Above and Beyond

Above and Beyond’s Tony and Jono playing at the 2011 new years rave at the Vancouver Pacific Colosseum. I’m a huge fan of their work so it was a privilege to shoot let alone get a photograph with them!

Above & Beyond are a British/Finnish trance music group formed in 2000 and consists of the members Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki. The trio are popular in the electronic dance music scene for their forward-thinking uplifting trance productions and collaborations with renowned vocalists. They manage their own record label, Anjunabeats, which releases trance & progressive music, and they also host their own weekly radio show, Trance Around the World. The group’s tracks are regularly played by well-known DJs, including Armin van Buuren, Gareth Emery, Ferry Corsten, ATB, and Kyau & Albert. On 28 October 2010 DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, with Above & Beyond placed at #5 in the world. – Wiki

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// Feb 19th, 2012

The Brew Hut trip up on Mt. Brew near Whistler had been in the plans for a month before our departure. Jordan, Hiron and Stefan met a few times before the trip to discuss the logistics of the trip and how long it would take. Nothing was left out and everything was planned to consider the safest precautions in any backcountry dangers. But what first was described as simply a snow shoeing trip to Whistler turned into an grueling expedition by night.

The weather network was reporting amazing sunny conditions for this past weekend. Promises of beautiful weather, travel, wilderness, documentation of a great adventure? Count me in! There was no way a cold was going to stop me from missing out.
We were up on Saturday morning at 5am to meet at 6am, packed and ready to go. We had called Powder Mountain Catskiing for a ride two weeks prior and were told to call in to confirm the night before. We speculated that their services may have been taken elsewhere considering the good weather, leaving us stranded without a ride to the checkpoint 4.5km away from parking. At first we didn’t think it would’ve helped but once we arrived at the cat drop off, we were quite exhausted. But there was an even harder and longer trek ahead of us, so we called this our “pow-wow” stop; we were already 4.5hrs behind schedule and the sun wass coming down – should we continue?!

We had to remember that this was an overnight trip and we would be carrying extra weight for another 5km, but we figured we’d be there by around 10pm – or so we thought!

The hike from the “pow-wow” was about another 7km. From a car’s point of view, this was nothing; walking: doing-able; snow shoeing: it’ll take a while; carving our own path in snow shoes and full backpacks: extremely difficult!
Once we started carving our own path in the snow, each stop was registered as a half-step. At some points during the trip, we actually had to get each other out of holes that we had fallen through.

As the sun went down, we began to resort to headlamps while being greeted by even colder temperatures which instantly froze the water within our bottles. Even the food started becoming hard to chew. I’d have to say that the worst part of the backcountry hike was through the forests. At any point, the snow shoes would sink right through or manage to slip off the edges during an incline. Once we hit the open ridge, the clear sky lit up with a million starts and an enormous full moon. It was something we all needed to boost our morale and give us hope to continue on.

We were all feeling the fatigue. The aches and pains were there but the most important thing was to concentrate all efforts towards moving one foot in front of the other. Dehydration quickly set in once our water turned to ice and our food was too hard to chew. I remember at least a half-dozen times falling down to my feet and resorting to eating the snow right beside me. Somewhere out there was a hut waiting for us to arrive. With all the darkly lit trees scattered around the ridge, it was hard not to point and think, “That’s it!” Even hallucinations got the best of us.

We finally arrived at the hut at midnight. We all wanted to be greeted with a pillows, a warm fireplace, hot coco, warm food but we wouldn’t be met with that reality just yet. We first needed to shovel the snow from the door and log shed, boil water and start the wood stove to warm up the hut.

I regret not getting any photos at night to share with you guys but there was no time to stop and take photos. The one thing that I truly regret was dragging up the tripod only to have it be dead weight. To be honest, I was really looking forward to taking night photos but when my body fell into near-hypothermia there was no way I was going out that night. A big thanks goes out to Shawna, Jordan, Hiron and Stefan for keeping me warm, letting me eat first and hit the sack right after. I wish I could’ve helped more around that hut, but I had no energy to.

Here are the stats from Jordan’s GPS:

- Saturday, awake at 5:00 AM, asleep at 3 AM on Sunday (22 hours awake)
- 13 hours hiking on Saturday
- Saturday’s dinner at 2 AM on Sunday
- Starting Elevation: 1050 ft
- 4.5 hours to get to the “pow-wow” (2959 ft)
- 8.5 hours from the “pow wow” to the hut (5,554 ft)
- 1.3km of total elevation gain
- Awake at 8:30AM on Sunday (5.5 hours of sleep for Stefan, less for the rest of us, I think)

Jordan’s GPS Stats (one way, hiking in from the cars)
- Max speed: 19.5km/h (back of the truck for a few hundred meters)
- Moving time: 5hr 41min
- Stopped time: 5hr 53min
- Moving average speed: 2.5km/h
- Overall speed average: 1.2km/h
- Distance travelled: 14km
(GPS batteries died 221m from the hut)

For all the hard work that was involved, everyone did a really good job. This hike was insane and the fact we all survived and weren’t injured (physically – I think that psychologically, we all went through something!) is quite a feat. Only two days later I’m already thinking I would do it again. I think the key was the missing ride to get to the trail head. I’d probably have us all hitchhike skidoo’s to the trailhead next time, which would have been an acceptable day, in my opinion. Cutting out the first 4.5 hours of effort would have us up-hilling with more energy, more daylight, and more water that isn’t frozen. Next time… – Jordan

How the day started!
All pictures were taken with a 5D MarkII with a Canon 24LII

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My friend Christina dropped by to get a few pictures taken for her work portfolio. It’s hard to keep this girl sitting still or even partly acting professional. Here are my favourite two,

I think the second one’s winner.

Just a few days prior to Valentine’s Day, the Centre of Integration was hosting a Valentines Day party and I was invited to photograph the guests. Initially as I was setting up a white backdrop system, the red wall looked like a much better alternative.

The hall was nicely setup, a DJ came to spin tunes and dinner with drinks were also supplied. Everyone one came dressed to the 9′s – Classy.

The Centre of Integration (formally The Centre of Integration For African Immigrants) was founded in 2001 through volunteer effort, and the effort of a very small but committed staff. We are a non-profit organization that was formed to support visible minorities with ethno-cultural barriers.  The Centre aims to facilitate a smooth integration for immigrants by offering job services, community building events, and educational workshops.

Our mandate is to address the problem of exclusion felt among  immigrants in British Columbia. We believe in equal opportunities, the strength of cultural diversity, full participation in all aspects of society, and education as a means of bridging cultures.

– http://centreofintegration.com/

Here are a few photos from that wonderful evening,

The DJ

The residents and fishers who live and work in this unique community invite you to explore the pages of this website and uncover the many delightful aspects of the “Slough”; its Finnish roots, the who’s who of wildlife and plants, current events related to our community and its role in the rich heritage of the Fraser River.
- http://www.finnslough.com/

Bill Kwok (@Matsuda) arranged an awesome photowalk in Richmond’s South Dykes last week. Ranging from beginners to professionals, 20 people signed up but only 10 showed up on a this cold and wet Saturday morning. I’d like to thank Bill for putting in the effort in arranging this meet with a 50% turn out!
If you’ve never been to the Dykes in Richmond, I recommend bringing your dog or running shoes and taking a stroll through the trails while there.

As we walked around the Dykes, I couldn’t believe people still live inside these old boats and houses!

I was showing a demonstration of how a TSE (tilt-shift) lens works and here are a few examples:
By changing the focal plane, one can focus on two objects which are positioned at different distances.
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The concept started with Chandni Chaube (cchaubedesign.com) who was responsible for the art direction and styling of the shoot. She wanted to do a project that examined the juxtaposition of the traditionally beautiful and angelic ballerina against a dark and dirty urban setting. The concept here is the “fall from grace”, much like the movie, Black Swan. Production was small, just the three of us. It was just three creative minds coming together and seeing what could come out of it.
This is the Dark part of our Dark & Light segment -

Follow the Light

Enjoy

Gorgeous make-up, Beautiful eyes

By looking at the images, you can’t really tell but we were shooting in absolutely no light and under heavy heavy rain. To get focus, I had the model hold up my Iphone, put it away and not move either back or forth while I shot at f1.2. The down poor didn’t help either, but the make-up was on and we had no choice but to finish. Remarkably the 5DII held in and sustained no damage!

I saw a small sliver of light from one the buildings so we turned off all flashes and shot ambient OR what was seen as ambient.
Here are the shooting stats, 1/8 – f1.2 – ISO3200 (no joke!!!)

If not in the cold damp rain of the dark shoot then in freezing snow temperatures for light.

To really get the feeling of beauty lost in a forest, I had to find a good mix flat plains, snow and fields of trees. The west coast is particularly made up of a lot of pine trees, which didn’t work for me but with a quick drive up Cypress Mountain, we were able to find the ideal spot.
We were working with a really small group again. Just Ashika, myself and Mary Gail as our assistant. Although another hand would’ve helped and maybe some portable heaters too. After going through a lot of these photos, I’d love bring a model in a full bridal dress to shoot for a magazine spread.

Enjoy the photos and please leave any comments.

Come to the Dark side

I’m pleased to finally announce the addition of our new sample Flush Mount Books. Just the pure quality, stitching, custom binding feel of each book blow me away.

Now that we have one for future clients to view, I’m going to make sure everyone who’s ordered our previous books gets a chance to see these. Three have already made the switch, hope more do the same.
It’s a upgrade in terms of price but the quality surpasses that incremental increase. The flushed spreads also gives the artist endless flexibility with how images can be laid out. From the images below, it’s very hard to spot the seam converting the already beautiful 12×9′ book into a seamlessly 24×9′ spread.

I’m definitely looking in creating a book for myself in the near future. For now, I’ll be focusing on new and innovative things VisionArt offers in their catalog and hope to provide those to all our clients.

I tried but the photos just don’t do it justice. You have to actually hold it and feel it,

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