Photo shoot with Vanessa

Here are some pictures of my recent shoot with Vanessa and make-up by Mary Martinelli. It was Vanessa's first time doing a photo shoot and having make-up done. We started taking some pictures on the terrace and roof until it was dark, then we moved back inside and did another couple of looks. Just to give you an idea, including make-up and changing, this was about a 4 hour shoot.

the winner of the contest...

The contest is now over and a winner was drawn: Sophie Roy..
If she chooses the photoshoot, I will surely post some of the pictures here soon!

thanks all for participating !

Win a photo shoot ! Gagnez un shoot photo!

Thanks all for your support and interest in my photography!
I am starting a contest today, and the winner will get to choose one of the following prizes:

• a photo shoot in the Montreal area (in August)
• a print of a smoke picture
• retouching services (for photographers, Make-up artists etc)

Jess & Matteo's wedding in La Prairie

Jess and Matteo got married on June 12th on the golf course of La Prairie. Matteo is a photographer as well (flickr | facebook), and I was honored when the couple chose me to be their wedding photographer.
Despite forecasts of clouds and 60% chance of rain, it was a gorgeous day with plenty of sun and blue skies.
So along with assistant/2nd photographer Elsa (website | blog), we covered the preparation of bride and groom and the outdoors ceremony and some family portraits, before hopping on some golf carts to take pictures of the newlyweds. It was fun to drive around the course, stopping now and then for some pictures whenever we spotted a nice location for pictures. After about an hour we had to head back to the guests, we couldn't keep the couple from them much longer. Then we continued with the meal and party and made sure those beautiful moments were captured forever..
I will update the galleries soon, but here are some of the pictures already.

Maternity Shoot Monica

Just about two weeks ago, we did a maternity photo session with Monica. Some of you may know her, or recognize from a previous shoot about 2 years ago.. Mark, boyfriend at the time, is now her husband, and they're expecting their first baby in June. In the weeks leading to the shoot, we talked a couple of times to discuss what kind of pictures she likes and wanted, which helped a lot when we started taking pictures. It was really cold and rainy that day, so going outside for pictures was out of the question, we kept to the living room, which was transformed into a home studio for part of the session.

We asked Mark to join Monica for some pictures as well, to show their bond.. their being a family already even before the baby is born..With the Canadians being in the play-offs and especially Mark being a fervent Habs fan, the little Habs shoes made their guest appearance..
Now after the shoot, and pictures in hand (and soon on the wall), Monica is continuing the wait.. and I'm sure they're getting impatient to meet their baby.. and from that moment the pregnancy will be as good as forgotten.. except for these pictures...

 (some more pictures in the full post)
 

Published in the National Post

One of my pictures made it in last weekend's National Post, a national newspaper in Canada. The article by Nathalie Atkinson talks about the independent fashion designer Veronica Reis. The pictures we took of Veronica's dresses date back to September, but she has recently received more recognition and exposure on her work in the media, online and this weekend also in print.
The picture that is shown in the article features the dress 'Green apple of my eye' - which was recently also featured on the home page of Etsy. The model is Marie-Eve Lamour and make-up was done by Christma Nathali. You can see more pictures of the shoot in the studio gallery

Some more fashion work is brewing, and hope to share more in the summer!

Smoke Variations..

It has been a couple of months again since my last post with new smoke photography. Here is some new smoke art from a recent shoot..

Shooting smoke with a 21Mpix camera is really wonderful as it will allow full frame pictures to be printed quite large, or on the other hand gives more cropping flexibility while still keeping reasonable resolution.. Have a look at this first picture.. on the left you can see the original smoke trail I captured, with on the right 4 different variations, all made using the top part of the picture, either on its own (1), mirrored (2) or even mirrored twice (3 and 4).  The resulting mirrored pictures are very different from the original, and from each other, ..

The 'purists' may only appreciate the smoke that was actually shot, and not any mirrored derivatives.. so only the original and maybe number 1 would be of interest to those..
While I agree that it is 'harder' to come up with a beautiful recognisable smoke pattern without layers and mirroring (think Boy and Balloon, the Sorcerer, basically everything in the Smoke gallery), the symmetry of the mirrored smoke can be very appealing and in turn reveal very surprising shapes (Hommage to Magritte, Queen of Hearts, other ones in Smoke and Mirrors gallery)

Here is another new example the purists may appreciate.. personally I see the shape of a woman, holding up her baby.. maybe the smoke leaving the baby could be its spirit leaving it.. that would make it a sad scene, and the woman's expression and head looking up could indeed point the same way.. But feel free to let your own mind come up with an image..

Finally, a little abstract shape, a detail I liked within a picture..
Feel free to comment with what you see..

Shayne Lamas retouched for Hombre Magazine

Speaking of retouching.. a couple of months ago I retouched a couple of pictures of Shayne Lamas for HOMBRE magazine.. They were used in the issue that came out late November, here are some images...

Retouching by Stoffel De Roover / Lumendipity , photography by Shacham Zaguri, styling by Claudia Kaye, Hair by Lana Grand and Make-up by Carla Farra.

Retouching services for photographers

I may have mentioned before that I offer retouching services to fellow photographers, make-up artists and models. Here is one of my recent retouched work. The photographer is Steve Marsel Studio, and it's a pleasure to work with on his images..

If you have any pictures you want to give a more professional look, or maybe a totally different look, try out my service. Whether you give me strict instructions or you leave it up to me saying 'just make it a great picture', I will make sure you have a picture you can be proud of to give to your client or add to your portfolio. You can have a look at more examples showing the before and after images so you can have a good look at what the photographers provided, and what value I added for them.
My rates start at $20 per picture. If you are not the photographer of the work, you will need written consent by the photographer.

shoot with Anne-Marie

A bit over a week ago, I had a very nice shoot with Anne-Marie Allard. As an actress she was looking for some pictures to use for her agency and at the same time have a fun experience doing her very first photo shoot. Here are some of the pictures we made...

If you're interested in setting up a shoot with me, contact me now!

some changes to the blog

Due to some changes by blogger, the blog has a new address and will be on blog.lumendipity.com from now on. The redirect from www.lumendipity.com/blog isn't working yet, the migration tool should be ready next week..
The old posts will remain where they were, so none of the links to them are broken, and any links to the blog homepage should soon all lead to this new location.. Apologies for the inconvenience in the meantime..
On the plus side, I am planning on adding posts more often.. the full posts may not be on the main page, but click on 'read more' to see the full post..

Happy New Year, happy new decade

Thank you all for your interest, work, collaboration and support this year.. I wish you all the very best for the new year, and the new decennium!

click on the image to see a larger version (and again for even larger).
Yes, the 2010 is in smoke as well...

France d'Amour CD Launch

Last week quebecois singer France d'Amour launched her 8th album "le Present" and presented it to fans and the press at eXcentris in Montreal. I was asked by her record company to take pictures of the event. She had invited some other Quebec artists to perform with her: Steve Veilleux from Kaïn, Clément Jacques and Imposs each joined her for one song.

While getting ready and waiting for the first people to arrive, I met Steve Veilleux, and spoke with him for a couple of minutes, mentioning his show in Repentigny this summer and the pictures I took there (see blog post)


You can check out the artist's websites here:
France d'Amour -  www.francedamour.com/
Kain - http://www.kain.ca/
Clement Jaques - http://clementjacques.com/
Imposs - http://www.myspace.com/imposs/

New Smoke Photography - gift ideas?

I have updated my smoke photography gallery, and have also split it up in two: 'smoke' and 'smoke and mirrors'. Images in the latter gallery are symmetric due to the mirroring of the original picture upon itself.

All of the smoke images can be purchased and delivered to your address. Metallic paper works really well for the smoke pictures, but I can now also offer acrylic prints and canvas prints, or even on metal. Could be just the right gift for the upcoming holidays. I will soon upload some pictures of each of the print types.
Here are some of my new works..
while quite different from each other, there's a common thread (almost literally).. to me both look like underwater somehow.. one quite abastract, the other representing a couple in which the female is probably a mermaid.. though that's just my interpretation, feel free to see other things in it!

I have uploaded some more new work and they are (for about 30 days) marked with the 'new' label in the galleries. Feel free to leave me some feedback, or contact me for more information on how to buy one of the smoke pictures.

More on Aqua Art Miami

As you can see on the screenshot, we're featured on the AquaArt Miami website now, under AleatoricArt

My smoke pictures will be shown in the AleatoricArt booth (41) among art of Martin Waugh, J Coleman-Miller, Ray Cabarga, Ted Lincoln, Allan Rodewald, Volborth/Miller, Reed Ghazala, Howard Pugh and professor Alex Volborth, who passsed away on October 30th; the show will have a retrospective of some of his art.

Take some time to have a look at these sites and be amazed. Also check out the other AleatoricArt artists, whose work will be displayed on 2 large flatscreens as well in booth 41.

Smoke Photography on Aqua Art Miami

The location for the exhibition changed from the Marlin Hotel to Aqua Art Miami 2009 - Booth 41 !


If you're going to Art Basel Miami 2009 from December 3rd to 6th, don't forget to drop by Aqua Art Miami for a great exhibition of Aleatoric Art The Movement of Aleatoric Modern Artists is doing its first group show to introduce the movement and its artists to the public and the art world. Among the works of about 10 artists you will also be able to see (and buy) my smoke photography.
With over 60,000 art lovers visiting Art Basel Miami, this is a great opportunity for a lot of people to discover our work.. and my smoke art! If you're near Miami, make sure to come by, and tell everyone you know !