One lazy afternoon in Southampton, Charlotte and I were contemplating whether we should stroll in to Arman’s Cafe in town for a delicious dessert, hit the beach or chill in front of the Hi Def watching the Discovery Channel. Oh the choices! We struggled for a bit but considering we were just at Arman’s for breakfast we thought it might be wise to take in some Hi Def nature. As we flexed our relaxation muscles we heard a familiar voice…"Helloooo, any one home?" Yes it was Charlotte’s Dad, home for lunch. I asked Larry how work was going and he said this time of year is great for real estate in this beautiful little beach town. It’s so funny, you drive all over town and you see his name every where you turn!!

Charlotte had thought that it might be nice to update Larry’s photo a little to portray his modern image. Charlotte’s Dad was game so I grabbed the 85 mm f1.2 lens as Charlotte chose a few suit jackets for Larry. I’ve gotta say, really love this lens, it’s so perfect for portraits and head shots, it’s really a must for any pro.

It turns out that Larry is a natural model…who knew…and we got the shots we needed in about 10 minutes. We updated his photo on his site for him right away and after lunch Larry headed back to the office. It wasn’t long after that we were getting calls for more shoots The girls in the office wanted theirs done too! Charlotte and I were happy to oblige and made appointments with Christy Sylver and Cara Turcotte. Along with Larry, these two ladies have taken the Southampton Real Estate industry by storm.

I’ve worked along side Realtor’s for many years and actually started my career working for a Real Estate magazine as Art Director. This allowed me to shoot over 200 Realtor head shots! I think I’ve developed a eye for this sorta thing by now and really love the reaction I get when the client sees the end result! In Real Estate your image is everything and if your photo is out of date it just doesn’t look the professional. I’m really glad we had the chance to photograph the three of them. They have great personality and they were a real pleasure to work with! Thanks again guys and see you at the beach!

We love doing corporate photography as well so if you’re a Realtor in the Toronto area contact us if you’d like a shoot!!

Working with some of Toronto’s most successful business people over the past 4 years has allowed me to create some really dramatic images. This week I photographed two young entrepreneurs - Sunil & Ravinder Tulsiani, of Tulsiani Investments. Spending just a few hours with these guys, I already learned a lot about them and their very posative, open approach to business and community life.

I’m pleased to share several of the images captured during our shoot.

Today I had to opportunity to photography Melissa who’s a real estate agent in Toronto. She has had a really tough week, tearing a ligament in her knee and having her car stolen. Needless to say, she has had a couple of bad nights of sleep. However, the magazine was on a tight deadline and asked us to proceed with the photo shoot today.

The cover we selected together is very striking. To further improve the resulting image, we did some retouching of the image in PhotoShop. You can see the evolution in the following 4 images.

The original photograph has only colour correction done

Next we clean up stray hairs and remov minor details like power switches.

Now we proceed to reduce minor facial blemishes, whiten eyes and reduce the size of one of the eyes slightly.

Finally, the skin has a porcelain effect applied and the colour is given a “pop”. We soften the background and sharpen selectively around the eyes and mouth.

Valois! A gorgeous cover photo ready for publication.

UPDATE : We received the printed magazine today in the mail and are very proud of the result.

For several years now, I have been shooting commercially for Profiles of Success magazine. When I initially arrived in Canada I was fortunate to be sponsored to stay in Canada, working for this publication. Here are a few recent covers I’ve shot for the magazine. I always enjoy working with these Successful business people throughout the GTA and contantly striving for highly creative results.

Enjoy…

This week I did a shoot of a team from the HomeLife real estate office in Cabbagetown (Toronto). We did the shoot in a great home right in the downtown core…. got some great shots that I’d like to share with you.