Hey guys,
It’s good to have time again and sit down with glass of wine to write another post. It’s Sunday night (11:46pm) and I had an amazing day today. Woke up at 6.15am to go for a sunrise hike on top of the Mt Seymour’s ‘Dog Mountain Trail” and got absolutely soaked wet with the heaviest snow rain and one foot of snow with my dog Buddy. He was the most unhappy dog in the world right after he got the touch of the ice-watered snow beneath him, which soaked his little belly in zero degrees water for about an hour or so. He was safe and happy after having a good breakfast 😉 and this story will be covered in the next post.
The thing I want to share with you today is some seriously amazing and crazy portraits I did few days ago (NOV 19th, 2014). I had the opportunity to donate my time and talent for one of the best agencies in Canada I know, which is DDB and support local charities at the same time. They needed a photographer to cover the event but I also wanted to bring little twist to the “silent auctions” as we know it with some good portraits. After seeing so much stuff online and social media I decide to bring on the big guns. MAKE SOME NOISE! I’ve rented leaf-blower which was able to generate 235MPH wind and get some faces flying! Literally!!!
These are the best of the best from the evening:
As far as the light set up and behind the scenes, here are some background shots:
Thank you guys for stopping by and check back soon for next projects.
Have a great time!
Martin 😉
Hey guys,
It’s been a long time since I had time to sit down and write a post. I’ve had very busy summer including one of the best day of my life, my wedding (…but this will be covered in another post). I decided to pay more attention to the blog section of my website and start writing (more) again. I would love to kick it off with a post I was preparing for a long time and finally introduce you to a person who is very inspiring person to be around. I decided to photograph a portrait of Vaughn last summer or so which ended up as awesome afternoon with some ‘sick photos on the side’. Vaughn has a life long passion for music and piano and is influenced by true songwriting greats, such as Randy Newman, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, and auteurs like Ry Cooder and Van Dyke Parks. When I asked Vaughn why does he do what he does, this was his answer:
“I am in ecstasy when I play the piano, or when I listen to music, because music is the master vibration that everything in nature is trembling to express. Listening and composing and playing music is a complete necessity for me, a blessing and affliction. Music is an experience, intimately married to life. Currently, I’m trying to find a way to survive and thrive making music. I knew music would be my mistress when I was just a boy, and that, by virtue of this knowledge, I would potentially be living in a ditch with a foot of water as a pillow. I confess that this misgiving has crossed me in idle imagination, but has not spurred my feet in anyway.”
We had amazing times while shooting the portraits and I picked a location very close to my place, Swangard Stadium. The idea was to see Vaughn go nuts and really enjoy himself performing on such a huge stage of a big stadium, although there was no audience. In our mind, we totally “sold out” the whole place and Vaughn was ‘playing’ the best performance of his life. It was great to see the results and see his soul come through and being able to capture it in these photographs. This first photograph of this blog post is one of my favourites because it exactly portray Vaughn’s limitless love for music.
Here is a behind the scene photo of how this shot was made:
These photos are from the same day and I think are the best pick. Having a blast and enjoying the sunshine (because that’s what life is about!):
Here are some useful links where you can find more details regarding Vaughn, his walkabouts and what he is up to:
Music Sample: https://soundcloud.com/vaughnswenson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rbandbrand
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ourbandbrand
And this is one of my favourite songs created by Vaughn, called ‘Sharp, Flat & Natural’.
Hope you guys enjoyed these photos and it will be a pleasure if you stop by here soon.
Cheers, Martin.
As a bonus I am including a 5 portraits of Vaughn and his boys, Joe Gibson and Jordan Lysenko, who are the core members of THE BRAND (a music band solely focused on the love for music). These portraits were taken on Mamiya RZ 67, which is a medium format film camera first introduce in 1982 and is my (second) love of my life. 😉
