Portraits with Salty Western in Waimea

Ethan likes to say that I (Stef) am unable to have “just a normal vacation”. While Ethan is always on the hunt for our next life adventure together, I’m always searching our next photo opportunity. (In my own defence: we typically travel with our gear anyways and there’s just something so inspiring about shooting in a new location that makes me feel excited) I’m happy to say that this time the tables turned and it was actually Ethan who pitched shooting with Taira, which to our joyous surprise she was on board for!

Taira runs a beautiful leather goods company called Salty Western— “Salty Western was created by islander Taira Barron Cran. She grew up on the North Shore of Oahu and surfed before she could walk. Everyday revolved around the ocean, though her love for horses and the country life grew just as strong. Eventually, she moved to a 35,000 acre cattle ranch on the Big Island of Hawai’i. In her new little cowboy house, she started to use her creativity through leather. Experimenting with it, she began wetting it, dying it, cutting it up, and carving it. She drew inspiration in from her versatile lifestyle; from coming out of the Pacific ocean with dripping salty hair, to sitting by a fire with dirty cowboy boots, sipping whiskey after a long cattle drive. Much like living through an old western movie, though this one is surrounded by Hawaiian salt in the air. This was how Salty Western was born.”

We spent an evening with Taira at her ranch (after first going to the wrong ranch lol) where we photographed her working on, and with, some her of products. Waimea is also known as Hawaiian cowboy county, full of rolling green pastures, and home to lots of cowboy and cattle ranches so this was truly the perfect backdrop to shoot with Taira considering her brand ethos. What is it about watching other artists work that is so beautiful and interesting? Because that’s how photographing Taira felt. We walked around the ranch, said hi to a horse (!!), and later watched the sunset after we parted ways. It was such an honour to do this and we’re so thankful for Taira’s invitation to visit, we look forward to returning one day!

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Ralph Nigro for Ontario Principals Council

One of our favourite shoots of the year is always with the Ontario Principals Council. It is always a joy working with the same team over the years, and in this case we always have a new face to photograph. The acting President of this year is Ralph Nigro, who we photographed at OPC housing HQ in downtown Toronto. Principals come from all around the province and with OPC’s office based right beside the Eaton Centre they have a condo unit for those who spend their term working in the city.

It can be a bit difficult working in the same space year after year and finding something new to do. Our last few sessions have been on the same rooftop but I think we have lucked out with having such an amazing view of the city from that high up that using the same backdrop over and over still looks as beautiful as the first time. Ralph was warm and welcoming, and very generous with his time. It’s no secret that photographers will often say “ok just 1 more thing” and then think of one more thing to do, and one more thing, and one more thing, and Ralph was incredibly patient with this. We had a beautiful and bright morning on our shoot day which ordinarily would be great but in this case was just a biiiit too bright for anyone to open their eyes all the way so we used a scrim to diffuse as necessary.

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Headshot Day with Kasian Architecture

We were excited to have gotten a call from Kasian Architecture to photograph updated portraits for, and at, their Toronto office. Most of their staff were still on WFH at the time so for a lot of folks coming in, this was their first time back since pre-pandemic. To make the most of everyone’s day in office they also planned their staff party for later that evening so everyone was all dressed up and ready to go for both photos and a party (leaving us with good looking ppl with upbeat, celebratory, attitudes)!

With a huge team spanning the country they wanted their photos to match other existing ones; giving a relaxed but professional feel and specifically meeting design requirements of being right justified to fit their site and internal formatting. Being an architecture firm there was no surprise that they have a beautiful and bright office space in Liberty Village. We opted for shooting the more formal headshot set ups in the lobby area as well as some staged ‘working’ / in action photos in the conference room with folks efficiently bouncing from Stef to Ethan for their sitting.

When people think of headshot day it always reminds them (even us) of picture day at school, but we love making it something better and giving folks a profile photo they can feel happy and confident about!

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Junior Cadougan for Marquette University

This was, hands down, one of our favourite shoots of 2023! Junior Cadougan, is a former professional basketball player, and currently runs Cadougan Elite. This past summerJunior drove his team down to his alma mater, Marquette University in Milwaukee— “If you are looking for someone to believe in, believe in Junior Cadougan, who drove all night to show a group of ninth graders what is possible beyond what they can imagine.”

While there the team got a few phone snaps but didn’t have a chance to take better photos, which is where we came in. Julie, from 508 Creative, reached out to connect us with Junior and assigned us the task of photographing the team back in Toronto. They were looking for photos of the team, of Junior, and of the kids playing and goofing around, ‘kids being kids’. We met up with them at a practice one night at a gym for rent where music was blasting, everyone was sweaty, and in the neighbouring court a volleyball game was happening. The energy was immediately palpable. Kids are always fun to shoot and often letting them do their own thing is where the magic really happens, like during their formal group photo when we prompted ‘ok now stay in the same position, but interact with each other’ and they immediately turned things up 110%.

The action shots of everyone playing was where we felt most apprehensive of this shoot; we’re not sports photographers by any means and this felt very out of our wheelhouse, but turned out to be our absolute favourite part of the night! We set up a big light for the group shot but knew it wouldn’t be realistic to use (or to even plant in 1 optimal location) while everyone was moving around, so we opted for on camera flash. Direct flash isn’t something we always use, but something about the high energy, grit, and passion oozing out of everyone made it feel appropriate. Knowing that we weren’t going to get the kinds of photos that would best encapsulate the team from the sidelines something in my mind said, get in the way, so that’s exactly what we did. Right in the middle of the action, constantly getting someone falling on us, and occasionally a basketball right to the lens (that’s what insurance is for right lol?), but it was so worth it!

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