A Year in the Life Project: In Which Jaime gets Sick and Grant wears Hip Waders.

Jaime Hogge:

After a pretty (ok, REALLY) dead summer things really picked up for most of September, though they seem to be simmering down again now. Most recently, in the past week and a half or so, I’ve had the chance to shoot some stuff for Report On Small Business magazine and Toronto Life magazine. As well as come down with, and get over, a pretty annoying head cold that had me sounding like an overgrown elf.

For the most part I’ve been editing away at a few of the jobs I shot earlier in the month and eating up hard drive space like there’s no tomorrow. While most of my recent work was editorial based as I mentioned before, one project I got to work on was for ‘What’s Next?.. Transition Strategies’, working with youth motivational speaker Ryan Porter.

Here’s a portrait of Ryan I particularly liked:

© Jaime Hogge

This was a really neat gig as I was shooting images involving Ryan with the purpose of being turned into a website. I have limited experience doing similar work (I shot some more documentary-esque stuff for a project by the National Film Board of Canada earlier in the year which was turned into an interactive web piece) but I thought this would be a good experience for me as interactive/web based stuff seems to be a large part of the future of advertising. Basically the goal was to get images that showed off Ryan and his personality while being perhaps a little more graphically appealing than your typical portrait since the images are actually the foundation the website is being built upon.

At times it was frustrating to be processing so many factors when setting up and framing the shots – I’ve shot for a layout before but this was slightly more complicated as we didn’t have specific measurements or even an illustration to work from. In the end things seemed to work themselves out (seems to happen a lot no?) and once the images are finished on my end I’ll be excited to see them in place.

These are a couple of selects for the website:

© Jaime Hogge

© Jaime Hogge

All this location work and editing has me itching to get into the studio to spend a few hours moving lights around. I don’t have a studio space to call my own at this point; unfortunately my work load isn’t balanced enough yet to justify it which seems to be a double-edged sword. On one hand you need enough commercial work to cover the added expense but at the same time having a space allows you to get creative and try out pretty much any idea that pops into your head, whenever the hell you want to. Baby steps, baby steps..

I was also asked to quote on a relatively small job which has proven to be a little trickier than anticipated. Basically the clients’ budget just doesn’t fit the job, so I’ve been trying to move things around and make it work for a few days. When I was an assistant I remember most photographers I worked with used to constantly talk about the difficulties of quoting which I didn’t get at all. Guys and gals, I get it now.

Well, I’ve got some images to get back to and you’ve probably got some work to do as well so I’ll leave it at that for this week. Any questions/hate mail/free studio offers can be sent to me through Heather: heather@heathermorton.ca

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Grant Harder (wearing hip waders):

© Kevin Arnold

My first post is coming to you from South Carolina. I have been here for the past five days assisting with photographer Kevin Arnold. Three flights, one missing bag and three hours of driving later we arrived at our first destination on the Nantahala River in North Carolina. We are here working on a kayaking shoot for Confluence Water Sports. Our second location was a couple different beaches in Charleston, S.C. Working on the beach in bare feet as the sun is setting? Yes please.

Being part of a shoot like this is a great experience. While on set there are always things to learn. The technical side of photography is obviously important and every working photographer has a solid knowledge base. To me the most valuable part of assisting is being able to spend time with someone who is having success at what they are doing. With long hours of travel and many meals eaten together there are plenty of opportunities to ask questions, observe and listen. Having a successful career in photography isn’t easy and the uncertainty of the future can be overwhelming. Hearing stories of how others have carved out a career for themselves can be very inspirational. All photographers have stories of mistakes they have made early in their career and how they could have done things differently. Listen and learn. Then there are the success stories of taking risks and the initiative to put your self out there to the world, shooting well-received personal projects and balancing personal life. These are stories that show obvious drive and determination.

Talent is important and the technical aspect is a given but I have heard many stories of, witnessed and experienced that it’s the drive and determination that will make the difference. This isn’t ground breaking information by any means, however, I find it motivating and inspiring.

As many of the photographers I have assisted with over the past couple of years have been with me, I too will be as transparent as possible with my posts on this blog. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me (through Heather: heather@heathermorton.ca) if you have any questions or comments.

My favorite quote from the trip came from a waitress we had near Columbia, South Carolina. “My sister has an irrational fear of Canadians……and that the worst thing about it is that they could be anyone”

So true.