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 1^st 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 camera and tripod in the hectic kitchen where staff were busily preparing food for a training session.

And in this last one we had to ask people to hide.  There are staff ducking down under the kitchen counter and other people hiding behind the black pillar.

You never know what’s going to happen on a shoot. Things usually work out quite well and people are pretty cooperative.  I just keep the main thing in mind – to get some great shots for my client!  Please let me know your thoughts.