Saturday, December 24, 2016

2016 - A Photographic Year in Review...


As 2016 comes to an end, we take a look back, and see what we, at SNAPePHOTO have accomplished during the last 12 months, and look onward as to what we can aspire towards, in terms of goals for the upcoming year.

As many of you know, 2016 had it's ups & downs.  In Sept I had to undergo a relatively complex shoulder reconstruction, to mend tendons, ligaments and muscle that was damaged in a crash during a sporting event.  Needless to say, we were in awe to see how loyal our clients were, as they continued to give us their respective mandates, and some even pushed back their projects so were the ones to conduct the shoot.  These actions were heartfelt, and didn't go unnoticed.

1. Projects
A total of 197 different projects were accomplished in the past year. A tad short from the previous year, but considering the 2 months off from the surgery, a good year nonetheless.  We've given ourselves a personal goal of 240 projects for 2017.

2.  Blog
Our third full year of keeping a Blog.  It's long, tedious, but well worth the time spent in exposure.
102 new Posts on the SNAPePHOTO Blog! (Up from 92 in 2015).  We thought we could have reached 500,000 Pageviews in 2016, but it'll have to wait for 1 or 2 more posts in early January.

More than 300,000 Hits in the last 12 months!! (up from a mere 110,000 hits in 2015).  That tells us that more people are following us, and taking the time to view our work, post after post.

3.  Website
We managed to keep the website up to date, with a good quantity and variety of our projects, modified the visuals, added a photo sharing/proofing option (that our clients seem to LOVE), and finally a shopping cart section, that we promise to garnish with goodies in 2017!
With 341,074 Page Views, 315,628 Visits & 46,419 Unique Visitors to date, we're more than happy!!  

4.  Gear
2016 has been a good year in terms of gear acquisition for us.  Several Canon 1Dx MKII with several CFast cards, the new M5 Mirrorless unit, as well as a few lenses.

5.  Clients
And of course, we're keeping the best for last... Our clients!  2016 has brought us a total of 5 new clients, and, a few of them from various sectors of activity. Old clients came back, as we had not seen them in 2015.  All in all, a really prosperous year, as invoicing went up 22% from the previous year.
Our goal for 2016, our goal will be to continue to satisfy our existing clientel, and try to add on average 1 new client a month.  Hopefully, you will be one of them.

On that note, we wanted to take this opportunity, to wish you all....

HEALTH, HAPPINESS, LOVE & PROSPERITY for 2017!

Friday, December 23, 2016

Toupi & Binou...

Jeudi le 22 Décembre 2016  |  Salle Pierre-Mercure

Toupi & Binou ont accueillis les tout-p'tits sur le tapis rouge, et avais préparé un spectacle haut en couleurs, qui sera présenté jusqu'au 3 Janvier.

Quelques images... ICI

Lien pour achat de billets... ICI


Wednesday, December 21, 2016

La Voix Junior 2016...

Dimanche le 18 Décembre 2016  | Centre Bell

Tout pres de 20,000 spectateurs on assistés au deux représentations de La Voix Junior, ou les 85 candidats et leurs coach, Marie-Mai, Marc Dupré et Alex Nevsky, y étais comme "participants", pendant que les jeunes jouais les stars sur les planches du Centre Bell.

Le Setlist et quelques images... ICI



Sunday, December 18, 2016

Les Productions VIP...

11 Decembre 2016  |  Centre Bell

Plus tot cette semaine, la glace du Centre Bell étais transformé en salle de reception pour le cocktail du Staff Party de Noel du Groupe CH / evenko, le mise au jeu a recu plus de 475 invités, et l'arriere-scene (le fameux "Backstage"), en place de Party.

Rien ne pourrais etre plus approprié pour l'evennement, que d'avoir les reines de glace présente a l'accueille, et les princesses de glace au service du champagne, pour agrémenter l'atmosphere, lors du cocktail sur la glace de nos glorieux.

Les Productions VIP on livré le mandat avec brio, et fait quelques heureux en posant fierement avec les invités. Vous pouvez les réjoindre pour vos propres evennements, a tammy@les productionsvip.com ou (514) 971-8364

Quelques images de la partie cocktail de la soirée... ICI


Saturday, December 17, 2016

Fondation evenko - Le Plateau...

Jeudi le 15 Decembre 2016  |  Ecole Le Plateau

La Fondation evenko, qui a pour but d'aider nos jeunes a participer et a faire connaitre leurs talents dans toutes les formes d'arts, a trouvé la maniere la plus originale d'offrir 12 violons et 6 violoncelles, au étudiants de 6ieme année en concentration musique de l'école de musique, Le Plateau.

Qui de mieux pour presenter ces instruments, que Mara Tremblay, qui a elle-meme étudier a cette école, 40ans passé, et que son fils a terminé ces propre études a la meme établissement en 2014.

Quelques images de ce grand geste... ICI


Sunday, December 11, 2016

Molson Coors Xmas Skating Session...

Sunday Dec 11th 2016  |  Bell Centre

As tradition would have it, Molson Coors invited their employees, along with family members, to enjoy a skating session on the Bell Center ice, & had plenty to entertain the kids. Santa, gifts, balloon-making clowns, inflatable games, carnival ride, face-painting, and food.

A few select images... HERE


Thursday, December 8, 2016

Chromakey Green Screen...

Sunday November 26th 2016  |  SNAPePHOTO Studios

We've always been somewhat reluctant to using a chromakey background, mainly because we felt it had better advantages to those who did video, over stills.  Now that we're attempting to create more composite type renders, we've decided it was time for us to yield to the temptation. 

In this post we'll explain various camera setting, several lighting set-ups, as well as the software plugin used to achieve the desired results.

Lighting
When shooting with a Chromakey background, it's important to consider a few important tips. You should take the time to light the background as evenly as possible (preferably using softboxes), but also to light the subject or model a little more than usual.  Avoid overexposing the background, and ultimately, reducing the casting effect of a reflective greenish spill on the model.

We went ahead and used a 5-light set-up (see diagram below)
ChromaKey Green Screen Backdrop
We used a 9' x 36' long seamless roll, simply because we liked having the option to unroll the length we need, depending whether we'll be shooting portraits or full-length images.  Also, with the seamless, we don't have to worry about wrinkles, that can create shadows, and later becoming a more tedious task in post production.

Software
After comparing the pros & cons of various stand-alone & plug-in type software solutions out there, we opted to go with the PhotoKey 8 Pro.  It had features and ease of use that we thought would fit in nicely with our existing workflow. It is primarily conceived as a standalone software, but also comes with a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CC.




In the upcoming weeks we'll be posting several completed examples, and adding a link on this post for our viewers to see.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Cirque du Soleil - OVO...

Nov 29th - Dec. 4th 2016  |  Bell Centre

A memorizing moment for the entire family, as Ovo stimulates your visuals with stunning scenes & costumes, and taunts your nerves with it's high aerial acrobatics, skills & strength.  A circus not to be missed! 

Ovo, the touring circus production, by Cirque du Soleil, was premiered in Montreal, back in 2009.  Ovo's creative director, Deborah Colker, took inspiration from the world of insects.  The idea for Ovo was all about movement.

A few of our preferred images... HERE