A quick view under the hood of the Relay at Miller Technology’s facility in North Bay Ontario where I created a series of images of the fabrication process of some of the fleet vehicles. Later, I photographed the Relay in it’s working environment underground at the Young Davidson Mine in Matachewan Ontario Here
My One Click Wonders.
Sometimes “I get lucky” (I use this term loosely)
A few months ago I created a few images of Melynda (Welder at Vale’s Creighton Mine) for a Canada Skills Publication. As she was moving into position I clicked the shutter button for my test shot to make sure everything was firing and this was the end result of the capture.
It’s dark and I adjusted my lighting for the task at hand but with low contrast and muted colors it has impact. It was my favorite image from the series and if I settled on it I would have been done the session in 1/13th of second lol.
#miningphotog #welder #vale #professionalphotography #canadaskills
New Grounds With Normet
I found myself underground again but this time within a different scenario, one of Canada’s largest transit expansion. This was the first time I have been introduced to the tunneling environment and I felt right at home from the get go. I had a few hours to capture the equipment and processes for my client Normet www.normet.com and I was eager to capture as much as I could while I had this opportunity.
Concrete sprayers, transmixers and dumper trucks where busy pushing forward with the expansion and as I looked around I discovered a whole new “city” alive with the hustle and bustle of people and machines.
I have been photographing industry for over 20 years and each time I discover something new it’s like the first time all over again. Even though it’s very similar to the underground mining environment I frequent, new challenges always emerge to overcome when trying to create those images that stand out and that’s the challenge I love to accept and tackle.
Thanks to Jason Huck for bringing me on board to capture the story images.
You can read more on Normet & the Toronto transit expansion at https://lnkd.in/eapeBZW
www.normet.com
www.miningphotog.com
If your going to be in writing have the quality of images worthy of a cover. This months issue of Diesel Progress Magazine (www.dieselprogress.com) features the innovative Relay BEV from Miller Technology with electric drive systems lead developer Paul Summers behind the wheel.
I photographed the Relay in the Miller Industrial shop a few years back and then recently again in it’s working environment underground at the Young Davidson mine here in Northern Ontario. We created a good variety of key marketable images during that session with some of them featured within the issue’s write up.
www.dieselprogress.com
www.millertechnology.com
There is something about the clinical cleanliness that I like in a medical photograph. It’s bright, lighter tones, lots of white, crisp and clean. Everything about the image creating process is still the same with me no matter what the environment is. Find the scene, create the frame, showcase the main subject, and tell a story. When looking at an image there should be a distinct subject that the eyes are drawn to first, as well, the background and environment should compliment the subject.
Too many competing subjects can make the image “busy” and if the viewer has to guess what the main subject is, then the image is not doing it’s intended job. Yes each image we create should have a purpose.
Image created last Fall for Health Sciences North Foundation here in Sudbury On.
This style of mining/industrial portrait has become one of my signature looks. I have referred to it in the past as my “Thank You” portrait for taking the time to allow me to photograph them in their environment. This was taken last year at the end of “The Drift” shoot. Thanks Cindy and Vale Creighton Mine for making this happen.
The image on the latest issue of CIM Magazine (https://magazine.cim.org/en/) features the Rokion R400 (www.rokion.com) Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) manufactured by Prairie Machine (www.prairiemachine.com) that we photographed underground at Vale’s Creighton Mine just outside of Sudbury, Ontario.
When you are at #pdac2020 keep an eye out for these top industry magazines and grab yourself a copy of each.
#cimmagazine #thedrift #resourceworld #mininglifeandexplorationnews #miningphotog
“Hey, I know that image.” So I am googling my clients and industry news when I come across an image for the latest of issue of Resource World Magazine with an image I created for SSR Mining (via www.pendaproductions.com) at their Sea Bee mine in Northern Saskatchewan. Having an updated image archive of your operations, people and processes makes it simple to provide good quality photography to the industry publications and websites.
I am in the attention retention business. I create images that invoke a response. Images that are strikingly different but of the same subject you see every day in your social media feeds. I create images that have the power to grab the viewers attention, to make them hesitate for a moment before swiping up or scrolling down. That brief moment of hesitation and curiosity could lead them to read your post and your message. With thousands of images being viewed every minute, the images that create a reaction are the ones that steal someones time out of their busy day.
Every image I present to my client is my best. When I was younger I would call it “Shooting for competition”. I used to compete (and judge) in a lot of professional photography association competitions like WPPI and PPOC winning awards throughout the years. Each image entered had to have criteria that the judges were looking for. Was the subject matter eye catching? Did the image tell a story? Was the main subject the dominant factor in the image? (if you want to know just turn the image upside down and see where your eye goes to first). I strived to enter the best image I could each and every time. As professional photographers we took all these factors into account before we pressed the shutter button. Over the years it became second nature to look at things through the eyes of a print judge. This honed all of our photography skills and ensured that we strived for the best image we could create. To create an image that could stand alone and be judged.
If you are going to showcase your product, company or people to the world wide web then you should be striving to use the best image possible. It’s easy to tell if you are. Just look at the images you use and ask yourself are these the best I can get? Do these images showcase my business in the best possible way? Some companies social media streams are filled with the exact same mundane visuals day after day. “Look what we created today” with a snapshot of the product. The next post “look what we created today”, another snapshot of the same product and so on and so on. Week after week it’s the same thing. I know this because I see it. I look for it. That is marketing failure 101 and it’s usually an affliction caused by someone not knowing the true power and importance of social media marketing. Ask yourself, do you want images that swipe or images that click?
With the constant stream of posts at our fingertips and the ease of swiping up or scrolling down, the importance of grabbing someones attention is becoming more challenging. So how do you get their attention? By creating the best eye catching content your company can create. This is usually done with great photography and great photography is not everyday photography. Great photography is planned. Great photography is created to compliment graphics and layouts. Great photography is discussed before the shutter button is pressed. I like to discuss the end product with my clients. I like to know how the images are going to be used, how they will be implemented into design layouts and how they are going to be presented to the public. This ensures that the image used will compliment the message viewed.
Where social media is the dominating platform for marketing which already has an over saturated abundance of content, your business must stand out from your competition. Your business name, your product, your brand must be seen on a regular basis and each time it must be different in order to be embedded in your potential clients brain. I wrote a daily studio photography blog years ago. Every day I would post an image with a story about the session and one time a new client said to me “I have been following your blog for over 2 years now but we didn’t need then. Now we need photography and your name was the first that popped into my head.” That’s branding, and it’s the same today as it was years ago, the only difference is the platform.
If you want to be the best then work to be the best. Create the best product you can, employ the best people you can and use the best marketing you can. If you want something different, I will give you something different because different stands out.
I have staked my claim.
Created for:
The Drift Mining Magazine Cover 2020
www.northernontariobusiness.com
Thanks to Northern Ontario Business, Vale and Cindy Grenier
Photographed at Creighton Mine, Sudbury On
