Friday, May 04, 2007


I had been looking for this photograph for a long time but I could not remember either the name of the movie or the director. So the photo lay buried in my files since I took it in September 2000. I had been assigned then to take a picture for the cover of the Straight (one of those now rare photographic covers) and the instructions were to make the picture look gritty like the movie.

It is no accident that the man (or woman) in charge of the camera work during the making of a movie is called the director of photography. When I met up with director Ross Weber and his cast of 6 actors at house in East Vancouver I felt a bit like a director of photography. I had fun arranging the actors in my frame.

Taking pictures of more than three people is very much like taking pictures of a rock band, which is no different from snapping one's family. I use the same technique to photograph a group of lawyers. The secret is to place the persons, one at at time, in your location of choice. In this case it was a bed.





It was very difficult not to notice Frida Betrani as seen here in the centre of the photo so I had to place director Ross Weber in the front to give him a better chance to stand out.

With digital cameras (the very expensive ones) only now being able to expose at the extremely fast ISO (light sensitivity) of 3200 it is interesting to note that back in 2000 Ilford's Delta 3200 was a cutting edge film for medium format cameras like mine.