Tag: Portraits

Tkaronto Open II 

It was great to work with Fall For Dance North. Toronto’s Premier International Dance Festival who hosted the Tkaronto Open II. Tkaronto Open II celebrates and honours indigenous dance forms.

Tkaronto Open II, is a Powwow style competition. Dancers dance at the same time in front of a set of judges. The music is live from Drummers singing and drumming one single drum. The sound shakes your whole body. The dancers move forward round by round until the last two dancers battle it out to win the cash prizes and title.

It is epic to see the speed and physical stamina of the dances mixed with regalia and the crowed cheering.

The event was produced by Freddy Gipp and Thunder Jack for the second year.

For many years, Indigenous dance was illegal in Canada. To experience a multigenerational Indigenous community of dancers coming together to dance openly is a symbol of the strength of many generations.

Thanks so much to dancers for taking a moment to be photographed after rounds and rounds of dance battle.

Thanks sooooo much to Freddy Gipp Producer

Acosia Red Elk Head Judge and Arena Director

Adrian Harjo Master of Ceremony

Ryland Moore Arena Director

Fall for Dance North FUZE Reps  @neighbourhoodstudios

TD Small Business

It’s great to see the TD Women in Enterprise images out in the world.


I have always been proud to be part of the FUZE team, a Women owned and operated production company here in Toronto. We worked with Ogilvy & TD to feature TD Women in Enterprise. Classical Music Conservatory CMC’s Lusiana and Wanda, partners in business and life. Arnold St Agency’s Emily Silverman and Kids Physio clinic owners Jennifer Halfin and Hillary Abramsky.
Their business are super inspiring.

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Bird Vision / Human Vision with live birds

Birds see a wider spectrum of light than humans can , Birds can see UV light, because their lenses and other ocular media transmit UV light. They have special photoreceptors that vary by species and are sensitive to deep violet and UV light. 

How do birds detect ultraviolet (UV) light? The human retina has three kinds of cone cells (receptors used for color vision): red, green and blue. By contrast, birds have four kinds, including one that’s specifically sensitive to UV wavelengths. There’s also another difference: In birds, each cone cell contains a tiny drop of colored oil that human cells lack. The oil drop functions much like a filter on a camera lens. The result is that birds not only see UV light, they are much better than humans at detecting differences between two similar colors.

We have worked out how to photograph live moving squawking animals with our “Bridvision” set up. We are shooting with two cameras at the same instant so we have matching /  overlaying files. One camera see the spectrum a bird sees the other the human vision 

Keel-billed toucans have zygodactyl feet (or feet with toes 2 and 3 facing forwards, and toes 1 and 4 facing backwards) – two toes face forward and two face back. Because toucans spend a large portion of time in the trees, this helps the birds to stay on the branches of the trees and jump from one branch to another.

Thanks so much to @ravengalleryto for the space to work in keeping and and Hands-on exotics for great models

Girls-E-Mentorship

We worked with the Team at The Local Collective to rebrand and launch Girls-E-Mentorship in Toronto

GEM’s mission is “When girls know their power, they can live their purpose. We believe that women mentoring girls is essential in fostering the success of the next generation, and critical to creating gender equity in Canada. Young women with socioeconomic barriers face a proven disadvantage in their future prosperity. GEM was founded in 2012 from a vision that all young women should have the opportunity to succeed despite where they’ve come from or what barriers they’ve faced.”

We had a very tight budget, which often leads to some of the most creative solutions, shot in one day at in the studio / office of @localeverything. The talent were all mentees and mentors that are part of the Girls-E-Mentorship program.

Retouching was provided by The Gas Company

And the amazing team from The Local Collective – Omar Morson, Vallerie Traitses, Kaitlin Doherty who made it all happen!