The Priceless Value of a Photograph

Here is something that we have all heard before in some form or another, but I feel is important to be reminded of on a regular basis.

I was recently reminded by a good friend’s post on Facebook regarding his grandmother, about how priceless a photograph is.  He posted a series of photographs from when his grandmother was younger.  As I looked through the images I thought to myself how many memories would be completely forgotten if people had not taken pictures.

The first photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce titled “View from the Window at Le Gras”. Since then things have changed, technology has advanced and millions and millions of pictures have been taken.  There are many moments in history that were captured in photographs.  Families all over the world clicked away and took pictures of themselves, their children and families as they grew and experienced life.  Photojournalists took pictures of famous events, politicians, wars, celebrities, celebrations, sports, and local news events.  Without those pictures the only historical records we would have are what people wrote.  Obviously you can’t always trust what people write and the visual reference of a photograph makes a big difference… that is until the invention of Adobe Photoshop. 

Motivated to write this post, I decided to go through some of my own old photographs.  I was just going to grab one or two old shots to stick in this post and the coolest thing happened.  My two young boys (5 and 6) came in to see what I was doing.  They started looking at the old pictures with me and it was really cute.  My oldest son, Tony, saw a picture of me when I had long hair, glasses and a moustache and he said “who is that?”  I laughed and said it was daddy when I was younger.  He gave me a strange look and said “you look like a bad Elvis!”.  My wife and I laughed so hard we were crying.

I hope you all go out and take lots and lots of pictures.  They don’t necessarily have to be good pictures, but capture those moments, those places, those people.  It is so important for the future, for yourself and for your family and those that follow years and years down the road.

Technorati Tags: Artistic Expression,Blogging,Calgary,Creativity,Photography

Model shoot at Rat’s Nest Cave in Canmore, Alberta

This past Sunday (June 29th), I had the most amazing experience as a photographer.  My friend Paul Spenard organized a model portfolio shoot inside a real cave called “Rat’s Nest Cave” in Canmore, Alberta.  The brave and talented model that Paul managed to convince was the lovely Tabitha Alice, and she was amazing.

Just to set the scene, you arrive in Canmore and meet with the folks from Canmore Caverns who are the only group that literally have the keys and the permission to take people inside the cave.  There is a huge steel grate covering the only entrance into the cave and it is locked behind you as you enter to prevent people from coming in behind you.  They are very strict about safety and you feel very comfortable under their care.

You follow the guide in your vehicle as they drive up to the cave site, which is about a 20 minute hike up a mountain.  Some of the most beautiful scenery too which made the long hike carrying all my heavy camera gear a little bit more bearable.

When you arrive at the cave site, you suit up in coveralls, knee pads, safety harness, and a helmet.  Then you are briefed on what you are about to endure.  Apparently many people chicken out at this point, but the three of us were eager to get started.   Once inside the grate, the best way to describe the next few minutes is that you do not want to be there if your claustrophobic!   I had to pass my camera bag down through the passage that was just a bit larger than my body as I made my way down.  There are a lot of animal bones inside the cave that are moved around by the rats (yes, I said rats) as they make their nests (hence the name of the cave).  We did not see any rats while we were there, but there was the odd patch of rat droppings that were actually quite a bit larger than I expected.  I must say, it was cool to have Paul with us as he is an archeologist and was explaining what each bone was and from which animal it came from.  

We continued down through the cave headed for an open cavern called “The Grotto”.  This was supposed to be the most spectacular area of the cave and it did not disappoint.  There were formations nearly everywhere including these crystal looking things on the ceiling that look like soda straws.  Other formations look like pigs ears and bacon, which are apparently their names, so not too hard to remember.

This was, by far, the most difficult lighting situation I have ever been in.  Basically we were in the darkest place on earth.  Just for fun our guide, Adam Walker, told to turn off our lights to which we basically saw NOTHING.  He said to go ahead and close our eyes to see if there was a difference, and there wasn’t.  So if you are a photographer and you have experience working in low light situations, I challenge you to get a good shot here!!!  Especially when you are limited to what your allowed to bring in (basically two small bags per group).  I brought a Nikon SB800 and a Nikon SB900 plus a few LED lights to just give us a bit of ambient to work with.  To make the situation worse, the place had about 100% humidity and a very very very fine dust that gets into everything.  I dared NOT change lenses, so I just went with what was on my camera (Nikon D300 with an 18-70mm DX lens).

Tabitha had a couple different outfits to work with.  The first one was a nice white and pink dress that I think worked well.  The second outfit was a custom made “cave girl” animal skin.  Oh, did I mention the temperature in the damp dark cave was 4 degrees Celsius?  Yes, Tabitha is an amazing girl.  She was determined to get the shots even though she was standing in a very cold, dark cave in freezing cold water with bare feet and a barely there outfit. 

Regardless I think we got some amazing shots considering what we had to work with in those conditions.  All the LED lights I brought along with the lights on our helmets came in really handy when Tabitha wanted to do a shot that made her look like a ghost.  We lit the place up with every light we had (excluding the flashes) and then with a 15 second shutter I had Tabitha stand perfectly still and then after a few seconds run out of the way to finish the exposure.  I think the shot turned out exactly like she envisioned and it is quite cool.

After we got to the point where Tabitha was completely freezing and could not take it any longer (what a trooper), we packed up and headed back out.  Half-way out Adam asked if we wanted to attempt “The Test”.  Not wanting to be a chicken and miss an unforgettable experience we all agreed.  This test involved shuffling along through an opening for about 12-15 feet that was barely large enough for our body to fit through.  You had to have one arm ahead of you and one behind you and you couldn’t really lift your head to see where you were going.  Eventually after a lot of grunting and squeezing it opened up into a vertical fissure that you could stand up in, but not much else.  Of course, that wasn’t bad enough, but now you had to go back out the same way you came in.  We all made it and gave each other high fives, proud of our accomplishment.  By then Tabitha was starting to thaw out a bit, so the hard work was good to get her blood flowing.

By the time we got back up to the mouth of the cave and climbed out we were all completed exhausted and sweating like crazy.  It was a beautiful sunny warm day, and we had to hike all the way back down to the vehicles.  Thankfully I had a cooler with some water on ice in the back of my truck.  That was the best water I have ever had in my entire life.

All in all it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a second.  I think next time though, I would like to leave most of my gear behind and just enjoy the adventure without having to do a photo shoot.  The cave is extremely large with numerous passages that you can explore if your not hauling a lot of gear with you.  There are areas that you can rappel down and a long tube called “The Laundry Shute” that sound like it would be a challenge.  If your not claustrophobic and you are looking for an incredible adventure I recommend you contact:

Canmore Caverns (403) 678-8819 or 1-877-317-1178

Technorati Tags: cave,model,photography,canmore,alberta,rat's nest cave,aduro photography

Mac & Rob : The RAW Files

A photographer friend of mine (Rob Caleffi), and coincidentally the guy that got me into shooting artistic nudes, and his friend (Mac Swift) have been working over the past two years on a very creative project called "The RAW Files".

For starters, both Rob and Mac are amazing photographers. Photographers in general are visual artists, and the good ones have a burning inside their souls that forces them to express themselves. It is not good enough to be a great wedding or portrait photographer, the freedom of expression is too confined that way. Sure you can be creative and original, but you can only go so far because you are still working for the client. True artistic expression has no boundaries, and it can lead to some amazing creativity.

Rob and Mac have found a way to express their creativity by taking one model each and shooting their model over a period of one year at all sorts of different locations. The best part of this project is that the photographers and the models all blog about their experiences. It is a fascinating project and you will find yourself captivated by the words and the images that are presented. I encourage you to have an open mind and visit The RAW Files.