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Feb 06

by gregvanriel in Recent Shoots 1 comments tags: Fed Ex, Mercury Vapor Lamps

Quick Thinking at Fed Ex

I’d like to help anyone faced with shooting in a site lit with the dreaded Mercury Vapor lamps. They cast a very unflattering green light, as you can see here. What to do? This assignment was to shoot the interior of a large brand new Fed Ex distribution center. It would take way too many strobe lights to overpower the Mercury Vapor lamps. However, since there were about 75 trucks in the facility, there were these giant bay doors. So I requested that all the doors be opened up to allow the natural light from outside to overpower the vapors. It solved the problem for the most part. Although some shots, like the one below, still had some green areas. You can de-saturate the green in Photoshop in Hue/Saturation. Select green from the “Master” drop down menu. Then click the eyedropper on green in the image and de-saturate. The next challenge was to try and capture the essence of the place in one shot. The Fed Ex trucks all lined up looked cool but the place was massive. Here […]

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Jan 03

by gregvanriel in Shoots 0 comments tags: shoot with animals, stone product

It’s a Doggy Dog World!

“You know Greggy, it’s a doggy dog world.” That’s what my friend used to say when we were 18 year old budding photographers. He was new to Canada and misunderstood the old saying, “It’s a dog eat dog world.” It’s a fun memory, and a good segue into this blog post because it involves dogs… Last summer I was shooting for Atlas Block. They make stone products. We arrived at the location a little late and the early morning sun was already up so we had to work fast. The first set up was on the porch of the house as you can see here. There were these two beautiful dogs around so I thought I’d try to work them into the shot. But it can be tricky and as they say, “Never shoot with children, animals and water.” I asked the homeowner to call them and I set the camera to shoot at 5 frames per second. We got these shots below. We kept shooting but […]

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Nov 20

by gregvanriel in Recent Shoots 3 comments tags: Joey Restaurant

Can we clear the shot, please!

Last week I shot the new Joey Restaurant in the big expansion / renovation of Yorkdale Shopping Centre, in Toronto. What’s it like to shoot a place that’s still partially under construction? Here’s a behind the scene peek at what was going on while we were shooting. In this first shot below we had to clear a large hydraulic scissor lift. Turned out pretty good. How do you like the look of this new JOEY? In this next shot we had to hide a bunch of painting equipment under the 1st table. The following image was taken from the stairs that were still being painted. This high angle shot was a challenge. I had to Photoshop out a person who snuck into the edge of frame. I didn’t notice it at the time but someone had stacked chairs on the bar. Can you tell where the bar stools were? For this next image I had to place the […]

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Nov 11

by gregvanriel in Recent Shoots 4 comments tags: Coyotes, Milton Power Plant, Trumpet

Coyotes Eat Shooters?

There’s a MASSIVE AWESOME Power Plant in Milton just west of Toronto that I’ve always wanted to capture. It’s one of those colossal post-industrial power facilities from a bygone age – the 1980’s. This summer I was shooting a job in Milton and thought I’d scout the plant. Here are some different angles of the place. I waited for night to fall. At dusk I parked nearby and started walking across a big grassy field scoping out the shot. As I trudged along with my camera gear I suddenly saw a coyote. It was leaping along in the tall grass. I stopped in my tracks. Not having any experience with coyotes I wasn’t sure what to do. I watched the coyote closely and saw it join another one nearby. Now my mind started racing. If there are 2, will there be more? Do coyotes hunt in packs? Do they attack humans? Do I look appetizing to a coyote? Looking at the Power Plant I started […]

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Sep 11

by gregvanriel in Shoots 3 comments tags: B&W vs Color, Lakeshore Blvd, Nikkor 24-70 mm, Photoshop, Phototools, Strachan, The Princes' Gates, Toronto, TPE

The Princes’ Gates Shoot

I’ve been looking to shoot The Princes’ Gates at Strachan and Lakeshore Blvd in Toronto for quite some time. But she was always under construction. The other day I drove by to take another look and there she was, in all it’s glory. No scaffolding in sight. Great! I started to get excited. The Gates face south east so it would mean an AM shoot. I checked the weather and it looked good for the following Saturday. My friend and fellow shooter, Jerry Abramowicz, turned me on to a FREE piece of software called TPE. It allows you to type in a location and see it on a map with a graph of the sun’s direction during the day. So, with the help of TPE I figured I should get to the Gates by 6:15 AM. When I got up at 5:30 AM the sky looked quite clear, but once I arrived at the Gates, clouds had rolled in. I figured I’d just scout with the lens, as they say, and see what happens. I put on the Nikkor 24 – 70mm zoom (2.8) and set it to f11. I like to shoot handheld at 250th of a second to […]

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Quick Thinking at Fed Ex

It’s a Doggy Dog World!

Can we clear the shot, please!

Coyotes Eat Shooters?

The Princes’ Gates Shoot

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