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

A make up artist I regularly work with, Shawnna Downing, entered a contest to win a chance to shoot a cover for Faceon magazine in New York. She mentioned that photographers could enter too, and I figured why not, right? I kind of hate asking things like this, but if you could vote for me it would mean a lot! You can vote once a day if you really want to, and I would appreciate it so much!

http://www.exploremodeling.com/Casting/FACEON/61386/Kim_Akrigg.aspx

Jaime

A test shoot I did with Jaime the other day, we were planning on using all the cherry blossom trees that were blooming, but then it poured. All the blossoms got kind of ugly looking, so we had to switch plans. This is my front yard, and my living room window.

Model: Jaime
Make Up/Hair: Shawnna Downing

Tia

Model: Tia with Ford Models
Make Up: Aaron Wozlowski

I never thought it would be so challenging to get hair to blow the way I wanted it...this took a blow dryer and a regular fan. This was a fun shoot though. Tia is magic and Aaron is amazing, and it all happened how I wanted it to.

A little while back I did a shoot with Kayanna, we were planning to shoot at a beach, then a park, then it was supposed to rain and I wasn't really sure what to cause I really didn't want to shoot this one indoors. So I kept putting off planning how to shoot it indoors and just hoping that it would be sunny, and luckily enough it was dry and perfectly cloudy. By chance Kayanna's mom discovered this tugboat junkyard near my house, and we decided to shoot there. It went off perfectly, aside from being a little cold and some guy accusing Shawnna and I of stealing metal.

Model: Kayanna at John Casablancas
Make Up: Shawwna Downing
Styling: Nicolette Lang-Andersen










The last shot is my favorite...just cause I seem to enjoy things on people's heads that shouldn't be there, like necklaces.