HarderLee Photography

Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Calgary based theatre troupe One Yellow Rabbit brought back the show Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp for a run in March and April. They also brought back the original promotional poster that Trudie Lee shot roughly 20 years ago.

The show and the poster were instrumental in kickstarting a nascent arts scene in the cultural wasteland that was Calgary in the late '80s.

Actress Denise Clarke who plays Ilsa in the play, remembers those times.

"It was a bust. Brutal scene in Calgary. We stayed for three things. A, We loved it here and it was ours, B, surrounding us was this redneck racist attitude as a province that we wanted to change and C, really cheap to live."

"The decision made perfect sense to bring the poster back. It's such a great poster and I still look the same and so do Michael and Andy. I love that poster I always thought we captured a really good attitude with edginess and sexiness and darkness."

Photographer Trudie Lee, remembers the poster well.

"That poster really helped to define me as Calgary's theatre arts photographer."

Trudie was in Banff from 1986-88 and it's there that she met and starting working with the Rabbits. "It was the beginning for all of our careers," said Trudie.

"It was a really exciting time. The first Rabbit show I ever shot production stills for was called Tears of a Dinosaur. Ronnie Burkett, was part of this show, such an amazing guy. Calgary was just starting to get into alternative theatre and the Rabbits were where it was at."

While the image is old Clarke still looks back fondly at those times.

"I'm remembering that we just had a ball. Mind you we always have fun with Trudie. We go way back. She's been photographing me for 20 years."

At the time it was more than just a play. Alberta was in the throes of the Keegstra case. James Keegstra was a high school teacher and the mayor of Eckville who taught his social studies students that the Holocaust was a fraud and attributed various evil qualities to Jews. He described Jews to his pupils as "treacherous", "subversive", "sadistic", "money-loving" and "child killers". According to Keegstra, Jews "created the Holocaust to gain sympathy" and, in contrast to the open and honest Christians, were said to be deceptive, secretive and inherently evil. Keegstra expected his students to reproduce his teachings in class and on exams. If they failed to do so, their marks suffered.

And while Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp is a black musical satire with singing and dancing with Colonel Klinkesque Nazi's, there are moments where the Holocaust is acknowledged.

"It was political. It was radical in its form. The audience is challenged quite dramatically," said Clarke.

Trudie, being a Jew herself, liked the idea of taking part of something that poked fun at Nazi Germany.

Layer Painting Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:59:00 +0000

See and learn how Brian Harder enhances his commercial landscape work with Photoshop in this tutorial.

Worth noting is that Brian received this assignment after all the leaves had fallen off the trees.

If you have any questions about the process just ask in the comments.

Cheers

-~-

One Light Isn't Enough

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:01:00 +0000

While HarderLee Photography is always working to get the client's the best pictures they can there's always fun to be had.

We wanted to illustrate and show you, the reader, what kind of tools the professional commercial photographers at HarderLee Photography use.

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Reports of my death have been...

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:23:00 +0000

To loosely quote Mark Twain, reports of my death have been... somewhat exaggerated.

After a four month sojourn that took our intrepid webmaster through the depths of Burmese jungle, the heights of the Himalayas and even ... south side Edmonton, he has returned.

So fear not loyal readers. The blog is back.

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Gear - Light Modifiers

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:52:00 +0000

This is a continuing series of posts on the gear that the professional photographers at HarderLee studios use.

Lights are good and all but they're not much use if you're just nuking your subject straight on. Light modifiers like the ones below help Brian and Trudie control the light in order to get the final result they want.

- 2 Profoto beauty dishes
- 3 Westcott "60 silver umbrellas
- 4 Westcott "45 silver umbrellas
- 1 Wafer 42 x 36 softbox
- 1 Photoflex Halfdome strip light
- 1 Wafer monster softbox
- 2 Photoflex medium softboxes
- 12 gridspots of varying degree
- 3 binders of gels
- 2 flags
- 1 gold/white roll up reflector
- 3 pop-out silver/white reflectors, various sizes

Trudie is a big fan of the beauty dish and uses it quite frequently.

"It's a flattering light source. It gives common things a real sparkle. I like that it gives some snap but it's also soft enough to be flattering," says Trudie.

"I was really into the big, big umbrellas for a while but I like to change things up."

Brian splits his time between softboxes and umbrellas, depending on the size of the subjects.

Cheers

-~-

PS - A bunch of top of the line gear isn't going to make you a better photographer. You must be original, creative and most importantly, produce great work. Great photos are made everyday by super-talented shooters with bare-bones gear. This feature is meant to show you, the reader, what Brian Harder and Trudie Lee use in their travails as professional photographers, not a list of the latest and greatest kit. We hope you find it educational.

Gear - Lights, Stands and Triggers

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 22:44:00 +0000

This is a continuing series of posts on the gear that the professional photographers at HarderLee studios use.

Oh my. Where to start. Light is to photographers what a paintbrush is to the painter. Brian and Trudie light almost everything they shoot so having a good set of strobes is key. They both prefer the Profoto Compact 600s for location shooting.

"They're reliable and recycle quickly. Nice solid lights," says Trudie.

Most of the other lights on the list are strictly studio lights or only come out for special occasions.

Strobes
- Comet Power Pack (It's not made anymore, quite old)
- 3 Comet heads (Just as old as the power pack)
- 2 Profoto Compact 300s
- 10 Profoto Compact 600s
- 2 White Lightning Ultra 1200s
- 1 Canon 580 EX
- 1 Canon 580 EXII

All these lights are great, but they're not much if you can't fire them in sync with your camera.

Triggers
-3 Pocket Wizard Plus Transceivers
-1 Pocket Wizard Plus Digital Receiver
-1 Pocket Wizard Plus Transmitter
-2 older 16 channel Pocket Wizard receivers
-1 Canon ST-E2 Infrared Transmitter

So you've got the lights and you're able to trigger them what do put them on? Lightstands of course.

Lightstands
-3 Manfrotto 307 Stacker lightstands
-12 Manfrotto 005 Ranker lighstands
-3 Manfrotto 001 Nano lightstands
- 1 Manfrotto light boom
- 1 Manfrotto mini-boom stand

Cheers

-~-

PS - A bunch of top of the line gear isn't going to make you a better photographer. You must be original, creative and most importantly, produce great work. Great photos are made everyday by super-talented shooters with bare-bones gear. This feature is meant to show you, the reader, what Brian Harder and Trudie Lee use in their travails as professional photographers, not a list of the latest and greatest kit. We hope you find it educational.

Gear - The 35mm kit

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:09:00 +0000

This is a continuing series of posts on the gear that the professional photographers at HarderLee studios use.

The Digital Single Lens Reflex camera or DSLR for short is next up. Brian and Trudie use a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II and a Canon 5D as backup (Check out the dpreview.com reviews here and here)

The 35mm kit is typically used for events, land development, oil and gas field work and theater and arts. If you averaged it out Brian and Trudie are typically looking through a DSLR about 20% of the time they're working.

"We use the DSLR's in situations where speed and flexibility are part of the job. You can't really truck around the Hasselblad and laptop on a drilling rig for example," says Brian.

"Whenever I have to be super portable and freed up from lights and all that I use the Canon kit," says Trudie.

While cameras are important the lenses are another important tool. These are the lenses that Brian and Trudie use.

- Canon 70-200mm f2.8
- Canon 17-40 f4
- Canon 24-70 f2.8
- Canon 85 mm f1.8
- Canon 15mm fisheye f2.8

The 70-200 mm f2.8 and the 17-40 f4 are the two most commonly used lenses. One is a solid tele-photo the other a great little wide lens.

Cheers

-~-

PS - A bunch of top of the line gear isn't going to make you a better photographer. You must be original, creative and most importantly, produce great work. Great photos are made everyday by super-talented shooters with bare-bones gear. This feature is meant to show you, the reader, what Brian Harder and Trudie Lee use in their travails as professional photographers, not a list of the latest and greatest kit. We hope you find it educational.

Gear - The Digital Back and the Hasselblad 503 CW

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:32:00 +0000

This is the first post in what will be a continuing series of posts on the gear that the professional photographers at HarderLee studios use.

The camera is never as important as the person behind it. However, it helps when you have a tremendous photographer coupled with a state-of-the-art camera.

Brian and Trudie use Phase One digital capture backs for about 80% of their work. What's a digital back you ask? It's a back for a medium or large-format camera designed to use film which has an electronic image sensor that enables the camera to take digital photographs.

Digital cameras (including DSLR's) typically have a CMOS or CCD sensor inside of them. Instead of this this, the digital back mounts onto the back of the camera where the film back used to go.

These pieces of equipment cost a lot. When Brian bought the H20 back in 2002 it was $46 000 (Canadian dollars). The price has come down a bit (see Vistek for prices) but it's still a considerable outlay for any one person to take.

However the benefits of the digital back are immense.

"We like being able to show the client right away, we can create a high degree of client confidence because they can see the shot develop right in front of them," says Trudie.

Brian and Trudie shoot tethered to their laptops via a firewire. The images then pop up in Capture One Pro, the software that comes with the Phase One.

Brian uses a P25 back mounted on a Hasselblad 503 CW (the only non-digital camera that Hasselblad still makes by the way). With its 22 megapixel sensor, image quality isn't a problem.

"You'll never catch me using film again. It's such high quality that it makes film look like garbage," says Brian, a man who used film professionally for 17 years.

As for the Hasselblad 503 CW and the Zeiss lenses that they use, there was a reason they were the go to camera system for professionals for decades.

"It's been a workhorse. The lens coatings have incredible retention of information, you get tons of shadow detail as well as being able to hold highlight information. I like the flexibility of the hand winder or a power winder or a waist level finder or a right angle finder, I get a great variety out of it," says Brian.

Cheers

-~-

PS - A bunch of top of the line gear isn't going to make you a better photographer. You must be original, creative and most importantly, produce great work. Great photos are made everyday by super-talented shooters with bare-bones gear. This feature is meant to show you, the reader, what tools Brian Harder and Trudie Lee use in their travails as professional photographers, not a list of the latest and greatest kit. We hope you find it educational.

Photo Pulse - Nov. 16/07

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:34:00 +0000

Calgary based stock company, Veer, was recently acquired by stock giant, Corbis. Read more on this story here. Good to see a company from Calgary make it big.

A Photo Editor has just started a great new Digg'ish type feature to his blog. Called PhotoRank, the readership of the APE blog (and the APE himself) submit sites where they are then voted on and ranked. It's a great site to check out work by photographers you wouldn't otherwise see.

Found a wonderful video with quite an effective use of time lapse photography on Wooster Collective. Check it out. Paris at night is amazing and their art is fresh, unique and huge.

FACE 2 FACE - EXPO PARIS
Uploaded by JR

And if you haven't seen it yet, check out our multimedia mashup from our Decidedly Jazz Danceworks shoot.

Cheers

-~-

Multimedia Mashup with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:22:00 +0000

Video

Time-lapse photography

Finished stills.

It all went into this latest piece, a behind the scenes look into a recent shoot with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

Check it out

Brian and Trudie have been looking at dipping their toe into the multimedia world ever since they purchased an intervalometer (a device that triggers an exposure at a defined interval) at their assistant's request. By the way here's an excellent tutorial on how to make your own timelapse.

Would love to hear your comments.

Cheers

-~-

Photo Pulse - Oct. 29/07

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:17:00 +0000

We're starting a new feature here at HarderLee. A regular linkroll to what we're reading. The focus will be on photography but aside from that, well, you'll just have to check it out!

Rise of the Aggregators - Thoughts of a Bohemian - Paul Melcher writes an excellent blog on the photography industry. The link above is an especially prescient piece on the future of stock photography industry. It's not just price-point it's bringing a selection of images to the image buyer from any source that they want. Big money is going to the first person to develop a reliable sales platform that works in this manner.

A Photo Editor - Definitely a blog every photographer should be reading. It's done by an anonymous blogger, who happens to be a photo editor at a major national magazine. Very insightful reading. Favorite posts in the past couple of weeks include What Makes a Professional or this one on Hiring a Photographer. The comments are also worth a look as well.

The photo agency, Black Star, has a great blog called Black Star Rising. A very Digg'ish post is this one, on 10 firsts in the world of photography. On the list are things like the world's oldest photograph and the first picture taken underwater.

I for one, can't wait for Terabyte thumb drives. Imagine, you could have your entire body of work on something 2.5 inches long by a half inch wide.

Weddingstar Magic - Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Can you spot the differences between the two pictures?

While Spot the Difference is usually a game you find in the Funnies in your newspaper here it's an example of just how much work goes into an image.

The image on the bottom was one of the many pieces that went into creating the final image on top.

This image and many others were created for a fashion shoot that
Trudie Lee recently did with Kelly Hartman, the lead designer of Weddingstar .

(In case you missed the last post, Weddingstar is a magazine/catalogue hybrid that is distributed in 49 countries. They produce over 2400 unique wedding accessories)

The first image is one of our favorites from the shoot. Our jodhpur clad heroine is picking out favor boxes for the wedding.

A ton of work went into the post-production with Trudie using six images to make her final composite (the six images are tiled to the left).

"After taking a recent Adobe Photoshop seminar I had the technique to drop in those extra favor boxes (with the shadows), extend the very detailed background and get the texture to all line up on the floor," said Trudie.

"The room we had to shoot in was approximately 12 x 12 feet square so I knew I had to shoot extra pieces in order to make it a double page spread" (you can see that the final image is wider than the image below it).

From the example shot above Trudie used the male model and the girls arm and some of the background scene. The rest was added in from other pictures.

Let's spot the differences
-The hallway on the left
- The Weddingstar boxes and blue favor boxes in the foreground on the left
- Various favor boxes on the ground
- Everything on the female model except the arm reaching for the favor box is from another photo
-Various favor boxes
- The left part of the frame with the product on the shelf was added in to make it wider

The lighting for the scene used a lot of hard light from two 60 inch silver umbrellas coupled with edge lighting whenever we could fit it in.

For the shot above Trudie used the two big silver umbrellas with Profoto Compact 600 monoheads, camera right. We had a Compact 600 with a seven inch reflector to light up the left hallway and to edgelight the male model. Also there was a fill card, camera left, to bounce window light onto the shadow side of the favor boxes.

The post-production, the lighting, the stylists and the designer all contribute to making incredible images. On shoots like these it really is a team effort.

Links
Profoto Compact 600
Hartman Design Studio
Weddingstar - Online Catalogue
Trudie Lee bio
Definition of jodhpurs

Cheers

-~-

Weddingstar Magic - Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:05:00 +0000

While shooting weddings is something Brian and Trudie do hardly ever, the past three years they've been heavily involved in shooting for Weddingstar, a major annual wedding magazine/catalogue hybrid.

Weddingstar is distributed in 49 countries with a total print run of 250,000. They produce over 2400 unique wedding accessories, with everything from cake toppers (they have 42 different ones) to bride and groom toilet paper.

To get an idea of how big a project this is, this summer Brian shot a little over two weeks of nothing but various Weddingstar product.

Each shoot is meticulously planned out by Kelly Hartman of Hartman Design. As the lead designer for Weddingstar's magazine/catalogue she organizes and chooses the fabrics and backgrounds and styles all the product.

"He's amazing technically at shooting product. It's bizarre, he looks at something and is just able to see how it should look. He doesn't settle either, he always wants that great image," says Hartman.

These tabletop shoots get a heavy duty lighting set-up. Overhead on a boom is a Wafer softbox dialed all the way down. That's used as a general fill. Also, Brian uses up to 7 or 8 Profoto monoheads with gridspots and neutral density filters. He sculpts the scene with these hard light sources.

"I light with the gridspots to get texture out of items that you wouldn't get texture out of with flat lighting," says Brian.

With this set-up, Brian can shoot between f2.8 to f5.6, getting that glamorous short-focus look you get when shooting wide open.

For a shot like the one below Brian used six different lights (click for larger version).

- One light camera left. To light the in-focus blackberries. 10 degree grid used.
-One light, back right, 30 degree grid used. Lights the brown fabric and edge lights the product. Check the shadows on the raspberry bottom right to get an idea where it is coming from.
- One top light, for general fill.
- Two lights with 20 degree grids from either side of the set to bring up the density on the green fabric.
- One background light with a seven inch reflector. Lit from right side to gradate light to dark from left to right.

Stay tuned. The next post will be about Trudie's Weddingstar fashion shoot.

Links

Hartman Design Studio
Profoto - The Light Shaping Company
Weddingstar - Online Catalogue

Cheers

-~-

Reach!

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:57:00 +0000

When Trudie Lee works for the Reach! campaign it's a double feel-good whammy, not only is she working for an important medical fundraising initiative but her work gets printed 80 feet tall.
Reach! is a three-year, $300 million joint fundraising partnership between the University of Calgary and the Calgary Health Region. It's designed to raise targeted philanthropic dollars to build on excellence within Calgary’s existing health system.

100% of every donation goes to the project or area chosen by the donor. There have been some very generous participants: T. Boone Pickens, an American businessman donated $2.25 million to the Hotchkiss Brain Institute; Calgary philanthropists Bob and Nola Rintoul (pictured below left) gave a $1.3 million gift to the Calgary program of the Alberta Bone & Joint Health Institute.

Lois Epp is the director of communications for the Reach! campaign. She chose Trudie specifically for this project.

"Trudie has been essential in capturing the energy we want to attribute to Reach!. Putting people at the forefront of all aspects of Reach!, be it donors, researchers, physicians or patients is key to making the whole concept of Reach! accessible."

"Trudie connects very well with a person which is critical for us given the wide cross-section of people we need to shoot. Trudie is incredibly adept at making them all comfortable which really comes across with these images. We want people to see these images and think “this could be me”, or someone they know and Trudie has captured that beautifully.”

The shots are done on a white background with two lights. One umbrella on the subject and another light on the background. The shots are used in a number of formats by Reach!; on their website, in brochures and in huge posters on the interiors and exteriors of Calgary hospitals and the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine..

Blowing up photos isn't any problem with the hardware Trudie uses; an H20 Phase One digital capture back mounted on a Hasselblad 503 CW. The 16 megapixel medium format back ships out a 47 megabyte file when processed out at 100 per cent.

Dwayne Dobson at Combine Design does the design work for Reach!. According to Dobson, hardly anything is done to the image. In fact, because it gets printed so large and is seen from such a distance a 47 megabyte file works just fine.

Trudie shoots for Reach! tethered to her laptop through a FireWire cable. Doing this gives her a ton of storage(as much as her laptop can hold) and immediate feedback from a high resolution color managed monitor. Subjects and designers can go over what works right there, cutting down on time spent going over proofs.

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Interiors - More Than Meets The Eye

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:41:00 +0000

Recently contacted by Dolemo Development Corp. Brian was on assignment to shoot their spectacular office interiors. The offices take up an entire floor of prime real estate right on the Bow river in Calgary's Chinatown.

The wedge shaped building is a landmark piece of architecture itself.

While interiors may not be the most glamorous thing to shoot they are definitely an exercise in lighting skills. Especially when you're dealing with wall to wall, dark, semi-reflective, very expensive wood.

While David Hobby over at Strobist loves this material for an easy, great looking one-light portrait it's another thing altogether to light it for an interior shoot. It's dark, so it sucks up light and it's semi-reflective, so you have to watch your angles or you'll end up with a big specular highlight where your light is pointing.

The full set-up for this shot of the front reception area involved seven Profoto monoheads.

-One head camera right with a tight 10 degree grid on to light the column on the right side.
-One head camera left with 10 degree grid on it as well to light up the right side of the desk.
-One head camera left with a loose 40 degree grid. This was the main light on the front part of the desk.
-One head camera left with 10 degree grid to slash onto the left most portion of the desk.
One head camera left with cinefoil snoot. Used to illuminate the left column and gives the sparkle to the Dolemo sign.
-Two heads behind desk with loose grids to light the back wall.

The above isn't the finished product either. The specular highlight from the window will be photoshopped out and a couple other minor details will be taken care of.

But not only is the lighting set-up a lot of work, the post-production is a whole other kettle of fish. Have a look at the shot, straight out the camera for comparison.

Let's list off what was done in post.
- Perspective correction.
- Contrast enhanced.
- Took glare off wood in the background with a layer from a previous shot.
- Used a separate exterior shot, cut out the windows and dropped that image in behind it.
- Created a color layer over the three windows that were tinted to recreate the original tint in the windows.
- The background image was manipulated with saturation, contrast and layers to create the illusion of streaming sunlight on an otherwise flat, white, overcast day.

And that's just one shot. For this shot it was another seven light set-up.

-One head camera right. Fill for the middle row of chairs. Bounced off the ceiling.
-One head camera right. Loose 40 degree grid. Lit the front wall and front chairs.
-One head hidden by the chairs on a floor stand. 10 degree grid. Slashing upwards onto the podium.
-One head propped up on a binder with a tight grid slashing upwards onto the back wall.
-Two heads in a nook in the wall camera left. One to light the backs of the chairs and floor. One with a tight grid to light the wall with the rear projection TV's.
-One light camera left with a cinefoil snoot to fill in the backs of the chairs and ground.
And again, post-production plays an important part in bringing the final product to the client.
- Perspective correction
- Lightened the image in curves
- Brought up the density of the rear projection screen with curves
- Photoshopped out the orange power cord, the shadows on the back wall from the chairs and other assorted power cables
- Exposed for the background on a different frame and then dropped it in
- The background image was manipulated with saturation, contrast and layers to create the illusion of streaming sunlight on an otherwise flat, white, overcast day.

Cheers

-DK

Picture Yourself in the Oilsands

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:07:00 +0000

If you've never pictured yourself in the oilsands, maybe it's time to start.

We recently spent three days shooting for Suncor on their main site, just outside Fort McMurray, Alberta.

The shoot is part of a huge recruitment campaign where they want you to "Put Yourself in Suncor's Picture".
The set-up was fairly simple, one Profoto monohead on a mini-boom with a beauty dish as the light modifier.

While the lighting set-up was fairly simple, safety onsite is always paramount. We were shooting in coveralls, hardhat, ear protection, eye protection and steel toed boots.

Power cables had to be specially brought in and then run to us by workers.

Once we had our gear out and were ready to shoot we found out the power cables they supplied had explosion proof connectors that our cords couldn't mate with.

Thankfully, a member of our crew flagged down an electrician who chopped off our woeful male A/C connectors and fitted them with an explosion proof connector.

In order for us to shoot they had to shut off their Fire Eyes system, a safety control that detects sudden bursts of light. One of our crew also had to hot check the area for explosive gases. Just as the electrician came back with our explosion proof connector the clouds parted making the steel shine and the background a glorious blue sky.

Serendipitous.

As luck would have it we only got one day of sunshine while on location, so we spent the next day in the truck shop. One of the cooler backdrops for sure. It's not everyday you're background is a truck the size of a small building.

Just another day at the office.

Cheers

-DK

Banff Centre Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:45:00 +0000

Imagine a vacuum truck loudly sucking away at a mudhole, a backhoe knocking down trees and between the two, in a little glade, a couple of mule deer munching away.

Such is the paradox of the mountain town of Banff, Alberta.

Brian Harder recently had a three-day, two-night shoot at the Banff Centre (a masters arts school) that covered a lot of ground, photographically speaking.

He shot the interiors, exteriors, food and editorial-type people shots of the new, just-completed dining wing.
This sexy food shot looks almost effortless, but a lot of light went into this picture. Two Profoto monoheads with tight gridspots (a 10 degree and 20 degree) with neutral density filters taped over them were placed camera right to slash down onto the plate and food.

Those ND filters, which knock the light output down by three stops are handy when you want to light something subtly and the subject is fairly small. There was another Profoto monohead with a looser grid (40 degrees), camera left to give a bit of fill and light the back part of the table. There were some looser shots where you could see a bit of the room and in those shots there was a Profoto in the back giving some sparkle to the background tables, chairs and plates.

Shot at 50 ISO, ambient light played virtually no part at all.

The ND's also ensure that Brian was shooting at a fairly wide-open aperture, f4.5, to give that short focus look. It works great to isolate the subject.

The new dining wing is home to some of the more spectacular views you can get within the confines of Banff.

This shot is of the Three Ravens Dining room, the new high-end dining spot for whom we did all the sexy, sexy food shots.

The other shoots went great as well with some quite intensive set-ups.

The main view of the whole dining room involved combining three different exposures. One for the mountains out the window and the remaining two of the dining room with different points of focus. Lighting that shot involved a lot of legwork as well with all eight Profoto monoheads coming into play to make the room come alive.

Here you can see Brian firing away and you get to see an example of what we're talking with a Profoto monohead with a gridspot and an ND filter.
Cheers

-DK

For The Philatelist In All Of Us

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:42:00 +0000

There aren't very many jobs more important than shooting the Queen but when you get an order for four million prints, well, it might be close.

Trudie Lee was recently contacted by Lime Design to be the photographer for a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Scouting in Canada.

With 78,000 Scouts in Canada the movement is still going strong.

The tree-like symbol that the Scouts are forming on the stamp represents the growth of Scouts as an organization and also reflects teamwork, which is an integral part of Scouting, said designer Matthias Reinecke in the Canada Post press release. The background features the logo of the Scouts along with photos of canoeing, cycling, camping and Scouts gathered around the campfire; all typical Scouting activities.

The shoot itself was not without its problems. With the project calling for a summer feel, there was a lot of shooting outside. Unfortunately the shoot was in December. The first weekend of shooting was, shall we say, inclement, with the lake frozen over and not a blade of grass to be seen.

The second weekend saw much better weather with a little stretch of unfrozen water to put the canoe in.

"Thank god for Chinooks," said Trudie.

The stamp is on sale from now until July 24, 2008 with four million being printed. For only 52¢ each you can't afford not to get your hands on this philatelist's dream. By the way, philately refers to the collecting of stamps, whether as a hobby or as an investment.

Links

Official definition of philatelist
Canada Post press release
Official stamp collecting particulars

Cheers

-DK

Wedding Shooter?

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:22:00 +0000

147,391 — The number of couples who tied the knot in Canada in 2003, the most recent year available.

2 - The amount of weddings that Brian and Trudie have shot in the past 14 years.

Wedding photography is a huge business but one Trudie Lee and Brian Harder don't really dip their toe into, that is until recently.

Asked to shoot a wedding through Trudie's contacts with Encana (the bride is a a well respected manager with the large, Calgary-based, oil and gas firm), Trudie was reluctant at first.

"I think it's more stressful than some of the other stuff I do. And I'm not that sentimental. But this wedding was very elegantly planned and it appealed to me."

Trudie handled the portraits while Brian and Trudie both shot the ceremony.

The wedding was held at the very pretty and very old Lougheed House in the downtown area. In shoots like these you have to pay special attention. You don't want to scratch 100-plus year old floors with your lightstand or knock over a precious heirloom.

In the shot below you can see us at work, Trudie interacting with the subject, me holding the laptop and Brian recording it all for posterity.

Cheers

-DK

Photographing the Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:43:00 +0000

The first thing you see when you search Trudie Lee on Google is this story on photographing the Queen.

We'll get Trudie's take on this later but the article is excellent.

Trudie Lee Bio

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:42:00 +0000

Trudie Lee started off shooting dog shows and strippers. 20 years later she shot the Queen.

An Alberta College of Art and SAIT alumni Trudie got her first real job as the resident photographer for the Banff Centre.

When she met Brian (her eventual partner) she wanted to be his photo assistant. In what turned out to be a great decision he told her to get her own job. She started her own photo business in 1988.

Trudie's manner behind the camera is incredible. People who usually detest getting their photos taken almost always walk away from a photo shoot exclaiming how easy that was and how great their photos look.

Trudie's client list isn't something she likes to bring up but it ranges from the high-powered CEO's of the oil patch to theatre and dance companies to two very special assignments. Photographing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2005 and shooting a special collectors stamp for Canada Post in 2007.

Brian Harder Bio

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:41:00 +0000

Brian Harder was skipping math in '77 to hang out in the photo department. He hasn't taken a math class since.

Brian made his way to Calgary in '79 from Saskatoon to attend the Alberta College of Art. Armed with his art degree, Brian graduated right into the peak of the deep recession that hit Calgary in the early '80s.

Brian met the self professed "love of his life", Trudie in the darkroom of a studio/lab in the summer of '86.

He started off shooting editorial assignments and from there branched out into a number of photographic genres; product, architecture, celebrity portraiture, corporate work and many others.

Here's a quick list of accomplishments.

-Editorial assignments for Time Magazine.
-Owns own 5000 square foot studio and loft in downtown Calgary.
-Shot Sophia Loren in 1987.
-Was accredited for the 1988 Winter Olympics.
-Traveled the world on a commissioned book project in 1994.
-Proud father to twin girls in 2001.
-Became one of the first digital studios in Western Canada in 2003.
-Photographed Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2005.

Welcome to the blog of HarderLee Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Duncan) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:01:00 +0000

This website has a simple objective. To get people excited about commercial photographers Brian Harder and Trudie Lee.

Their website has been online for less than a year but it's only a part of what will be Brian Harder and Trudie Lee's online presence.

This blog will dive into the exciting world of running a professional commercial photographic studio. The shoots, the set-ups, the lighting, the tedious and the breathtaking.

Have a look at their various portfolios and you quickly realize they're just as comfortable shooting the Queen as they are donning coveralls and hardhat and shooting Alberta's oilsands.

We will be offering a How'd They Do That explanation on the set-ups and lighting on the more involved shoots, notable news involving Brian and Trudie and of course updates on what we're doing and what is important to us in the commercial photography world.

So have a look around. Go through the archives, check out the homepage and stay awhile. You'll be glad you did.

Cheers