Stories have been a part of my life ever since I started seriously getting into books, I must have been five when I carried huge stacks of them home from the library couple of times a week . Nobody believed I really read them. I got quizzed for the first couple of weeks before I earned the trust of the Librarian that I really didn’t just look at the pictures.

In that sense I can relate to Alice’s fantasies and desire to go back to Wonderland and create more Worlds in your mind. If you are anything like me, you visualize the stories you are reading on the paper in your head. It is a challenge then for any movie based on such a well known piece of literature  to live up to it’s hype. We all have a picture of Wonderland in our minds, that may be hard to beat. But watching a movie by Tim Burton is just a crazy and wonderful trip into a very creative persons mind that keeps on fascinating with each new layer. Double that with Lewis Carrol stories for Alice and you end up with a wonderful film.

I loved it all, the cast, the make up, the costumes! And the crazy visual effects! Wow! Really fun! Willy Wonka’s factory should have been done in 3D. But again, you can find tons of movies that would be amazing in an extra dimension!

My favorite Mad Hatter, as I do have one for a friend too is John Kenneth! I have more photography of him and his work on my website.

But I want to show you another side of the Mad Hatter, John the Milliner today. I love visiting him in his studio and see what new crazy  idea he is up to. I find it a little voyeuristic to walk into someones  private or working space and pull out a camera. It is very personal and it requires a certain amount of trust for a person to let you into that space. I feel lucky to have an excuse to be invited or sent to photograph people in their space. My curiosity is without borders and my profession makes it an asset rather than a bad trait.  But enough with the words! Here is John Kenneth, the Milliner as well as Mad Hatter from Toronto not Wonderland in his studio.

What I love about the Olympics being held in Canada is the fact that we really get to feel patriotic and for a good reason, this is perhaps the best country in the World to live in. It is beautiful, it is massive, yet it is small enough for us to be connected with only a couple of degrees of separation from one another. I keep hearing from my friends about so and so being their cousin, childhood friend, distant relative competing in Vancouver this week. I have met several of the athletes myself! I feel like I’m living in a small town all over again!

I am very lucky in the sense that I get three times the pleasure out of the Olympics by feeling patriotic for three countries participating. Canada of course, Slovakia naturally(18-0 maybe wasn’t the proudest moment for Slovakia, I know) and the Czech Republic. But the thing I admire the most about the whole idea of the games are the people taking part in them. The athletes. The determination and self discipline, strength and emotional control. The bodies performing at the highest peak of human strength and ability and the mental and emotional power behind it.

That’s was a part of what I was looking for when I was photographing Billy Bridges and Alexandra Orlando for the Adelaide Club in support of the Canadian Athletes Fund few months ago. The job is still up in the PATH  underground in Toronto and I hope there was lots of money collected for the CAN Fund. The idea was simple, two athletes on a white seamless background with text around them.

I got extra wide background to give them space and a good thing I did!

We photographed them together in various different poses to get the best constellation and found that the ribbon can be a challenge even in the hands of a very experienced gymnast.

Billy was a trooper and lasted for about 4 hours, most of it standing up. He must have been hurting after!

Alexandra was beautiful and so graceful with the ribbon!We shot her on her own as well as Billy in case we needed to combine any shots later. And in the end we ended up using a straight shot not a composite. The only thing I added later was Billy’s medal.

I learned a lot about sledge hockey that day and also that gravity applies to a ribbon just the same way as to everything else on this planet.

After everything was done, I quickly changed the lighting set up with the help of my fantastic assistant Paulo. I planed it in advance to save everyone’s time. We tested the light for the ad as well as for portraits I wanted to shoot of Billy and Alexandra for myself and for them as well.

And here they are!

Billy Bridges

Alexandra Orlando

They were amazing, positive and happy, willing to do anything to help the CAN Fund. I owe them a huge Thank you!

And I want to hear from you! How do you like them?

This shoot was a creative I had been thinking about for a while. The idea shifted and changed until it shaped into a Valentine’s day card. I know a perfect little boy and a beautiful girl with long strawberry blond hair that was just what I was looking for.

The blackboard was so amazing but a pain to transport. There is one of the reasons I love my boyfriend! He loaded it into his truck and the guy at the prop house said to me “this guy is a real catch”. What can I say! I know!

A couple of visits to the Value Village and my friends closet and I had the ideal wardrobe. Dollar store was perfect for all the little props. It is amazing how much prep work goes into a single image! If people only knew, I think that all the time while tweaking all the little things at a photo-shoot.

I love the innocence and sweetness of this story. Who were you in love with in grade one? I still remember my crush!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

With the long winter nights upon us there is more time to spend on research and visual stimulation, that’s what I call watching movies!

So I decided to revisit one of my favorite trilogies, now in six movies. Yes, I am talking about the Star Wars! It was my first time seeing the new movies and first time after maybe 12 years seeing the original ones. Seeing them in the order to follow the story it is really interesting to see what once was ground breaking visual approach to what the expectation is in our present culture. The story is epic and fabulous! And it is amazing how technical limitations did not stop George Lucas from bringing his ideas to fruition then. Maybe it was thanks to those limitations that those movies are so endearing. Seems we humans are very willing to forgive visual shortcomings if we get emotionally invested in the story.

These images are an ongoing inspiration to me. When I saw them first I was totally blown away! They are by a French photographer Cedric Delsaux, http://www.cedricdelsaux.com. He brings the Star Wars into your backyard! Ah, it’s so sweet! I don’t know Cedric I have only seen his work on his website, but I already like him as a person. Anyone who takes that kind of time and effort to create visuals like this must be cool! Very cool! There is a huge series of these on his website and it looks like this is an ongoing project for him. You must check them out! Cedric, you are super cool!

The landscapes on Cedric’s website are spectacular as well. I am not big on shooting landscape, but I know a great image when I see it and this website is loaded with some of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen.

The Star Wars images are under the Dark Lens section. Sweet! http://www.cedricdelsaux.com/#