Melissa & Darragh - Maternity Session

I shot Melissa & Darragh's wedding almost two years ago to the day and I was honoured to be asked recently to photograph the next big step in their lives!

This was my first maternity session and I was very grateful that Melissa & Darragh let me go wild and try some different stuff:
















After getting a bunch of "lifestyle" photos around the house, we switched over to a little home studio I set up in their living room which is something I've never done before. It's amazing what you can do with a single hotshoe flash, a couple of blankets and a white ceiling...and a beautiful pregnant model of course!


A little homage to one of my favourite movies of all time (American Beauty):


Now for some more traditional "studio" portraits:






This one makes me chuckle every time...so cute!


This was kind of an inside joke and an homage to a similar shot I took of Darragh at their wedding (see next image):




Or I guess it would make more sense in B&W:




It was so great catching up with you both again and I can't wait for part two when the little bundle of joy arrives!

Cheers,

Michael

Three Photographers at the Brickworks

Back in August, a couple of photographer friends of mine - Dave Biesse and Charlotte Leonard - thought it would be fun to get together and try some funky stuff at the Brickworks in Toronto. I've always wanted to shoot there so I was psyched and I certainly wasn't disappointed with the location - so many awesome opportunities for unique photos!

It was so hard to figure out where to start as the possibilities were endless. Take this shot for example...it was captured using just the available light as the sun streamed through a window and bounced off the warm bricks to the left:


Then we switched to off-camera flash for a more dramatic effect:


Having beautiful subjects who already know how to pose makes my job much easier, of course. ;)






I hope we didn't cause any permanent lung damage after kicking up all that dust for these photos, but the results were worth the risk!






I finally gave up the camera and took my turn at the other end of the lens:


Some more awesome ambient light:




This passage was amazing. You have blue light filtering down from the sky on the right and orange light on the left bouncing over from a small group of sunlit bricks high and to the right. It just comes down to knowing where to place the subjects and how to pose them in order to take advantage of the incredible light (plus some Photoshop enhancements, of course).




My turn again...great shots Dave & Charlotte!




I love the juxtaposition of a beautiful woman in a grungy, dirty environment...the contrast just seems to emphasize the natural beauty that's already there:


All natural light again (albeit with some heavy contrast enhancements in post-production). Loving the drama here!




I knew we had to get some shots with this cool old machinery when I first saw it and they turned out even better than I had imagined:


Now we get really funky! We found this long pitch-black tunnel and it was the perfect spot for some "painting with light!" This was taken with a 13 second exposure while Dave and Charlotte sat really still. During the exposure, I'd walk around with my little video light and "paint" the light in the areas I wanted. This was the result:


The cool thing about this technique is that you never really know what you're going to get and each shot is completely unique. So much fun!


Same deal, but with Dave wielding the light:


This one was "painted with light" as well, and I also incorporated a flash behind the flowers to backlight them:


I love how you can simulate the look of multiple lights with a single mobile constant light source. Good idea with the cross-light look, Dave!


Thanks Dave and Charlotte for the awesome photos and a great afternoon of shooting! I hope we can do it again some time.

Cheers,

Michael