It was a strange time for me last summer. Plexman Studios couldn’t do any business until Toronto went into the so-called “Stage Two” of re-opening. So I busied myself with organizing the studio, digitizing old family slides and doing a bit of marketing. I was itching to do something a bit more creative- and help others at the same time. Long time friends came to the rescue and asked me to refresh the family portrait that I had done years ago. The only way to do it safely (and legally) while still in lockdown, was to shoot outside. Despite this, I wanted to get a sense of the warmth of their house so I decided to shoot at night when the lights inside the house would add a warm glow to the image. I went and hung out in their backyard for a couple of hours one evening to determine where I would set up my camera and lights, where I’d place the 5 subjects to keep the ones not living in the house distanced, and what the magic hour would be for the shot. After gathering the information and having a socially distant beer on the deck with my friend, I checked the weather forecast and we set a date and time.
On the appointed day, Sylvia (my wife and business partner) and I arrived at 6:30 to unload and start setting up equipment. I did my first test shot at 7:30 while everyone else was fussing with what to place on the table and where to position the plants that were on the deck. The main shot was captured at 8:30 when it was completely dark- the lights from the house really looked great with a long exposure. With a bit of luck I captured the family cat in the dining room window in one of the shots and popped it into the final image. I made sure to capture images with masks, which are surreal, but will become an interesting historical record of these times.
A rather surreal look…
The final shot was so well received and so much fun to shoot that I decided to do it again- with other families. All were shot after dark, lit with portable strobes and a warm glow from the house. My crazy expensive camera system allows me to record everything from the deepest shadows to the brightest lights so that I’m able to maintain incredible control over the final look of the images.
