I hope I never get this way if I ever have employees again. Rogers just announced its third quarter earnings, showing net profits up 4%, earnings per customer up, and customer retention up too. At the same time, they told their retail store staff that their commissions were being cut 30%. Mmmmmm greeeedy.

Things are always interesting around here. To me, anyway. I got a call from a casting agency, because one of my friends had recommended me and several other improvisers to audition for a new TV commercial. I personally have no aspirations to become an actor, but I thought this would be a fun and fascinating experience anyway. So, I whipped up a headshot for myself, using the handy-dandy photo studio that I live in. Then I headed off to the casting facility in Toronto this morning for the audition.

It did turn out to be quite interesting. I was paired up with a female actor, who was auditioning for the part of my wife. She was an experienced actor, and had been in lots of commercials before. She thought this might be a good one though, because there were actual lines, and even an opportunity to act a little. Before we went in to audition, the director explained what he wanted to see in terms of character and emotion. Then we were called in in pairs to read through the scripts. There were two different commercials, for which I’d received the scripts in advance. It seemed to go very, very fast, probably because I was feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing. But, it was fun, and everyone was very friendly and supportive.

I doubt very much that I’ll get this part, nor do I really want it. However, I think this was a very valuable experience for me. I want to be able to understand my photography clients as well as possible, so having gone through the process of having my headshots taken, getting them printed, learning the lines, and then auditioning got me a bit closer to that goal. It was also cool to get to see more of this giant industry of which I am just a tiny part.

It turns out that I didn’t need the headshots, since they’re probably most useful for actually getting the audition. But, I felt it was good to be prepared, and added to my experience anyway.

Ok, here’s a little teaser for something Laura and I have been working on for the last couple of days.

We’re working with Tamara, who’s an amazing body painter. We were shooting and painting for the past two days. Now I have to put everything together. Finished product coming soon… ish.

This news just in. Canada’s banks are the soundest in the world, according to the World Economic Forum. So let’s everyone from other countries come and buy up some Canuckistanian rubles to boost their value in advance of my trip to New York City at the end of the month, mmmkay?

Here’s the anatomy of another collaboration with Laura…

She created a “money forest” in her studio, and it was truly spectacular. It was my job to photograph it, so I really wanted to do it justice.

The lighting was tricky in this one. We wanted to create a magical or mystical mood. I imagined it almost like a fairy tale. With all the dangling threads and fibres, I knew that the best way to do this was to backlight it heavily. At the same time, I wanted her skin to appear porcelain and pure, so it required some good fill light too. To create this affect, I used three strobes. One was positioned high in her loft above and behind the set. I pointed it at the white ceiling to give a sort of “overcast” light that would fill the entire scene, but mostly from behind. The second strobe was positioned behind and above to the left of the frame. I used a white brolly-box to cast soft light in all directions. It provided a halo-type backlight to Laura, and also lit up the hanging strands of wool and made them glow. The third and final strobe provided a main light to spotlight the figure. I put a brolly-box on that light too, to soften it and prevent any hard shadows from the money tree branches. This light was positioned above and to the right of the frame, slightly ahead of Laura. It was pointed down towards her face. This way it would cast some flattering shadows from front to back. As usual, I like to light female faces directly from the front.

To create the impression of depth in the photo, we positioned hanging strands of wool in front and behind Laura. I shot at f2.8 around 70mm. We attached money in layers at different distances from the camera, so the shallow depth of field would imply the distances, and create a three-dimensional flow through the image.

So there you go. Money forest. I have planted a $5 bill to see if it I can grow my own now.