About this portrait

Katharine is a friend of mine who asked me to do a new portrait of her a couple of weeks ago to use for her teaching and judging projects. I started thinking about it and asked her to wear black so I could shoot against a black background. I wanted her body to blend into the background so that her face, hands, viola, and bow would pop with warmth and richness. I also wanted to keep the lighting very simple to support the idea. We shot in my small space where I live and work. She is very pleased with the results.

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Michael

About this assignment

For the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of shooting assignments for MaRS, the innovation hub in Toronto. I’ve had a lot of freedom in coming up with visual solutions that are both aesthetic and informative. As we all know, today the vocabulary is visual and we only get a few seconds to grab a viewer’s attention.

I find it very rewarding as the variety of the entrepreneurs that I am asked to photograph are involved in leading edge technologies that are very exciting and helpful. Shyam Ramchandani is a very nice guy and was very cooperative and generous with his time and enthusiasm. The device he is holding is a non-invasive diagnostic tool. How cool is that? After I scouted his office, I decided that I should photograph him in from of this very cool wall on his floor. Even though I brought lighting, the available light was great which also saved time and cables being everywhere. I did a little Photoshop in post to enhance a scientific feel.

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Michael