Emergence – Sabrina Caruso

This week I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to shoot Sabrina Caruso.  I decided prior to getting into the studio that I was going to use strictly short lighting for this shoot.  It wasn’t long after we arrived that I ran into the first obstacle, the inconvenience of not having an assistant to hold up the bounce card for me.  So I tried my best to MacGyver a way to hold it up and got on with the shoot.  That in itself was an obstacle as I’d frequently bump the track with the bounce card and lose my set up.  She was very patient with me though.  After all the trouble, we still managed to get some great photos.  Moral of the story? Always have an assistant.

When setting up the lights I originally planned on using the soft box but after a few frustrating moments with the bounce card I switched over to the light panel with a diffuser over it to soften the light.  It ended up working much better than I thought it would, I am very happy with the results.  Of course, it wouldn’t have looked nearly as good without the help of my beautiful model.

In case you haven’t met her, Sabrina is a very quiet and reserved individual.  She’s strong, smart, and a genius with a camera, but she prefers to stay behind the scenes rather than being the centre of attention.  During this shoot, Ms. Caruso emerged from her cocoon and showed us all the beautiful butterfly that’s been hiding behind her camera this whole time.

Check out this shoot here.

Check out Sabrina’s amazing photography on her website.

–Ethan

Interview Telephone Prank

Last week, Sabrina Caruso and I decided to make a prank video.  For the prank we would ask people if we could interview them and during the interview I’d get a call which I would answer on an old style phone that was plugged into my cell phone.  While we thought this would be an easy task, it proved to be a lot harder than we expected.  We went through a number of formats for the video before we settled on the final product.  We initially tried putting me near a group of people and having me answer the phone.  After about fifteen attempts we realised that a ringing cell phone just doesn’t get people’s attention anymore.  We then tried asking people for directions and calling but after a few failed attempts and the previous fifteen we got frustrated and shut it down for the day.  Our next idea was the one we used in the final product.  It seemed to be going fine, although recording the audio was a bit of an issue.  Part way through a very successful attempt, a disgruntled student started walking down the hallway screaming at who I can only assume was someone they did a group project with.  They ended up ruining the take and getting kicked out by security.  Personally I am happy with how it turned out, but I don’t think this style of videography is for me.  It’s a lot of trial and error and the final product pretty much just comes down to luck.

 

If you’d like to see the video you can find it here.

 

While you’re at it, go check out Sabrina Caruso’s website.  You’ll love her photography.

The Future of Fashion Photography – Sabrina Caruso

One of the most well known types of photography is fashion photography.  It is on the covers of the magazines that line the check out counters of nearly every store, it is on many of the advertisements we see everywhere we go.  Sabrina Caruso is a photographer that hopes to make her mark on the fashion world with her photography skills. 

Her love for photography started when she took a photography course in grade eleven.  Little did she know that this attempt to fill her schedule would turn into her passion, her creative outlet, and her future career.  She took it again the following year, and now she is enrolled full time in the photography program at Durham College in Oshawa.

While a lot of fashion photographers prefer to be at fashion shows shooting the runway, Ms. Caruso would much rather take a model into a studio and shoot for magazines and advertisements. The magazine she would most like to shoot for is Vogue Magazine.  The photographs displayed in Vogue are in her words: “unique and out of the box”.  She finds them very inspirational.  Other magazines she would be interested in shooting for are Cosmopolitan, Elle Magazine, and Fashion; a Toronto based magazine.  She hopes that one day her fashion photography will bring her over seas to different countries like Italy or France to shoot new and interesting fashion trends.

A photographer that greatly inspired Ms. Caruso; and frankly most aspiring photographers, was the famous American portrait photographer, Annie Liebovitz.  Ms. Liebovitz has shot for a variety of magazines including, Rolling Stones Magazine, Vanity Fair, and most recently she photographed Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and their daughter North West, for Vogue Magazine.

“I love Annie Liebovitz’s photography work.  Her photographs are creative, they evoke emotion, and they each tell their own unique story.  It is inspiring.” – Sabrina Caruso

In addition to the elegance of Annie Liebovitz’s fashion photography, Ms. Caruso is also inspired by Ansel Adams the iconic landscape photographer.  Ansel Adams was one of the photographers that helped establish photography as an art form in the eyes of the public.  He is the most well known for his landscape shots of Yosemite National Park in California.

“Black and white photography is my absolute favourite.  The lack of colour allows you to focus on the image as opposed to the colours.  Ansel Adams’ photographical work has intricate details and uses different tones.  His black and white landscape work is phenomenal.  One of the images that I particularly admire is ‘Moon and Half Dome’ because I have an immense appreciation for the detail he was able to capture in the dome.” – Sabrina Caruso

 

Moon and Half Dome – Ansel Adams

With Ms. Liebovitz and Mr. Adams as two of Ms. Caruso’s main inspirations, we can expect some amazing, innovative, and creative work to come from her.  Needless to say, I can not wait to see what will come next from this up and coming photographer.  If you would like to see more of Ms. Caruso’s work, you can find her personal blog here.  Below are a few photos she has already taken, I know you will love her work as much as I do.

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Annie Liebovitz 1

Annie Liebovitz 2

Ansel Adams

Circles Gallery

I spent a good chunk of this week trying to figure out what theme to use in my gallery.  It wasn’t until I was setting up a Slayer vinyl in my turntable that I decided that I really wanted to do circles.  I grabbed my camera and spent the next 20 minutes taking pictures of it before I decided on one I liked.

My next picture is of some vitamins I take.  I popped one out of the bottle shortly after taking the photo of the record, and realized just how cool they looked.  I poured some on to a piece of paper, lit it up, and took a pretty awesome photo.

The next photo is of a bubble being blown.  I took it outside in -18 degree weather.  It was so cold that I could see the air like smoke in the bubble, and when it popped you could see it dissipate.  Admittedly this one was the most fun to shoot in this set.

By now the ball was really rolling (no pun intended).  I decided that what I was shooting was too lighthearted and needed a little contrast.  So I took a round noose into a forest, hung it over a tree, and turned it black and white.  I’m really happy with how this one turned out.

This last one was actually inspired by the desktop background on the computer at a Tim Horton’s I’ve worked at.  I hated that picture with a passion, so I was determined to take a better one.  I like this one much better.

Check out this gallery here.

Edward Burtynsky

I have to say, the best part about being in an art program is discovering amazing artists like Edward Burtynsky.  Edward is best known for his industrial landscape photography, but is also well known for his documentary Watermark.  I was fascinated while watching The Making of Watermark, because of the way he looked at the world.  Where most of the world would look at the Colorado Canal and see some water; he saw a living organism, and turned it into a thing of beauty.

I would suggest that everyone should check this video out.  It’s really inspirational to see inside the mind of a genius.

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Lazer Team

Ten years ago I fell in love with this small video production company based out of Austin Texas called Rooster Teeth.  They are actually one of the main reasons that I decided to turn my hobby of making videos into a career.  So when I logged on to their site one day and saw they started a crowd fund to make their first feature film, I was ecstatic.  Needless to say, they met their goal in no time at all.

 

Time flew by and they released some trailers.  I generally don’t like watching trailers, because everyone ends up spoiling their own movie with them, but I really couldn’t help myself.  I watched it and it seemed alright, but I wasn’t completely impressed until I saw the movie.  They completely mastered the art of making a trailer.  They had some great moments in the trailer but they were far from the best parts in the movie.  If that wasn’t enough they gave us ONLY the information we needed to know.  I was impressed. Check it out here.

 

I walked into that theatre feeling the way I imagine a child feels when one of their parents becomes Prime Minister, and I was not disappointed.  It was an amazing movie and I think everyone should see it.  Check it out on Youtube Red or find a screening at https://www.lazerteamthemovie.com/.