Workshop

I'll be back to Vancouver for a few days in September and Doco Photo are holding a workshop! It's going to be focussed on how we'd do a fashion shoot from start to finish on location. It's not only for fashion photographers though, anyone is welcome and we're going to gear it more towards what you'd like to learn. We'll have professional models, make up artists and a wardrobe stylist, and we'll each share tips and tricks from our individual experiences and styles. The workshop will cover organizing a shoot from the concept to the final project. We've got a total of 15 spots!

Date: September 2, 10-3
$300/person
15 spots available
Location TBA

Ryan's Portfolio: www.docofolio.com
My Portfolio: www.kimberleyakrigg.com

To sign up please send kim.akrigg@hotmail.com an email!

Test with Maddie from Ford Models
Make Up/Hair: Shawnna Downing
Photo/Styling/Retouching: Kim Akrigg

We've been exploring our building, and we found this room/lounge which I fell in love. It reminds me of a space ship, and I figured it'd be perfect for this shoot. I'm still hunting for a good stylist to work with, so I've been styling things on my own again. H&M is my saviour.

Lots of test shoots this week. Which is kind of nice, it gives me a chance to explore my neighbourhood for fun places to shoot, and try out new ideas. On Saturday I shot with 4 lovely girls from Annabelle Cho Model Placement, here's photos Beata's set.

Beata with Annabelle Cho Model Placement
Make Up: Shawnna Downing

Test shoot with Kellie

Model: Kellie with AbC Model Placement
Make Up: Shawnna Downing

First Shoot

Moving to Toronto has been an amazing experience so far, I love this city so much more than everyone said I would. Walking everywhere, the wonderful people, the amazing sunny days spent eating outside on our patio. I'm glad I never have to leave.

I was so anxious to get started shooting again, the past week and a half were probably the longest I've gone in about 2 years without doing a photoshoot. It came together so easily, I grabbed a few things from H&M while wandering Queens St W one morning, and everything just fell into place. Shooting with Gwen was an amazing way to get started here, I'm incredibly happy with how the photos turned out.


Model: Gwen with Peggi Lepage
Make Up: Shawnna Downing

Into The Woods Editorial

'Into the Woods' for Press Magazine's 1st Issue

I've gotten a few questions about lighting for this shoot, so I'm going to try to explain that here! A few months ago Press Magazine contacted me asking if I'd like to shoot an editorial for them, and I happily agreed. I was going for a slightly darker feeling, but still natural look with lots of textures, knits, leather and neutral and dark colours. As it were, with this shoot most things did not go according to plan. I shot this in May, which as it happens, is a month where things grow a lot in Vancouver. The location I scouted for this shoot, a small wooded area near my house was completely bare of any greenery when I went to check it out. I figured it would be perfect for a Fall themed shoot. The day we turned up to shoot there was tons of little green leaves poking out of the trees, giving the forest an entirely different feel from what I was going for. And then there was the rain. Not just a little drizzle, but a downpour that continued throughout the entire shoot, turning the ground to mud and soaking us all. Normally a little rain doesn't bother me on shoots, but when you're trying to shoot with a light it makes the experience a bit more interesting. I used an SB-800 shot through a small octobank, and ended up just sticking a garbage bag over the whole thing which kept it totally dry. All of the photos were shot fairly wide open, between f2-f2.8, ISO 100. To deal with the problem of the trees being too green, I just desaturated the whole photo and masked various parts to control how much of the colour I was taking away. Hope that explains it!

Moving on

Ever since I got into fashion photography people have told me that I'd have to leave Vancouver, and a year ago the thought terrified me. I had no clue how I would do it, where I would go, and how I would get there. Skip to a year later, and now I'm leaving to go to Toronto. It almost happened by accident, a make up artist I'm lucky enough to count as part of my team(Shawnna Downing) and I were entertaining the idea of going for a few weeks to check things out. Somehow along the way we decided to relocate to there, and in a few weeks we'll be getting on a plane with all our stuff. The world is weird in the way it works though, ever since I made the decision people from Toronto, or who know someone they think I should know in Toronto are popping out everywhere. It's nice to know that I'm not alone!

Last night was our going away party which ended up being the perfect mix of just a few good friends and more food than we could eat, and I was talking with an amazing stylist and wonderful girl Nicolette Lang-Andersen and we were talking about how you need to do things that scare you. Cause if you're just standing still, you're going to fall behind, and I hate the idea of that. I also hate the idea of at the end of the day regretting not doing something because I was afraid. Have you done anything that scared you lately? What happened?

A few photos from shoots that Shawnna and I have done together!




Lovely Tia of Ford Models who is also moving to Toronto with us. This was a shoot we did for an amazing cause called Just a Drop, who provides money for wells to be built in countries lacking clean water.





Editorial for Ouch Magazine
Styling: Nicole Belonio
Model: Amanda at Lexington Models