Toronto Wedding

June 25, 2012 Category: Wedding Cinema

J+M tied the knot at the Old Mill in Toronto, Canada. It’s a beautiful venue next to the Humber River. They did a “first look” in a tiny clearing just off the river. Little bits of fluff were floating in the air and I couldn’t help but think, “this is a Ridley Scott movie!!”. J+M’s reception was a pretty lively affair… no shortage of fun was had at that party!

The music is “Letters in the Sea” by The Dimes. I’ve learned of them from cutting wedding videos but I’m starting to become a true fan of their work! It’s got this 60’s vibe, something very Simon and Garfunkel-y.

My crew: Joe Raasch and Stevsie. Thanks to Amrita and Joe for your hospitality!

Sue+Matt // La Hacienda Sarria

January 17, 2012 Category: Wedding Cinema, Wedding Photography

La Hacienda Sarria in Kitchener is an incredible wedding venue. I stumbled upon it while shooting the Crossfit calendar—Dianne Green brought us there, and we got a special tour around the place. I couldn’t wait for a chance to use it in a shoot; these are some pics taken at the Hacienda in tandem with the video that appears on the homepage of ericyu.ca (and below the pics).

Here’s the video. It features two couples; the second of which is Alexandra+Andrew. Special thanks to Ben Kane, who did all the shots where I had to appear in the video, Joe Raasch and Angela Wilson for assisting, Jenn Eades for makeup, and Carly Blasutti for makeup and hair.

Cobrinha vs. Shane Rice // Canada Sub X

January 15, 2012 Category: Sports

From Wikipedia: “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, combat sport, and a self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. The art was derived from the Japanese martialart of Kodokan judo (which itself is derived from Japanese Jujutsu; the name Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an homage to this origin) in the early 20th century. It teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique—most notably by applying joint-locks and choke holds to defeat the other person. BJJ training can be used for sport grappling tournaments and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition or self defense.”

Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles (pictured above) is one of the premiere grapplers in the world. Here he competes against Shane Rice (below), a tough grappler in his own right. Check out this really cool video of Cobrinha in action at the 2008 World Championships.

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Nicole Kruger

January 15, 2012 Category: Misc., Sports

Shots for the Women of Crossfit Kitchener calendar (the above pic made the final cut). Nicole was photographed in Toronto, in the graffiti covered alleys behind Queen St. near Spadina. I love shooting there. We were rained out on our first attempt but that ended up being a blessing in disguise… we had the most amazing roti instead (Vena’s, on Bloor, near Lansdowne). The place even said it was the “best in town”! It also happened to be the day of the Zombie Walk, so the streets were crawling with Z’s. Were are lucky to be alive.

Camera tech for the inquisitive types: The top image was shot on a Canon 5D mk II, with a 70-200 2.8L IS II USM lens. The long lens flattens the perspective and makes the wall look huge. Settings: ISO 400, 123mm focal distance, f/5.6, 1/500th. The camera was on a tripod and we took two exposures, one with Nicole in place, pretending to throw the ball, and another with just the ball. Both shots were combined in post. We did many takes; thowing the medicine ball over and over would have killed Nicole. I’ve exposed just a little dark for the ambient light, and two flashes (580 EX II’s) are edge-lighting her from out of frame. Sweetened in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop CS5.

Ben Kane (below), who shot the other 6 photos for the calendar, next to “Kane” graffiti on the wall. He was standing in to test out a potential shot location.

Below is an outtake that didn’t make the calendar. It was a hard activity to photograph—the “wall ball”—and a hard choice to go with a final pic that didn’t show Nicole’s face. This was an attempt to solve that problem. Two exposures were mixed together in post, essentially cloning Nicole.