Brian Zinchuk Publishing

As promised, here are a few more shots from the Vortex Drilling shoot. The one above is very, very large panorama of the doghouse. Click on it to see it. It’s a rather unusual design, in that it has a slide-out just like a camper, increasing its interior space by about a quarter to a third. The driller and motorman can both work indoors. The motorman has a waist-pack remote control. The console to the right has the touch screens, including the video feed from remote cameras mounted around the rig.

This shot of the roughnecks making a connection was taken from overhead, using my ‘camera on a stick’ approach. I put the camera on a 5’6″ monopod, extend it over my head, and use a wired trigger to set it off. A wide angle and autofocus take care of the focus issues. It takes several shots to get a good one.

These guys work hard. I’ve never seen a fat roughneck.

Here’s a nice silhouette of one of the men on the pipe racks.

The barbed wire fence and black and white give an old-fashioned feel to a brand new rig.

Need a little drama? This photo is a little bit of playing around with Photoshop. The cloud was actually 90 miles away, two weeks later, so it’s a time-travelling, faster-than-speed of light cloud. But combined, it looks pretty dramatic.

Again, I’m the only pro photographer I know in this area who has actually been on rigs and oilfield equipment a fair bit, and has his PPE and safety tickets. If you need some commercial photography in the oilpatch, let me know.

I was asked to take promotional photos for Vortex Drilling, a new drilling company in southeast Saskatchewan. This is Rig 1, drilling its first hole. The shoot had beautiful lighting and weather. I stayed until sunset to get some really standout photos. It was also a chance for me to try my hand at both 360 degree panoramas and high dynamic range (HDR) photography. The panoramas of the drill floor and doghouse were 1.2 GIGABYTES each, once twelve 12 megapixel photos were combined. That’s large enough to make a print up to 10 feet wide and not notice any pixelation unless your nose was touching it. I’ll post a few more in the coming days.

If you’re looking for some standout photos for your company, be it for your website, print advertising, annual report or prospectus, or even corporate gifts, drop me a line. Also note: I have my safety tickets and personal protective equipment, plus as a former pipeliner, I’ve been around a lot of oilfield equipment. I don’t know of any other photographers in the area that can say the same.

This was one of the most involved shoots I’ve done. It took a lot of work, but I have to say, these are some of the most spectacular final products I have produced.

It was also nice to visit a brand spanking new rig.

Vortex is already building its second rig.

I usually shoot weddings with an assistant, also known as a second shooter – someone who it pretty good in their own right, but looking to learn a bit more of the trade and to build up their portfolio. That brings us to What the Duck.

It’s a nationally syndicated comic strip about a duck that’s a professional photographer. I’ve been reading it since its inception. If you’re a photographer, trust me, you will get all the jokes.

Here’s the July 12 edition, which is an instant classic. Enjoy.

 

I just received my sample albums from my new Italian ablum supplier, GraphiStudio. These people are the industry leaders, and the quality of their work shows it. It’s simply stunning. While I have taken photos of it to show you, your screen simply cannot do it justice. Printed on metallic paper with an aluminum cover and leather binding, it’s something you have to see in person to really appreciate. The metallic paper makes the colours leap off the page.

This album is 40 pages long, and documents the wedding of Jolene and Brennon (Click here to see a gallery of photos that appeared in the album, and click here to see the whole album, as printed). It was taken in North Battleford. The ceremony took place in a beautiful brick church. While the bridal party was on the steps, they released birds. (I can’t remember if they were doves or pigeons.)

The outdoor portraits were done near the family farm.You’ll seem some old wooden fences, where the family photos were done, as well as an old John Deere Tractor.

I especially like the shots of them in the field, and have used one of them for a lot of my promotional material, including business cards.

The end of the book shows a little treat we prepared months in advance. When we did our initial consultation, I suggested that Brennon carve their names into a tree somewhere on their farm. After a few months, it would heal, leaving a permanent carving on the tree. The last few pages show him taking her down a trail to the tree, showing her the carving, and then sweeping her into his arms and giving her a kiss.