WINNER ANNOUNCED: Win a Photoshoot Contest!

And the winner is.....**MONIKA KOVACS!**
Congratulations Monika! I look forward to working with you on a fantastic shoot! It's going to be so much fun!



Thanks to all that entered the Win A Photoshoot Contest. Was lovely to see the number of people eager to create magic!

Here are the shitty pics I took with my phone of the old fashioned draw (because it's way more fun to cut up names and put them in a hat!):




Much Love,

Maayan

Laying Low

A good location makes a world of difference. A few weeks ago I had been searching for the right spot for an upcoming shoot. I wanted something gritty (as I often do) and had been looking at different bridge options and road gutters. Originally I had envisioned something lighter and brighter, but I can get dark pretty quick. I stumbled across something perfect over twitter! Thanks to Steve Carty for tipping me off about this sweet location. Twitter is amazing.

















and of course....I gotta add a Black and White or two...



the team:



Model: Justin P (Elmer Olsen)
Hair/MU: Jaclynn LoFaso
Styled by: Jennifer Warne

Black and White Love

I've been holding back posting these for a little while now but I've decided to finally put together a little blog post about a recent shoot. I've always been a huge fan of black and white (you may know if you follow my StreetSnippets). I love the simplicity of BW, it's so straight forward and yet so romantic. And so...Keeping that in mind, and everything else I love about Black and White, I put together this shoot with the help of an amazing crew.


















Isn't she stunning?!
Model: the gorgeous Anastasiya Z from Elmer Olsen
Make-Up/Hair: the brilliant Jaclynn Lofaso
Styling: the oh-so-chic Jennifer Warne



and here's Jaclynn pouring her heart out:



Silly huh? But we laugh every time.

'Till next time,

Maayan Z

Win a Photoshoot with Me!

That's right! I'm running a contest and the winner (plus a lucky friend if they so choose) gets a Full day, on-location, photoshoot with me! I've had a few requests over the past months to run something like this and am pleased to finally be able to do it! and guess what, it's totally free!

NOTE: ENTRY DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED! WINNER WILL NOW BE ANNOUNCED ON OCTOBER 6TH, 2010!!!

Inspiration

Blank page looking at me, I find it difficult to get inspired to even write about inspiration. I've been meaning to write this blog post for a while now, every time I go to do it I get discouraged. Where to start? Inspiration. Blank page please inspire me. I wait...Nothing. I think to myself: don't force it, be patient, inspiration will come when its ready...

Tonight it has come! I've been inspired to finally write about inspiration. And it's a good thing too cause my blog is in need of an update!

Shooting A Designer Showcase

Recently I've had the pleasure of working with a creative team to shoot a showcase for several upcoming young fashion designers in Toronto.
We shot at an awesome location; a large empty space with lovely natural light that flowed in through the large windows that were everywhere.

The team was great and they all did a wonderful job at putting together this fun shoot. Here are some of the final processed shots:

And here are a few outtakes that I like:










If you haven't checked out the little behind-the-scenes video on my YouTube...here it is:




Featured clothing by Allicia Martin, Dez Barra-Assi and Andrea G -all fourth year Ryerson graduates.
Models are Andrea and Anastaija from Elmer Olsen
Hair by Sarah Lynn Gothe
Managed and Styled by Kaja Jorgensen, Shanice Clarke and Ellyn Foster.

and photos by me!

Take care for now,

Maayan Z

Creativity and Tech

This discussion of creativity vs. technical elements of photography has come up a few times for me so I thought I'd put together a post on it!

For me personally, I find it hard to focus on technical elements past knowing what I need to know to get the job done. I tend to focus on the conceptual aspect of a photo much more than I do the tech. Don't get me wrong, I totally feel the value in knowing your stuff, any good photographer needs to know how their equipment works, (this way you can know how to put it to work the way you want!) however I think that technical elements of photography should never overpower your image. If the numbers become the emphasis, you've probably lost me.

For me its about the visual image, about the conceptual process. Once I have that I figure out what I need to do (or learn) in order to make my imagination a reality in a frame.

I know I have so much to learn technically but I'm just taking it day by day, photo at a time, project at a time.

What do you think? What's your take on creativity vs tech?

Maayan Z