Above: Ian Harding at the Mayor’s Sport Breakfast. Photograph courtesy of Robert Mueller.

A few week ago, I was contacted by the Calgary Sport Council regarding their 6th annual Mayor’s Sport Breakfast. They were seeking submissions for the photography exhibition that was to be on display at the breakfast. I’m not sure how they found me, but they did, and I’m glad.

I jumped at the opportunity and submitted five photographs, as requested. To my delight, they chose two of them, which I had printed and then framed (myself) for display at the event. It was really awesome to see my work showcased with so many other great photographs by local photographers. Big thanks to Robert Mueller for taking the above photo of me beside one of my framed photos.

At the end of the event, I had the pleasure of meeting Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier. I shook his hand while we chatted about my photos and the breakfast. What an honor.

This photo is the other photo I had printed/framed, of which I ended up giving to the hockey player in the photograph (I work with him). I showed it to you all back on April 22 in my post, The Screamin’ Sheep Hockey.

The second night of Alberta Fashion Week came and went. Lots of great people and lots of great designs, including the oddly beautiful designs by Nicole Rita Tomney, who gave the crowd a unique view of her line featuring models wearing fencing masks. If you missed my post about opening night, see it here.

As for my photos so far, well, they’re getting a lot of attention, which is fantastic. People love them. As a photographer, it is always a challenge to photograph an event such as this (well, any event for that matter). Varied lighting, moving subjects, and numerous other elements can all play a part in creating photographs that work and photographs that don’t. I’ve had some practice and even though its easy to make a mistake (like accidentally leaving your exposure compensation stopped down 1.5 levels) I am always impressed with my own results. It’s what makes me enjoy doing it.

For those interested, I’m shooting this event with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 at 1000-1600 ISO in Aperture Priority mode with AI Servo on. Those may be my camera settings, but when it comes to fashion and runway shows, consistency, focus, and composition are extremely important in your photographs. When I’m going through and rating my photos from each night, I’m taking a lot of characteristics into account when selecting which photo will make it into my “public” selections (the photos that get presented to the world). If you’d like to know some things I look for, here are a select few.

When a model is walking the runway, I always try to capture them in an elegant and aesthetic pose. This can be tricky since the model is moving, but with practice, you learn where the sweet spots are in a person’s form. Capturing the model in good form in turns shows off the clothing/design. When the model has one foot forward on the catwalk, touching the ground (or close to it), you generally get a nice clean view of the footwear as well as a nice long leg visual on the model. This helps emphasize the fact that they are walking. If you get both legs side-by-side, they look like they’re just standing there. When choosing my final images, I try not to select an image where the model’s legs are side-by-side or one where they are slouched. They just look awkward.

You also want to make sure any accessories like bags, scarves, bracelets or other jewelry are visible. Remember that there is more to the design than just the featured clothing. People want to see everything. Finally, I always only select images with the model looking up (if possible). A model looking at the floor looks bored, tired, and creates an uninteresting photo. If I can get the model to look directly at me, event better, as a photograph with the model looking at the viewer makes the image much more engaging. By taking all of this into account (plus a lot more), I get a nice clean and consistent set of catwalk images throughout the event. As for my post-processing, well, maybe I’ll share that in a future post.

For more information about Alberta Fashion Week, visit them online at www.albertafashionweek.ca, or follow @abfashionweek on Twitter. Remember, if you can’t make it out, there is even a live UStream feed where you can watch all of the action live online. Watch it here.

Designers for the second night:

Ivy Rose Custom Design
- www.ivyrosecustom.com
- Ivy Rose Custom Design on CalgaryFashion.ca

Pout Clothing
- www.poutclothing.ca
- Pout Clothing on CalgaryFashion.ca

NRT Fashions
- www.facebook.com/pages/NRT-Fashions/76291391010
- NRT Fashions on CalgaryFashion.ca

Alberta Fashion Week kicked off for it’s third showing on Sunday September 26th, 2010. Thankfully, I was front and center again, ready to capture all of the amazing designs and models as they presented themselves down the 65-foot gleaming white runway. Photographing the event is always a new challenge, but it’s something that is definitely helping me grow as a photographer. It’s also always fun to meet new people at the events, from models and industry people to fellow photographers capturing the glamorous action. It is also always great to see people I don’t get get to see as often as I would like.

The event is taking place in Eau Claire Market, located in downtown Calgary, and is running each night until September 30th. If you like fashion even a little bit, I recommend you come and check it out.

For more information about Alberta Fashion Week, visit them online at www.albertafashionweek.ca, or follow @abfashionweek on Twitter. If you can’t make it out, there is even a live UStream feed where you can watch all of the action live online. Watch it here.

Designers on opening night:

Crabapple Clothing Company
- www.crabappleclothing.com
- Crabapple Clothing Company on CalgaryFashion.ca

Ruby Ellen
- www.rubyellendesigns.com
- Ruby Ellen on CalgaryFashion.ca

Lily’s Fashion Creations
- www.lilysfashion.biz
- Lily’s Fashion Creations on CalgaryFashion.ca

My friend Marisha is awesome. She is incredibly photogenic, so I enjoy having her model for me. Whether its promo work or some stock concepts, she is always game. You might remember seeing her in one of my first posts, Happy Birthday To Me And My Friends.

Anyways, on one of the few sunny days that Calgary received this summer, we headed to a local park and shot some stock, which I think turned out really well. I know Yoga is a super saturated stock concept to begin with, but I don’t really care. I had never done it and I always enjoy shooting new subjects and concepts.

You can see a lightbox on iStock of more images from the shoot that day.

Above: Erin enjoys a candy gummy worm.

This is Erin. I photographed her during the same session as Nicholette not long ago. I had originally planned for some concept shots at a swimming pool that day, but the weather wasn’t the greatest, so we ended up indoors. I brought along some beer, wine, and other goodies for everyone, which turned out to be pretty fun little props. As you can see in the photo above, Erin enjoyed the gummy worms.

Big thanks to MUA Jillian Laycock and my friend David Austin for helping out that day.

Follow Erin on Twitter at @ebun_yyc
Follow Jillian on Twitter at @jillytron (private)
Follow David on Twitter at @davidaustin
Visit David online at onetonphoton.com

This is Nicholette. We met a little over a year ago and we’ve done other shoots in the past. This photo is from a shoot we did last weekend, which I think turned out really well.

Follow @nikkolett on Twitter.

Above: The grandstand at the grounds of the Calgary Stampede.

This is another photo I took at the Calgary Stampede this year, while watching the Rangeland Derby with other Food Bank guests. I rarely get to sit in the infield grandstand and seeing the scale of the main grandstand was impressive. I didn’t have a tripod, so the sky is mostly blown out as I wanted to expose the grandstand itself, but wasn’t able to take two exposures accurately. This panorama is made up of five hand-held photographs, stitched together using Photoshop’s Photomerge action. I’m finding that PS works really well and so I might have some more pano’s to show you in the future.

Above: Portrait of Ian Harding at the iStockphoto RetroLypse photography event.

Here is the third and final part to my iStockphoto RetroLypse event series for you.

During the very last day of the event and right near the end of the day, I was one of the last shooters to have my turn at a location involving a super grungy jam session studio where musicians hang out and do their thing. The whole time everyone else was taking their turn, I was eyeballing two old sofas that were covered with junk and dust, but I could see had a lot of personality. There was also a stack of televisions in the corner of the room, which no one seemed to care to use. So when my turn came, I went to work with my unique shot.

The good thing about shooting last was that after I got my initial concept out, more models starting walking in after finishing with other shoots. The next thing I knew, I had ALL of the models in my shot. We did a few, but the image below was a clear favorite. Just before tearing down the lights, I decided that it would be a really cool self-portrait to be standing in the middle of all of the models in my scene. Actually, I should tell the truth and state that fellow photographer Fraser Dowall was actually the one who fired the shot. I simply handed him the camera and said, “Here, take one of me quickly.” Thanks Fraser.

View part 1 – Marv’s Classic Soda Shop

View part 2 – Roller Skates and Neon

Above: Group photo of all event models.

Above: Getting air on Schuswap Lake during my first time wakeboarding.

Last weekend was a fantastic (and special) weekend. Two very good friends of mine got married at a beautiful lake-side resort on Schuswap Lake in British Columbia. Since the ceremony was only a few hours long, we spent the rest of our time taking advantage of a ski boat that we had rented for the weekend, along with a tube and a wakeboard. The photo of me above is, believe it or not, my first time ever on a wakeboard. I have never tried snowboarding or skateboarding either, so I had no idea what it was going to be like. If you’ve never done it, the hardest part is the initial getting up out of the water (which some others had a bit more trouble with), but since I grew up waterskiing, I knew what to do and getting up came natural. Once up, it was a matter of learning how the board reacted to my movements.

It was such a great weekend. To cap it off, I drove the extra 2 hours south to Penticton where I got to see my father (59 years old) complete his third Ironman challenge. Seeing the intensity of the crowd and the emotion on the faces of the competitors as they crossed the finish line after 13+ hours of racing was quite the experience. I have only ever ran half-marathons (which are 21.1kms), so to see people completing a full 42.2km marathon AFTER cycling 180 kms and swimming 3.8 kms… is beyond impressive to say the least.

Will I ever race one? Probably… someday.

Above: My friend Todd showed us all how its done.

Above: Steve taking flight in the water tube.

I went for a walk after dinner with my parents last night, who were in town visiting. It was around 9:00pm and for some reason, a large group of ducks and geese were extremely active along the river in Eau Claire. It was kind of a humorous moment, so I stopped and took this quick 1-second exposure.