Biggest canvases yet

4 07 2014


 

It’s taken a lot longer than I had planned, but I was finally able to deliver the two largest canvases I have produced to date. Originally this was going to be one 8 foot by 2 foot canvas, but I eventually ended up making two 8 foot by 3 foot canvases, one highlighting Panther Drilling’s four rigs, and the second highlighting the men and the work that they do.

 

I had done several concepts a long time ago, but they weren’t so sure about them, and honestly, that was probably a good thing, because revisiting the whole project from a blank page ended up in a much better product.

The rig canvas was the biggest challenge – the four rigs were shot over the fall, before the snow, and winter, with entirely different lighting and weather conditions. How could I make it all work?

Finally I came up with the idea of one side being the fall, and then transitioning to winter. Rig 4, on the left, would provide much of the working material, and then Rig 3 and 2 would be painstakingly cut out and pasted onto the blue sky. Since I had to do Rig 3 twice, it ended up being about 10 hours of editing. That included going pixel by pixel through every wire and brace on the derrick, cutting away the white sky that it was shot against.

All of these photos figured prominently in the Panther album I did in time for the 2013 Weyburn Oil Show.

The canvases were a challenge to stretch, which has me strongly leaning towards a specialized 120 inch stretching machine in the near future.

Delivery meant using the ENTIRE back of my recently acquired Ford Expedition, with all the seats folded flat. I had built a special crate for such deliveries, but the SUV worked out well.

Printing canvases of this size turned out to be a proof-of-concept for another, even bigger, project I am working on. Details should be out in the coming months.

Panther was very patient in waiting for the delivery of these pieces, and they look amazing in their recently re-finished office.

As Panther’s office manager Nikki said, “It looks like a drilling company office now.”


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Canvas, Commercial Photography, Fine Art Prints

Here’s a look at Red Dog Rig 3

28 06 2014


Here’s Red Dog Rig 3. It was working near Northgate at the time, just a couple miles north of the U.S. border. I got some of my favourite sunset shots on this rig, including a stellar orange silhouette of the drilling floor. Watch for it in the video slideshow.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Commercial Photography, Commercial Video

Red Dog Drilling Rig 2 Video Slideshow

27 06 2014


Here is the video slideshow for Red Dog Drilling Rig 2.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,
Categories : Commercial Photography, Commercial Video

Red Dog 1 Video Slideshow

27 06 2014

This is a video slideshow for Red Dog Drilling of Rig 1. I prepared slideshows for all four rigs, but they were not posted until the crews got to see them at the spring breakup party. I’ll post the other rigs’ videos soon.

I just realized I haven’t posted anything on here for nearly four months. That’s not because I haven’t been busy. Rather, I haven’t had much time to post! Over the next little while I will post some more recent projects.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Commercial Photography, Commercial Video

Pacesetter Directional

23 02 2014

Some days when the phone rings, an unexpected call just works out. That was the case with Pacesetter Directional, a Calgary-based directional drilling company. They were looking for current drilling rig pictures in southeast Saskatchewan, and pictures of their tools in action. As it turns out, they were present on several of the rigs I shot in 2013, in particular, Red Dog Drilling 3 and 4. When I do a rig shoot, it can often take 12 or more hours, because I shoot EVERYTHING. You never know what the client might find useful. In this case, it paid off. The drilling company likely won’t have much use for pictures of the downhole tools that were on the racks, but Pacesetter sure did. I was able to supply them with a number of usable pictures from my existing library of their equipment and people in the field.

What was even more interesting was the fact that I knew one of their field hands from when I was a kid. I was taking pictures on the drill floor of Red Dog 3 last fall when a guy in grey coveralls says, “Brian?”

This is not surprising since I’ve been writing for Pipeline News for going nearly six years now. People see me with a camera all over the place. But then he identified himself as Chris. We went to church together as kids, and his older brother was my age. We spent a lot of time together in our younger days, and now, probably 20 years later, he recognized me. Our moms are still best friends, but we’ve all gone our separate ways. Now here Chris was, a directional hand with Pacesetter, and here I was, taking photos, of him, on a drill floor.

It turns out the pictures I got of him turned out beautifully. The lighting was just perfect, the colours jumped out. It was a perfect day.

Several of those photos can now be found on Pacesetter’s website, which was recently revamped with the library of photos I provided. About 3/4 of the photos I found on their site at this time were mine. Two of these are now part of my canvas print collection for sale, and indeed, I coated them yesterday. They should be mounted Monday.

Plans are to do more work with Pacesetter later this year when time allows.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Commercial Photography

United Centrifuge Video Slideshow

10 02 2014

I love the rocking beat to this video slideshow put together for United Centrifuge. You can check out their new web page at http://www.unitedcentrifuge.ca


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Commercial Photography

United Centrifuge

3 02 2014

Last fall I had the opportunity to photograph United Centrifuge, a Weyburn-based oilfield services company. They specialize in, well, dirt. They remove dirt from drilling mud.

The project was meant to provide material for their newly revamped website, now active, as well as marketing materials. We’re talking pamphlets, trade show displays, albums, the works.

Also part of the project was the virtual tour, which can be found here. It shows every aspect of their primary products, from multiple angles. It also works on an iPad.

This project was one of the most challenging to date and saw almost every tool in the toolbox used. There were high-dynamic range photos taken while on the vibrating mud tank of a drilling rig. If you’ve ever done HDR shots, you know that any movement can destroy the shot. There were numerous 360 panorams, again, taken on vibrating drilling rigs, tanks or centrifuges. For each of these panoramas, approximately 120 photos were taken to create one image.  The evening shots had speedlights used as fill-light for centrifuge. The GoPros were suck everywhere imaginable. The virtual tour was by far the most complex I have done to date. The canvas was also one of the largest to date, a 36×48. The only thing not incorporated was aerial work.

The shoot involved visiting three rigs over four days, plus one day in the yard. The final gallery was nearly 1,000 photos which can be seen here. Additionally, they had a album produced which you will be able to see at upcoming oil shows like the Redvers Oil Showcase in May.


Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Commercial Photography, Virtual Tour

Trimount Developments Duplex Virtual Tour

3 11 2013

Trimount Duplex Kitchen PANO-6200 Trimount Duplex Master Bdr PANO-6306

This is a virtual tour I recently completed for Trimount Developments. It’s their duplex show home in Estevan’s Dominion Heights.

Click here to be taken to the virtual tour.

Click here to be taken to the gallery.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Commercial Photography, Real Estate, Virtual Tour

Why belonging to a professional service matters

2 08 2013

IMG_1559[1]Until now, I have been fortunate enough that I have not recently needed the repair side of Nikon Professional Services. This week, that changed, however, and I have found out why it is such a valuable asset to a professional photographer.

Yesterday (Thursday) morning I was taking pictures at a camp for Pipeline News. My D4 camera somehow became loose on its carabiner and fell about 2 feet to the floor, snapping the flash off near the base.  “Oh crap, That’s a $500 fix,” I said, noting the price of the flash. The problem was, I have a wedding lined up for this Saturday.

I’m a firm believer in the military maxim “Two is one and one is none.” I have four flashes. But this is the only one that can act as a “master,” controlling the output and triggering of the others in elaborate, advanced off-camera flash setups. It’s been my intention to pick up another master flash, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet since my second master flash decided it only wanted to work as a slave.

What to do, what to do?

First, I phoned Don’s Photo in Regina and got them to set aside a flash for me for Saturday morning as a Plan B, something they were kind enough to do. Then I pulled out my Nikon Professional Service card.

I applied for NPS a couple years ago so that I would be able to get first dibs on the then-upcoming D4 flagship camera. When the D3 came out, it took almost a year before mere mortal, non-NPS members could obtain one. I was one of the first people in Canada, and indeed, the planet, to get the D4, arriving on the second day they were available.

NPS’ main purpose is to support working professional photographers. You have to have multiple professional bodies and lenses to qualify, and you have to submit a body of work, paid work, to become accepted. Essentially, you have to make your living with your camera. I do, both as a professional photographer and newspaper editor/photographer.

A just-slightly-less-than-panicked called to NPS at 1 p.m. Saskatchewan time had them sending me a loaner replacement flash by overnight courier from Ontario. It arrived with 24 hours, as seen above, in time for me to  have this crucial piece of kit in my hands before the wedding.

And this is the whole point of this post: a professional not only has a backup for everything, but a backup for the backup. In this case, that second level backup is Nikon Professional Service. It’s there so clients aren’t left hanging. So when you’re hiring a photographer, ask them – do they belong to Nikon Professional Service or Canon Professional Service? If not, you may be taking your chances.

 

 

 


Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Camera stores, Commercial Photography, Nikon Professional Service, Weddings

My first drone is on its way

21 06 2013

I wonder if I can mount Hellfires on this sucker?

I wonder if I can mount Hellfires on this sucker?

Shiny new product alert! I just ordered my first unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, for aerial photography! It should be here before Canada Day. I’m in the process of getting the proper permits from Transport Canada to use it for commercial work. There’s already been strong interest in this sort of work, so stay tuned!


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Aerial Photography, Commercial Photography

« Previous Entries Next Entries »