000

I was invited by Magna of CATZ Faces to take some pictures of her doing Halloween makeup (she's an amazing artist). It took a bit but here are some of the images fro that day. Many thanks to Magna for the opportunity, and the fine folks involved for taking the time to be photographed.

The end result of Brittany's transformation (early stages above).

Lance used to be in a band, now he's a demon :)

Mad Doctor Devan... I'll admit, he freaked me out a bit :)