Another year has passed; 2011 will stand out in my mind as a year of ups and downs, both personally and professionally.When you are up, enjoy it. When you are down, dust yourself off and pick yourself up!
In 2011 I made a lot of photographs. Lots. Probably too many.
This list is not necessarily my best photographs from 2011, but the ones that stand out as my favorites.
So in no particular order, here they are! I have included technical details for all of you nerds out there who love that stuff as much as I do. I have also included my thoughts on why these particular shots made the list.
Richelieu Valley Flooding. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
Southern Quebec was hit with some terrible floods in the spring, and it is not until you see the destruction first hand that you realize the impact that events like this have on people’s lives. This photograph came about because of a bit of luck. I was assigned to make some photographs, and the reporter and I headed down to an area we knew was particularly badly hit. Access was pretty sketchy, you couldn’t see the roads you were driving on, therefore didn’t know what was under your tires. We parked my car and started to walk through the water, trying to figure out where we were going, when we were offered a lift into the devastated area by a woman passing in her SUV. Sure! We ended up at her house, talking with her father, who then offered us a ride on his boat across the river to a section of town that had been completely cut off from all road access. I made some great photographs there, and met some incredibly resilient people. They let us in their houses, they shared their stories with us. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, these floods were minor next to what we have witnessed globally in the past few years, but the people directly affected by these floods will tell you that they were devastated none the less.
This photograph was made on a Canon 5dMkII with a 16-35mm f/2.8 at 70mm, the settings were 1/250th @ f/4, 320 ISO. The subjects posture, framed against the door frame as the river flowed through his house is what makes this shot for me. He has a mix of defiance, strength but also an air of vulnerability which I feel adds to the photograph.
A full gallery can be seen at http://timsnowphotography.com/flood/
Mountain Biking on Mont Rigaud. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
2011 was a year I set some goals for myself professionally. I wanted to improve my portrait work, and I also wanted to start a long term personal project. I had an idea a few months ago of combining the two of them into one, and started a series of diptychs. I love hobbies and interesting jobs, so I decided to use that as my inspiration to hunt out people who were up to something cool and photograph them. The above photograph is one of the first pieces from the series, which I hope to grow to over 35 pieces once the series is complete.
The portrait was lit with a Photoflex Octodome NXT (which has become one of my favorite modifiers) and triggered with Pocket Wizards. It was made with a Canon 5dMkII with a 135mm f/2, the settings were 1/160th @ f/2, 100 ISO. The mountain biking shot was made with an unmodified Canon 580exII on top of a Manfrotto 420b light stand fully expanded, so the flash was a good 15 feet up there. I used the new Pocket Wizard Mini/Flex system and the awesome AC3 to be able to control the flash output from my camera so I didn’t have to keep climbing down and up my embankment to change my settings. This shot was made again with a Canon 5dMkII with a 16-35mm f/2.8, the settings were 1/200th @ f/8, 400 ISO. I wanted the harsh flash to spotlight my subject, so I zoomed it to 70mm. I also left the shutter speed at 1/200th to incorporate a bit of blur.
MONTREAL, QUE.: November 11, 2011-- Musician Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes in his Montreal recording studio. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
I was commissioned by Exclaim! Magazine to make a portrait of musician Jace Lasek of the Besnard Lakes. Photographing musicians is always a bit of a challenge because you never know who you are walking in on. You may only be given 3 minutes to work, you may have a big ego or a lot of attitude. Jace was incredible! He welcomed me into his studio and made me feel at home, gave me all the time I needed and was super enthusiastic as we spent our time together talking about music of all kinds. It made the shoot fly by!
I made this photograph with a Canon 5dMkII with a 135mm f/2, the settings were 1/125th @ f/2, 400 ISO. I lit Jace with a Canon 580exII which was to my left, his right. There was a huge window there, so I really only wanted to supplement the light in the room and highlight him a bit. I modified the flash with a Lastolite EzyBox 32″ which deploys extremely quickly and is another incredible location portrait tool.
Montreal, Qc. Seattle rockers Pearl Jam perform at Montreal's Bell Center on September 7th, 2011. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
I started listening to Pearl Jam back in the early ’90′s and have kind of come full circle with them. Loved ‘em, lost complete interest and now I am back on the bandwagon. They are a great band who put on an energetic live show, check ‘em out if you ever have the chance!
This photograph was made with a Canon 5dMkII with a 70-200mm f/2.8 V2 at 145mm, the settings were 1/640th @ f/2.8, 1600 ISO. The look on Eddie’s face and the jump are what make this shot stand out.I love the energy!
A full gallery can be seen at http://www.timsnowphotography.com/PearlJam/
A cranberry farmer in Ottawa in his field. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
I was asked by one of my corporate clients to head out to Ottawa to photograph a cranberry farmer for an article they were publishing in their trade magazine. I was given a window of two days to make the photograph. Wouldn’t you know it, it rained the first day. As I knew I wanted to photograph him in his field, I knew that wouldn’t do! The second day seemed as if it was going to co-operate a bit more, so my assistant and I hopped into my car and made the trip to Ottawa in near record time! Lyle, the farmer, was one of those guys you get into this business for…a total pleasure to work with! Meeting interesting people is one of the reasons I love my job! Of course, as it always happens, the nice sky we had turned an ugly grey. I asked Lyle to drop to a knee so I could place him against the line of trees in the background and eliminate as much of the sky as possible. The main light was a Canon 580exII triggered with a Pocket Wizard through my trusty Photoflex Octodome NXT and I used a very subtle flash behind him on his left to give a little kiss of light on his cheek which was a Holn Speed Grid. We spent the day repeating Larry The Cable Guy jokes to each other to help make Lyle comfortable in front of the camera.
This photograph was made with a Canon 5dMkII with a 70-200mm f/2.8 V2 at 100mm, the settings were 1/160th @ f/4, 50 ISO.
Jerry McCarthy drives his Pontiac Firebird Z28 in rural Port Dover, Ontario. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
Blown highlights on the car hood, pretty unremarkable background, boring sky…I had to include this on the list. Like I said, it is my favorite photographs from 2011, not my best! The car is my cousins Pontiac Firebird z28, the driver is my cousin Jerry. He is an incredible car guy…he manages an auto body shop in a small town in Ontario and has an incredible amount of knowledge. How much? Well, he bought this car. It was basically a frame and a shell. He worked on it himself, and the result is this beauty you see here! Can you do that? I can’t!
I hung out of the back tailgate of a Toyota Venza traveling at around 45 km/h and shot this using a Canon 5dMkII with a 70-200mm f/2.8 V2 at 70mm, the settings were 1/30th @ f/13, 160 ISO. I made around 200 photographs, and between the bouncing of my car and his car, only around 4 were sharp. While the photograph is not “technically” perfect, I love it because of what it represents to me.
Craveyard handbags. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
One thing I love doing is challenging myself photographically, breaking out of my comfort zone. I haven’t photographed fashion in years, I leave that to the people who know what they are doing! An old friend of mine called me up and said she had started a handbag company and asked if I would make some photographs for her, I jumped at the opportunity! She said she had a really cool location picked out for me, so when I showed up at a mix of a packrat’s den and thrift store, I knew I was going to have fun! It was Hoarder Heaven!
We had a lot of fun, and shot a few different looks. This particular shot was made with a Canon 5dMkII using a 70-200mm f/2.8 V2 at 70mm, the settings were 1/160th @ f/4.5, 400 ISO. I used my trusty Photoflex Octodome NXT at camera right as my main, and I put a second flash in the room behind our model with a half-cut CTO to add a splash of texture and warmth.
Wanna see the gallery? Here is it! http://www.timsnowphotography.com/craveyard/
MONTREAL, QUE.: July 31, 2011–Joy Formidable performs during the third day of the Osheaga Music and Arts festival in Montreal, Quebec. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
Osheaga is becoming my favorite event of the year. Over 3 days of music, I photographed around 60 bands and heard a lot of great music! I was stationed at the two smaller stages this year having done the main stages last year, and actually preferred it as there were more bands I wanted to check out on the smaller stages anyways! Viva Brother, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Ellie Goulding, Fucked Up, The Mountain Goats and of course The Joy Formidable, it was one heck of a weekend! Of all of the photographs made during the festival, this one stands out as my favorite. The Joy Formidable put on the kind of show I love, with frenetic energy and a healthy disregard for personal safety! Fantastic!
The trusty Canon 1dMkIII made this shot using a 16-35mm f/2.8 at 30mm, the settings were 1/250th @ f/2.8, 400 ISO.
A full gallery of my photographs from Osheaga 2011 can be seen at http://www.timsnowphotography.com/Osheaga2011
Quebec, QUE.: December 18, 2010-- Mikael Zewski of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec (red corner) fights Montreal's Leonardo Rojas (blue corner) in the Middleweight class at the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City, Canada. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
Boxing is a very tough sport to photograph. There are really only 2 shots; either a glove on a distorted face or a knockdown. That’s pretty much it. This shot doesn’t show the contact of the glove and face. There is no sweat spray. Nothing. Except Mikael Zewski beating the tar out of a human punching bag and loving every minute of it. I don’t think Zewski stopped smiling one during the fight, it was quite a sight to see!
I used my workhorse Canon 1dMkIII to make this shot using the 24-70mm f/2.8 at 48mm, the settings were 1/1000th @ f/2.8, 2500 ISO. If I am to be picky, the fight took place on December 18th, 2010. But I’ll sneak it into the 2011 list because I made the photograph after I compiled my best of 2010! Here’s the full gallery of the nights fights: http://www.timsnowphotography.com/PasHop/
Conception Bay South, Newfoundland, Canada. PHOTO BY TIM SNOW
I was asked by one of my corporate clients to go to St. John’s Newfoundland to make some portraits for an upcoming magazine they were putting out. I of course jumped at the opportunity, Newfoundland is a place I have long wanted to visit. Tough I only had a couple of days, I wanted to make sure I drove around as much as I could to take in the beauty of the city and its surroundings.
Newfoundland boasts perhaps the friendliest people you will ever meet which says a lot as Canadians for the most part are known to be extremely polite. It also has one of the most breathtaking coasts, ruggedly formed by the crashing waves of the Atlantic. In the few hours I had to myself, this is one of the photographs I made. Here are the rest, in color: http://www.timsnowphotography.com/nfld/ and black and white: http://www.timsnowphotography.com/nfldbw/
I realize that the majority of these are snapshots, nothing too incredible, but I do feel they are worth sharing. One thing I feel full-time photographers do not do enough is to make photographs for themselves. I am not a morning person, but the morning of my flight home I made sure to be up and out of my hotel by 4am to take advantage of my day on The Rock, and I went out and, like a wide eyed kid, made photographs and hiked for more than 12 hours before heading to the airport. I was so pumped that the second I sat on the plane, I started uploading, making selects and worked on the photographs for my whole flight home. It allowed me to fall in love with photography again, and that is something we all have to do from time to time!
Have a great 2012, I hope it is full of health, happiness, love and of course, great photographs!
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