Author Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio for Trent Magazine

We got a last minute call from Trent University when they had a sudden change of plans for their upcoming alumni magazine cover shoot— they had to pivot for their new feature with Jennilee and they needed someone to shoot with her at her Queen West home, and turnaround the session ASAP. Say no more, this is not unusual for us! After a quick brief with the editorial team we learned that Jennilee is (unsurprisingly) a Trent alumna and recently published her first novel, Reuniting with Strangers. She also still works in communications so the urgency of this shoot was not lost on her, and we were told multiple times that “she’s in comms, she knows what we’re going through”. Right from our first email Jennilee was sooo inviting and so warm, and immediately invited us to stay for dinner after our shoot! I (Stef) come from two backgrounds (Portuguese & Chinese) where food is our love language, both sharing and making it for others, so immediately being given an assortment of snacks upon arrival and then being able to share dinner together afterwards really hit right in my love language. As we were shooting, and even all of these months after, those feelings all stayed true; we have not photographed someone as light hearted, and as lovely Jennilee (and by proxy, her husband because he was there too, and both of them together are the sweetest).

My favourite part of our shoot was the beginning, for both getting to meet and play with her dog, Cheeseburger (yes, Cheeseburger!!!), and for my favourite note of all time: when Jennilee was asking for wardrobe feedback and said “I want to look as Filipino as possible”. Her text after the feature was published where she said “I look SOOO Filipino and it makes me super happy!” makes me feel like we were successful ;) Her debut novel speaks to the Filipino immigrant experience, touching on themes of “displacement, estrangement, resilience and healing that happen behind closed doors” so being able to make photograph Jennilee in a light and clothing style that both speaks to her own Filipino heritage and touches on her book makes us feel proud.

Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through

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.

Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through

Hatel Patel for Registered Nurse Journal

EVEN THOUGH THIS SHOOT WAS A WHILE AGO, I ALWAYS THINK BACK ON HATEL AS BEING ONE OF THE KINDEST PEOPLE WE’VE EVER MET

We met him at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa early one winter morning to photograph him for a feature for the RNAO about Registered Practical Nurses’ (RPNs) going back to school to become Registered Nurse (RN).

Hatel was so honoured to be featured he told us all about himself- his life, working 3 jobs (on top of being a student) to support himself and his family, how excited he was to graduate soon- and even showed us around his school, taking us into his classrooms and demonstrating a few moves for us, and he even booked out his “favourite lecture hall” for us to shoot in!

We don’t usually have an inside man/producer to help us with these kind of logistics, especially when the locations we’re shooting at are outside of the city, so generally we’ll arrive an hour or so before we begin to shooting to walk around, scout things out, and test shoot in a few different spots but Hatel had it all figured out for us!

It was a bright and sunny day when we shot (one of those blindingly bright days actually) so we ended up shooting all natural light. The lecture hall had this beautiful streak of light that was shining through the windows and there were floor to ceiling windows in the little stairwell that we shot that was too bright and beautiful to pass up.

See some photos from this shoot (+a couple behind the scenes phone snaps) down below