Photoshop Shortcuts for the Photographer

Here's a link to a list of shortcuts for Photoshop.  I hope they help.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSD578BD7D-07BC-46f6-AAC2-6E491E8AD818a.html

Greatest Wedding Proposal Ever

THE PROPOSAL: Access Granted

Last fall, our friend Grant asked us to help him film a fake movie trailer so he could surprise his girlfriend, Kerri with a marriage proposal while she was at the movies with her girlfriends.

We loved the idea and immediately got to work asking all of our resources if they would like to participate in the production.  We were fortunate to have a great response from friends and suppliers.  Even Empire Theaters  Universal Music, Geek Freaks from Randy Jackson's Dance Crew and Travelodge Hotels came on board and sponsored the project.  We filmed the whole thing in two days in the Durham Region of Ontario.

We called the fake movie THE PROPOSAL: Access Granted.  It mimics an action film about how a drug lord kidnaps the Governor's daughter and her friend in order to strong arm him to pass a bill to legalize one of the main ingredients in a new batch of methamphetamine being marketed as plant food. Grant Haire plays a renegade cop set out to save the Governor's daughter whom he has been dating.  Along with his partner played by Nick Bateman (Hobo With A Shotgun, Mr. D) they race the clock to find Kerri and her friend Sarah (Celeste Desjardins) before the drug Lord played by Pedro Miguel Arce (Land of the Dead, How I Met Your Mother, CSI) implements his terror.  The movie trailer also features upcoming talent such as Paul Nadeau (police chief), Hernan Sanchez (lead henchman), Tazito Garcia (S.W.A.T. officer), Petey Loung (henchman), and Brandon Zakkai (the snitch).

The trailer was directed by Shawn Haynes and myself and co-produced by LAC Productions and Crooked Seas.

On October 5th, Kerri and her friends showed up at Empire Theaters in Ajax and entered theater 2 where we had filled the seats with the cast and crew acting as normal movie goers.  Hidden cameras captured Kerri's reaction as the trailer plays out....Watch as it all unfolds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts-rTYq3jys

The Making Of...."THE PROPOSAL: Access Granted"

Above Photos by Brystal Allan

 Photo by Rohan Laylor

  Photo by Rohan Laylor

  Photo by Rohan Laylor

  Photo by Rohan Laylor

 Photo by Rohan Laylor

  Photo by Rohan Laylor

 Photo by Rohan Laylor

Haunting Photo Increases Awareness About Illegal Ivory Poaching

Famous basketball player Yao Ming teamed up with photographer Kristian Schmidt to raise awareness of the threats facing rhinos and elephants as a result of demand for ivory and rhino horn, particularly in China. With this haunting and breathtaking image, they are hoping to reduce the demand on illegal poaching and ivory sales.

Yao Ming stands over the body of a poached elephant in Namunyak, Northern Kenya

And indeed it may be working, this image has already gone viral and been seen hundreds of thousands of people.

Photoshopping armpit

I got hired to retouch a photo of a model today.  The client wanted me to clean up the weird folds of the armpit so I played around with the liquify tool for a bit and this is what I got.  How did I do?

Quickie photo shoot with Six Side Die

Today, I found an old photo I took of Bryan Crouch on my harddrive when he was still the frontman for Hail The Villain.  Bryan left the band after having a vocal haemorrhage.  After a year off, he is now heading up his newest band Six Side Die that had their debut gig at Lee's Palace in Toronto on June 8, 2012.  Needless to say, they are definitely getting a lot of positive support from fans with adrenaline inducing songs like Boom! and My Enemy.

Before their gig at Lee's, I did a quickie photo shoot with Six Side Die during an interview for FridaeTV.  We didn't have much time to get the photo so I quickly set my camera on a tripod and threw my Canon 580X II speedlight onto a stand bouncing it into an umbrella.  Triggered to fire with radio slaves,  it gave me a nice light coming from over my left shoulder.  I popped off about ten shots of the guys and then took some long exposure photos when they were not in my framing to capture the lights and background that weren't exposed in my flash shots.  In post, I Photoshopped the plain background and the band into one image.  Then I added a stock photo of a UFO, painted highlights onto the shoulders of the band so it looked like the UFO was flashing a beam from behind them and added a little mist and shadow around their feet.   I also added some stock photos of clouds to the sky to give it more of an ominous feeling.  This wasn't an easy editing job but it was fun fooling around in CS4 and the final image looks pretty cool for an unplanned shoot.  It just goes to show, you don't always need to have it all planned out ahead.  Sometimes you can grab the basics of what you need and then let creativity do the rest.

Cupcakes!!!!

Hey y'all!  Here's a sneak peek from my recent shoot with an amazing new company called Lil Chick Cupcakes.  Owned by Danijela Pulcini, she adds a lot of love to her edible creations.  She has made cupcakes with my photos of bands printed right into the frosting, created delicate lingerie inspired decorations for a boudoir shoot and hand crafted exotic flowers to adorn her baked goodies.  Since launching her company one year ago, she has sponsored charity events, cd release parties, and other events helping her business grow incredibly with amazing reviews.  I absolutely love this girl and her passion for baking.

For our shoot we came up with a tea party theme.  We brought in a wide variety of tea cups, books, flowers, pearls and three different kinds of tea pots.  Our model is the very lovely, Elizabeth "Eve" Horodnyk whom I have worked with on a few other photo shoots.  She never ceases to amaze me with her animated facial expressions and body language.  A stickler for perfection, she will even correct her posing suggesting better ways to engage with the product.  Since she has been studying makeup artistry, Elizabeth did her own hair and makeup for the shoot and even styled the wardrobe.  I recommend her to all my photographer friends looking for a fun, easy going model that can double as a creative director, stylist, photo assistant and retoucher.   She's a budding photographer and super cool girl that I am honoured to call my friend.  Check out more of her work here.

Madeleine Twyman

Madeleine Twyman dropped by the studio when she was back in Toronto.  Now living in New York, Madelaine’s unconventional outlook and experiences deliver her captivating blend of singing, rapping and dancing with a rebellious and empowering in your face live show which came through in our recent photo shoot.  I absolutely love this girl.  We had such an amazing time filled with lots of laughs, hugs and a few tears of happiness.  Normally I would worry if my subject started crying in the middle of a shoot but I was put at ease when Madeleine followed the tears by saying "you captured my very essence, my soul, I love it...".  There's nothing more rewarding than making my subject comfortable, confident and happy with their images.  I can't wait to work with Madeleine again sometime.  She was incredible.


Check out her new single “Body Parts”, where Madelaine expresses her view on the influx of plastic surgery in today’s society through a message that accredits and encourages women to cultivate their beauty from the inside out.