We shoot a range of architecture, from working with real estate agents, magazines, construction firms and property managers. This shoot, for one of Ottawa`s largest real estate owners was a fun challenge primarily because the client wanted all distortion gone from buildings in the core with narrow streets.
My office manager swears that I stay in the photography business just because of the fascinating conversations I get to have with interesting people. Minister John McCallum and I had a great chat about Immigration and some good laughs about the fact that he is one of the most qualified guys in Cabinet to deal with the economy…For the record…I am a supporter of our Immigration policies…as we came to this country as immigrants in 1655 fleeing religious persecution.
If I have heard the phrase, “I`m not photogenic” once, I have heard it a thousand times. It seems to be increasing in a time when lowest quote jobs are the order of the day…no surprise. Everyone deserves a great portrait. More so if you use it to represent your cause, your party or your company.
As they say…dare to compare.
We spent an interesting few days this fall shooting some of my fave businesses in Westboro for inclusion in a website and promo brochure for a new condo in the area.
A business portrait is your organization`s calling card to the world…
There are a dozen ways to show a person at their best from posing, expression and lighting to managing color and printing quality. We started in digital photography in the mid nineties and with 20 years of experience there is little that we have not seen, few problems we have not encountered and few challenges we have not met. Having spent five years as National Spokesperson for the largest digital scanning company in the world…we know how to make your image look great in various media.
The budget invested in a professional portrait always pays dividends whether one is selling products or representing a company or a cause.
Every photographer has a style and a certain set of skills…the image on the right shows ours. For more, see our portrait page
This photography was done for an Ottawa Ad Agency that was creating some new PR materiel for one of the city`s largest law firms…
I have photographed the Trudeau family from my days as a photojournalist to Official Portraits, magazine covers and yes…even selfies.
Yes…that`s Justin at 7 on the ledge overlooking the Parliament buildings on Canada Day.
This is a demonstration of standard web editing software methods of resizing high resolution images versus having a professional photographer do the work . Preparing a file for the web is far from straightforward and each medium is different. Since business headshots tend to appear roughly under two inches in size on most pages, correct resizing is critical. Sites such as Facebook require substantial rethinking of file sizes, shadow detail and colors. Linked In and corporate sites are relatively standard, although taking a file meant for repro in a magazine and resizing it massively can result in a loss of sharpness and shadow detail if not done by a professional.
We do this work on request as there is no “normal” specification for a digital file. We suggest ordering a few standard sizes…Large Hi Res for posters, Hi res for printed material and low res for web usage. Ask us for a quote when you set up a shoot. Once an order is complete there is a fee of $100 to go into our archives, pull up files and deal with your reorder. We will gladly offer our advice prior to your order at no charge.
Conversion of color to bw is another area where a single push of a button in Photoshop is not the same as doing a conversion by an expert. Please have us quote on your specific requirements…we love having our work and your images look great!
Another aspect of how we supply our files is our tags. We attach an info/credit tag on all images for a number of reasons. First, it helps our clients ID the source of the file in the future. Staff change, companies change…but we have outlasted roughly 500 photographers in Ottawa in the last 40 years. Image tagging has been our standard policy for over a decade and this aids our staff to make reorders of prints, modifications required or resupply of lost images. Second, it protects our clients from unwanted usage of their images. If a file with our tag on it is stolen or misused, clients have a legal recourse. In today`s digital world, sadly, this is an epidemic as you can see from the example below. At least once a week we are contacted about usage of one of our images…we always protect our clients rights first.
Cropping the tag off is a simple procedure that takes all of two seconds in any good editing program by any web or publications staff, but it is the clients choice. Please advise us and we can prepare your files without a tag as we prefer to leave the onus and the responsabilty on the client. Theft of our images doubles every year…but we abide by your decision….
Shooting architecture requires specialized equipment and a different skillset than most other genres of photography. Quoting is never easy because of the range of what people consider the ideal shot of a building. Simply put, the more time spent on a shot, the more talent applied to the task…the better it is. Sometimes that involves early morning or evening…sometimes a fancy lense or a computer technique.
I can tell you that one out of four shoots we do in the commercial field are reshoots after someone else got it wrong…
Btw, this of the few remaining industrial buildings in Ottawa. It was formerly Capital Wire and Cloth. It now houses a range of companies including hi tech wiz kids, Fuel Industries. Capital Wire and Cloth bought this property in 1902 from the Ottawa Land Association Company, a consortium of local entrepreneurs who bought and subdivided a large tract of land in Hintonburg in 1895. When it first opened about 1922, the factory stood virtually alone in a pine forest…