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2018...the year the blog comes back...

Last year we took a little break from blogging. We had a new member join the GBP team (our daughter Mabel) and so paired down a little bit on some things to get her situated in her new job as future assistant for the company. 

But  now that we're all back in the full swing, we decided it was time to dust off the old Blog sharing skills and get back into it, so with that, thought we'd jump in by sharing one of our latest projects here in 2018!

We recently did some portraits for our friends who are starting up their new production company, Outpost 31. These guys are pros in the film industry, now combining their talents under one roof and so were looking for some new imagery for their website launch! 

Keep your eyes out for projects coming your way from Outpost 31...

 

 

 

 

Dogs for a Cause...

As many of you know, we put on a special fundraiser this weekend to help raise some funds for a friend of ours who recently lost her home and many of her beloved pets in a house fire.

Although totally relieved she, her husband and their daughter weren't home at the time and therefore were safe, we were heartbroken for them to find out that they lost so many of their pets in the incident. 

This is the family we actually got Bill Murray from, so we know all too well how much they loved those animals, and how much of an integral part of the family they were. SO, the only thing we could think to do was try to raise money to help them rebuild, and we thought what better way, than to celebrate the crazy, hyper, furry, sometimes frustrating, but always loving little creatures well call our pets through a portrait day.

And as always, Yukon, you didn't disappoint. Within 2 hours of posting about the event online, we were filled solid-I didn't even get the chance to post the actual schedule online we had so many requests!

We are SUPER excited to announce, that after a crazy day of laughs, drool, sniffing and one accident on the floor, we raised $ 1400 for a family in need.

HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to participate-it was so much fun.  And another huge thank you to our friend Lyndsey, who helped out throughout the day, and as you'll notice, her baby Gus who helped us do a light test too...(He also fit into the drool category so we thought he should make it into the gallery).

Drools and fur everywhere...the perfect Saturday.


PS: The 'Portrait Sharing Project" Part 2...

Well after a crazy few weeks of travelling for work, we are back in the studio doing some editing on this rainy day...so we thought while we're at it, we should put out another edition of our Portrait Sharing Project!

This week, we want to focus on "Reflections". We don't mean you have to get deep and find a photo you took that analyzes life...we straight up mean, show us your photos that you've taken that have used reflections in cool/artistic way! (And of course, if it happens to also connect with pondering the meaning of life we're keen to hear about it!) 

Firstly, we decided to share this shot we took of our friend Stratis of Headless Owl Records.  Originally, we had been asked to do a portrait of him for a local magazine, but we wanted to do something a bit different and not just have a traditional shot for the editor. This was simply taken with him looking out of his front window, while Gary stood like a creeper in the bushes outside, shooting in...The neighbours may have thought something weird was going on, but we were stoked with the result.

When using reflections in your shots, especially when they are darker,  you need to create a space for your subject within the reflection itself. In this case, Gary found a gap to place the subject in between the trees. It's a bit gritty, and moody, which we liked for this particular project.

And not gonna lie...Gary loves to use reflections...Here's a couple more examples to check out!

Sometimes it's just a matter of stopping to take a look at your surroundings, and trying something different...have you used reflections in any of your shots? In water, on metal, on glass, etc? 

If so, let's see em! Same rules as last time...just post your shot in the comments section of our FB post, and only supportive comments allowed! Let's help make the internet a friendlier place shall we?

PS: The 'Portrait Sharing' Project.

Well it's the start of a new week, so we thought, why not start a new tradition? 

Portraiture has always been at the centre of what we do, and why we fell in love with photography in the first place. We think it's rad that in a single image, you can tell someone's story, create a character, or set an entire scene. They can be super simple, or crazy elaborate. But no matter what, a portrait tells a story and that's what we love most about them.

So, because of our love of portraits, we thought it would be fun to start looking back at some of our favourites and share them with you guys each week, including some background on the inspiration, why we did particular styles, lighting, etc! 

This idea came to me when I was going through the archives and came across this portrait of one of our favourite artists, the lovely Rosemary Scanlon! It made me think of all the times we take shots for a particular client (in this case, a magazine profiling her work), where often the client only needs one shot, but we end up with quite a few that we love...

SO, what better way to to look back on some of our favourite shots, than to share them with you guys? And while we're on this sharing train, we thought why don't we keep it rolling and get you guys involved?

We thought it would be rad to see what you're creating too! 

Now, anyone who's taken our courses knows one of our favourite sayings is that "the best camera is the one you have on you." So we don't care if you're taking your shots with an iPhone as a hobby, or have the newest professional gear on the market-you can get creative with anything! So if you have an image you think fits the theme of the portrait we've posted, share it in the comments section of our Facebook post and let's see what everyone is creating! 

Note: This isn't about critiquing or judging who's doing what, it's just about sharing images you're proud of, so the only rule is to keep it positive! The internet has enough negativity on it, so we want only supportive comments and postings! 

And with that, welcome to our new tradition- PS: The 'Portrait Sharing' Project

For this first week, let's talk environmental contrast.

For this portrait in particular, we used an old forest fire burn site as our location to create a nice contrast between Rosemary's polished look and her surroundings. One of Gary's favourite things is when there is a stark contrast between the subject of the image and the environment. A space that isn't what you necessarily normally see the person in, adds an extra element to your image. The key is making sure that the background doesn't become over distracting and take away from your subject.

So with Rosemary, we really wanted to do something a bit different than having her portrait done in her studio which you might normally expect for a feature on an artist. The burn site actually ended up being a perfect location as it was an interesting backdrop, but still incorporated a lot of the tones and colours that she happened to have in her work at the time. Her water colour paintings included a lot of darker backdrops, and stark trees mixed in with incredible colourful details. If you haven't seen her work, do yourself a favour and check out her website at: http://rosemaryscanlon.com

For the lighting we kept it simple and used one Octa-box camera right as it was a cloudy day, so there was already great light for what we were looking for. 

And speaking of contrast, Gary is not only a fan of it in terms of storyline/backdrop, but also in terms of the dark to light ratio in his editing process, which you'll also notice in this image.

And here you have it! 

We're stoked to go through the archives and find more  to share with you guys over the next few weeks! 

Rosemary Scanlon




Women of Wisdom

After we finished one of our biggest commercial shoots yet to date last month, we took a full week off, away from the studio, and holed up in a cabin out in Tagish. We felt like we needed some time to relax, to unplug (sometimes it’s so therapeutic to not have the internet), and to reflect on where we’ve gotten to over the past few years.

One of the things we quickly realized, was how awesome it is that so far, this year especially, a lot of the projects we are being asked to work on are really meaningful, not only to our clients but to us personally. I think in any job you can find yourself at times, falling into a daily routine, plugging away, but the projects we’ve done so far this year are anything but routine. 

One of those meaningful projects, was working with the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre on a portrait series that was displayed at an event called “Survival Through Our Own Lens” during Victims Week last month.  The goal of the event was to challenge stigmas that society often creates around victims of violence, and along with the portraits, the women of the group created art and music to showcase their stories.

We wanted the portraits to showcase these women’s strength, their beauty and their individuality, and seeing them up on the wall in print was a pretty powerful experience.

So thank you to each and everyone of you for being a part of this project and sharing your stories. It was an honour to work with you!

Portraits of Yukon's Most Awesome...

We were SO stoked when the most recent issue of Yukon North of Ordinary Magazine came out because we've been waiting to share some of our favourite work we've done yet this year which is featured in our photo essay!

Also, we were so pumped how this cover worked out...Raven looks so rad!

So, we often talk about how our favourite part of our job is the people we get to meet along the way, and the stories we hear, so it only  made sense when we thought up the idea to do a specific portrait series which highlights some of the people in our community who we think bring next level awesomeness to what they do...Each person in this series has an incredible story and makes our community such a unique and supportive place to live.  The magazine article has write ups on each person so be sure to check out the full series! (I know they have copies at Mac's Fireweed

In the meantime, we wanted to share some of the images, and send shout outs to everyone who was involved.  You guys are literally why we do what we do, and it was a total honour to have each of you in our studio. 

Featured: 

Wolf Lady and Raven of The Oh-So-Amazing Dakka Khwaan Dancers

Darryl Tait-Adrenaline machine, and best Instagrammer out there

Kate White-Baker, Biker, and Advocate

Leonard Gordon Sr- Crossing Guard, Elder, Safety Machine

Myrna Kingscote- Costume Maker, Small business owner, and Rendezvous Royalty

Stephanie Dixon- Paralympian, Advocate, and Beam of Sunshine

Val Pike- Health Professional, Volunteer Extraordinaire, Women's health advocate

Garbage Truck Santa (Wayne Henderson)- Spreader of joy, Christmas Spirit, and Yukon charm

 

 





Product Photography, Yukon Styles!

Guys, we've discovered your next pair of boots...

We worked with the fine folks at Wayfare Woollens for both a model shoot, and a product shoot for their line of boots last month, and Brianne may or may not have left with a pair on her feet.

Our models were absolute troopers-willing to stand outside on a very cold day with us, but at least we knew their feet were warm! We did a number of different scenes throughout the day, and then finished off back at our studio to do the product shots.

If you want to check out some of their items (and we highly recommend them), go to: http://www.wayfarewoollens.com

 


That's a wrap! The Best of GBP in 2014!

Well 2014 has officially come to an end, so we thought it was only appropriate to jump on the "Year in Review" bandwagon, and share some of our favourite images and videos from the past 12 months!

It's always sweet looking back, as it was a crazy busy and diverse year for us work-wise, and it seems like forever ago that some of these projects even happened. 

We hope everyone had a safe and awesome new years celebration last night-whether that was hitting the dance floor hard, or binge watching Netflix and going to bed by 9:00...2015 has some exciting projects on the go already for us and we can't wait to have you along for the ride!

Photos

Video




Baby Bennett

Every now and then we get requests to do some very special shoots, and this was one of our most important to date.

Whitney contacted us to see if we were available to do a maternity shoot with her and her daughter in the last few weeks of her pregnancy. They had recently lost her husband, Tanner, in a tragic event, and she really wanted to be sure to capture some memorable images before the baby arrived as a Tribute to Tanner, of not only her belly, but of them interacting with some of his most prized items.

We were so honoured to have been asked to do this shoot, and were so ecstatic to receive an email yesterday from Whitney introducing us to her beautiful new baby Bennett, named after Bennett Lake, the closest to where Tanner got his first and last Dall Ram.  

Whitney, we wish you and your two beautiful girls all the best, and we are truly honoured to have been asked to do this shoot for you.  

 


Baby Bennett...the cutest.