The Stampede Is Come’n!

Calgary Stampede Chuckwagons by Ian Harding Photography

Quick photo: The 2011 Calgary Stampede kicks off in just six more days here in Alberta. I had an amazing time helping out the Calgary Food Bank last year and can’t wait to see everyone dressed in plaid again. It’s easily one of my favourite times of the year. Now, where’s my hat?!

Paintball Photography – CPPL Alberta E1

Ian Harding Photography - Paintball - CPPL Alberta E1

Last weekend was a very fun weekend for sports photography. Thanks to Mike Carey of M.R. Paintball, I had the opportunity to photograph the sport of paintball up close and personal at the CPPL Alberta Conference Event #1, which was held at Bragg Creek Paintball in Bragg Creek, Alberta. Joining my girlfriend Kim who was playing for the Hungarian Hitmen, I couldn’t have been more thrilled to document the action from directly on the playing field. If you missed my interview with Kim, you can read it here.

Having never photographed paintball before, my adrenaline was pumping and I was extremely excited. I made sure to do as much research as I possibly could before stepping onto the field, so that I had an idea of what I was getting in to. I already had all of the protective gear I would need, both for myself and for my camera equipment, and after spending a lot of time looking at photos by paintball photographers like Gary Baum and Jimmy Hickey, I was confident that I could produce some solid imagery.

Ian Harding Photography - Paintball - CPPL Alberta E1

Before the tournament began, i made sure to introduce myself to all of the field officials so that they knew my name and we could coordinate movements along the side of the field. As a photographer, I didn’t want to interfere with them in any way, so I had to make sure that when I moved, I moved quickly. They were all really cool with everything and they were even kind enough to help me out by giving me pointers regarding where key player positions were on the field. The result was that I didn’t stand in one place for very long. The action moves and it moves fast, so I had to move just as fast to keep up. Watching the gameplay, seeing who’s moving and who isn’t, determining which team is winning, moving back and forth along the sideline, and constantly trying to avoid being the target. It was tough, but it was fun.

It only look a few games for me to learn where the best points to stand were, as well as where not to stand. Did I get shot? Yes. A lot. My protective gear saved me 99% of the time, but I did take some shots to the side and front of my lens, one of which was almost a direct hit onto my filter. On a positive note… I did manage to capture some splats, which in the world of paintball photography is considered to be a very special moment in time.

Ian Harding Photography - Paintball Splats - CPPL Alberta E1

After photographing over 12 hours of paintball over the span of two days, I can tell you that my legs and arms were just as tired as if I had played a full weekend of Rugby. Because you have to wear a mask on the field just like the players and referees, there were a couple of times where a player on the field thought I was an opposing player because all they could see was my head behind a bunker. I learned that I had to constantly watch my position and what player was between me and their opponent, so that I could move out of the line of fire. Just like the player in my photo below, I ended up taking a shot to the face in the second match of the day. Thankfully, it was the first and only, aside from constantly getting sprayed by paintballs exploding against bunkers. Wiping down my lens became a ritual after each match.

Ian Harding Photography - Paintball - CPPL Alberta E1

Ian Harding Photography - Paintball - CPPL Alberta E1

Overall, I think my first attempt at photographing paintball was a great success. I’ve had incredibly positive feedback regarding my photographs from the event so far and I am already looking at schedules to see when the next events are. I can’t wait to get back on the field. If you want to see more, here is a much larger collection of my images from the Alberta E1 event.

Here are some photos that Kim took of me after my lens was introduced to some paint.

Paintball Photographer Gets Hit In The Lens - Photos by Kimberley Ma

Interview – Kim Ma, Paintball Player

Kimberley Ma (Paintball Player) by Ian Harding Photography

I’m playing reporter today. Alongside some of my latest sports portraits, I decided to give this posting a little bit more depth and personality. I won’t be doing this all of the time, unless of course, you want me to.

If at any point in the past few years you’ve been around the sport of paintball, then you’re surely to have heard her name. She no longer plays, but not long ago, everyone in the industry recognized Kimberley Ma. Not just because she was a female playing paintball, but because she was also good at it.

Kim shot her first marker in 2004 and by 2008, she was a regular on the scene, playing in tournaments all over North America. She joined the Team Destiny roster in 2008, has been photographed by top paintball photographers Gary Baum and Meagan Foster with photos making regular appearances in numerous magazines, including the 2009 Special Photo Issue of Paintball X3, and she even has a player profile in the Xbox video game Greg Hastings Paintball 2.

On March 26, 2008, Kim and the rest of Team Destiny were guests on a popular audio broadcast called Paintball Live. Hosted by Don “Sentinel” Saavedra and Ryan The Mighty, Kim jokingly stated, “We actually have our own workout routine that was mandatory for all of the girls to learn… the Cupid Shuffle. And if the girls came, flew in today, and didn’t know how to do it, they weren’t gonna play.” And always remember, “It’s called pop, not soda!”, says Kim.

Even though the days of media appearances are over, Kim thinks about her past life on the field on a daily basis. After photographing Kim, we sat down and talked about some of her favorite moments playing paintball.

Ian Harding Photography (IHP): This is my first interview, so please be gentle. Let’s get this ball rolling by having you telling me about your most memorable moment playing paintball.

Kimberley Ma (Kim): Like, on the field? This is the most horrible memory possible to be telling anybody, but I will never forget… bunkering no one at the 50 dorito on the NPPL center court. It was when I was playing with Team Destiny in 2008 and it was in front of everybody. Center court is where the grandstands were and it was being broadcast live online.

*sigh* Me, running down the field shooting no one. It was pretty horrible. I made it all way to the other end too. Like, to the other team’s carwash. Not getting shot was pretty epic unto itself as well. I remember thinking, “WTF! There was no one there, what am I doing?”… and then I got bunkered.

I was so mad I wanted to throw my gun. Somewhere in the world there is a picture of me covered in yellow paint and I’m just, like, throwing up my hands. I remember very specifically that after I got bunkered, I stood up and I turned around and threw up my hands and was all, “What the f***”, to my back player who had told me that there was somebody in the 50 dorito. I remember being in the carwash and calling back to my teammate, “Are you sure there’s a 50 dorito?” My teammate was like, “Yeah I’m sure, go get him!”, “Alright, this is a make or break.” I thought. Which means, if there is someone in the 50 dorito, we need to get rid of them.

So I ran, and I ran past the dorito, and there was no one there. I was like, “Oh. My. God.” and so I kept running. I slid into the carwash where they had two players. Their corner didn’t shoot me and their cross field didn’t shoot me either. I sat there and, I don’t even know, I blanked. I can’t remember what I was thinking at the time. I could have done more than just sit there, could have helped do something to help us win that game. There’s a video of it somewhere where you see me going and then not knowing what to do. Then somebody comes around and bunkers me. For the 15 to 20 seconds that I was in that bunker not doing anything… in such shock that there was no one there and that I had made it all the way… I was so upset. I had trusted my back player and had listened to them tell me there was someone there. I was so mad. Like, so livid about it. But then I thought, “You know what? I did my job”. That is what I’m supposed to do as a front player. I’m supposed to trust my team and I’m supposed to trust what they’re telling me. I trusted them and unfortunately they were wrong, but that’s okay.

I remember walking off the field and sitting in the dead box and just shaking my head, upset. When my teammate came back she said, “I’m so sorry. I thought there was somebody there.” I never lost my head on her though. I remember having that conversation with her and being like, “You know what, that’s what we do, we’re supposed to trust each other and I did. Sometimes sh*t happens!” It just happened to be one of those situations where it was like, “Why? WHY in front of EVERYONE?”.

I remember another time that I tripped and fell on my face, in front of everybody, and then I got shot in the pack.

Update: Video of Kim’s memorable moment has come to light. Watch it here.

IHP: Sounds like it was a pretty embarrassing moment, but we all know those can be frequent when playing team sports. They always seem to be the most memorable too.

What about nicknames? Everyone has some. Did you have any?

Kim: Yeah. Kimbo Slice and Tiny Anger.

IHP: Kimbo Slice and Tiny Anger. They’re cool, but, I hear you also had the nickname “Cancer Hands”. What’s up that that?

Kim: Ha! It’s because everything I touch turns to cancer.

IHP: What do you mean, “turns to cancer”?

Kim: Well, with every gun that I’ve ever picked up, something goes wrong with it. Uh, that’s a lie. Ok, so… Cancer Hands came about because I have more gun problems than anybody else in the entire world. Funny enough, when I was playing on Team Destiny and I had my own Etek, it worked fairly well for me. But before that, it happened to anything I picked up. I borrowed stuff and things would break, or they wouldn’t work, and somebody else would pick it up and it would work fine. I was like, “Why? Why? Why doesn’t it work for me? What’s wrong with me?”

The first gun that I bought is now sitting at my brother’s. It rarely worked for me, but when it did work, it worked amazing. Sometimes when I touched it, it would just stop working and we could never figure out why. For years we couldn’t get it fixed or anything. Then he sorta fixed it and was saying, “It’s amazing! It works like brand new, like nothing’s wrong with it.” It needs new hoses now, but every time I touch it, it just, blows up. Things blow up. It’s not good. The same thing happens to me at work.”

Kimberley Ma (Paintball Player) by Ian Harding Photography

IHP: That’s an unfortunate gift you have. Remind me never to let you touch my camera.

So you’ve played a lot of paintball with a lot of people. Who would you say is your favorite person to play with?

Kim: To play with?

IHP: Yeah, like, on the field.

Kim: Oh. That’s a hard one. Oh dear. Um…

IHP: You can talk about multiple people if there isn’t just one.

Kim: Well, it depends on the perspective. Like, all of the guys from Big 6 and the Hitmen are always great to play with because they’re so chill about stuff. It’s fun. Like, there’s certain people I play with for fun and then there’s other individuals. Sorry to all those people that I note as the “fun people” and not so much as the competitive people. But, if I had to pick one person, it would be Justin. On the field, he’s my favorite player.

IHP: Justin who?

Kim: Justin Cornell. “Corn-wallace”. “Squidget”. Roommate. Friend. He’s amazing. I will never forget having the opportunity to train with him before going to try out for Team Destiny. Not because I knew I was going to or anything, but I had wanted to get better. I was dating his best friend at the time and we were all basically living together as roommates. He knew I was into paintball and he’s always been supportive of me, as much as he makes fun of me. Playing with him, against him, anything… it’s great. He shows me a lot of stuff and he pushes me to do better. For eample, I’ll be tired and almost out of paint and air, and he’ll say “No, again! Do it again!” I’ll wanna shoot him and I try to shoot him, but I can’t because he’s too good. Heh. It’s great playing with him.

I remember playing with him and a few of the other Impact guys on the All Star team in CXBL back in 2007. That was probably one of the most fun times I’ve ever had playing with somebody competitively. I know I can trust him. I know he knows what he’s doing and I know he’s got my back. It was the same for the other guys that were playing on that team. When you play with people who are above you, you learn so much and you feel so much more confident. When you feel more confident, you can do more. So yeah, I would probably have to say him.

IHP: Before I get to my next question, I have to ask you to clarify something for me. Should I be saying “gun” or “marker” when referring to, um, the gun? The marker? In my previous post about the Eclipse Ego 11, I refer to it as a marker. Help?

Kim: Well…it depends, I guess. Do you want to be politically correct and not offend anyone? Say marker if that’s the case. But if you play the sport and talk to people who do, we honestly normally call it a gun. Or “gat”. Which is a little more old school and I’m not even sure if people say that anymore. But yeah. Marker, gun, gat, strap. Whatever. Depends who you’re talking to I suppose. Trying to sell parents on the sport and using the term marker is obviously a little more “P.C.” and acceptable. But when you’re talking to someone like me, saying gun is fine.

IHP: Thanks for clarifying that for me. My next question is; When did you first pick up a gun and start playing?

Kim: 2003. No wait, I lied! 2004. Ha ha ha!

IHP: Nice. And how did you get involved? What was it that made you go, “I’m gonna play paintball”?

Kim: Well, I first started because of my ex boyfriend. He had played paintball since junior high. I remember that we started dating in 2003 when we we were both 18 and I remember when he first started to play paintball. My brother, Alex, would always try to get me to play before. He would go out with friends for birthday parties and stuff when we were younger. “You should come play, you should come play!” he would ask, but I never really had any interest in it.

Later on, I found out about tournament paintball and the sport side of it from my ex. I was never really interested in the woods ball side of it. I went to Nationals in 2004 and it was my first time seeing an event. I remember going to walk fields and seeing everybody, and not really knowing anything. The other girlfriends, wives, and fiancés that were in the crowd would try to help me out and would explain the rules and stuff, so over time I got into it. It’s pretty intense when you know somebody and care about somebody who’s doing something like that. You’re more invested into it. So, I became interested in it that way.

His team at the time had set up practices that run like tournaments. There would be a schedule of who’s gonna show up and who was gonna play who. They were awesome. I went to one and he convinced to play. He lent me his gear, pants and a jersey. Um, I wore just basic runners, knee pads… rollerblading knee pads… goggles, and I got to shoot an Angel, which was one of the highest end guns you could get at the time. They were pretty good back in the day. Ever since then, I’ve really enjoyed it. I miss it a lot. Let’s not talk about paintball anymore. It makes me sad.

IHP: Aww. Ok, just a couple more questions. Once you got started playing and you were thinking, “I really like doing this!”, how did you get to a level of playing competitively?

Kimberley Ma (Paintball Player) by Ian Harding Photography

Kim: I didn’t do anything but play competitively. I never started with woods ball. I’m a competitive individual and I’ve always liked sports and stuff like that. I guess you could say non-competitive was like me going to practices and just playing, picking up a gun, and trying to get better.

IHP: Are you saying that woods ball isn’t competitive?

Kim:Oh no not at all! I’m sure a lot of woods ballers out there would slap me silly if they thought I thought that. It’s just not for me. It’s more strategy, of a different kind. I never really got into it. I like the structure of that side of the sport better than the recreation woods ball side of it. And I’m a girl. Dirt is gross. Ha ha, just kidding. But seriously. Dirt I can handle, bugs are gross. I guess I just find the formats for sport paintball more competitive, at least for me. It’s all personal preference. I kind of fell into playing tournaments because I went to one out in Red Deer when they still had, um, I think it was called Paintball Busters? I don’t remember now, I’m getting old. Anyway, there was a field out in Red Deer and they had one of the MR tournaments. It was one of the first tournaments of the year and I went with my ex boyfriend because he was playing. There was a team called PBR Street Gang and they needed another player, so somebody that knew me, I can’t remember who, told them that I played and that they should ask me to play for them. When they asked me, I remember being a little nervous, saying, “I’ve never played a tournament before, I’ve never done anything before. Why do you want me to play?” They said, “We just need another body who can hold a gun on the field.” “I don’t have any gear, I don’t own anything”, I said. But they rallied around and everybody there, even people that weren’t on their team, were supportive and lent us pants, goggles, guns, masks, and jerseys.

And that’s how I started. I played some tournaments and really liked it. From there, local people would just find me. I can’t really remember seeking out people to play with because there was always somebody that wanted me to play. They were really supportive and wanted to help me along and keep me playing because there aren’t very many girls in paintball.

IHP: Sounds like you really enjoyed playing. Why don’t you play anymore?

Kim: Because I’m poor. Ha! That and, life gets in the way. We have a saying in paintball; “Paintball ruined my life!” I believe there are a few stickers out there of that. If those things are even popular anymore, stickers I mean. I don’t even know. I’ve been out of it for so long.

IHP:That sucks a lot. Not being able to do something that you love, simply because of not having enough money to afford doing it? Totally sucks!.

Kim:Yeah, a lot of it was the cost of playing, but another part of it is was the politics. There’s drama in paintball.

IHP: Yeah, but there’s drama everywhere, in every sport.

Kim: I know that. There are people that you like, people that you dislike, people that you have to suffer with and it’s just like anything else in life. You don’t have to love everybody but they’re still part of the community. Sometimes that gets to be a little bit too much for a person to deal with, on top of the financial burden. Those things add up, you become overwhelmed, and it just stops being fun. You miss all of the good stuff and you miss all of the good people.

I miss the competitiveness of it. There’s a certain degree of competitiveness and how far you want to take it as an individual, and that might not necessarily match up with the people you’re playing with. There’s a lot of opportunity out there but at the same time, the market for being as good as you want to be is hard to get into. I was lucky to be able to go down to the United States and play like I did because I had the sponsorship and I was on a team that could facilitate some of the costs. But I can’t do that anymore. I can’t find a team that’s like that. It would be really difficult. So, mostly it’s cost, but a lot of it is drama too. And, well, life just kinda gets in the way and sometimes other things start honing in on your interest… like modeling. Ha ha!

IHP:That’s too bad that you had to stop playing because of money, but modeling could turn into a new passion if it hasn’t already. You’re very good at it, from what I can tell.

Thanks a lot for the interview Kim. The photos look awesome and it was a pleasure chatting with you. Hopefully someday you’ll get to play some paintball again and relive some of your memories.

Kim: Thanks. I hope so too.

Business Cards

Business Cards by Ian Harding Photography

A few months ago I got myself some sweet new business cards. So far, every person whom I’ve given one to has complimented me on it’s quality and awesomeness. I love them. As you can see in my photo, they have my name in large bold lettering with my contact info on one side, and my logo reversed in white on the other.

The wow factor is that on the side with the logo, there is a spot UV layer added so that when the card is held at a certain angle, the light allows you to see a pattern of my logo. I also had them printed on heavy 16pt stock with rounded corners, resulting in some very cool cards.

If you live in Calgary, you must be wondering where I had them printed. “Not in Calgary”, is my general answer when people ask me.

I ordered these cards from a printing company in Vancouver called JukeBox Printing after noticing a card that a friend of mine had printed by them. They were very impressive cards; far more impressive looking than anything I had ever seen come out of a print shop here in Calgary. They had the ‘wow factor’ that I wanted, so I was eager to get my own cards done by them. Having a graphic design background and being as attentive to detail as I am, I can admit that 99.9% of the time when getting business cards printed, they never come back 100% how I want them. I always seem to find a flaw.

Well, two weeks after submitting my order to JukeBox, I had the new cards in my hand… with no flaws. It was the first time I had ever received business cards back from a printer that were exactly how I wanted them. I was very impressed with JukeBox and would definitely recommend checking out their website, jukeboxprint.com, to see what else they have to offer.

Fashion Shoot – Spring Casual

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of photographing some really fun and talented models in a catalogue style fashion shoot. With spring weather finally showing it’s shy face here in Alberta, it was a great opportunity to get in the spirit of warmer weather and clothing that doesn’t require six layers. The theme was Spring Casual and I decided to shoot bright, full-body images that would display each model and style very clearly. Using a two light setup in order to capture some of the key features of each model, I also had them add some motion into some of the imagery. Overall, it was a successful shoot and I can’t wait to do many more. A big shout out to our stylist Maria, who gave us an impressive show of her own posing skills. You really should model Maria, seriously!

Maxine Marcott by Ian Harding Photography

Sophia Models International provided talent for the shoot and each person was a blast to work with. They were all really friendly, eager to perform for the camera, and did a fantastic job. You can check out profiles for Jerica Willison, Jordan Castrillon, Maxine Marcott, and Sean Van Es, over at Sophia Model’s website, www.sophiamodels.com.

Espy Experience provided wardrobe for the shoot and they were incredibly gracious and helpful. They have some seriously stylish and affordable clothing and almost everything you see in these images is (or was) available in their store. Some of the shoes and accessories are from other sources, but the entire primary wardrobe was from Espy. Head on over there (here is a map) and chat with Megan Szanik. She is incredibly friendly, helpful, and would be more than happy to dress you up in her currently available fashions.

Shoot details:

Jordan Castrillon by Ian Harding Photography

Jerica Willison by Ian Harding Photography

Sean Van Es by Ian Harding Photography

Maxine Marcott by Ian Harding Photography

Jordan Castrillon by Ian Harding Photography

Jerica Willison by Ian Harding Photography

Sean Van Es by Ian Harding Photography

Maxine Marcott by Ian Harding Photography

Soccer Action Photo

Soccer Athlete by Ian Harding Photography

Quick photo: This is me dressed in soccer gear wearing my #10 Francesco Totti jersey. I was in the studio the other day playing around with capturing some action imagery and decided to jump in and try my hand at some action posing myself. I absolutely love the work by photographer Joel Grimes and greatly admire his style. His images are so gritty and engaging. Hopefully one day I will get the pleasure of photographing some top athletes like he has.

Photographer Chris Jordan’s “Midway Project”

Have you ever heard of the “Pacific Garbage Patch”? If you haven’t… you can read more about it here.

In this thought-provoking video produced by Riley Morton, photographer Chris Jordan talks about his fine art photography project called The Midway Project. On a small island in the North Pacific, called Midway Island, thousands of albatross die each and every year from plastic they have ingested. Plastic that has been collected by their parents… and fed to them. It is a problem, like many others, that goes unnoticed by most of us.

Chris explains that each bird on the island he photographs has around 75 individual pieces of plastic inside their stomachs. From full toothbrushes and toys, to piping, fishing gear, lighters, and many other items. He hopes that the impact from the photographs he takes will help act as a wake up call.

View some of Chris’ work from The Midway Project.

This video was originally seen at ChaseJarvis.com

Eclipse Ego 11 Paintball Marker

Eclipse Ego 11 Regal 2 Photo by Ian Harding Photography

I’ve been pretty excited these past couple of weeks, as I’ve had a chance to do try some photography that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Now that I have a dedicated space for working (more on that later), I’ve been crossing off items from my to-do list.

After shooting some beauty images with my new do-it-yourself triflector, I decided to tackle some product photography. But with there being an unlimited selection of products to photograph, I knew I wanted to photograph something that was a little unique and not something you see every day. My girlfriend used to play paintball and she still knows a lot of people in the industry, including her brother. I thought about the gear they use and I find some of it to be quite colourful and aesthetic, so I chose paintball as my theme.

There are a lot of different products and gear associated with paintball, but I decided to narrow my items list down to just a couple for now. I spent a few hours photographing some goggles and other pieces of hardware, but the most challenging (and the most fun) was shooting a gun (pun intended). This is a brand new Eclipse Ego 11 and it looks pretty damn awesome (this one has the Regal purple and gold colour scheme). For this, I really wanted to play around with capturing the reflection of the gun. I used a small piece of plexiglass that I had picked up prior to the shoot and placed it on the floor over my white seamless paper. The trick, however, is finding the right angle to shoot at. Sure you can just lay the product on the floor and shoot it from above, but that’s so… boring, and you don’t really get a nice reflection. You also have to watch the shadow of the product and ensure that the reflection and the shadow do not converge.

Eclipse Ego 11 Regal 2 Photo by Ian Harding Photography

As you can see in the two images I posted, the gun appears to be floating. This was my goal and to achieve it, I had to use a couple of different objects, such as my assistant’s hand and some various small objects from around the studio. I wanted the gun to appear as though it were floating in space to help add a bit of creativity to the shots. I want people to look at the image and go, “Oh, it’s not just a photo of a product on the floor”. The unfortunate result was that I had to remove those supports in Photoshop afterwards. Lesson learned though. Now that I’ve done it once, my mind is already filled with other ideas for making these styles of shots easier to accomplish.

As for the final images, I’m quite pleased with the results I captured, but am undecided on which I like better. The image with the strong reflection or the image with the shadow? The reflection looks cool because you can see the underside of the gun, but the image with the shadow displays the gun much better.

So, which photo do you like better?

Beauty Photography With A DIY Reflector

Chinese Beauty by Ian Harding Photography

A friend of mine recently sent me a little tutorial video on how to create incredible beauty images using only a single beauty dish light and a do-it-yourself reflector. In the video titled “One Light Beauty Tutorial”, photographer Sean Armenta goes over the steps required to create beauty photographs. He talks about setting up the beauty dish and how to use it effectively to light the model’s “t-zone”, and what settings he uses in order to capture a “zero adjustment raw file”. The most interesting part about the tutorial is that Sean uses a reflector that he made himself. After only watching the video once, I was eager to try it out.

I picked up some foam core at a local print house, some reflective paper and silver duct tape from an art supply store, grabbed my pencil, my ruler and my exacto knife, and went to work. I cut the foam core into three pieces, attached them with the tape (creating hinges) and then attached the reflective paper to each surface. The result was a triflector that closes up nicely for storage. Here is a quick photo I took with my phone of the initial pieces.

With my newly created triflector, model Kim Ma, and make-up artist Darlene Brink, we headed off to the studio to try it all out. One big difference between my setup and Sean’s setup, is that I opted to raise each fold of my reflector instead of leaving it flat as he does in the video. The result, which you can see in my images here, was that I ended up with a tiny trio of catch-lights on the under side of Kim’s eyes. I quite liked how it looked, so I opted against using a small mirror to create the extra catch-light that Sean did. If I had kept my reflector flat, then there would have only been only one reflective surface, resulting in one catch-light.

We had a lot of fun doing this shoot. Kim’s ability to make all of the subtle movements and adjustments required to capture the beauty of her face in a really powerful image were definitely tested. I had never really shot much beauty in the past, but I really enjoyed it and I’m really happy with the results we got that day. I can definitely see myself doing a lot more of it. I also can’t wait to use my do-it-yourself reflector again.

Be sure to check out more of Sean’s videos at his Vimeo page or have a look at the amazing photographic work on his website, seanarmenta.com.

Chinese Beauty by Ian Harding Photography

Maximus

Maximus by Ian Harding Photography

A close friend of mine had been talking about getting a dog for a while now, but was having trouble finding the perfect addition to their family. They decided they would try being a foster parent to a homeless dog and to see how things would work out with their current living arrangements. Well, the dog showed up and about 48 hours later, the foster parenting was over… and they adopted Maximus (“Max”).

I joined them for a walk to the dog park the other day and decided to bring along my camera. One part of Max that makes him so special is definitely his eyes. They make us believe that he has some Husky in his blood, while his colouring and stature appear to be from a German Shepherd, but we aren’t 100% certain. At seven months old, Max is the center of attention everywhere he goes. Everyone at the dog park commented on his eyes, and when he gets running and playing, he can make some really funny cartoon-like faces. We all had some good laughs at the last photo I took. The look in Max’s eyes have you wondering what in the world is he thinking while running with the other dogs.

After only a few minutes of grabbing shots of Max, I realized that I quite enjoy photographing dogs. I love capturing action and motion in my images, which is why I love photographing sports. But when you add a cuteness factor into the mix, photographing dogs seems like the perfect fit (I’m sure some athletes are cute, but cuter than a puppy?). Especially when they’re at the park, running, bouncing, playing, and being completely unpredictable. If you’ve got a dog that you would like photographed, get in touch with me and perhaps I will accompany you on your next trip to the park.

Maximus by Ian Harding Photography

Maximus by Ian Harding Photography