JAMES HODGINS PHOTOGRAPHY

Check out the recent edition of the Sudbury Living Magazine with Paul Loewenberg’s image on the cover. We shot these at the Town House Tavern earlier this year. I love shooting these images for the magazine, as every session is different. It’s a fabulous publication and I hope have more cover images in the future.

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Gary came into the studio yesterday for a new headshot.   Actually “A” headshot since he has never had one before.  We had a great time and came up with a headshot along with a few other images he wanted to have for his new portfolio.  He’s of to Toronto  tomorrow as he as 4 interviews with talent agencies.    This guy works fast.

It really doesn’t take much to light a portrait on location. Light is light right?  I use a mixture of strobes and flashes for most of my on location portraits.  I try to pack light, especially when you are going into a location that is somewhat “Out Of The Way”.  This session was for a Hair dressing Salon that wanted to showcase one of their more “funky” styles. I knew beforehand that the hairstyle was going to be big and colorful so I wanted to find a place that would compliment it. I also knew that I would have to light it in a way that would “highlight” the style and color. For this image, I used 2 lights behind my subject to add a pinlight around the hairstyle, seperating her from the background. I then added 2 more lights to fill in the shadows, bring out the background, and add some depth to my subject. Getting multiple lights off camera allows you to be more creative with your portraits and also allows you to utilize any location you chose.

While we were in Jamaica we photographed the brides brother (Steve) and his wife Jessica.   We had a great time, and in the end we  did get a few images of Steve with a smile ( and you said I wouldn’t, shame on you Steve).    Thanks for the company you two, we had a blast, and the sea doo ride was a great time.

Yesterday I spoke to the graphic design students at Cambrian College.  The presentation was to show the class a “live” product shot (which is something I don’t do often).    On went the thinking cap and I came up with this idea for a diamond drill bit.  I had this glass bowl with fake icecubes that had a “fog” unit in it that I bought from freskew farms last fall.  I placed the bowl inside my 7 inch reflector of my whitelighting monolight, getting the light from the bottom shining up through the cubes.  I added a background light with a blue gel, and a small pinlight with a homemade snoot for a kicker.  I then had my assistant blow into the bowl with a straw to get the fog coming up through the hole.  We had to work fast, because before the presentation started, I dropped a cube in the bowl cracking the whole thing.  It didn’t take long for the water to find its way onto my lights.

Joan is my mothers very close  friend.  They met at work in the early 80’s and became friends shortly after that.   They both have a very dry sense of humour (maybe that’s where I get mine eh?) and have very similar likes and dislikes which is why they got along so well.   Diagnosed with brain & lung  cancer last summer,  she could no longer work and so she took her pension this fall.

I don’t remember seeing alot of pictures of Joan, of course, no-one in my immediate family was a photographer, so I offered Joan a portrait session.  Not just for her, but for my mother also, and me, and everyone else who knows Joan.

Unfortunately Joan passed away this morning after a long struggle with cancer. She is now pain free and in a better place. She will be in our hearts and minds.

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You will remember “Maggie” from my Sassifras Ottawa session. Here are the other images I did of the “Katie Holmes” look alike.
If your interested in a “Sassifras Session” give us a call.

So this is my new office computer station I had built.  It’s a pentium 4000 II with 480 Tera byte harddrive.  It also makes a mean double cream triple foam frappachinio merichino sixtuplet fat free coffee.

Here is another image from our “Sassifras Session”.  We are extremely busy at the moment, but I will try to go through all the images next week and have some more for you.  For this image I wanted to highlight her eyes as well as the artwork on her back.  The texture overlay was just to add a little “grit” to the overal image.