Nadine in a black dress

At the beginning of the month, Nadine and I were talking about how long it had been since the last time we did any formal photos and tossed around a few ideas for a photo shoot. A few days after that, on what turned out to be a very cold but sunny day, I photographed her in a snowy area wearing a classic little black dress and boots.

It was at times bitterly cold, and the rest of the time just really cold out. Nadine was awesome and stuck it out for the 30-40 mins we were shooting and didn't look cold in one image.

A reminder about confidentiality

After receiving emails/tweets/comments now and then in regards to the people I have photographed, I thought it warranted a little FAQ:


I hope you can understand that I respect the privacy of all my current, former and future clients/models. While I blog and post photos, I don't publicly discuss the confidential particulars of their photo shoots (be they completed ones, or whether I am doing/planning one or whether I am not) with people I am unfamiliar with, who are not directly involved in the creative process, or frankly, are strangers.

I will also not pass on any of their personal contact information without their OK.

Mike

I photograph because...

Ambassador Sarah #9

I photograph because I like the idea of capturing someone’s essence that they themselves might have not known existed

Taken behind the old closed ‘Embassy’ bar and music venue in May 2009. Five days after this, the bar caught fire and was destroyed. Probably some of the last images taken outside there.

Flag Day

The term Flag Day might be one more associated with our patriotic cousins South of the 49th parallel, but today is Flag Day here in Canada. Officially it is the National Flag of Canada Day, and it commemorates the day in 1965 when the current red and white Canadian flag was adopted.

So, Happy Flag Day. Go shoot a photo of one. They look great against a blue sky such as in this shot from 2009.

*Thanks to Lisa for the reminder :)


Mike

Rotten Tree

On January 24th, I went for a hike. The snow wasn't as deep as it could have been, but it was fresh and very cold out.  Exposed to the wind, it was enough to make your eyes water and my breath was fogging up the camera's eyepiece as I tried to shoot things.

It was pretty quiet aside from creaking trees, my boots crunching the snow, and the odd small forest critter that sounded like Sasquatch. The path I was taking stayed in a tree line and didn't offer much in the way to look at or any interesting vistas to photograph. While I had never been on the trail before, I knew it was roughly an oval, and there was no means of cutting across it to shorten it, so if I didn't go back at some point, I wouldn't return before it started to snow.

After about 30 mins of nothing interesting to see, I decided that after a further 300 hundred paces I would turn around. At that point, I stopped, looked up and down the trail and shrugged. I felt another hundred or so wouldn't hurt. Soon after, I rounded a bend and came out of the tree line into an area with a clear cut or fire burned slope. A bit of a ways up the slope I came across this tree. Or what was left of it. Completely rotten and dead. Perhaps 2m tall. No other tree looked like it. There were other dead trees in the area - standing and fallen, but none dry, crumbling or this colour. It really stood out in the landscape.

Had I initially given in to the cold and boredom, I would never have seen this tree. Seeing it made the trip worth while. The next time you feel you are not getting anywhere with something and want to give up, press on a bit farther. You never know what you might accomplish, or what you might miss out on.

Mike

Frost Fence in Rust

A rusty orange chain link fence around an empty snow filled tennis court in mid winter. It could certainly use some paint, but I like it this way.

The 'Frost' in the title does not refer to the temperature, but the manufacturer: Frost Fence Inc. They have been producing wire fences in Canada since 1898. Growing up, I always knew this style, even if not made by them, as Frost fences, not chain link.

Mike

Former Mustang Andy Fantuz now a Chicago Bear

© Mike Wood Photography

Andy Fantuz, former UWO Mustang, and WR for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is heading to the NFL to become a Chicago Bear (CBC story).

In 2005, his last season in the CIS, Fantuz led with 12 touchdown catches, tied for first with 44 receptions and was second in receiving yards. Fantuz also owns the CIS career records in receiving yards (4,123) and touchdown catches (41).  That year, he won the Hec Crighton Trophy as Canadian university football's most outstanding player

I shot the above image at the University of Western Ontario Homecoming game, Oct 1, 2005. London, Ontario.


Mike

MV Santa Emma

Earlier today I received an email from Capt John Scott, master of the Holland America Lines ship Noordam. It was in  regards to the above photo of the MV Santa Emma which I shot in June 2005 while she was listing in the 'A Dock' of the the former ferry terminal to PEI at Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick.

He wanted to get permission to use the photo in a group relating to ships that served in the New Zealand and Australia trade routes. He let me know that my photo was likely the last available photo of her before she was towed away to be scrapped in India. According to Capt Scott, the Santa Emma never arrived in India, but sank close to the Azores on the way there. Which I think, environmental concerns aside, is in a way a more fitting end to a ship than being hacked up on mudflats in India by crews and children with little to no protection.

He let me know that the ship was originally built as the Maheno for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand Ltd. and many of the Oceania Shipping Forum members had sailed on her when she operated between NZ and Australia. According to what I read on the NZ ship index here, she was built in 1969 and was 4096 Gross Tons. And that:

Transport Canada detained her because of structural defects, faulty navigation and firefighting equipment, a deficient general alarm, loadline deficiencies and defective fuel tanks. Her crew left her a few days after she was detained and she remained laid up pending repairs. In December 2004 ownership was reported to have passed to Rikan Shipping of Liberia. She broke her mooring lines in high winds on 28th April 2005 at Cape Tormentine, Canada, and drifted aground between the former government ferry wharf and the breakwater at Cape Tormentine, about fifty metres further down the pier from her original position, with a fifteen degree starboard list...

Subsequent news on 29th April 2005 said that SANTA EMMA was a derelict Panamanian-registered cargo ship that had been docked in the Cape Tormentine “A-dock” since January 2004. She was aground between the dock and the breakwater, with a hole in her stern. Several thousand litres of fuel oil in her bunkers posed a pollution threat and were removed from the ship.

I took a look to see if I had any other images of the ship available that I had not posted. Sadly they would either be on my old dead hard drive (which I would still like to try and resurrect one day if I have the money) or on a CD in storage.

I found it interesting that the ship was built in New Zealand - which I didn't know when I photographed her, and my family has some maritime history in the area. Small world. :)

At one point a few years ago, I explored the idea of being a cruise ship photographer - I think it was with Princess - and didn't like the terms of what I had to do (such as buy my own camera out of my own salary etc) but it is something interesting to think about when there are a few feet of snow outside. :)

Mike

Ryn, in the window, part I

My friend Ryn. Photographed at the end of last month on the day she moved out of her 1940s era apartment.

Mike