Ice, Wine, Dine… and Fire!

Even though we have been focusing on commercial photography lately, we still enjoy shooting events from time to time, and one of our favourite series of events that we have shot for the past 3 years is the Downtown Yonge BIA’s Winter Magic Events. It is a sure sign that the festive season has arrived and last weekend we shot the Ice, Wine, and Dine event that took place on Elm Street. Along with food and wine from local restaurants, the event features a martini bar made entirely of ice and buskers who may be roaming on stilts or perhaps performing fire shows… just not to close to the martini bar!

We actually ran into a busker who we’d met a few years ago at Buskerfest – you can see Pyromeo (otherwise known as Kalen Davidson) creating his signature fireball in the photo above. We’re looking forward to shooting some promotional material for him in the near future so stay tuned for the results of that.

 

Introducing Chuck Champers

Last Friday we did a shoot with Brant Matthews aka Fire Guy to create promotional material to introduce his new character Chuck Champers. We were lucky enough to get access to a building that was slated to be torn down on Monday to make room for a new condominium development, so we made use of the building inside and out to shoot material while Kyle Hosick of Addrenaline Media shot video for a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the creation of this character.

The highlight of the Chuck Champers show will be watching Brant juggle three bottles of premium champagne while balancing on a rolla bolla made up of a magnum of Louis Roederer champagne and the wooden crate it is sold in.  It is, as Brant told us, a $1000 trick.  One he had actually not practiced before the shoot. He did remarkably well, he is after all a seasoned professional, and had a few good trial runs with the juggling before we started shooting… and then… with cameras clicking and video ‘rolling’, something went very wrong and – well, the aftermath can be seen above.

As Kyle said – Brant had christened the character.  And what better way for an old building to come down, than drenched in premium champagne.

 

The Bravery of Aidan Orange

Aidan was brave.  On the first (very) cold night that we experienced this fall we met Aidan down by the lake, gave him a pair of rubber boots and asked him to go in the water.   And he did.

If you live in Toronto or visit frequently you may have seen Aidan around the city performing his variety of street theatre. Right now he is working on incorporating a fire whip into his book of tricks which already boasts contortions, master yo-yo-ing (is that a word?), squeezing himself through a flaming tennis racket, juggling a variety of items, and among other things balancing a lawnmower on his face in an attempt to find a unique way to shred lettuce. For the most part we focused this shoot on the fire whip and wanted to put Aidan in the water to get the reflection of the flames while he was preparing to crack the flame out – in the process creating a huge fireball. We should note that Aidan is a smart guy, not a lot of buskers or corporate entertainers have a degree in Astrophysics and Mathematics from the University of Toronto.   Aidan does.

And he STILL went in the water on the first fall night that the temperature in Toronto dropped below zero.  Aidan was brave.

A Side of Silver Elvis That You Have Probably Never Seen Before

The Zoomer Show was held last week at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. We shot Silver Elvis at the show last year, and blogged about the experience here. This year we were invited back and although we were happy to shoot the standard photos of Silver E and the classic cars that were on show, we thought we’d try something new. So we packed up the lights and cameras and followed Silver Elvis into the bathroom. Some strange looks and comments from the men already IN the bathroom followed, but we were able to catch the true essence – ahem – of Silver E.  The composite above is the result.