Native Men's Residence (Na-Me-Res) Success Story, Andrew

we are so honoured and fortunate to have photography as our method of connection with people

We are very aware of our privilege of having the unique learning opportunity through our work. Being in front of the camera, more often than not, is an awkward experience and we very seldom get to photograph people who are naturally enthusiastic and charismatic in front of the camera (ourselves included lol) so our way of easing the tension is usually through talking. Since we’re a team of two and typically rotate between shooting set ups one of us is usually the key photographer while the other is the assistant and/or art director. And in that role we usually will chit chat to loosen people up, get their focus off of the big camera and lens in front of them, and sort of give them a little reprieve.

We photographed Andrew at one of the Na-Me-Res off-site residences where Andrew holds the position as building manager. The building being fairly new, and having recently moved in, there wasn’t really a ‘best room’ to shoot in so in addition to some standard white backdrop photos Andrew brought in some of his own paintings to use! They are so beautiful and really complimented the scene.

While shooting/chatting with Andrew we got to learn about his life story; from residential school to homelessness, overcoming addiction, and the new path he is now on with his roll in the building and his art. We’re always grateful to learn, and even more so to photograph someone at this new chapter in their lives.

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Native Women's Annual Report Success Story, Tamara

one of our favourite teams to shoot with year after year is the native women’s team

It almost feels two fold because as much as we love it, we are always shooting at their centre and always in the same places so it can get a little stale after being in the same set up for so long. When we go over to the centre we’re always taking photos of the teams and since we had so much time between teams this year we opted for a couple of indoor set ups and outdoor ones across the street at Allan Gardens. Tamara was so great to work with, it’s always so fun to photograph people who are naturals in front of the camera (and that only happens .0001% of the time!)

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European Vacation

WHEN ONE OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS ANNOUNCED HER WEDDING WAS GOING TO BE IN GREECE, WE SAID “THANK YOU FOR THE EXCUSE TO VACATION” AND IMMEDIATELY STARTED PLANNING!

We flew in to Vouliagmeni (the location of our friends wedding, about a half hour south west from Athens airport) a few days before the wedding and stayed a couple of days afterwards. During our time there we were mostly at the beach adjusting to our jet lag in the best way possible. Greece, of course, has the best islands so we also went to visit Crete for about a week! We were lucky enough to be staying right on the beach in Chania where we had Ethan’s parents and sister join us. Truth be told, we were beach bums pretty much the whole time. We swam a lot, ate as much seafood as humanly possible, and it was perfect. Stef got sick part way through our time in Chania (conveniently on a day where we had planned to go on a hike) but Ethan and his family still hiked through the Agia Irini Gorge; It was about 7.5km long and the heat, lack of shade, and ruggedness of the terrain made it a challenging 3 hours, but the cold beer at the end made it all worth it! Another huge perk of the heat was that the trail was lined with thyme plants which were very fragrant from all the sunlight so much so the whole valley smelled like a turkey dinner!

FROM GREECE WE MADE OUR WAY TO ANDORRA VIA BARCELONA

We flew into Barcelona and proceeded to drive to Andorra. We don’t mind long drives as long as: 1. the road isn’t dead straight and 2. the scenery ain’t bad, and the 3hr drive from Barcelona to Andorra definitely checked those boxes. Seeing the rolling hill countryside of Spain transition into the Pyrenees mountains that make up most of Andorra was beautiful. Last time we were in Europe Ethan & I spent some time in Provence, which also has some large mountain ranges, but I don’t think they were comparable to Andorra. I’ve never felt so small before or have ever been so high up (case and point: on a rainy day we drove around we made it to the Andorra/Spain border which is 2300 meters above sea level!)

One of the reasons we went to Andorra is because Ethan wanted to go mountain biking at Vallnord, which is a stop on the Downhill Mountain Biking World Cup. Ethan here I’ll chime in for this bit since it’s biking related ;) Yes one of the big draws of Andorra was the biking so on our second day there I made my trip to Vallnord Bike Park. Stef was on the tail end of her illness from our time in Chania so she stayed at our Airbnb which wasn’t a bad place to be. I was anxious about my time in the bike park mainly because I wanted to ride the world cup course, but also knew this was one of the steepest tracks on the pro circuit. In total there were 3 lifts to get to the top which was at an elevation of 2351 meters above sea level and a total of 1100 meters elevation change from summit to base! The riding there was breathtaking and the views at the summit were 360 degrees of open mountains, and it was sometimes hard to focus on riding the trails because the views were so amazing. After warming up on a few less serious runs I went to the world cup track and I was HUMBLED as it was STEEPER than I could have ever guessed, despite studying lots of footage on the nights leading up to this ride! I did make it down in one piece but I had to walk down two sections because my mind really couldn’t comprehend taking a bike down haha

AND LASTLY, WE MADE OUR WAY TO (AND THEN FLEW HOME FROM) BARCELONA!

The best part of Barcelona (apart from the weather, architecture, history, etc etc etc) was the food! We strategically budgeted ourselves in the beginning parts of our trip so that we could splurge on food in Barcelona, and it did not disappoint! Whenever we are travelling abroad to oceanside places we make sure to take advantage of the seafood, and while arguably it was fresher in Greece, the meals in Barcelona were really something else. We both agreed that our last dinner, at La Mundada, was the best we have ever had… EVEN THE BREAD AND BUTTER WAS JAWDROPPING (caps for emphasis because we are so serious about how good it was!) Some of our other favourite food places were: Elche, Mabel the Granja, and L’Arroseeria Xàtiva. Apart from the food we spent most of our time- take a guess- at the beach. We did see La Sagrada Familia and Montserrat, and they were really truly breathtaking, but we both prefer laying down and relaxing as opposed running around touristing (also having not particularly planned to go into touristy places the lines were too long to make a last minute decision to see them).

Na-Me-Res 2019 Annual Report

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER NA-ME-RES REPORT UNDER OUR BELT AND WE COULDN’T BE HAPPIER!

It feels like every year we shoot this report we get better! In some aspects it becomes harder to shoot because we’re always in the same space trying to do different things, but in some ways I think that’s what keeps us on our toes.

This year was no different than the rest (other than this Medicine Garden shoot) so we shot different success story portraits (Andrew & Robert), general detail photos from around the centre- used as fillers/for misc. content- team photos of all of the different divisions, and new headshots of the centre’s executive director, Steve Teekens!

These shoots are generally broken up over a 2-3 day period so we can try and get as many people together as possible, but even then, some team members are out in the streets, working with clients directly, in meetings, on vacation, etc. so no matter how hard to try to coordinate it, we usually still missing a few people. Nonetheless though, everyone was enthusiastic as always and on our end it’s always great to be back year and year seeing the organization prosper.

For most of these set ups we use all natural light with the exception of the smaller group photos. For the teams that are small enough to fit inside- where everyone is still visible and in focus- we opted to set up a light to bring in some fill in addition to the available light in the room. The power on the strobe was kept low to softly mimic natural light but it was still strong enough to bring some light into everyone’s faces and diffuse shadows.

https://www.nameres.org/

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