I had the opportunity to photograph this amazing Edmonton gospel group for Avenue Magazine. They are a gospel group dedicated to preserving the style of vocalizing and musicianship that Alberta's Black pioneers brought with them from the southern United States nearly a century ago.

It’s a pleasure to photograph portraits of such a dynamic group of people. Taking photographs of people with character is just a matter of pointing the camera in the right direction and letting them be themselves.

Quenten Brown (on piano), Hugh French, Junetta Jamerson and Sierra Jamerson are part of the Black Pioneers Heritage Singers.

I took the photos in colour originally, but for me the first photo worked much better as a Black & White photograph. When photographs are in B&W, you are not distracted by colours that might unintentionally grab your focus. Also, a B&W photograph lets your eyes dwell on the transitions of greys and brings out texture and character lines.

The Technical Stuff: The key (main) light in both photographs was from a Nikon SB800 shot through a white umbrella and held high and near the subjects. The secondary light was a Nikon SB900 with a Rayflash ring light set back behind the group and used to separate them from the dark background.

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Filed under  //   editorial   lighting   portrait  

I was commissioned by the Globe and Mail earlier this month to take a portrait of Patrick Kabongo, an offensive lineman with the Edmonton Eskimos’ CFL football team. The story was about how much he volunteers and gives back to his community. Patrick is a 6-foot-6, 315 pound small C celebrity here in our northern city. Fans love him because of how he plays on the field but he’s also known for his personality. Every time I’ve seen him he usually sports a huge smile or a great laugh. But, he seemed almost serene in every photo I took of him.

Patrick and his family fled the African city of Kinshasa in 1982 when the Zaire government was battling rebel forces in a bloody conflict. He came to Canada and grew up in Montreal and got started in football through an organization that runs sports programs for underserved children. He ended up playing at Vanier College and then to Nebraska University. Sometimes we forget that these athletes playing in our CFL are all top ranked football players coming from prestigious US football schools.

The Technical Stuff: This portrait involved three lighting scenarios. I used my Nikon D700 with a 50mm f/1.4 for the blue photo and a Nikon D300 and the 17-55mm lens for the other two. The first photo is obvious, with two Nikon speed lights with white shoot thru umbrellas on either side. I also use a Honl 1/8 grid on a Nikon SB900 for very focused lighting on his face (for both lit photos). In the third photo I put the speed lights behind him. BTW, that’s the roof he’s holding on to.

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I've always said that the best part of being a photographer is being allowed into people's lives. I get a chance to document a slice of their life story.

The Technical Stuff: Two SB900 flashes triggered with remotes were set up on the balcony. So, to the right of this couple and on the second floor. The ISO was set to 1250 so there was mix of ambient and strobes.

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Ok, so the car is not a GTO but it made for a nice title.
April 22, 2009 - Driver Erica Thiering, Alberta Champion (for her age class,
she's 17) stock car racer, poses for a photo at her family's home.

I had to do a portrait of a local teen race car driver out on the family farm. It would of been nice to shoot on a race track, but like in many cases I'm left to the mercy of the assignment editor (in rare cases you have an assignment editor that is a photo editor) and the time schedule of the subject. I knew I wanted to create a dramatic image but also thought about other racing photos I've seen of winning drivers – driver on hood of car.

The Technical Stuff: A storm was coming in so I had to be quick. On the positive side, the storm brought with it some great dramatic looking clouds. I used two SB900 speedlights. One was shot through a white umbrella (to provide a softer light) and pointed at Erica. The other was used as fill for the car. The speedlight in the umbrella was gelled with a CTO (colour temperature orange) and then I set the white balance on my Nikon D700 to tungsten light. The white balance setting made the ambient light (which I stopped down to darken) very blue while the CTO gelled light brought back the warmth to her face.

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