My shoot was on Wednesday and on the weekend before I got a lovely message from a friend of a friend of mine, whom I met all but once for a coffee! She was on a roll, but needed a good start and asked if I would take her on for a week! This girl is making her way through 8 different jobs in 8 weeks and boy, they could not be more different from each other! Among some of her jobs are photography assisting, making espresso, cutting meat and working in a yoga studio! Crazy! I love her blog and I love my new friend Amanda!

Amanda was a great company and a lot of help! She made a little video of us setting up and she even wrote a poem! Hahaha! The job went great and we celebrated with afternoon tea the very next day!

I must say, I had the best assistants on this job. Amanda and Zak helped me out with the set up and Amanda, Daniel and Paolo were making things happen on the day of the shoot! I love that energy of everyone pitching in to make things happen!

I have done my fair share of assisting and what people often don’t realize is, that all the schlepping and working long days is done out of passion and often, because an assistant is a photographer too!

So this is to all the great assistants out there!

These shots were done as test shots for my job and a couple of them are so much fun, I couldn’t just keep them on my hard drive and not let the world see them! And here is the proof that Amanda is a hair taller than Zak! Hmmhmm!

Yes I do love the Canadian Geographic, but I love the current issue so much more! The hard work, time and effort I put into working on a personal series of photographs capturing the Elvis Tribute Artist culture has paid off by being published in a magazine I have been dreaming about seeing my work in for the last decade!

Thane Dunn performing at the Collingwood Elvis Festival.

But there is more! I really do feel like a little kid in a candy store! Canadian Geographic online has the story and more of my photographs too! And an interview with me and more of my work as a part of their Field Reports!

I am so grateful to all of my Elvis Tribute Artist friends! They let me go beyond their comfort level and I really enjoyed being in their company. Thank you! Thank you very much! LOL!

I had a great help for this. My new friend Stoeps from LA came along to help out. And that was when I found out that he is a cinematographer that makes incredible documentaries and some very cool commercials all over the World! He was the best assistant ever! Holding on to my reflector and holding my cameras. That is something I really love about this profession, we never stop to learn from each other! It’s beautiful. There are no boundaries for creativity!

But back to the photography. Earlier the same week I was cooking a dinner and when I opened up my freezer I was frustrated with how much space in it is taken up by rolls of film, that have been sitting there for years! So, when I was packing my equipment for the trip to Highpark, I packed a few rolls of film and a couple of my film cameras. Can you guess which images were shot on film?

I had my 5D Cannon SLR, that is a given! I love it! It’s a beautiful camera and does an amazing job! I also brought a little Russian camera my dad gave me a couple of years ago. It’s called “Ljubitel” which means lover in English. I guess the idea was that it was made for the lovers of photography. It is sort of a replica of rolleiflex, you can see it in this shot here.It leaks light all over the place and is nearly impossible to focus! The delightful sunshine on the gorgeous Spring day when cherry trees are in blossom wasn’t helping with that problem either! It’s a toy. And I love my toys! I also brought my Mamiya 645 Pro. That camera had not been used in about 5 years! I pulled a roll of film out of it with images from a trip to a friend’s cottage from 5 years ago! Wow! Considering how long it took me to save up the money for it and then I had the guy in the camera store hold it for me for another 6 months until I had enough money to pick it up, it is really sad that it doesn’t get any use anymore. It’s a camera like that that makes you feel like a real photographer. Big and heavy in your hand, with a massive viewfinder and the little split screen to focus with! Ah! How could I have forgotten how much I loved it! So I shot a roll with it and some of the shots from the roll are in the series, but I am not telling you which ones! Not just yet!

I love the element of surprise that comes along with shooting film. Not so much for work, but for creatives like this, it’s delightful! I played around and the shot above for example was taken with my little Russian Ljubitel camera. I exposed the same piece of film multiple times and as often happens, the best stuff gets cut, perforated and ruined by the lab in processing. It’s not a mistake either! It’s bound to happen. They have to perforate the film in order to be able to dip it into all the chemicals processing involves and this image happened to be at that very end of the roll. Somehow, I think this was the perfect effect for this image and I couldn’t have hoped for a crazier and better result!

There are more shots from this series on my websites homepage. Can you guess which ones were shot on film versus digital?

If nothing else, yoga teaches you some cool party tricks! But it has become a lot more than that for me over the last 4 years. I have become a big fan of Anusara yoga and am getting kind of tired of listening to myself brag about how amazing it is!

But the reality is, it keeps me on my feet and out of pain. Brings me down to earth while making me levitate and reminds me of how grateful we should all be to be here now to enjoy what life has to offer. And lets not forget, I have now a few party tricks I can show off!

*

I was bored with the bright and clean and super monotonous way in which yoga practice is pictured. It really is no surprise that people look at it with a smirk when it’s presented to them as something perfect and other worldly and oh so squeaky clean. All that spiritual BS has us all looking at it as too healthy for our own good.

It would be fantastic if we could all do yoga in a huge white bright space or on a beach, overlooking the sunset. Oh, ya and lets not forget all the yogis in grass and waterfalls, by the pool overlooking the jungle…

Whatever! How many times have you practiced yoga in that kind of environment? Sure, it’s a lovely fantasy, but the reality is very different!

*

So I though, why not look at it from a different angle.

I don’t know about you, but I love living in a city. The buzz, the activity, the opportunities and all the people. It’s exciting! But I also feel the need to practice yoga to balance all the static energy and organize the chaos. Yoga gets me through my week and onto the next. It has become a big part of my life and when I was presented the opportunity to photograph some amazing yoga teachers, I jumped! I wanted to show yoga as I relate to it. As a part of urban living, not some bright pretty fantasy.

It’s sweaty, its tough, it makes you smell, ugh pretty bad. But it belongs here more than it belongs on the beach and in waterfalls. It’s here we need it most, it’s here where it’s most challenging.

I came up with an idea and the girls were so sweet, they indulged me and went along with it! Thank you both very much Christi-an and Josie, two amazing Anusara yoga teachers!

It was a really fun sunny day and we headed downtown with a few pieces of equipment and my sweet assistant Adam.  Since there was no paying client, it was a bit of a guerrilla operation. I like to look around the city and find fun spots and I knew of a place we could use, as long as nobody noticed we were doing it. The office building in the heart of downtown, where Derooted, the creators of my fabulous website have their beautiful studio

We were on the roof for less than 20 minutes before a maintenance guy came along with the very words I was afraid he would say: “you do have a permit for this! Right?”

Well, what’s a girl to say? “Of course I do! Do you think I would be here without one?” I thought I did well, the guy looked at me smirking and says “Oh yeah? Who did you get the permit from?” You’d think I’m done and out of there, right? Wrong! I have never met the owner, but I do my research! I dropped the name and the guy walked away!

So we had a free pass and played around. I just love the guy with the disco ball head! It’s like he came to the party!

We got intense sunshine right before we got some crazy clouds and refreshing little rain. We toughed it out, the camera toughed it out! The girls were up side down and twisted this way and that! They were doing things I never even heard of before and looking as graceful as queens! I couldn’t believe the stamina and strength! How hot is that!

And all along I wanted to be doing yoga with them! Ah, so inspiring!

The traffic was buzzing all around and below us, construction noises and the maintenance guys lingering, I don’t even think I heard them at all! It’s captivating watching someone go into a headstand with full control and adjust just so and hold it for a while for the camera! But that’s not all! They also look graceful!?

I have many more years of practice ahead of me before I look like that!

*

I love to see what the day will bring. And even though I love control over the results when I’m working, on an outdoor shoot like this, one also has to put faith into the elements and hope for the best. My hope was for bright sun, but shot of show we got a little bit of everything within the short time we spent on the rooftop and it kind of worked out just perfect! I don’t think this shot would be the same if the sky was ideal. The dramatic skies add substance to this photograph! It is a metaphor of what yoga does for me. It quiets the storm in my heart and helps me see clearly.

This is only the outdoor part of the photo-shoot. We continued on inside and I may post some more of those photos if you guys give me some feedback here!

I don’t know how we lasted as long as we did! We got a lot more fun stuff done in the staircase of this building. And let me tell you, it may be one of the sweetest old staircases I have seen in this city!

But as we were starting to seriously fade, we got caught by the, at the moment not so super, superintendent. The poor guy didn’t know what to do with us! He freaked! Walked away. Came back, freaked out some more, threatened a little, yelled and bullied. But what was he going to do? We were in a public area of the building and about to leave!

I would do a lot more than just sneak onto a roof and into a staircase of a building for a great shot! Even being yelled at by the old guy was totally worth it! But you’d be the judge! I want to hear some feedback here! If you like them, let me know! If you hate them tell me why! Just don’t be shy!

There is a couple more images here, I just love! I really don’t think I would look as serene in the position Christi-an is in in the shot below! And Josie in her sneakers and the sunglasses! Priceless!

Let’s do more!

*

*

I love them, they called my portfolio “phenomenal”!

But my Elvises are still working hard! I have just entered them in a wicked competition in New York and if I can get enough votes, I will get a trip for myself and my photographs to the City to show my Elvises off! And there is nothing I would love to do more! True story!

Can you imagine? If I got to show them in a cool art gallery in New York? I think they totally deserve it! The are beautiful and interesting and fun. They are about unique and fun people that are dedicated to keeping alive the memory of Elvis, a very talented and generous man.

The link to my page in this competition is here:

http://artistswanted.org/Henrieta

Just scroll down the page and check out the images, it’s the same stuff than won me 1st prize in the Contact portfolio reviews! And as you reach the end, just hit the 5th star to vote. You can do it every day and from as many computers as you like and you can even tell your friends to vote for me or total strangers on the streets! It all counts! The competition is over at the end of June. So vote, a lot! I can’t do this one alone! Please help me with this one! And if I do win, you know I have you to thank!

XOXO

I love it too and I love it most when Slovak hockey team is kicking ass! Well, ok, if not Slovak at least Czech. Although if the two countries never split, the hockey team would have stayed a lot stronger too. I still think that should have been enough of a reason to keep Czechoslovakia and it’s hockey team intact!

I grew up with hockey and that’s partly why I love these shots I did a year ago. This was a casting for a job with hockey players. I have learned a very interesting thing which I never even considered. Apparently it’s bad luck to be photographed in ones hockey jersey before a tournament. And so I had to shoot a casting of body doubles for hockey players. But I find these portraits so very neat!

Hockey is such an important part of Canadian culture! And these for me reflect the passion Canadians have for the Game in an interesting kind of way. Most of these guys brought their own jersey and skates for this!  I think everyone needs a picture of themselves in their favorite hockey team jersey! Don’t you? Which one is your favorite?

© Henrieta Haniskova Photography

So you see, grasping the excitement of receiving one of the two fantastic prizes the reviewers at the Contact Portfolio Reviews have chosen me for is still like dream to me. It will be a busy year for me coming up! The prize includes a solo show with Contact a year from now! All I can say is THANK YOU to Contact! You guys are amazing! You create amazing opportunities for us with all your hard work! And THANK you to all of the reviewers, I will not disappoint you! Congratulations to Alex Kisilevich and  Adam Krawesky, my fellow photographers and winners, your work is beautiful!

Some of the images from my “I am Elvis” series have just been added to the Contact website, check them out! http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/portfolio-reviews

And if you want to see more of my work, please join me at the Spoke Club on May 26th at 7 pm for a drink. I will be showing and talking about my work along with 9 other photographers as a part of the “PechaKuchaNight Canada”

http://www.pechakuchanight.com/

See you there!

Do you know someone  so annoyingly positive, that you can’t help but love them? I do! Mr Jaymz Bee! His sense of humor and his positive attitude are infectious!

I first met him  at a green party our chiropractor threw to welcome the Spring. Everyone was to wear something green and bring something green to offer to the party! I brought kiwi’s.  I was young and naive!

Jaymz caught my eye in his yellow shirt with ruffles and blue velvet suit I later found out used to belong to his father. If a person dares to dress that loud, they have got to have a lot of interesting things to say too! Well then, no wonder he earned his place at the Jazz FM. Definitely one of my favorite radio stations in the city!

As a photographer, I am a voyeur, there is no denying!  I am infected with insatiable curiosity and I love to document what I see. The purpose of this is to share it with others. I always feel incredibly privileged to be allowed into the privacy of others and to have the opportunity to pull out my camera and capture what I experience!

Today, you are lucky just like I was a few months ago, to see how Jaymz lives and what he likes near him. This loft is one Jaymz just left and I haven’t seen the new one yet, but I am pretty sure it’s just as spacious and interesting!

I don’t know too many people anymore that collect records, I was impressed with this collection, Jaymz has some great records! Jazz and Funk and everything in between! Really, would you expect anything less?

Jaymz has some very flashy sneakers! They match his personality!

I find well decorated homes that are picture perfect quite amazing, but from the point of view of a peoples photographer, the things people choose to surround themselves with say so much about who they are and what they like. I wouldn’t want to remove any of the items in this shot, they all have their story and are important in illustrating the life of a musician and colorful personality that Jaymz has.

We are all different people at home than we are at work or out in the public. Character of a person is reflected in many aspects of their life. Our homes are huge collections of past experiences and mementos of events that shaped us as individuals, creative expressions of ideas and interests. And if you throw in the family history and economic aspect, you can learn so much about an individual from spending a little time in their space, that you could never learn otherwise!

I don’t know about you, but I love this shot! I love the seat all worn in and comfy and the B hat! Pin-up girl and the records. Jaymz has hula hoops! What?

*

We stopped over at Jaymz’s office at the Jazz FM. I wish I could photograph him in the studio during the show, but I don’t think anyone listening to the show would like me very much. All the clicking in the background would not be to funny! But his office at work shows just as much personality as his home.

*

Have you ever considered hitting the streets and joining Jaymz for one of his Jazz Safari nights?           Do it! Do it! Do it! It is amazing fun! And even if you don’t absolutely love Jazz, you will learn a lot about the live music scene in this city and get the best tour guide you could ever dream of. And in the process of that, you may just realize that you have been a huge jazz fan all along!

The last couple of photos are from one of these events at the Lula Lounge Jaymz put together. Lula Lounge is a lovely venue with good food, but combine that with talented singers and a good band and you have a great night to look forward to! And I can tell you, I had no idea Toronto had so much incredible talent! Male, female, teenage and trios, they were all fantastic, incredibly entertaining and amazing musicians!

Wow!

Check out this crazy picnic! We all  unpacked and shared the food and ended up with quite the feast! Green sausages, spicy chicken, assortment of cheeses and wines, bread, crackers, lots of cookies, tuna and vegetable sandwiches, flavored yogurt, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

That’s what you get when you mix up some South Americans, with Iranians and Eastern Europeans with the Portuguese and spice it up with some  waspy Canadians! Do I need to say more?

The trees were still bare, it made the picnic kind of surreal. It felt like a vacation from Winter. But the most fun was just the thing I love the most about Toronto, multicultural party with food to match it and cultural traditions to explore.

It is incredible that people think violence is to be defeated with more violence. There is no terrorist act that is OK in my Universe! Targeting civilians on their way to work is a cowardly act making a statement that may be trying to point out unfairness, but solidifies the aggression and unfairness of the instigator.

I went to Moscow a few years ago for a few days and found it to be a city of contrasts. Bigger and more expansive than New York with a higher population as well, it’s air is thick, you could cut it with a knife. As a native to Moscow said to me, if you have grown up in Moscow, you need that air to survive. You have been inhaling the entire Mendeleyev’s periodic table your whole life and getting fresh air may kill you! The widest street in the World may be in Buenos Aires, but Moscow is not far behind with over 100 meters in width.

As a child I heard a lot about Russian history and culture and seeing things that I heard being glorified as a child for years was quite the experience.

The city is too expansive to see enough of in only few days and can be overwhelming, Russians are welcoming but hoping for friendly smiles from them is asking too much. I am not Russian and as a child, I was force fed too much related to Russia and was trying to avoid it. But I understand the motivation behind the seriousness. It is ingrained in their culture and you can find a lot of traces of this in their fairytales. Everything happens in threes, which may be related to Christianity. Three, sons, three tasks, three of everything. Out of the three sons the oldest one is the most successful and very serious and strict, the second son less so, but trying to live up to his older brother, while the third son is not so smart and as such lives poor and because he is so stupid, he smiles a lot. So in a mind of the average Russian, if you smile you must be not so smart and if you smile a lot, you must be an idiot.

Look at these two sweet girls on Red Square! A friend of mine that lived in Canada for years and returned to Moscow a few years ago said to me completely seriously, that he is amazed at how little women in Canada try to look good. Now, not knowing the Russian mind, you could take offense. They tend to be very direct! But in this case, he could not have been more right! Women in Russia dress incredibly well!

Have you ever taken a look at Moscow on Google Earth? Do it! It is incredible! The Red Square is massive and right in the center of the city! It is surrounded by spectacular architecture. It also is a UNESCO site!

The clock tower is a part of Kremlin, the official residence of the President of Russia and also a UNESCO site!

Some old and some new buildings surround the square.

The sign above the door spells Lenin. I still remember some of the Azbuka I had to learn in grade 5.

The reflection in the building above, which is Lenin’s Mausoleum is a building from the 19th century called GUM, it is one of the first shopping malls ever built. It is spectacular! The entire building has this glass and steel roof and is packed with luxury stores. I had to use the washroom when we walked in and the tourist that I was, I automatically assumed that if I ask at one of the stores about where to find a washroom, I would be able to get an answer in English. Well, that ain’t so!

The incredibly looking and done up girls at the Luis Vuitton store that was right next door to the Gucci and Burberry looked at me with confusion and giggled to each other in Russian. So as I found out the hard way, these stores are there to cater to their Russian millionaire clientele and not the tourists. Wow! Considering most people there are really poor, making $300/month, living with their parents in tiny apartments, these boutiques feel totally out of place, but obviously they are making enough money to keep going! Wow!

The city is so saturated in culture and history and I find North Americans half the time don’t have the slightest idea about the richness of Russian culture. It may have to do with the fact that they still think of all Russians as communists and as such to be avoided at all cost, even though they have no idea what Communism really is or that Socialism and Communism are two very different things.

I know, I know I am opinionated and very likely offended a few people just there and perhaps generalized a little too, but isn’t it better to have an opinion than to have none? Plus this is my blog and I can say whatever I please, so there!

So as someone who grew up in Socialism being educated all about the importance of the idea of a fair social structure, visiting Lenin in his mausoleum was a must! There is no way in Hell I would have missed that opportunity! It’s like going to Egypt and never seeing the pyramids!

Visiting the Mausoleum was quite the experience! Despite the fact that it was surrounded by very creative buskers, which gave it the feel of cheesiness, there was a massive line up.

Access to see the amazingly well preserved body of Lenin is quite limited to only several days a week and even then for only a few hours. You are not allowed to bring anything in. They will check in your bag and your camera. The entry is free of course, but it will cost you to have your stuff checked in! You have to walk half the length of the square to get to the building and look respectful to be allowed in by the guards at the entrance. The entire Red Square is closed off to the public while the Mausoleum is open.

After you glimpse at the corpse of dead Lenin, not knowing how to react or what to think, you have to walk all the way around the Red Square to go and get your stuff, did I mention it’s a massive square?!

This may be an urban myth, but I’ve been told that Moscow has a Lenin Institute that’s dedicated to keeping the body of Lenin looking pretty and has contributed to the cosmetic industry with a lot of great new discoveries! Wow!

I don’t know how to feel about a nation that mummifies and displays their dead leader on the main square in their capital. Wow!

The most recognizable landmark in Moscow and possibly all of Russia has got to be the St. Basil Cathedral with incredibly colorful and decorated exterior and those adorable onion shaped towers! I had no idea one could go inside and freely roam about the building. It’s been standing there since the 16th century.

Isn’t it amazing how different the Tsar’s tastes in architecture were from the tastes of the Communists? Wow! But you have to admit, at least they had respect for their culture and history by not destroying religious temples, even if they did not support religion!

It came together from one temple surrounded by eight other temples and a tenth one added later. That’s how it ended up with these neat interior spaces that feel like a maze. Hmmm, I love mazes!

You can find a lot of art in Moscow. The art galleries are packed with amazing art work and the ballet is some of the best in the World here.

Despite all of this, Moscow is a huge city and feels like one too. It is diverse and has many layers, some I am probably very happy to be ignorant of. My friend pointed out the KGB building in the middle of the city to me as we were riding by in a taxi. It looked intimidating and supposedly the part you see from the street is only about a half of the entire building that has a lot more underground. Wow!

The Metro goes deep! Very deep! And interestingly, still decorated with a lot of Soviet art. That whole communist propaganda kind of stuff with hard working healthy looking women and blue collar men with children looking fearlessly towards the future is cheesy, yet endearing.It may be one of the few places left where this kind of art is still intact.

One interesting thing I found were the casinos that were on every step you took. There is a casino for everyone there! You can choose anything from slot machines to full entertainment houses and when they say full entertainment, that’s exactly what they mean! I had no idea Russian’s were such gamblers!

My biggest and favorite doll given to me by my uncle came with him from Russia! He worked there for several years and always thought of me when he came home to visit. I must have been two when he gave me the doll, it was bigger than me! It had perfect round blue eyes and blond hair and a very pretty dress. Of course it did! It was from Russia!

The best Creme Brulee I have ever tasted was in Moscow! At the Hyatt hotel restaurant at the top of the spectacular building the hotel is in with glass roof and incredible view of the city. The next time I am in Moscow, it’s the first place I am heading to for more of this amazing dessert!

My thoughts are with people in Moscow today and the families of those who died in the terrorist attacks! May they rest in Peace. I am sure they don’t want anymore violence happen on their behalf.