Sapphire Digital Health

Andrea needed a creative corporate portrait that would garner attention in her company’s branding and marketing materials. As a CEO in the highly competitive IT medical field, it was important the portrait be creative to stand out, but in such a way as to be considered acceptable for the medical and information-technology world.

I think we did a great job. The first place her new portrait showed up? Her LinkedIn profile (using the colour version).

When Andrea inquired about a portrait with her brother, I discovered it had been 12 years since they were last photographed together. They both live in the same city. Their motivation? The desire to give a special Christmas gift to their mother.

Andrea and Ian (brother and sister). Portrait photography by Dean Oros.

Together, we created their portrait on location. I decided to leave the plant in the top left of the frame as it was, even though it was leaning to the side and not centred in the pot. My reason: It had been that way for some time. There’s story in that. Why alter it? The plant had grown to the point where it was starting to outgrow the pot. If this had been a commercial shoot, we would’ve had the plant re-potted.

I framed the print with a custom-made white frame. Their mom was so happy she shed happy tears.

Andrea and Ian, thank you very much for entrusting me to create your portrait. Hopefully, we can make another one down the road.

For those putting off professional portraits, my best advice is don’t procrastinate. Life happens quickly, and you may miss the opportunity.

Hats off to family portraits!

As we settle in and chat, Val and Robert do a great job of ensuring Wesley doesn’t run into my light-stands. Somehow he’s revved up ready to go, as if he just scooped up all the Duracell batteries from the Duracell bunny and ate them for lunch.

Sharing some laughs by the Christmas Tree. A Holiday Season Family Portrait.

I start shooting, chatting while I get some creative juices going. I’m informed Wesley has a fondness for, of all things, telephones. I guess I can’t blame him. “They’re kinda cool”, I say to him. “They make cool sounds”. He just looks at me. “Where are your toys?”, is what he’s probably still thinking.

Some ring tones are good enough to dance to, so he’s got a little jig going on. Mom picks up another phone and has an imaginary chat with her son. He chucks the phone onto the floor. Hmmm. Short-lived phone chat. I pick up the phone and wave it over my head, and keep shooting with my other hand. Wesley likes that. He’s up close and personal now, reaching up trying to get his tiny fingers wrapped around that cute little cell phone hovering just out of his reach. Thanks to my finely honed hovering skills culled from years of experience, I’m able to capture a few more fun images. We’re into the swing of things now and everyone is having fun.

The first trumpet lesson.

We end up in front of the Christmas tree. I continue to give a bit of direction and capture some more images. Everyone’s laughing. It’s all good. Just the way it should be.

Abbigail enjoys a brisk autumn morning. Family portraits by Dean Oros.

Abbigail enjoys a brisk autumn morning. Family portraits by Dean Oros.

This was their first professional photography session, and I’m happy this image captures a delightful moment as part of their family heritage. Combined with many others I captured during our shoot, it’s a perfect story of a bright autumn morning. Ada’s brother was visiting from Hong Kong, so we were able to have him participate, too. And just in time for the holiday season.

Have a great Halloween weekend.

Digital restoration techniques brings Alsie's portrait back to life.

The above image started as a passport photo 45 years ago.

Then, it aged, was exposed to some rough conditions, became very dirty, cracked and faded. A year ago, it was taken to a consumer 1-hour photo shop and scanned into a 4×6″ print, complete with the dirt, cracks and fading.

We were then approached and asked if we could restore the print and make a new custom print enlargement. The owner now realized the image was priceless to her. Let’s face it, people change a lot over 45 years. Most likely a lot of you aren’t even 45 yet. And if you are, you’re enjoying the wisdom that comes with it!

I was happy we could restore this portrait. Here’s the original:

Prints need to be taken care of to avoid cracks and dirt.

If you’ve a box of old prints or loose prints scattered around the home or office, don’t wait to have them restored. Maybe they’re in good shape and should be professionally framed or made into one of our exclusive story-telling coffee-table books. If they need to be restored, we’ll take a look at them free of charge to see how we can help restore them to their original condition.

Thanks for reading.

Alsie Gray.

Alsie is celebrating her 70th birthday next month, and when I say celebrating, I mean CELEBRATING. She’s throwing a party for 150 guests. She’s lined up a band, caterer, the works. And lucky me, she commissioned me to photograph her as part of the celebration. And I’m invited to the party!

I first met Alsie last year while photographing her daughter’s wedding dress fitting. Thalia and Trevor’s wedding was a lovely affair held at Toronto’s Old Mill Inn and Spa.

Alsie started joking with me almost the moment we met. She reminds me of Dora De Pedry Hunt, whom I met at her 90th birthday party. I was producing a television documentary about Dora’s life story, and when I first introduced myself to her I said I was looking forward to telling her story. She replied: “That’s great because I don’t even know my story, so I’m looking forward to it!”.

Alsie and I had a lot of fun during her photo session. She is such a pleasure to photograph. We chatted while we hung out. I would give her direction when needed, though she didn’t really need much (had you done this before, Alsie?). I enjoyed photographing her, not just because she’s a lovely person, but because I know it was special to her. The portraits I created will be at the party for everyone to see and will be passed on to future generations. Thalia was with us, too, quietly observing from a distance, though I did capture a few frames of them together (oh, I’m so sneaky!).

What a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

If Alsie has provided you with the password to her private Gallery Collection on the Dean Oros Photography website, click here to view the rest of the photographs.

“Colour captures the story in an image; black and white captures its soul.”  I’m not sure who wrote this quote originally (maybe Ansel Adams?). To me, it is eloquent and accurate.

Because the majority of my work is used for multiple purposes, I shoot everything in colour. I then interpret the image and convert it with a black and white treatment in post production. Converting a digital color photo into black and white goes beyond simply desaturating the colours. A colour image can be made to mimic any of a wide range of looks created by using color filters in black and white film photography.

A lot of my photojournalism work, whether its weddings or family lifestyle shoots, can be interpreted in different ways. For this reason, I do all the post production work on my images myself. As the photographer it’s a complete circle for me as opposed to having another digital artist interpret the image. Conversion which does not take into account an image’s color and subject of interest can dilute the artistic message, and may create an image which appears washed out or lacks tonal range.

A week ago I photographed Diane, her son Zack, and their bloodhound / mastiff mix dog, Trigger. I took them to High Park on a Saturday morning. Diane really wanted something that captured the personality and dynamic of her family. I spoke with her in advance about what was important to her, and also gave her my advice as a photographer. When Saturday morning rolled around, we were ready to go.

After hanging out for a bit, I casually started shooting to get them comfortable with my big camera covering my face while I was speaking with them. I used a combination of available light and flash. I ended up with a large selection of images. I’m looking forward to creating some big, custom prints and gallery wraps of the images.