08/02/10 by Michael Lee | Portrait Photography | Comments Off
Vancouver Professional Portrait Photographers
Two weeks ago Tom Wagner had asked if I could come out and help with some portrait photos of Christina and Rikki in North Vancouver. Christina and Rikki are friends of Jimmy who’s wedding you might have remembered we photographed a few months back. Check out the wedding video if you haven’t already.
Christina and Rikki were fun to work with, they were game for anything we threw at them which is very uncommon. Usually one person doesn’t like getting wet or dirty (and by dirty I mean sitting on GRASS, yes some couples don’t like green “clean” grass). But these two were prepared to get wet and dirty, the type of couple a photographer would love to have. Below are some of the photos I captured during the session (Tom did the editing) and a few that I help setup. The photos were captured in Dundarave park.
Here’s a tip for other photographers, keep your eyes open. The below set of photos I had my other eye open watching the waves. Christina and Rikki were concentrated on me so they didn’t really know what was coming, well Rikki should’ve known but I think he was looking out pretty far or was already getting ready for the those waves. Christina had no clue, haha.
Tom captured the below and I help picked the location and setting them up. Rikki’s shoes got totally soaked but he didn’t flinch! Most guys would’ve been pretty pissed. He just shrugged it off. Made for an awesome photo though 
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Having two photographers on a shoot helps since we can cover two different angles. This photograph below was taken while the two were walking towards me on the beach. Tom was beside them.
It also helps with directing. One can be talking to the couple while the other capturing the moments. Sometimes the photographer may be quite a distance away and it’s hard to shout over long distances.
06/25/10 by Michael Lee | Personal | Comments Off
Shimano RS80 Wheels
I don’t often post something that’s related to me but I just had to post this. It’s been a busy month for me shooting almost every weekend. I still haven’t had chance to edit some event photos I shot for the Canadian Cancer Society earlier in the month as well as three weddings and two couple shoots. I’ve lost count! I’ll be getting on those this weekend.
So what is this post about? Well…I recently (late last year) picked up road cycling and absolutely love it. So much so I put more kms on the bike than I do the car. Who wants to pay for gas and parking anyways? One reason I’ve been putting off all the updating and editing of photos is due to me trying to fit in bicycle training in preparation for the Whistler Granfondo bicycle ride in September. It’s 120km ride up the Sea to Sky Highway with over 2000m of climbing with probably the same amount of descent. It’s going to be hard. With our awesome unpredictable weather I try to fit in rides 2-3 times a week.
This evening I received my new Shimano RS80 bicycle wheels and was ecstatic! I drove to my parent’s place to pick them up, threw them into the car, and headed over to Colman’s place (thanks Colman) to have him swap my dad’s 12-27 rear cassette onto the new wheels. After that I quickly drove home and attempted to install the new Michelin Pro 3 race tires and tubes onto my bike while I waited for Tom (my photographer buddy) to come over.
The tires were a royal b*tch to put on. Tom called me to say he was coming over and at that time I was just trying to stuff the first tire onto the front wheel. Brute force and a few roughed up fingers later I finally got it on. I was sweating bullets…yes laugh I guess I’m a newb. 25 minutes later Tom arrives while I’m yelling obscenities at my rear wheel. He comments, “what is taking you so long to get it on? This should be super easy.” I give him the “wth do you want to try?” look. Him all smiley he gives a go at it. HAH! He can’t get it either. He then goes on and says, “you sure you got the right size tires? The tire shouldn’t be this far down etc…” I told him I got the first one on after wrestling with the damn thing (wish I had photos of me trying to put it on). So I keep going at it while Tom suggests boiling water and putting it on the wheel (wtf seriously?!). It finally looks like it’s wanting to behave so Tom comes over and we both push and pull on the mofo piece of rubber till finally it was seated. Fun times!
Us both being Vancouver wedding photographers and portrait photographers we thought we’d go out and take some photos. If you’re a wedding photographer you’re pretty much also a lifestyle photographer, it’s all the same thing really. So below are a set of photos that tell a short mini story just after we got the tires on and installed, then out for a spin around Vancouver’s beautiful water front. We strolled out at 11pm in shorts and t-shirts since the weather was surprisingly warm. It happens maybe a handful of times during the year.
Photos were taken by both me and Tom. They have my name on them since I edited them 
. Our attempt to model is at the very end, gotta practice what we preach right?
