Guess who’s back with some new images! Make-up artist Tamara Melville reached out to me recently to do a collaboration to shoot some beautiful spring looks, and knowing the quality of her work I was happy to be on board. We had worked together before with great results, so I knew I was in for a treat. 

Sue-Dionne Lewis, repped by State Management, was the model selected for the shoot, and she did exceptionally well. Working with Sue is a breeze because she instinctively knows the poses and faces to pull based on just a mood board or minimal direction. With that type of synergy, there was no way we wouldn’t get great images. The accessories provided by Vintage Chic Jewellery were wonderful and fit the mood of the shoot perfectly, ranging from rustic to earthy to vibrant. It’s evident that each piece was made lovingly and with great care. The dresses, provided by FHL Designs, embodied the spirit of spring and tropical feelings incredibly well with their flowing designs. 

 For assistance on this shoot, I contacted my colleague Kid Bazzle to assist me as a lighting and digital technician. He also created that lovely green backdrop! With myself, Tamara and Bazzle on set, we had a lovely time shooting each look, with Tamara styling each look effortlessly. As always, I shot tethered so that the images could be seen on a monitor almost instantly instead of on the back of the camera. I find this workflow to be very productive because what the human eye might not see, the camera picks it up! We had a great day, and some amazing images to show for it!

In my last blog post, I mentioned I had some more work in store for you. I’m happy to share that my latest editorial has been published in Sheeba Magazine!
 

The series, titled Light and Shadow, was inspired by the way shadows add a sense of dimension to an image. I don’t shy away from using shadows in my work, but in this instance, I wanted to make it as stark as possible, which led me to shoot a number of the images in black and white. Another source of inspiration was the work of fashion and commercial photographer Lindsay Adler. After examining her black and white work, and watching one of her Creative Live classes in which she used hard light, I felt compelled to try it for myself. I compiled a mood board and then reached out to model and designer Anna-Lisa Guthrie, who I felt had the perfect look to pull off a shoot like this. I also contacted the super talented Dominique Mitchell to do make-up, and fellow photographer Jik-Reuben Pringle to be my lighting and digital technician. 

 The outfits provided by Anna-Lisa were an almost exact match with the idea I had in mind, and the shoot went swimmingly (as can be expected when working with a great team). I have to give a big thank you to Sheeba Magazine for publishing our work! In addition to this, one image in particular is also currently on display at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in the 2018 Faculty Exhibition. The work is on display in the CAG[e] Gallery at the college, and runs from the 6th of March to the 20th of March, so feel free to go have a have a look!

You can view the tear sheets from the magazine and a few extra images below; a full gallery can be found here. Enjoy!

I recently got together with my friend and fellow creative Anna-Lisa Guthrie to create some work for her fashion line Aura by Annaixe. Anna is not just a model and photographer, but also a designer, and I was thrilled to work with her to create new content for her portfolio; the tops and the earrings were made by her. Her designs are meticulously detailed and gorgeous, and she modeled them well. While it was a subsection of a larger project that we were working on (which will be detailed in another blog post), I still approached it as I would any project.

I was incredibly happy to have makeup artist Dominique Mitchell working with me on this project, as her skill and style is impeccable and immediately identifiable. Also present was my colleague Jik-Reuben Pringle, who filled the role of lighting and digital technician. As I always try to do for studio shoots, I shot tethered with my base edits dialed in, so that we could have an idea of what the final product would be. All in all, we had an amazing time on the shoot, and I can’t wait to show the rest. In the meantime, enjoy these!

Who’s ready for a few new photos! As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I work in the Photography Department at the Edna Manley School of Visual and Performing Arts. In October we went on our departmental field trip with the students to Castleton Botanical Gardens, the Charlestown Maroon Village and Buff Bay.

I’ve always said I’m not a landscape photographer, and while that remains true, two things remain the same; I always pay attention to interesting compositions, and I watch the movements of light and shadow in the environment. While most of my day was spent tending to the students, I did manage to get a few shots that I’m thoroughly in love with, and I’m happy to share them with you! 

First post for the new year! I’m proud to say I shot the cover for the January 2018 issue of WestJet Magazine! 

The fine folks from WestJet contacted me late last year about shooting some photos of Kingston for an article in their January issue called Where To Go in 2018. They discovered me because of an article I wrote that got featured on Format Magazine! I was happy to accept the job and jumped right into making arrangements to get the job done. I called up my colleague Jik-Reuben Pringle in order to get his assistance travelling around Kingston (it’s always good to have a friend with a car!) and making contact with key people around the city. We also had Kid Bazzle along for the ride for a few days to provide help with creative direction.

 Over the course of a week, I shot a series of photos at Culture Yard in Trench Town, followed by the Bob Marley Museum, Coronation Market, Life Yard and Fleet Street. After getting a number of great shots, I was asked to shoot images that would be used for the cover of the magazine and a double-page spread on the inside to present the story. Jumping at the chance, I told Jik that I needed him for one more aspect; to model! He’s someone with a great sense of style, so I knew he could find an interesting outfit. With some creative direction offered by the WestJet Magazine team, we ended up with some amazing shots for cover and inner spread. All in all, I had an amazing time travelling around Kingston to get these photos! You can view the full issue of the magazine here.

Sometimes, posts are short and to the point. This is one of them. 

 A few weeks ago I was contacted by Jamaican artist Phillip Thomas to shoot some portraits. I’ve never known him personally, but one thing was always evident; the man has style! With him being a well-known painter and mixed media artist I was thrilled to work with him, but just like this post, our time was incredibly short. He had two fairly simple looks with wonderfully made jackets. Using a 47” softbox as my key light and a bare flash as the rim, I was able to get a very interesting look and feel from the images, using the light to sculpt not just his features, but the clothes as well. At the end of a 15-minute shoot, we had 4 great photos!

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working with my friend and colleague, Anna-Lisa Guthrie on a small, intimate shoot. A professional photographer and model, Anna had the chops to pose and give the looks I had envisioned with maximum efficiency, and she definitely delivered. The images were tucked away in storage a while back, but I recently came across them while sorting my files, and I thought there was no better time than the present to give them a 2017 edit! 

I had posted a few of them on social media at the time, but never had the opportunity to show the all. In a shoot that had me continuing with my recent trend of working in small, intimate spaces I used not only Anna, but also her environment as a character in this series of images, which I felt complemented her look and style. Using a mix of a single speedlight, a shoot-through umbrella, a reflector and natural light, I was able to control the ambience to nice, clean looks, but made sure the space still felt lived in/occupied. The end result was something that can be described as boudoir inspired. You can find the full gallery of images here.

Fairly I got the chance to dive into a genre of photography I’ve been diving into a bit deeper as of late; can you guess what it is? (It’s in the title. If you can’t guess, I can’t help you!). I was contacted by Lisa Harrison, of the law firm Harrison & Harrison to shoot some headshots of their staff for their website, which was designed by Chrysalis Communications. Headshots being something I enjoy shooting quite a bit, I responded as quickly as I could. We set a time and date, and decided on shooting in their offices with a white background. I enlisted the help of my colleague Kid Bazzle to assist with the photos, and we made our way to their location. 

Upon arrival we were a bit wowed by the look of their office suite; clean, modern, nicely lit and filled with art. After a quick second of gawking, we got to work and commandeered a corner of the office. Even though I traveled with a bunch of equipment, I ended up keeping it simple, using a 47” octabox as the background, and another 47” octabox on a boom arm as the main light.

A rough idea of what the setup was like.

After a few test shots to get the lighting right, we were ready to get shootn’! We spoke with Lisa about the tone and vibe to be evoked by the images, and learned that Harrison & Harrison is a pretty happy law firm! We had no problems getting everyone to smile after we introduced ourselves and had a small chat with each person. All in all, the images came out great. I decided to shoot them somewhat wide, so that they could be cropped to various sizes for different use-cases. Shortly after wrapping up the headshots, Lisa asked if I’d be willing to shoot a few environmental photos of their office space and I jumped at the chance! Like I said above, the office space is pretty gorgeous. I decided to do multiple exposures for each space, with Bazzle moving around with a speedlight to light different areas. You can see the results of everything below!

You know what they say, the devil’s in the details! A few weeks ago I was contacted by my friend and colleague Jik-Reuben Pringle to shoot an assignment in his stead. Tai Flora Services, Jamaica’s largest floral provider had contracted him to cover a number of weddings for which they had done the decor. 

Jik, being the savvy person he is, got it arranged so that we both shot two weddings simultaneously, in different parts of the country at that! While he was doing some great work in Negril, I was shooting up a storm at Sandals Resort in St. Ann (you can find his post about his experience here). Now when I say shooting up a storm, it’s not just a euphemism; rain clouds hung low throughout the entire afternoon, and the skies threatened to open up… which they did. Luckily, I was able to get some amazing detail shots of the decor before the rains came down. Needless to say, the decor was gorgeous and exactly in line with what I expected from Tai Flora. Their work is well known, and did not disappoint. I love the photos I got from the intricate details at both the ceremony and the reception, and I’m happy to share them with you!

Guess who’s back! Recently I’ve been bolstering my home studio with a few bits and bobs (a modifier here, a boom pole there) and decided it was time to put a few of these to work. I decided to reach out to my good friend Alana, who you might recognise from this 2015 post, in order to have some fun! Like I said in my previous post with her, she’s always incredibly cool and comfortable, and is always willing to do something new. 

Working with a mix of two speedlights and two softboxes, we tried out a few different lighting techniques until we got a full day of shooting done. Coming out of this shoot, I can truly say I learned quite a bit. Not just about managing and shaping light, but also working my personal studio space to the best of its ability. While I always believe my work has room for improvement it can only get better with more practice. In the end, we got images that we both love, and I look forward to working with her again!