Portraits - North Bay Photography

I do a lot of shooting at all kinds of events, and in various industrial settings, which I love, but because of the type of shots I'm hired to take, it's not very often that I get a photo that I'd call a nice portrait. A good portrait isn't a like a smiley corporate headshot, but more of a personal look at someone. A photo that gives a little insight on a person, and ideally makes you feel the mood and emotion on their face.

In the new year, I'm definitely looking forward to more of the type of work I've been doing in the past, and continuing to get better at it... but I also want to finally take time on a regular basis to get interesting people in front of the camera for some nice portraits. I'll post updates when I make any progress on that.

Until then, here are a few shots I've taken in the last little while that I'm pretty happy with (click on the images for a better look)...

My 2011 at a Glance- North Bay Photography and Video

Today I quickly scanned through my year in pictures, and if I talked about each of the shoots I had, this post would go on and on. Instead, I thought I'd just pick a few here and there and put together a random little collage of a few of the photos I was asked to take in 2011... Click on the image to get a closer look!

MUSIC VIDEO... Faye Blais "The Ways I Love You" - North Bay Cinematography

The first time I was introduced to Faye Blais and her music was at the Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards in 2010.  I watched the musical showcase the night before the awards, and she completely stood out from the rest of the performers (in a good way). Right away, I knew I'd want to work with her eventually, in some way.

The next night, at the awards after party (I had just accepted the award for Best Cinematographer, and she had won her award for Best Vocal Performance), we chatted a bit about how we should work on something together sometime, but with all kinds of work, and Faye's world travels, it didn't go any further than that.

Fast forward to a few years later, and we actually found a time that Faye was available in Sudbury, and I was also free for the day.  We talked a bit, agreed to shoot a music video, and started tossing around a few ideas... Things that would be possible to shoot in a day.

We started shooting, with a rough idea of what we were after, and as the day progressed, the four of us - myself, Faye, Kelly and Andrew (the star couple) ironed out the story in the video.

With everyone's schedules, arriving/leaving at different times, etc... we didn't have a whole lot of time to wrap everything up, so we had to be efficient.  At the end of it all, we spent about six hours, shooting in a few different locations.  I could have spent many more hours, looking at different angles, and shooting different styles, but for how quick we had to work, I'm really happy with the outcome.

Getting this done last minute, on the fly was pretty much the only way it was ever going to happen, so it's great that we were actually able to make it work.

Below is a screen capture, followed by the music video "The Ways I Love You"... Press the Play button and watch it!!!

You can also click on the HD button on the video to see it in High Definition, Click on the arrows symbol to view it full screen (best with HD mode clicked on), or Click on the Vimeo logo to view the video larger on that site.

Hope you enjoy it!

Check out "Small Town Girl"! - North Bay Video

I've talked a few times before about our "Small Town Girl" music video which was in the works over the summer, and I thought it might be time to post the finished product.

We wrapped shooting on the video a while back, and the final edit was done shortly after, but since Pam was going to be having a big show at the end of this month, it seemed like that would be a good time to give the video its official premiere. The show took place on Saturday, and everyone had a great time... aside from kind of faking it for the video,  this was the first time I actually had the chance to see Pam perform, so it was nice to sit back and enjoy the show (without a camera in my face). 

I've had the video posted on my website, which a few people might have seen, but I thought I'd wait until after Pam's show to start posting this all over the place.  We had a great time working on this, and I'm happy to share it with everyone. If you haven't already seen it (and even if you have, hah), please take a few minutes to watch it, and pass it along! Here it is, Pam Millar &  "Small Town Girl" ... next step, CMT! 

Go WILD! - North Bay Photography

Not too long ago, I went out and took pictures of a Nipissing Wild football game, and had a great time doing it.  There's a level of excitement with sports photography (especially contact sports) that you just don't get with other types of photo shoots. You have no idea what's going to happen, the tension is high, everyone is emotional, bodies are twisted and flying all over the place... it's great!

The best you can do is hope you're in a good spot to capture the action, and when something interesting does happen, make sure you don't miss the shot.

At this game, the Wild were playing Toronto's Junior Argos. I spent the first half of the match taking shots from the visitors' side, right next to their bench, listening to their insults about small town folk as they took a convincing lead on the Wild.

My time in the second half was spent on the other side with the home team, and it was great to be near them as they encouraged each other and completely took over the game. The wild came back and ended up winning 37-27. Things got pretty intense and I'm happy that I was able to capture a whole bunch of great action shots, and some nice emotional snapshots too.

Here's a look at a few of my photos from the game...

Attending NOMFA, and more! - North Bay Music Video

The Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards & Conference took place this past weekend, and I had such a great time! I was nominated for Best Cinematographer again (won last year), and even though this year's award went to Nano Debassige and not yours truly, I'm so happy to have been a part of it all. 

Last year was my first time attending the event, and I was only able to make it there in time to take in a few panels, and quickly get ready for the awards ceremony. This year, I headed to Sudbury on Thursday, and really had the chance to get to know a lot of people. A few I had met last year, like Ryan La Via (who was a winner this year, yay!) & Faye Blais, and many I had never met, like Nano, Lee Chambers, Curtis Jensen, and many more.  They were all such nice people, and I look forward to our paths crossing again.

I also got the chance to spend time with Dennis Landry and some of the folks at MFM who put this all together, and they were all so great. It's quite a weekend they put on for us, and they do a lot for the film industry in the north. We really are quite lucky to have them around, so It was nice to spend time with them as regular people, and not just the organizers of the event.

Coming back from a weekend filled with so many creative and talented people, I'm feeling pretty inspired to get rolling on so many projects.  For starters, It's time for me to start editing "Missing" which we recently got in the can, and I'm looking forward to our next round of shooting on a music video with singer Pam Millar. With those projects, and many more on the horizon, 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty productive year. Now I just have to make sure to leave some time in there for my regular business too!

I'll talk more about the music video project and the awesome people involved pretty soon. Until then, here are a few screenshots of the first day of shooting with Pam... 

New Short... "MISSING" - North Bay Cinematography

OK, I need to take a quick time-out in this crazy day to post something about a new short we've got in the works.  I can't really say much about it because it is really going to be quite short, so any explanation would probably describe the entire thing, but I figured I'd put up a few screen captures.  With an afternoon of shooting behind us, I'm pretty excited about how this one's looking.  We just have an other hour or two to spend whenever we can get together again, and then it'll be on to editing, and on to planning the next film. I'll go into that one (which will be a longer project) some other time.  One film at a time.

Here are the screens...

FACES - North Bay Photography

I have fun taking pictures and video of just about everything, and I've especially enjoyed aerial work, and food photography I've done over the past few years. 

I have to say though, there's nothing that's quite as rewarding as taking shots of people. When your subject is a person, anything can happen. You can control the setting and lighting all you want, but if the person you're taking pictures of is insecure, not comfortable in front of the camera, or even worse very unhappy about having to have their picture taken, it can be a pretty big challenge to get good results.  

People can be pretty unpredictable, and that lack of control keeps things interesting. If all goes well, you get nice shots that make the person look great. If it goes really well and you have a little luck, you get a few shots that give you a closer look at a person, almost like a little sneak peek at their soul. That's what I'm after, and that's what has made me decide to start this new project.

FACES

I'd like to put together a collection of portraits, a book of faces, or maybe even a wall of faces. I guess it all depends how many people want to take part. I don't just want to get a group of clean, corporate looking head shots, but rather a bunch of portraits showing the real personal side of people.  An old mechanic covered in grease, an adrenaline junkie about to jump out of a plane, a widower talking about his lost love, a baker working in the kitchen, a burn victim showing her old scars, a couch potato sitting in front of the tv with chip crumbs on his face...  You get the idea. There isn't anything specific I'm looking for, just an honest look at all types of people, men and women, all ages 18 and up.

I don't have a whole lot of free time, so I have no idea how long this will take, or when I'll consider the project complete (if ever).  but I just thought I'd get the ball rolling.  

If you'd be interested in taking part in this project and being one of my faces, please click here to send me an email at faces@patrickgilbert.com, and tell me a little bit about yourself, just so I can have an idea of who you are and what makes you tick. This will help me with planning some shots. 

I'm really hoping to get a LOT of people involved in this, so please pass this along to anyone you can think of.  I can't pay anyone to take part, but at the very least, you will get a cool free picture out of it! 

I'm looking forward to getting this started! Here's a little look at a few faces I've had in front of my camera in the past (shots not a part of this new project)...

Not a Complete Waste - North Bay Photography

A little more than a year ago, I posted something about a bad day I was having. You can read that post here to refresh your memory.

I thought about that today for a few reasons...

1) I was editing some shots I took at the ski hill a few days ago (shots I wasn't able to get the miserable day of that post a year ago)

2) this also happened to be one of those days where things just aren't going well, except for the part about people pointing and laughing at me. Well, actually I'm sure that happened today too, just not to my face. hah.

So, as the day is close to being over, I thought I'd just wrap it up with one of the new ski hill shots. This wasn't the type of photo I went there to capture, though I did get a lot of what I needed, but it just happens to be one of the shots I like best. I guess the day wasn't a complete waste...

It's Jake Time Again! North Bay Photography

A little while back, I was happy to get the chance to take some more pictures of my buddy Jake Lacourse, who I've posted about before. 

The shots were for an ad, welcoming Jake back to Clarion Resort Pinewood Park, where he had started his career in hospitality years earlier. With him working there as the Director of Sales and Marketing, it will be interesting to see how the resort will change over the next few years.

I always have a good time taking pictures, and this was definitely no exception. It was hard to stop laughing long enough to snap some shots, but in the end everything worked out great, and we got what we needed. With life, kids, business, etc... it's hard to make time for socializing, so it's nice to sometimes be able to work, and catch up with an old friend at the same time. OK, maybe we're not all that old, but it does feel like it sometimes.

Here are a few of the shots, and the little ad I whipped up for the Nugget...

A Tasty Trio - North Bay Food Photography

I figured I'd start the day with a few pictures of some little open faced sandwiches I made. I'm still trying to think of some new foods I can make to take shots of, and anytime I'm in a store like winners, I take a quick look around to see if there are interesting dishes or anything else I could use. Since I haven't really found anything different yet, I thought a little group of sandwiches might look tasty.

I think from here I'll move on to some colourful fruit or desserts. even though I don't really eat sweets, they do look nice. I'll see what I can come up with, but for now, here's the tasty trio...

Eyewhere - North Bay Photography & Web

Just recently, I wrapped up a website for a new and unique company in town, Eyewhere Mobile Optical. 

The company was started by Paul Kilfoyl, a licensed optician who decided to offer on location optical service. Rather than traveling to an optician's office to pick out frames, lenses, or to have your eyewear fixed, you can now call Paul and he'll come to you, fully equipped to meet your needs.

This service is especially useful for places like retirement homes where residents might not have easy access to transportation, or industrial facilities where several employees need to be equipped with prescription safety glasses.

I hadn't worked on this type of project before, so I was happy to be involved.  Paul's big focus with this company is excellent customer service. Building long lasting relationships with his clients is top priority, so it just made sense for his face to be right there when people visit his website. So, once I had the design of the site taken care of, it was time to get Paul's mug in front of the Canon.

As with the Judy shoot, we wanted to keep this one pretty simple, so Paul came over to my place, and with a few softboxes, the shot was taken in front of a bare wall in my office downstairs. Actually, the room was pretty much empty back then, not quite an office yet, and it has barely changed since. Maybe someday.

Here's one of the photos I took, as well as a look at the Eyewhere website design...

A little teaser...The House - North Bay Cinematography

Well, for those who might not have heard, The Lake won for Best Short at Film North International Film Festival last weekend.  That was pretty good news, and a nice way to end things with The Lake's festival run. I've posted more details about this film a few times before, but the last thing I'll say about it is a big thanks to Kevin Hoffman who did the editing, and submitted the short to a bunch of festivals a while back. If that hadn't happened, nobody would have heard of it, or heard of me for that matter.

Now that The Lake has run its cycle, it's time to start pushing the next project: The House.

The House is a short film I worked on earlier this summer, and it's just now starting to get submitted to festivals. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it does well over the next year or so. You can do the same if you'd like, but people might look at you and think you're a bit odd. I'm seeing a bit of a trend with the titles of the some projects I've worked on so far: The Gloaming. The Lake. The House. what's next? The Backyard, The Car, The Sky, The, The etc... Time to mix it up a little!

As usual, we had a pretty small group working on this short, and we actually shot most of it in a single day. Really we shot the whole short in one day, but there were a few things we weren't completely happy with, so we spent a few hours reshooting a scene a few days later.

Starring in the film are Jim & Claire Calarco, Danielle Baker, Abigail Calarco, and Lewis Hodgson.

Jim wrote, produced and directed the piece, I worked on cinematography and Kevin Hoffman handled art direction, sound, as well as the big task of editing the whole thing together. Heather Cairns-Hodgson lent her hand to wardrobe, as well as helping with just about anything we needed throughout the day (including holding an umbrella over me for a while so my camera wouldn't get soaked... Thank you!). And of course thank you to Nicole who puts up with me leaving for a day to get a shoot done.

I can't really say much more about it, but you can watch a little teaser of it below the poster.
Have a good weekend...

The Lake showing at Cinefest - North Bay Cinematography

Well, The Lake (one of our short films) is showing at Cinefest International Filmf Festival today. This is pretty cool, unfortunately I don't think anyone who was involved with the film will actually be there for the experience.  Most of the cast and crew have regular jobs they couldn't just duck out of to go to a festival, which is too bad.

In my case, it's pretty much the same. I have quite a full month with a lot of different contracts on the go, from websites to video work and photography. I just can't take another day away from the computer right now. It's a little disappointing, but in the end paying the bills and hopefully keeping the family fed for a while happens to be quite a bit heavier on the priority scale.

The lake will actually also be showing at Film North - 2010 Huntsville International Film Festival this weekend.  I'll be out in the wild doing a full day of shooting for the tourism industry, so I'll have to miss this festival too. On the plus side, writer and partner in crime Michael Humble will be making it to the event, and I'm sure he'll have a blast.

This weekend will pretty much mark the end of The Lake's festival shelf life. It has been around for a little while, and played here and there over the past year. One of the highlights was the Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards where a certain Patrick Gilbert (yay me!) and Ed Regan won for Best Cinematography. now it's time to move on and start pushing the next one.

We have had a pretty good run with The Lake, and I look forward to continued success with our recent, and future projects.

If you haven't seen it yet, why don't you take a few minutes to watch The Lake...

Helicopters Canada Video - North Bay Videography

I have posted far less than I would have liked over the past few months, and there are quite a few things I've been meaning to talk about which I'll need to catch up on soon.  The main reason I've been so tied up is the time I've spent working on a corporate video for Helicopters Canada. I talked a bit about this in one of my past posts entitled "I Can Fly!"

Helicopters Canada is a flight training and charter company located here in North Bay Ontario. They've been a client of mine for a few years now, so it was great to get the chance to shoot this video for them. Of course there were some obstacles to overcome (shy people, scheduling, rainy days, etc...), but in the end everything came together just fine.

I've spent far too much time on this to want to talk about it anymore... What more could I say anyway? Just get comfortable and watch the video! It's pretty small in this window, so you might want to kick it into full screen HD mode.

Come back soon to hear about a new and exciting project I have in mind, as well as a bunch of other things I've been meaning to babble on about.

Come freeze in my shower? - North Bay Photography

Not too long ago, I posted a few shots I took of Scott in my shower. These photos were the result of a little test I did, in preparation for an actual shoot that would take place the following week. Having never taken pictures of someone in the shower (It's not something that people ask for a lot), I wanted to play a little and make sure everything would work out perfectly.

Well, that actual shoot took place earlier this week, and it went great. I'm so surprised that anyone was even interested in doing this. "Hey, do you want to come into a stranger's house and freeze in the shower while he takes pictures?". Sounds appealing right? Well, it was appealing enough I guess, and everything went as planned. I'm happy the girls were brave enough to hop in the shower for this, and I'm really pleased with the end result.

You'll be seeing these in the newspaper soon, and I'll talk some more about it at some point, and maybe post more shots from the collection as time goes on. I really had a lot of fun with this, and it has raised my interest in a little project I already had in mind. That's something else I'll go into more detail about soon.

OK, I'm all over the place now, here are a few shots. Till next time!

Food! Food! And More Food! - North Bay Food Photography

I'm falling behind on posts again! Time to get back at it, here goes...

Earlier this week, we had the chance to go to Jake the Grand Master's house, where we were treated to great hospitality, and a sampling of chef Glenn Sheridan's menu.  Glenn will be opening a restaurant (Le Bon Marché) in North Bay soon, so this was a great opportunity to get a little taste of what's to come, and of course to get a few pictures of the dishes in the process.

I've known Jake for ages, so it was nice to finally get our families together for a little visit, even though I was a little distracted with the photography, and getting the shots just right. I tend to get a little crazy when I'm taking pictures. I can keep shooting for hours, and take hundreds of "the exact same shot" until I get exactly the one I want. It doesn't bother me at all, but I guess it gets annoying for those around me. hah.

In the end, the food was great, and I think the shots worked out well too! Have a look at a few of them... 

Hi Everybuggy! - North Bay Nature Photography

I had to dig up a few insect photos for something recently, and as I was scanning through all my files, I started noticing that I had quite a few bug shots in there over the years. I don't have any special interest in the pests, but I have always been a fan of macro photography, and I guess bugs are just an easy subject. They're pretty interesting to look at close-up, and they're generally slow enough that you can get a good shot before they flee.

One of the shots I came across was of a praying mantis. It was pretty odd, because we found it just outside our house. I'm pretty sure those things aren't running wild around here, so I guess a neighbor nearby must have had it as a pet and it got away or something. Anyway, finding a mantis in our yard was weird, but even more strange was that the insect was brown, and not the usual bright green.

I don't know if it was dried out and dying, and that's why it lost its colour, but I put it on a big plant we had on our porch, and the next day, it was gone. I guess it either made its way elsewhere, or it became a midnight snack for some other critter.

Here's the shot of the mantis, as well as a few other bug shots I took a while back. These were all shot on a variety of ultra compact cameras I had years ago, before I took the leap to my first DSLR. Have a macro look!...

33 Cent Pile of Garbage - North Bay Food Photography

So I was making Mr. Noodles for lunch the other day, and I started thinking about the crap I eat all the time. When I started this blog, it was pretty much about food every day, and I think I actually ate much better back then. Not because I wanted to necessarily, but because I wanted the food to look good for pictures, and it turns out healthy food is nice and colourful. 

Anyway, with my Mr. Noodles ready, I decided to quickly put a few things together on the plate to try to make this lunch a little more interesting than a 33 cent pile of garbage.

This is what I ended up with, aside from a belly that was way too full in the end...

A Little Monologue - North Bay Cinematography

This summer should be a pretty productive one when it comes to shorts... Mike and I have a number of little films planned, which will come together nicely if we can get our butts in gear and make it happen. We have enough stuff to shoot to keep us busy for a while, so we need to get to it soon.

Aside from that, I'll be shooting a piece next weekend with Kevin Hoffman and Jim Calarco (among others). Hopefully the weather cooperates, all goes well, and we'll end up with an interesting, nice looking short. There are a few other possible projects on the horizon, but nothing solid enough for me to talk about at this point.

Before getting started with the film, Jim needed to get a quick demo video together to send off to someone. It was a good opportunity to test out a few things with equipment and editing, and in the end I think it turned out to be a pretty good little clip.

Have a look! (Clip running time: 2 minutes, 6 seconds)