I Should Take The Recycling Out

Alley

Living Room

Near My House

Two New Fireworks Shots

A Few Shots From The New City

Occupy Toronto

Lots more after the jump

Lexington Models - Tara

So here's a few quick shots of Tara, who was fantastic. Also one of my favorite partners in crime, Shawnna Downing did hair and makeup. This was also the first shoot I've done since moving to Toronto, and shooting in the new apartment turned out really well! More after the jump, as per usual.

LExington Models - Alana

The fantastic Sara Sim and Sarah Danniels worked on this one with me, doing hair/makeup and styling, respectively. And the model is Alana, for whom this was her second shoot I think. Lots more after the jump

Lexington Models - Alexander & Elizabeth

So this was a lot of fun. Got to work with the amazingly talented Vincent Lee, Shawnna Downing, and Chunyen Lee. Most of this got shot in studio (got to try out the new black backdrop, yeahhh). We tried to move the whole thing downtown for some exterior stuff but got rained out pretty damn quick. You can see some of the rain drops on Alexander's suit, but otherwise I did my best to minimize the obvious Vancouver-ness of the weather. Both of the models did really well, and that whole early salt & pepper thing Alexander had going really photographed well! Does that make any sense? Loads more after the jump, yo.

Another editorial I shot a while ago but forgot to post so now I'm posting it!

So this is something I shot for Lexington a while back, and then String decided to publish it. I think this was maybe the girl's first shoot but she did pretty well! I had her walk across the street about a million times, and in the middle of it some dude started full-on hitting on her, and then came up to my crew and I (and her mom) and started explaining how he was going to marry her and make music with her. Plus he had a stupid accent. Basically the creepiest guy on the planet. I don't think he realized she was about 14, but then again maybe he did. I've included a shot of her seeming rather embarrassed as he "charms her" after the jump. FYI they didn't get married.

P.S. I decided to shoot about half of this on 35mm just for fun and I really liked it. I was going to shoot Ektar but they were sold out so I ended up using Provia 100.

New/Old String Magazine Editorial - NIGHT VISION

So why am I just now posting this editorial that I shot four months ago? Oh riiiggghhhhhtttt, cause I'm bad at blogging managing my life. Although I am showing signs of improvement. I'm diversifying my diet by alternating between various pizza vendors, and the other day I even recycled something. I know, I'm impressed with me too. Fortunately, I'm still reasonably good at the whole picture taking thing. Got to work with some great people on this one, and Lauren was a real trooper. When I needed her to stand on that balcony as it started snowing and wear just tiny little evening dresses and still look amazing (i.e. not like she was going to freeze to death), she just.... did it, like a total pro. She didn't try to hit me or anything. I bet you she recycles too. Here's the link: http://stringmagazine.ca/night-vision-photographed-by-christopher-young/ 

F as in Frank

That's the name of this vintage store on Main street. I was walking home one night around 1:00 after having finished another shoot when I saw the old VW lit up by the neon of the shop and I just had to get it. For the wide shot I ended up moving a large flower pot into the middle of the sidewalk just to get high enough off the ground. The goal for that one was to get the horizon square to be dead centre and have all the lines run directly into it, which I think I did, but I must have looked goddamn retarded standing on that flower pot in the middle of the night. I'm just glad I didn't have to explain that one to the cops, "You see, officer, I'm an artist, and...".

    

The first shot is definitely my favorite even though it was the Beetle that attracted me in the first place. There's something about how that boom-box glows behind those mini light-sabers in the fore-ground that really does it for me. Oooooohhhh, shiny things!

Let's see, what did I use on this? Same as usual, I guess: Fuji 400 H 120 film, Hasselblad, can't remember which lenses. Probably the 80mm 2.8 for the first two and I think the 50mm 4.0 for the last one. Riveting, I know.

Sofia Clothing, Winner of Generation Next 2011

Third post in less than a week, I'm blogging up a storm, I know. This is a shoot for String Magazine for the winner of Generation Next, Sofia Clothing. The cat just sort of came with the studio, which was fortunate because I felt like the story needed a cat anyway. Fashion is mostly about cats. You may not have known that, but now you do. Cats.

S-E-Oh No He Didn't!

The other day I was reading on my iPad 2 about how fortunate it was that Obama and Harry Reid and John Boenher averted a Government Shutdown while listening to Justin Bieber, and it occurred to me that I should post this photo I took in Seattle , home of Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, and of course Starbucks. Then, while I was watching Tiger Woods play in The Masters, I started wondering why Megan Fox wasn’t going to be in Transformers 3, and that I should probably watch some American Idol to take my mind off of it. Aside from all that completely relevant information, I hope you like the photo, I think it’s pretty okay, I guess. So, um, yeah......

Jersey Shore Rebecca Black Charlie Sheen.

Vancouver 2.0

This is an art project that I made for my submission to school. The objective was to create something inspired by one of a list of other projects, and from that list I choose this: http://nextnode.net/sites/emst/wp/?p=266
. My goal with this was to demonstrate how social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter (really just these two, unless there are people still holding onto MySpace or were all about Google Buzz), allow people the option of very deliberately grooming the outward appearance of how they live their lives. They can do this either by carefully selecting what movies or music they are listed as "liking", so as to indicate exactly how their taste identifies their personality, or by meticulously culling unflattering photos to maintain (or avoid) a certain image, or many other means of control. However, the point here is to demonstrate that no matter how judiciously someone manages their profile, these same people (i.e. all of us) give off the same subtle signals online that betray elements of their true, flawed selves, just as they do in the real world. It's a project I'd like to further expand upon in the future, but right now I'm kinda busy trying to make it through all of Battlestar Galactica.

More after the jump

The Articling Student

This is a film I made for the law firm I work at. Having the articling students make a short skit for the christmas party is kind of a tradition at law firms, but we only had one this year and she was pretty swamped with, like, lawyer stuff, so the responsibility somehow ended up being mine. I didn't want to do the same kind of goofy thing most firms do (students ask the partners some dumb questions, make jokes about having lots of work piled on, etc..), so instead I tried to make a sort of meta-John Grisham film. There are a lot of in-jokes in it, but you may still find it enjoyable.

Second part after the jump