Leah Mciver, Author at Sandy Nicholson Photography

CCA Driven by Good Neighbours

We worked over the summer with CAA magazine to produce a set of inspiring stories about people across Canada who are doing great things in their communities.

Anishiative, is a Winnipeg-based youth organization founded by Rylee Nepinak, Kristyn Boubard and Justine James, a new generation of leaders. We’re prepping for the winter “We were created to support Indigenous youth, to reconnect them to their culture and to their community,” says Nepinak. This winter Anishiative have set up a teepees and warming fire out side Thunderbird house in downtown Winnipeg. Fire keepers work to keep the fire 24 / 7 for community members who need a safe place to warm up, get some food provided.

“Being a good relative means you do the best you can to be good to all living things, and to think of your community as a family. If you can think of your community in that way, then it makes you feel not so alone. And it makes you want to take care of [each other],” says Nepinak.

Hamin Lee – still life photographer at FUZE REPS made a lovely set of photos of a paper world for the photos to live in online.

Anishiative posted “Miigwetch to @sabepeacewalkers for helping us with the fire keep for community members who need a safe place to warm up, get some food provided by @wegotchu_wpg ❤️

Each night our skaabe do everything they can to assist community members with warmth, prayers, tobacco, songs, food, water, winter gear and helping find a safe place for the night.

We’d like to acknowledge our supporters @endhomelessnesswpg

We’d also like to give a shoutout of appreciation to @wegotchu_wpg for always making sure we always have warm food available on-site ❤️”

Bird Vision / Human Vision 🦜🌈 🦜 🌈🦜🌈

We are photographing birds the way bird see themselves. Birds have extended color vision that goes from ultraviolet and all the way into Inferred spectrum. We can only be seen this range with full spectrum Cameras. We happen to have a full spectrum camera as part of our collection. Full spectrum Cameras are normally used for Astro or IR photo’s. I was super curious could we photograph bird’s the way they see themselves.

First we needed to test if we could Capture both views at the of the same bird with two separate cameras, one for each spectrum. We needed a bird to hold very still while we swapped out cameras from the tripod. So a deceased parrot would be best. I headed over to the theskullstore.ca Ben the founder suggested i test with a Kea, Ben your suggestion of a Kea was 😘😍.

The next challenge for this project will be to photograph living birds in action, with two cameras shooting the exact moment at the same time. This is a super hard challenge but one we have a plan to test ASAP

Behind the scenes at TD

Remember when you were a kid and you went to the bank and they had fun things for you to play with? TD and Diamond are bringing back that experience! We worked with the team at Diamond to launch the TD Youth Banking Experience. To launch this treasure box we helped make a film to get the word out. Every detail of the production was meticulously crafted, plus we need to shoot at a TD branch on a Sunday when they were closed. Our star Ocean is 8 years old, which meant we had to shoot quickly and nimbly to get the job shot fast. We cast Paolo the Senior Personal Banker at the branch as our banker, Before his move to financial sector, Paolo was a ballet dancer. He was great to direct.

We had an awesome camera team with us – Alessandro Lanzillotta our DP with 1st AC – Steele Fernandes, 2nd AC/DIT – Nick Abbate, Gaffer – Jose Gonzalez and Grip – Jackson Green. We shot with the Alexa Mini with a set of Vintage Prime lenses.

Practical effects – more real than CGI

We were super pleased to work with the great team at Ogilvy Health.

The idea was a nice simple one showing how Asthama makes you feel restricted and out of breath held back by an invisible force.

So we tested all sorts of plastic wraps with wind machines and strobe to freeze action.

For our final shoot, we add blue gels to bring the mood to the scenes, our talents were awesome, they ended up having to hold their breath while we were shooting to stop steaming up the plastic from behind!

The dog was sourced from stock footage and added in post.

I love Practical Effects the magic of the unpredictable aspect of movement and shapes always is such a surprise and delight to have appear on the screen.

Treasure hunters #01

Andrew Brudz and his fabulous collection of treasure!

We are starting a series about treasure hunters in the modern world, people who find treasure in plain site and re sell it, The arbitrage of things (Arbitrage) simultaneous purchase and sale of the same or similar asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset’s.

Andrew Brudz:

“A friend came over to my house during the pandemic and asked me if I had started collecting parrots and I was kind of surprised and said no ……. Why do you ask

Maybe I missed traveling and especially traveling to Mexico. Perhaps I thought I was going to capture all these exotic birds as a way of recapturing the experience of traveling, of being free. So my best friend Gayna created online vintage shop etsy @ArchipelagoFinds & @Archipelago

I guess I’ve always been a bit of a collector – when I was a kid I obsessively cataloged and numbered my collection of Smurfs.

Once I found a painting and absolutely fell in love with it. It was this gorgeous woman with a whale tooth necklace. It looks like she’d been painted by candlelight, it was moody and atmospheric.

Painted by an artist named Fred Whippy who was from Fiji and worked predominantly in the 60s and 70s. He was a bit of a protege as a teenager and was able to travel to America for his first exhibition in 1970s.

I love this piece so much that I thought I had overpriced it so that nobody would buy it, and I would just get to keep it forever and say, “Well I tried to sell it and nobody wants it.” I also hoped that it would somehow make its way back to Fiji one day.

I actually found many of Fred Whippy’s relatives. They were happy to see it, and said, “Oh yeah, that’s Uncle Fred,” but none of them seem really interested in bringing it back to where it came from. (He passed away a couple of years ago.)

But one day, I was contacted by a couple who own a hotel in Fiji. They were decorating the space with artwork by Fijian artists, and they really loved this piece. So, I boxed it up and shipped it off with some reluctance and regret. It was a beautiful piece and, you know, the money they paid is obviously long spent. A part of me still wishes I had that painting.

I bought it for $40.00 and sold it for $400.00. I wish I had never sold it.”