sandy nicholson Archives - Sandy Nicholson Photography

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

McCain Holiday Part 2

I love love. Most of all I love to work people who love each other. We are often asked to photograph couples and great moments with friends. So we cast real best friends and lovers for these rolls when McCain’s needed a bunch of besties to hang out and chill with fries. We worked with Milo Casting and found a bunch of real best friends, Storm & Daniel and Taehyun & Nick…. then spent a day hanging out with them as they giggled and trash talked each other every which way….

Thank you to the awesome McCain team – Matt, Nita and Liza for making it all happen…

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 ❤️”

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!

Building body confidence in sports

What we learnt: A staggering 45% of teenage girls are quitting sports – and body dissatisfaction is the #1 reason why.

Dove campaigns only feature real women, not models, showcasing diverse ages, sizes, ethnicities, and styles, emphasizing beauty for everyone – following Dove’s lead, we worked on keeping the look authentic while focusing on the message of strength and confidence.

We wanted the shots to be inspiring and hopeful as the girls stared bravely into the camera and feel like the end of day, an after school practice.

We were super happy to work with the team from Ogilvy and of course the amaaazing FUZE Reps who made it all happen!

Discover more about the body confidence programs by Nike x Dove

Katherine Bond-Debicki breathes new life into KFC brand strategyonline.ca

We shot the images for a great story in www.strategyonline.ca about Katherine Bond-Debicki leadership working with the team @courage taking on and shaking up KFCs marketing from a dusty old brand to a cheeky fast moving fresh brand that pulls pranks and has a sense of humor. They also sold a-lot more meals and grew the brand while having a stack of fun. https://strategyonline.ca/2024/01/08/katherine-bond-debicki-breathes-new-life-into-kfc-brand/

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.

McCain’s Holiday

It’s the holiday cooking season so its food time online!

We are super proud of this shoot. We worked with the team at Mccains who need to show the new McCain Medleys and classic McCain Fries in action with real families.

With the help form Milo Casting we found the Maharaja family – three generations living together in Brampton, Ontario.

The Maharaja family were so lovely letting us in to shoot in their house, with Dada and Dadi – MJ and Ila, the grand parents stealing the show. Along with Pooja, Hardik, and their two kids

Beyond just welcoming, the family was thrilled to be part of their very first photoshoot. Playful neighbours joked about being part of a Bollywood north set, with our production trucks parked outside.

The photoshoot was a delight; the family needed no guidance to act – they were authentically themselves.

Our aim? Capturing shared laughter, simple moments, and creating authentic images that make McCain a part of your daily life. For us, it was a celebration of ordinary beauty, the joy of gathering, and the delightful quirks of family life.

And, of course, we ended up the day sitting in the living room with a cup of Chai, lovingly brewed by Grandma 🙂 and served in fine tea cups.

#McCainMoments #AuthenticLiving #DocumentaryStyle #RealConnections

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.”