Figure/Ground

Ripon
f/2.5 1/400 ISO 400

Natasha

F/1.4 1/400 ISO 400

Library Cart

f/1.4 1/250 ISO 400

For the photo of Ripon, he was staring out the window of the classroom that we were shooting inside of during the flash demonstration on Saturday the other week, and when I noticed how nice the light was on his face, I asked him if I could take a photo of him, and the result is what you see above. I shot with a very low aperture/depth of field (f/2.5) because personally I love low depth of field portraits. When the eyes are in focus in a portrait and everything else is blurred, I absolutely love it. I shot with a fast shutter speed as well (1/400) just to ensure there was no possibility of camera shake (he and I were both sitting on one of the tables at the time). I chose the square crop and to have him in front of a blank section of wall because I wanted him to be the main focus of the photograph, no distractions in the background.

For the photo of Natasha, we were walking in one of the basement levels of the school where the janitors work (I know a lot of the passageways down there because I work in the building and frequent those areas), and she happened to stop and shoot some photos of the wiring/pipes above us, and again I noticed how nice the light was on her face, so I told her to hold her pose so I could take her photo. I shot again with a shallow depth of field (f/1.4) to bring focus to her, but let the lines stay in the background instead of moving away from them to give the photo more details to look at (unlike the portrait of Ripon where it is literally just him) and for the lines to somewhat lead into Natasha's face. Again I shot at a quick shutter speed to ensure no shake/everything would be sharp.

For the final image (in the library), I was not feeling inspired by the architecture at all (I forgot my wide angle lens, only brought my 50mm) so I ventured into the reference section where I found the cart you see in the photo, and was interested in it for some reason. I put it in the middle of the walkway, turned it horizontally, and took the photo. Again, I shot with a low depth of field because it is simply what I enjoy, but also because there are/were a lot of distracting elements in the background that I didn't want the viewer to be distracted by.

Martin Girard

Martin Girard is a local commercial photographer who focuses mostly on advertising work, but also works in editorial and on personal work as well. A member of Shoot Studio, which consists of 4 other local highly respected photographers based in Montreal, Girard brings his impressive track record to the table at Shoot Studio and shows that he is truly a creative man; he's shot photos for Rogers (for more than 5 years on their campaigns), Bombardier, Budweiser, BMW, Volkswagen, Air Canada, Dairy Farmers of Canada, and many others. He began his career as a photographer by first obtaining a DEC in photography, and then become one of L.L Lozeau's (a photo store in Montreal) retouchers. Eventually, he shifted to shooting fashion photography, and being an assistant for many successful photographers in the area and also doing their retouching from time to time. As a professional photographer today, he loves being able to mix creativity with his job and the many technical aspects that comes with it, and the travelling opportunities that he encounters sometimes. He feels as a whole that photographers are people-people, that they have to truly love people to love their own work/what they do for a living, and that you need to get your own kind of "kick" out of photography, instead of just doing it because of the money involved. He believes that despite the vast technological aspects concering photography in general, (photoshop, lighting, lenses, cameras, etc) that nothing can ever replace years of experience, and that that is more important than anything else when you are a professional photographer. He also believes that you should never stop growing as an artist/photographer; finding a niche and mastering it as much as you can is always important, but knowing various styles and being able to go between them is what a good photographer does and is what one should do to be successful, along with being able to sell yourself and be confident in your work.




http://www.shootstudio.ca/sets/martin-girard

Forensic Photography

Forensic photography is essentially the documentation of any given crime scene for the purpose of accumulating evidence for judicial uses, such as furthering an investigation of a murder, an accident, or any other incident in which evidence is needed. The forensic photographer’s main goal is to accurately show a crime scene using varied angles to give as much information concerning the crime in question. The majority of forensic photographers will work directly with police/law departments, however many work for small personal injury lawyers or law firms in which they essentially do the same thing; build evidence for a case.

The field of forensic photography is extremely technical, and there is little to no room for artistic creativity; it is essentially all business, which makes sense considering the context is very serious. Many techniques are used in the domain of forensic photography including small optical microscopes, ultraviolet and infrared photography, x ray photography, and much more to ensure as much information as possible is obtained from any given scene. Because of the digital revolution, high quality digital cameras are often used at crime scenes instead of 35mm cameras. Forensic photographers often start their studies as crime scene investigators or police officers, since an understanding of the justice system/criminal law and also how to behave on crime scenes (not moving evidence, etc etc) are important aspects of the job. The use of scale is also very important in shooting forensic photos: if the job calls for it, the subject you are shooting must have an object that is common (a quarter, a shoe, etc) in the frame as well for which the subject can be compared to in size.

Forensic photography began in the mid 18^th century when inmates’ photos were taken in Belgium and Denmark for archival purposes. These photographers at the time were not trained in any field and were usually just prison guards themselves. Years later, Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer and creator of anthropometry (literally translating to “measurement of man”), was credited as the inventor of the mug shot which is still used to this day. He suggested the studying of profiles and full face shots to indentify criminals, which was a huge step up from the unreliable eyewitness accounts that were in use at the time. The coming about of the finger print  took over much of what Bertillon had done, but his work and mug shots to his specifications are still in use to this day. 

Jill Greenberg

Jill Greenberg is a world renowned photographer who specializes in portraiture. She was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1967, but moved to the United States (Michigan, to be exact) while she was still a toddler, where she began her endeavors in the visual arts. She became interested in the artistic medium of photography around 10, already developing black and white film while in grade 5. Before her senior year of High School she attended the Rhode Island School of Design for their pre-college program in 1984, and during her senior year in High School, she received a scholarship for her to attend Parsons School of Art & Design to study photography further. She continued to take extra curricular courses at many different places such as the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Association, Kingswood. She is known today for her stylistic lighting, and several portrait series' which anthropomorphize animals such as monkeys, bears, horses and others as well. She has worked for many large corporations/companies including Sony Pictures, HBO, NBC Universal, FOX, Paramount Pictures, etc, and has photographed many portraits of well known actors, musicians, and politicians throughout her career, such as Clint Eastwood, John McCain, and Gwen Stefani. Several of her shoots have also been highly questionable (concerning the ethics of the shoots); one of which was a series of babies crying in which Jill and her team would give the babies candy, take the candy back, wait for them to cry, and then shoot the photos. While some of it is controversial, there is no denying that her work is brilliant, and it is for this reason that she continues to receive work to this day despite several questionable shoots.