photographer

Toronto Scotiabank Photography Contact Festival - Gallery Showing

Contact Festival gallery listing, care of https://scotiabankcontactphoto.com

Contact Festival gallery listing, care of https://scotiabankcontactphoto.com

I am excited to annouce a gallery of some of my select work in "The Colour of Personality" will up at the Toronto Vistek location for the month of May. I will be at the store on May 11th from 12PM-2PM, come by and say hi!

Add the event to your Contact Festival planner here.

Gallery Info:

Name: The Colour of Personality

Where: Vistek Toronto

Persons of intrigue are often described as colourful and full of personality. It all starts with the eyes and ows to the brow, cheeks, and lips. Colour and light can say so much about a subject, and this exhibition shows how it can be used to emphasize personality or emotion.

Chantel Rae Set + SI.com

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My recent spread with Chantel Rae was published on SportsIllustrated.com today. derekheisler.com was then hit hard with over 250,000 hits shortly after. Very thankful for the success and response from the set. As always Chantel was a pleasure to work with. 

Make sure to check out the 8 image spread on my site here

Nik Radio Interview w/ Scott Shepard

Recently I had the pleasure/honor to sit down with Scott Shepard of Nik Radio to talk about my photography career to date. We talked tech, my engineering background, the mistress known as photography and how I lost my heart to her. 

Stream it here

Or for you Apple boys and girls;

iTunes Podcast 

I also had a chance to sit down for a separate written interview for Nik’s Pro talk. Check it out here.

Humble Beginnings & Landscapes

I often haven’t told the story of how I got into photography. Did it start with all these beautiful women? Oh god no.

Back in University, second year I believe, I was taking on a few small graphic design projects on the side for some extra cash. I needed a lot of stock imagery, so I bought a point and shoot digital camera, I believe it was a Canon A75. At the time it was great for what I needed, however soon enough I found it’s limitations. I wanted more control, I wanted to control depth of field and shutter speed. So on my first work term I purchased my first DSLR. The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. Originally I think I even bought the kit lens *shakes head*.

I read, read, practiced, practiced, experimented and read some more. I loved capturing nature and especially landscapes. I love to hike, so this was a excuse to do even more.

Soon enough, my female friends noticed my talent and wanted me photograph them. At first, I wanted nothing to do with it. I bought this camera for landscapes not women haha. Sooner or later, I did give in. After a couple shoots I knew I needed to learn a lot more, so back to more reading, practicing and experimenting.

After shooting a lot outside I wanted to try indoors. I purchased my first lighting kit off of eBay for $399. I believe it was a Smith and Victor or something like that. It was great, but due to being continuous light (tungsten 500 watt bulbs) things got hot very fast, both myself and the subject would sweat under the lights.

So the next step was to learn how to use strobes. But that story is for another day.