Headshots

Using your smartphone to take pictures of yourself for professional use is like wearing sweatpants to a wedding. It’s you, but poorly lit. Your face is off because the wide-angle lens distorted your face. Your background is cluttered. The message is, intended or not: I don’t care.

In contrast, a professional, beautiful, and expertly-captured moment says: This is me. I’m worth your time. Let’s collaborate. You work hard: bring the same effort to your visual presentation.

Group rates available: contact me for an estimate.

Editorial

For seven years, every photo I submitted was accompanied with a version of the following caption: {person} does {something} during {event} at {location} in {city} on {dow} {monthname} {day}, {year}. REGINA LEADER-POST/Michael Bell

Since becoming a freelance photographer, my work has appeared in the Canadian Press; Globe and Mail; Toronto Star; Macleans; Getty; CBC Saskatchewan; Discourse Magazine (University of Regina); Saskatchewan Farmers’ Voice (APAS); United Church Observer Magazine. I follow CP Style for captions, and your IPTC requirements will be error-free.

Events

Shooting an outdoor event is easy. Plenty of sunlight means better colour, sharper focus, and higher shutter speeds to freeze the action and get the shot. Darkly lit indoor events are much harder, and our city specializes in terribly lit indoor venues.

Rooms with tungsten mixed with day-light balanced bulbs: disgusting! Sodium-vapour lamps mixed with fluorescents: a crime!

After years of shooting in Regina, I’ve figured out ways to make good photographs in just about every dimly lit hotel, ballroom, school gymnasium, hockey arena and concert venue in the city.

Commercial

I bring a photojournalistic approach to photos destined for billboards, brochures, and other forms of advertising. Two staple techniques of photojournalism are the portrait and the candid shot.

An individual portrait can convey a mood, which provokes an emotional response from your audience. Genuinely candid moments between people convey a feeling of authenticity. Both take thoughtfulness and planning to achieve, and when it works the results are effective.