Studio J

He’s from North York.   She’s from KW.   They met in Japan, where they both live.

Tracey’s dad was dying with cancer.  He knew he wouldn’t last many days.   So he made a suggestion.

Two weeks before their announced wedding date, Tracey and Mike were wed in a small, living room ceremony in a Southampton cottage  -  in front of her dad.

In the last days of his life, Lorne Shantz saw the daughter he was so close with,  married.

Two weeks later, on Dec 5th, I joined friends and family celebrating Mike and Tracey’s 2nd wedding in as many weeks.

With a mad, impossible schedule, not enough days – and through difficult times, Tracey and Mike remain friendly, relaxed, easy-going and funny.  Their great attitude was like a guarantee that this wedding would be a happy celebration.   No plans, details or scheduling hiccups could change that.

A Japanese Wish Tree:

SMOOOOOTH! :

… and the wedding slideshow video:

Clients often hear me talk about reserving the studio only for the styles of images that call for a very simple look or special lighting.    ….. and I usually say that’s not what I recommend for them!

So when do I shoot in the studio?  Modeling and fashion style images often call for a studio session.  Images on a pure white or pure black background (or any single colour) are best done in the studio.  …. and frequently, commercial style or advertising style images are often best suited to studio photography.

For this studio session, we were trying for other looks beyond the warm, cheerful tone that defined Elisa’s outdoor session .   If you watch the video at the bottom of this post, you’ll see that the other looks are actually brief interludes between her infectious smile!

Elisa was also my 1st live shoot (after lots of testing) with my new favourite studio lighting approach.  I love it!!   ….. I have tested this light setup on location since this session – and I’m happy to report that I can now bring this soft, dimension sculpting light right into your living room!

work it Elisa!! :

……. and back to some of my former favourite studio lighting:

…. and the studio session slideshow video:

Kara is down to earth, casual and just random – which makes for the most fun and easy going portrait session.  We slipped this one in just before the 1st snow.    5 degrees celsius and she looks comfortable, warm and relaxed!

Brent joined us and helped out with the session.  He was also completely relaxed and natural right from the 1st shot:

Yeah!!:

I honked my horn behind them – and they immediately knew to turn left at the intersection and race into the parking lot – so we could run across the street for this! :

Thanks Kara and Brent for a fun, free-wheeling session!

The session video: