Words of Wisdom

In order to reflect on the past year, business guru Seth Godin asked contemporary thinkers to develop their thought on a specific word. He collected these thoughts and assembled them in this free book you can download here. A little bit of inspiration before the new year sure can't hurt!

12 portraits by Jocelyn Michel for ARTV

Photographer Jocelyn Michel was commissioned by ARTV to produce a series of 12 portraits for the channel's 2010 Calendar. He shot a bunch of celebrities associated to ARTV, each one with a theme starting with one of the letters of the channel. Nice behind the scenes.
Have a look.

Simon does rhyme with Fashion, you know...

Me as a Hipster in a parallel Universe!

Alright, let's get something straight. I don't usually shoot fashion, I don't wear fancy clothes or brand new shoes, though I would love to have a custom fit suit and a subscription to GQ to prevent myself from making fashion faux pas. But a friend once showed me how one could color coordinate by dressing in shades of grey and it's been working fine for me!

So when I was asked to shoot a Fashion series, I simply jumped on the occasion! I always said I could shoot fashion if I had a team. It's just that I don't aim for a fashion career though I always like to instill a certain sense of style in my personal work. Well now the team has come to me, requesting that I participate in the next installment of Triptyqu3, a brand new web magazine concept that calls a stylist, designer and photographer to create an editorial fashion shoot!

The location has been secured, the all-star team confirmed and pressure builds up in the creative cooking pot! Looking forward to the shoot, but especially looking forward to the unveiling of the pictures on December 29th! The last project of the year needs to be a good one!

New Book: Glow in the Dark

Thank you Guillaume for offering me the gift of Kanye for my birthday. I really need to build up my ego! haha! But seriously this book is gorgeous, nice stage photography but also awesome behind the scenes from photographer Nabil Elderkin. A nice addition to the collection!

Martin Flamand: Love, Wishes, Sharing, Germs.

Here's the latest installment of Martin Flamand's "Monthly Review" for graphic design studio Elliot. What an awesome shot and what a great concept, an AH1N1 Christmas! I absolutely love it and looking forward to experience it this year!

New Local Blogs

As you know, I'm a pretty heavy blog reader! Lately, I've added a few more to my RSS feed and would like to share them with you!


First up, What Up Gangstars! Brand new blog associated with 123Klan. What is it? Well it's the blog of hip hop puppet Jay Louis, and it expects to become the world's best blog ever! For you fresh homies out there!


Next is Alexi Hobbs' the Contact Sheet. I just met Alexi recently and was introduced to his photography. In the Contact Sheet, Alexi pairs a picture of his with a song. Great experience as you get to see the picture under a new light. Like getting the key to a cipher...


Finally, the Lunchbox, a blog dedicated to Music, Photography, Fashion and Design. A nice place to find inspiration, no matter the medium.

So there you go. Check'em out, practice your French and click on the nice images!

Losing my battle to Ambient Light

Not so long ago, I was afflicted with a shameful photographic disease... Whenever I ran into an ambient light situation, I would try to overpower it with strobes to retain perfect control over the light, not allowing myself the joys of ambient lighting. That fear of ambient light was also combined with an obsession with ƒ-stop 11, quick shutter speeds and low grain ISO. I couldn't possibly imagine myself shooting at ISO 400, 1/15sec @ ƒ2 ! Just saying it still gives me the shivers!

I remember going into a commercial job, shooting on location portraits but recreating studio conditions. It was a loooong day of troubleshooting as we were restricted to tight spaces! My pictures were controlled but could've had a little more "life" to them had I retained some of the local light's quality.

And suddenly... I was cured. I opened up the ƒ-stop, I cranked up the ISO and allowed my shutter speed to run slower... Man was I missing out. I still hit the ƒ11 mark from time to time. We have a special relation!

GPG: Le Matos

Here's a feature for electronic band Le Matos, shot by GPG and Colin Beaudry. Did someone said Canon 7D?

Yasmine Chatila's Stolen Moments

I was mesmerized by this series from photographer Yasmine Chatila entitled Stolen Moments. Apparently, it's pretty controversial... Some call it voyeurism, some call it art. I'm more on the art side, as long as you can't directly identify the subjects, it's fine by me. As a student, I thought of making such a series, looking at ordinary people living simple moments of their lives. But I couldn't just put my camera down to do it. Something felt wrong for me. But I'm glad someone had the nerve to do it, and in such a way. It was bound to have some sexual content, but it would've been nice to see more casual moments of life being depicted. Nevertheless, I like this series...

Inspiration: Tom Hussey

Nice series from Tom Hussey for client Novartis. Seen on Behance.

Thinking outside of the Box!

outside the box from joseph Pelling on Vimeo.

Seen on It’s Nice That