cikesphoto – Portrait, Headshot, Event Photography

OMG! Two posts in one week!

So, a catering outfit asked me to do a very small, no budget food shoot for them. No stylist. Just me and the chef. I put up the set and the lighting. He cooked and brought me the plate to photograph. All I needed to do was turn the plate and look for what I thought was the best side. Some appetizers, some mains, and then some desserts. Simple and economical for the client. 

A few months ago I did some live concert photography at the Hard Rock Theatre in Coquitlam for a producer from Croatia (Scardona World Music). Last week he was back in town with a different act, again at the Hard Rock, and again he asked me to take photos of the show. Tomislav Bralić and Klapa Intrade are a great example of a style of a cappella group singing from Croatia. Nowadays however, the singing is often accompanied by some musical instruments. The show was great, and the vocals were a pleasure to listen to. I think the photos turned out pretty good too.

Never posted anything like this before, but I thought it would be alright for a change. This is an example of the events that I get called to shoot. In his case, the grand opening of the new flagship store of L’Occitane en Provence. They provided a bunch of the images I shot to various media outlets for PR. One in particular was the online e-zine Vancitybuzz. Their post is here. While here are a few more of the images, including what I think are more interesting ones…

This past weekend I was commissioned to shoot an event at The Hard Rock Casino in Vancouver (really, it’s in Coquitlam). I was glad to be asked, since I had already planned to go to the show – though my wife was less impressed since it meant I wouldn’t be sitting with her  🙁

I am familiar with all the artist on the bill, especially having grown up listening to the headliner, Oliver Dragojević. All the singers were super nice: Ljiljana Nikolovska, Nina Badrić, and Tedi Spalato (who thinks that he and I may be distant cousins on my father’s side, based on the part of the country our families are from). I was really honoured getting to hang out and photograph everything, including the sound check, and some of the green room activities. Who doesn’t appreciate having a shot of cognac backstage?

It was a long night after the show for me. I was up until after 4am getting all the images done and ready to deliver to the promoter (“Chach”, from Scardona World Music) the next morning before they all headed to next show. However I did send Chach some of the images by email over night so he could send them of to Croatian media a.s.a.p. You can find that story here, but if you can’t read Croatian, just look at the photos  🙂   Huh, I’ve used emoticons twice in this posting!

Below are all those images, plus a bunch more…

And by the way, I did sit with my wife part of the time  😉  Make that three emoticons.

Sometimes you just don’t want to lug around a big SLR body and lens.

Las Vegas was stupid hot. We walked around a lot. Big cameras bang against your hips and legs when you walk around with them dangling off your shoulders and neck. That darn iPhone just fits in your pocket, and like they say, the best camera is the one you have with you.

In Vegas, I used only my iPhone to take all my photos. I have to say, it did a decent job. Although the images look really great on the phone, the quality is nowhere near that of my SLR’s — the files fall apart really quickly if you try and tweak them in photoshop (they are jpegs, after all), and they lack the amount of detail I’m use to seeing on my screen. But, that said, they aren’t bad at all. Here are some of my favourites…