We came up with the idea of making it very ‘whimsical’. A fairytale like feel. We thought an awesome idea would be to use some glitter in the photos. After Beaux Mondes launched their post, I had about 15 inquires on how I did the glitter in the photos. Maybe in the next couple weeks I’ll do a video tutorial on how I shot it.

To find out more information on the masks, you can view the full post of this shoot on their site at: http://www.beaux-mondes.com/blog/2012/03/whimsy-magic.html

Thanks to Hollie and Jane from White Elephant for providing the wardrobe. If you’re into vintage, definitely check them out.

This was such a fun shoot and Stephanie and Jacklyn were so amazing to work with. As well we had an unreal team working with us. Katie Gentile and Ashley Lymburner from The Factory Hair Studio were responsible for the amazing hair and Sarah Smith killed it as the make up artist. Having a great team not only makes the final result better, but finding people who you have fun with working along side, makes the day that much more enjoyable. A big thank you to everyone involved.

Models: Stephanie Trendocher & Jacklyn Warmington
Hairstyling by The Factory Hair Studio
Makeup by Sarah Smith MUA
Wardrobe provided by White Elephant
Styling by Beaux Mondes

I work on numerous shoots with Katie Gentile and Ashley Lymburner from The Factory Hair Studio and we rarely ever get to shoot guys, so we decided to do a fun personal shoot and use a guy. We had an idea of doing more of a GQ spin and Katie said she had the perfect person in mind. She mentioned Connor, and I thought he would be perfect as well…….. that was until we got wind of the 5-month beard he had been growing. I don’t know how you girls do it, but somehow Katie convinced Connor to let us shave it. But before it was off, a beard that manly, had to be photographed.

It’s amazing to think that it’s the same person below. I love the contrast of the two. This was Connors first time modelling in a situation like this, and although he admitted he was a bit nervous, I couldn’t tell and was one of the best models I’ve ever worked with.

For those that aren’t familiar with Boys Night Out, you can check out a live performance by clicking HERE

Also check out Connors other projects:

Crazy Diamond – lovecrazydiamond.com
The F*ck Holes – No Way Out

Thanks to Connor, Katie and Ashley for a great shoot.

More of an editorial feel with this one.

Look 5

More of a strung out look

Look 4

I rarely ever shoot in black and white but we wanted to do something in it with a lot of negative space.

Look 3

This was more of a classier look.

Look 2

So I jumped on the good ol’ Facebook and messaged some of my friends to see if they were interested. The tough part is that they could never of had their photo taken by a photographer in a similar fashion. I was only going on cell phone pics as to who I thought would work. It’s funny because my immediate thought was to message a girl on my list named Britta. I lurked her photos, (as any person may do) and thought she would be perfect for it. There were a lot of bathroom cell phone pics, but who doesn’t have those. I messaged her, and sure enough, she had never been in a photo shoot and was super excited with the idea. How do I know she was excited??? Well the day we had the shoot planned for was her BIRTHDAY…. and she rearranged plans so the shoot would happen. Now that is commitment.

I assembled a team of amazing creative people. We had Katie Gentile and Ashley Lymburner from The Factory Hair Studio doing hair and Gabi Bielenik as the make up artist. We wanted to do all 5 looks in one day. The backgrounds were to be really simple as we wanted all the focus to be on Britta.

I was so amazed at how well Britta did for her first time. It was unreal! She was a natural. If any photogs are reading this and ever need a model, I highly recommend Britta.

So it was on with the first look.

I’ll post the next photo tomorrow and so on till Friday.

Look 1:

Anyone with a beard as awesome as his, has to be photographed. Basically these photos just scream ‘Man’.

We shot a couple different photos. One nice portrait, up close portrait AND one crazy lumberjack with his flaming axe. What’s he swinging at?? You tell me.

I love to travel and travel I did this year. In 2010, my photography brought me to Haiti, and in 2011 I was fortunate enough to head to Dominican Republic, England and Spain for different projects. Although Haiti was volunteer work, I had a moment to myself on the plane to the Dominican when it sunk in that I was getting paid to be there. It’s one of those moments when you realize that all the hard work was starting to pay off. Not too many people know the struggles I’ve had to go through to get here, but that’s for another day and another blog post.

One of my most memorable shoots to date, was in June when we shot an ad for Go Transit that was used for the Toronto International Film Festival. They rented us an entire train car for the day and I couldn’t of asked for a better team to work with. Because of this photo I was able to attend a TIFF premiere, which was an experience in itself. Never before did I think I would be wearing a suit to watch a movie, but it felt great. The ad got such great reviews with TIFF and to be judged by a field that deals with creatives from all over the world was an unreal feelings.

I started a couple personal projects this year that haven’t been made public just yet. I am super excited to release these as soon as possible. I’m hoping for a spring 2012 release for the first one. It’s been a lot of hard work and long hours but I’m very happy with the outcome and will be using the next month or so to tie up all the loose ends.

Out of all the amazing experiences I’ve had this year with photography, the most meaningful moment came as a team. In November I wanted to sponsor a family for Christmas and opened it up to my friends as well. I was blown away by the generosity of everyone. We ended up sponsoring two families and the story can be seen in a video blog here: CHRISTMAS SPONSORSHIP BLOG

Tomorrow is a new year, and it’s time for some new goals.

Goals for 2012:

1) 2012 – The Year of Personal Work

2012 will be the year where I pump out more personal work than I ever have. I strongly believe that it’s your personal work that will not only get you hired for commercial work, but it’s what will leave your legacy as a photographer.

2) Write Everything Down

I use to think I was like Jay Z and didn’t have to write anything down. Over the past two months I have experimented with the idea of recording every idea, every goal, and anything worth noting, and I’ve noticed a considerable change in my productivity. I recommend this to everyone. It really does help. I now carry a book and pen wherever I go.

3) Work More With Video

2012 will see me directing and shooting my first two music videos. I can’t say which bands just yet, but I’m way too excited to start these projects. I really see the trend in the industry going towards moving images (video), so when the time comes that it’s the standard, I want to be fully prepared. Along with the music videos, I have just finished the storyboarding for a short doc that I will going to Montreal in the spring time to film.

4) Meet Some of these Twitter Names

Over the past year, I have come to get to know some of you well…… on Twitter. My hope is that we can all meet someday and just chat. Doesn’t even have to be about photography. I believe that real life social interaction needs to be stronger in everyones life.

There have been way too many incredible experiences this year to write about it all in one blog but I just wanted to sum up a few. I wish everyone great success in the new year.

If you know me personally, you know I love to hear about others success stories. It gets me stoked to see people succeeding. I want to leave you with a goal for the new year. You will hear people say “2012 is going to be my year” a million times. Well I want to present the challenge to you: Don’t say it, Show me! I want to hear about how 2012 is your year. Email me, or tweet me your success stories all throughout next year.

Here are some of my favourite photos that I took in 2011.

Next Stop: The Red Carpet. This is the ad we did for Go Transit used at the Toronto International Film Festival

Two creatives we worked on focusing on the hair and hair pieces. (Hair by Katie Gentile)

Shooting Every Time I Die drummer Ryan ‘LEG$’ Leger for a magazine spread. It was a fun shoot but it got so hilarious/amazing when he put his daughter on a mini drum kit in front of him. So good!

Another creative with Katie

One of the most emotional pieces I’ve ever shot. I did a feature on my grandfather and his time in the way. I took his portrait as well as did a video on his war experiences which can be seen by clicking HERE.

A couple photos I shot of Beaux Mondes co-founder Stephanie. Beaux Mondes is an amazing blog out of Hamilton and I highly recommend checking it out as these girls are doing unreal things.

Here are three images from some weddings I shot this year. The first is a small church in Burlington and the rest are from a wedding I shot in the Dominican

A creative with Alycia

A photo we did for an American hair colouring company. I absolutely love how the hair came out.

An idea I had for a fun creative. A different spin on wedding photos. Pre a long long time ago and a bit scary. Love it!

And here’s a cool spin we did for a nightclub ad. Most DJs spin directly from their lap tops, but it all comes from the days of vinyl.

To all the make up artists, hair stylists, creative directors, graphic designers, stylists, accounting departments, and anyone else I forgot… THANK YOU!!!!! Thank you so much for being such a pleasure to work with this year. I’m looking so forward to 2012 and working with all of you again.

Have a safe, happy AND productive new year. All the best in 2012. See you all soon.

- Jay Perry

A huge thank you to everyone who helped with this project. You guys/gals are so amazing and to think that we went so far passed my goal of $250 in such short time is unreal.

I will be back at this again next year, with the goal of sponsoring 5 families. If you would love to help, send me an email. I’m looking for help with the shopping, wrapping and fundraising.

Thank you so much to: (names in alphabetical order)

Also a giant thank you to Jennifer Neiser and everyone else at the Children’s Aid who helped me with this and responded to my numerous emails and phone calls.

I am truly blessed to have friends like all of you.