It’s pretty much common knowledge that boys are made of slugs, snails, and puppy-dogs’ tails; while on the other hand, girls are comprised of sugar, spice, and everything nice; however, lesser known is what happens to these ingredients in the summer months when Matt Barnes is hanging ’round with a camera. Well put on your learnin’ glasses and prepair to get schooled by Matt’s Boys & Girls of Summer.

To see more Girls and/or Boys of Summer go hit up The Passing Shot!
All Images © Matt Barnes

The .GIF file. Brought into this world back in ’87 by CompuServe, the Graphics Interchange Format has been bringing joy to internet users since Netscape Navigator upgraded to v2.0. Whether it was displaying a companies logo or letting you know that a site was under construction, thanks to Netscape the GIF became an everyday part of the internet. Then came Geocities.

Although the dancing baby was probably the appropriate time for the GIF to really take off as a new medium for artists to play with, it wasn’t until the revamped/rebranded ‘cinemagraph‘ came along that people started to really take notice and wonder on the ways they could play within the 256 colour scheme.

One of these interested artists is Ryan Enn Hughes,

I’m really excited about exploring GIFs as a medium, as I see them sitting right in the middle between Motion Pictures and Still Photography. I really took notice of GIFs when I saw the work of Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. My skill set and history with stop motion work has allowed me to explore GIFs seamlessly. I feel the whole format is very ‘wild west’ right now – its great to see innovation coming from new and exciting directions.

Ryan recently launched a new creative series titled Sparkler$ which marks his first venture into the realm of GIFs and according to the Huffington Post, our guy Ry’, “has created a mesmerizing series that could force many to rethink the possibilities of animated GIFs.” Lets take a look at a few images from the series.

One of the awesome things about Ryan is he’s very much into sharing the ‘how-to’ behind his projects, and like 360 Project and Les Mills before it, Sparkler$ gets the BTS Video treatment.

There’s a few more images to the Sparkler$ series which can be seen over in the GIFs section of RyanEnnHughes.com so click on over to see more. For those of you who have Tumblr pages, Ryan has made his gifs availible for sharing on His Tumblr Page so reblog, reblog, reblog!

TGIW kids.
Images/Video © Ryan Enn Hughes

With Nikki, Vicky, and Ryan, already out on the ice and ready for the puck to drop, we at The Blog are proud to announce that the remaining two members of The Westsiders Hockey Team – directing duo Chris Gordaneer & Tom Nesbitt – are ready to hit the ice and bring home the glory.

The boys were a touch late to the warm up due to shooting their latest motion piece for Memorial Cup sponsor MasterCard; but we’re not gonna give them a hard time, and after watching this piece we’re sure you wont either.

Director(s): Chris Gordaneer & Tom Nesbitt
Client: MasterCard
Agency: MacLaren McCann
Creative Director: Sean Davison
Art Director: Natasha Wittke
Copywriter: Sarah Deziel

Mr. Gordaneer‘s first assistant Aric Guité was on set to take some BTS images for us, and we got some great ones to share with you.

Mr. Nesbitt gettin’ lost in the rafters of the MasterCard Center.

D.O.P Chris Muir doin’ work.

The boys.

Our injured hero prepares to make his return to the ice.

The team checks on their progress.

Tom Nesbitt, not just a pretty face.

Chris fine tunes some details durring the lace up.
Video © Chris Gordaneer & Tom Nesbitt
BTS Images © Aric Guité

The Montréal Fringe Festival kicks off its 22nd year this coming June and through the support of McAuslan Breweries and other sponsors, the festival will present over 700 non-mainstream performances from over 500 theatre, comedy, dance, music, and visual artists. As per usual with a festival of Fringe, all artists are selected at random through lottery, 60% of those being Québécois; toss in a disregard for performance censorship, along with a hint of dwindling student protest, and we’ve got ourselves a two week long party!

For this years promotional piece, Montréal based digital agency TP1 employed the photographically skilled Monsieur Malek to bring their poster to life. Here’s a look at Malek‘s work.

The team at TP1 put together strait goods look at the day spent with Jean at the Mainline Theater, one of the many locations playing host to this years festival. Listen close at the end of the video and you can even hear Malek speak! Enjoy.

Happy Monday kids.
Image © Malek
BTS Video © TP1

A googolplex is a really big number. It’s bigger than the internet. It can’t be written in standard form because the known universe isn’t big enough to house it. Real talk. It’s kind of like Derek Shapton‘s latest work for Castor Design, awesomely huge.

The idea? Shoot a vintage shelving unit with a device known as The GigaPan (an automated camera mount designed for very high resolution panoramic landscapes), then use that image as the basis for the Castor web site. Sounds a little out-there, but here’s Derek to clear up the reasoning behind the decision.

Our initial concept was to create an elaborate panorama of the city, stationing various Castor products in different neighbourhoods throughout the shot. This quickly proved to be a nightmarish proposition…

Then we came up with what seemed like a much simpler solution; lets shoot some shelves! The idea was that we would style them with various pertinent – and impertinent — props, and visitors would be able to zoom in and explore the shot. As a bonus, there seemed to be no precedent for using a GigaPan in a studio-based manner like this, which we found rather appealing…

Mike Blain from Taxi2 … signed on to develop and implement the idea, and I agreed to shoot it, with an eye to coming up with a seemingly matter-of-fact and straightforward image of shelves in order to make the GigaPan effect all the more surprising.

Here’s a VERY low res (in comparison to it’s parent) version of Derek’s final image.

More from Derek,

We wanted a really big shot, and the GigaPan didn’t disappoint – at 75000 by 60000 pixels (4500 megapixels / 4.5 gigapixels) the final image is, as best we can tell, the largest photo of shelves ever taken.

After all was said and done, Derek found himself with a PSD file coming out on the higher end of 12 gigs, and the Taxi2 team went to work on discovering the most effect method of displaying the beastly image. Their final product is a website that’s more fun to navigate than any furniture/design site out there; with tons little easter eggs hidden alongside the props that serve as click throughs for info on Castor’s various products and services (my favorite features the Hinterland Who’s Who theme song).

Having been already featured on APhotoEditor, PetaPixel, and even the front page of Pro Photo Daily (newsletter), the project is gearing itself up for it’s biggest showing yet, Cannes. That’s right, Mike and the team from Taxi2 have submitted the site to a number of categories to the upcoming creative communications award show. You can take a look at their accompanying video, which I found reminiscent of the MR. DNA scene from Jurassic Park (awesome), HERE.

We shall keep you updated on how things progress for Derek’s GigaShelf image, but for now here’s a look at how the day was on set with the GigaPan.

For more info on the shoot you can pay Planet Shapton a visit, otherwise go hit up Castor’s website and play around with the GigaShelf.
Image & Video © Derek Shapton

As the looming heat of summer approches, I (having been raised next to the Atlantic Ocean) become increasingly aware that my days of staying dry are numbered. The eastern summers of my youth lacked the debilitating humidity that I now struggle to accept as a part of my daily life here in Toronto, leaving me wishing I had anhidrosis instead of a sweat rag.

Fortunately for those of you like me, who’s clothes are the true victim of the summer sweats, detergent maker Sunlight has the cure for your body water blues, and our gal Nikki O got the call to save us from the sweat.

I had a great 2 day shoot with Julie Nikolic and co from Taxi. Ended up with some great stuff. Many thanks to all those involved, now let’s look at the wears.

Photographer: Nikki Ormerod
Client: Sunlight
Agency: Taxi
AD: Julie Nikolic
Stylist: Shea Hurley
Hair/Make-Up: Jukka Suutari
Assistants: Thomas Dagg, Kirsten White, & Jason Mortlock

Special shout outs to assistant Kirsten White who, while on set, got hit in the face with a table while unloading the truck, but kept truckin’ on like the trooper she is. Good work lady.

Images © Nikki Ormerod
Black Eye © Kirsten White

Take a walk down our hall of fame.

Ted Danson © Chris Gordaneer

Judd Hirsch © Derek Shapton

Snoop Dogg © Matt Barnes

Sam Worthington © Ryan Enn Hughes

Donnie Wahlberg & Stephen Root © Tom Feiler

Terrence Howard © Chris Gordaneer

Sofia Coppola © Derek Shapton

Bradley Cooper © Matt Barnes

Martin Sheen © Ryan Enn Hughes

Chris Bosh © Chris Gordaneer

Sam Roberts © Derek Shapton

David Cronenberg © Matt Barnes

Drew Barrymore © Ryan Enn Hughes

Anne Heche & Dermot Mulroney © Derek Shapton

Alexisonfire © Matt Barnes

Bedouin Soundclash © Matt Barnes

Michael Moore © Ryan Enn Hughes

Steve Nash © Derek Shapton

Sean Desmond © Matt Barnes

Chromeo © Matt Barnes

David Spade © Derek Shapton

Robert Herjavec © Matt Barnes

Gael García Bernal © Derek Shapton

Lily Allen & The Streets © Matt Barnes

Woody Harrelson © Derek Shapton

John Legend | Drake, & Will.I.Am © Matt Barnes

Scarlett Johansson © Derek Shapton

TGIW
xo

Featured in The New York Times, and awarded First Place for Editorial Portraits in PDN Faces, Russell Monk‘s Casa Portraits, makes its’ grand debut this evening at ARTA Gallery. The work is a collection of natural light portraits shot in Russell’s home studio, and feature a broad spectrum of subjects from his daily life in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

We have shown a handful of his Casa portraits in the past, and I highly encourage clicking back to read Mr. Monk’s stories that accompany his images. The work speaks for itself, while Russell’s tales leave me wondering why I still live above the Rio Grande.

A word from Russell,

Over the last couple of years I have been making “daylight’ portraits of my neighbours and people who pass through my life – in the courtyard of my house that is on the outskirts of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico.

My subjects were always kind and generous, allowing me to fit them into my visions of who I thought they were and the mystery that is Mexico – a mysteriousness that to me seems to seep from the country, it’s past, and the very pores of it’s people.

The opening reception kicks off tonight starting at 6pm (until 10pm), with the show running until Friday night (May 11th), so for those with the time don’t miss what is surely one of the MUST SEE events happening this week in Toronto. For those of you who are too far from 14 Distillery Lane to see the prints in person, you can get a taste of the work over on Russell’s website. Hope to see yas there.
All Images © Russell Monk

Since 2006, Quebec media group Infopresse Publishing, with support from both the Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies (AAPQ) and Quebecor, have been hosting the competition CRÉA, which celebrates the best of creative advertising within Quebec. The award show takes place at the end of March and brings over 1,500 individuals from the advertising world under one roof to schmooze and enjoy themselves, all while getting a chance to review the best works of the year.

The categories awarded at CRÉA run the typical gauntlet, TV to Print and everything in-between; that is until their final award(s) of the evening which are given to specific “Artisans”, or individuals who excelled in their specific fields. Typically only one or two grand prizes are given out in the Artisan category and this year our very own Jean Malek was celebrated as Photographer of the year.

I asked Malek about his big night,

I was awarded for my Federation of Medical Practitioners of Québec campaign! It is a great honor for me to have been selected as one of CRÉA’s Artists of the Year, so a huge thanks to everyone at Infopresse and to the team at BCP who worked with me on the campaign. Overall the night was a great success and I couldn’t have been more excited or proud!

Here’s a look at the awarded image, followed by the juror note regarding their decision.

The quality of photography adds an emotional touch to the campaign. It thus provides another dimension to the story, according to the jury.

HUGE congrats to Malek on his achievement!
Image © Malek

Pop quiz hotshot! What do the magazines: Bakers Journal, Maclean’s, and What’s Up Yukon, have in common? Well in addition to being Canadian based reads, they and many other leading magazines are members of the national trade association known as Magazines Canada. Offering services ranging from advertising to circulation marketing, Magazines Canada’s got it covered for titles from Applied Arts to Zoomer.

When it came for the team over at Doug & Serge to put together a print ad for the association last fall, they called in our man Tyler Gray to work some photo magic, and ol’ Tyler Copperfield did not disappoint.

Photographer: Tyler Gray
Client: Magazines Canada
Agency: Doug & Serge
Art Director: Mike Jones
Creative Director(s): Ian Schwey & Jason Buback
Assistant: Aric Guite

A quick word from Tyler before we get to a short and sweet look at the day on set.

This was a job where Mike and I both knew exactly what we wanted, but because the room specs were insanely specific for this to work properly, we mulled over numerous locations and ultimately decided to build the set to spec. It worked out perfectly.

Image/Video © Tyler Gray