What a fun shoot in a modern condo in the middle of downtown Toronto! I am so lucky to work with such talented people: Erin McLaughlin & Sara Cation from Style at Home & Jessica Kelly of Jessica Kelly Design. At the end of the shoot – we didn’t want to let that amazing sushi go to waste – it was delicious!
I am very excited about the November issue of Style at Home! Finally all the shoots we did last fall are coming out & it is wonderful to have another cover . . . Thank you to Margot Austin who styled this story and to my amazing assistants Mun Wai Chau & Jordan Fretz. They went far above the call of duty to light some of the last shots from outside (and it was VERY chilly). See if you can pick out the shots that were done in complete darkness . . .
Check back this week for more stories and behind the scenes shots . . .and go get a copy of this issue before it goes off the stands!
Style at Home editor Erin McLaughlin & I drove to Ottawa on a cold snowy day last December on our way to a shoot in Canada’s capitol. As we drew closer the snow got worse and worse & the next morning we woke up to sleet and ice. We were determined to make it to the shoot so we drove verrrrrrrry slowly through the streets of Ottawa. And what a lovely surprise it was to have Chip Hamann & Alain Doom welcome us into their cozy and stylish house. We also met the gracious Irene Langlois of Irene Langlois Interiors who helped make this home charming and ready for entertaining.
Alain & Chip prepared the food, lit the candles while Irene hung the last of the holiday decor. And despite the ice & snow, good friends arrived, champagne was opened and the lovely party went on into the evening. . .
Christine Hanlon of Style at Home whips up a more sophisticated take on fall entertaining. I especially loved the white pumpkins and the ravens. We did enjoy sampling all the pretty goodies too...
It is exciting to have the October cover of Style at Home magazine! Calgary, Alberta was our destination to shoot this fabulous house. I was joined by two very talented women – senior design editor Margot Austin & Calgary designer Nam Dang-Mitchell. Nam used inspiration from 17th century Vermeer paintings to create a many beautiful spaces. I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of Nam’s shoes. . .
We were thrilled to have another cover of Style at Home! What’s better than shooting a breezy cottage in beautiful Prince Edward Island? For all those Anne of Green Gables fans out there – PEI is as pretty as it looks in the movies. . .
It was great to meet Susan Snow of Moving Designs and of course to work with Margot Austin of Style at Home. Here is a peek at the article inside – see more on in my recent work.
Check out this beautiful Ontario lake cottage! Has orange and blue and white ever looked better? I had the privilege of photographing this gorgeous cottage last summer for Style at Home magazine with the talented Christine Hanlon. So thrilled that this ended up on the July 2011 cover! See the rest of the layout on my website in the recent work portfolio.
Our day was so packed with shooting that we didn’t take too many behind the scenes shots, but I thought it might be interesting to see how we get accuate colours in our photos. I use X-rite’s Color Checker Grayscale card – the gray, white and black card my assistant Stefanie is holding in all the shots. Once a photo is ready to shoot, an assistant places or holds the color checker card in the shot and I make an exposure. Then we use the White Balance tool in Capture One to standardize the colour.
And just one more photo. We love shooting portraits of Erin McLaughlin, editor of Style at Home and Canadian Gardening. She makes it easy with her beautiful smile and fantastic sense of style. Follow her on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/erinmclaughlin1 to get plugged into all things design and gardening.
In September I had the privilege to shoot ia gorgeous Amanda Nisbet home in the Hamptons for Style at Home magazine with managing design editor Margot Austin (see Margot’s behind the scenes post). We were all thrilled when one of the shots ended up on the cover of Style at Home’s April issue! Here is a peak at some of the inside story. See more photos.
We stayed at the lovely Inn at Quogue with it’s pretty picket fence. I was so pleased to have a little time to go for a walk amongst the beautiful homes and impressive hedges. I snapped a few quick shots of my little adventure. The scenery was so beautiful but the deer romping on the immaculate lawns did give me a chuckle.
In September I had the opportunity to shoot with the amazing team at Wedding Bells magazine in Toronto, Ontario. We shot in a lovely daylight studio at S1 group. Our team for the day: Jennifer Haskett, art director; Catherine Doherty, stylist & her lovely daughter & Mun Wai Chau, assistant. Associate editor Roseanne Dela Rosa, also popped in for bit as well.
It was exciting to see the huge amount of beautiful china, props and gauzy fabrics that filled all the available tables in the studio! Please enjoy the stories & a few behind the scenes photos!
It was such a pleasure to be assigned to photograph Bittersweet Farms for Garden & Gun magazine. This idyllic property, owned by the Bechers, is near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Western North Carolina. The barn was constructed out of the most beautiful wood from reclaimed barns brought down from Pennsylvania. There are belted Galloway cows, meadows for dogs to romp and in a small vale sits an amazing twig sculpture called “Hocus Pocus” by Patrick Doherty. See a few of my favorites below followed by the article.
