ARRESTED

Breakfast, earlier this week, sitting at my kitchen table
eating my nuts, drinking my smoothie and perusing The
Globe and Mail as usual, I turned a page and was arrested.

What stopped me was this advert for the Paralympics.

Wow…..straight forward, simple and beautiful can be
so powerful.

BEHIND THE SCENES

YOW at dawn

Takeoff

Landing

Just back, this Saturday nite, from a flying trip
to Toronto. Left Ottawa dawn Friday for one
and a half days of shooting for an advertising
campaign.

The details of the shoot were only finalized
mid-afternoon Thursday so, needless to say,
there was some last minute scrambling to nail
down all the last minute details.

We rented a studio at Silverline Studios, on Eastern
Avenue. Melissa, who mans the desk there, was
great to work with. She arranged for lights and
modifiers to be delivered from Headshots Rentals.
We found an assistant and makeup artist and
were ready to go.

One of the great things about Toronto is the amount
and quality of resources available for jobs like this.
Makes Ottawa seem like even more of a media-savvy-
backwater than it already is.

Drive to studio

The setup

The crew: Creative Director, Account Exec. (who’s job is never done),
Reena the assistant and Shawna, the MUA)

Shot a bunch of folks then called it a day. Trudged
around looking for the perfect restaurant then on
to The Sheraton on Bay to hit the hay.

Drive to hotel

Mr Sheraton and his son

View from hotel

Up at seven the next (this) morning for an overpriced
and really wretched breakfast at the hotel. Then back
to Silverline to shoot the day.

Getting the talent ready

The clients

Mohammed, the Towncar driver who ferried the talent to and from the studio

We had to wrap and get out the door by 2:30 in
order to make it to the airport in time to catch
the flight home.

We wrapped at 2:28.

Drive to airport

Creative Director’s reading material for the flight

AMERICAN STATES

My exhibition, AMERICAN STATES, opens at Exposure Gallery
in just under 2 weeks.

Invitation (Thanks to Donna Darby, over at Utopia Communications,
for the swell design.)

I did the lion’s share of the pre-production for this show
over the Xmas holidays. But, as you all know, there are a
million little details, irritants and last minute finaglings
that always accompany a project such as this.

(…..In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions
Which a minute will reverse…..
from: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot)

Framing supplies

The plan was to carry on as usual, being busy enough to
make a living and to peck away at producing the exhibition
during the times in between working for the fabulous moolah.

The fabulous moolah is, of course, my phrase for money.
It is also, however, the name Mary Lillian Ellison used when
she was a professional wrestler.

Anyway…..that was the plan.

But as any person living the freelance life knows, there’s never
an even strain. Some periods are WAY too busy, others WAY
too slow. And these days I’m WAY too busy.

But I’ve been busy before, you know. Somehow, though,
things have a way of getting done if needs be……

So it’s getting done and there are framed prints stacked
all over my house.

Framing

THE FRUITS OF MY LABOUR

Author Daniel Poliquin, photographed for Carleton Magazine