This collection is my tribute to my very good friend Heather Bergthorson. This summer she is getting married to the love of her life Dom. It shows as early as now that I wouldn't be able to get as much time to work with her on concept shoots. Heather is getting busy preparing her wedding and I do respect that she has other things that keeps her busy now. It was an amazing journey with you "H" all through my early years in people photography.
I started photography as a hobby in Feb 2006 and I focused my time learning this new artform through night photography and landscapes. I spent 3 years mastering my fine art and landscapes(still a lot to learn until now) with request from my family for portraits...and events photography. I wasn't that comfortable in portraits since I really didn't have anyone to "practice" with. I love event photography since I am left on my own with backstage access to some really cool shows. My early years in photography was quite fun and I spent my days off and holidays building my fine art portfolio. I joined photo competitions and won a few awards, it gave me the confidence that photography is slowly becoming a new field I should really invest on.
Early in 2009 I approached galleries for them to view my work and hopefully represent me. After meeting a few of my favorite galleries I managed to impress 2 of Winnipeg's finest art galleries, Birchwood Art Gallery and Wayne Arthur Gallery and they up until now represents my fine art prints.
Hey...hey...hey... you might be thinking, this is suppose to be a tribute to Heather. Well here goes, I met Heather through the company I worked for before, we became friends and she also quickly became one of my biggest fan for my photography. She loved my animal and my landscape photographs(most of which she has a print of). She kept joking around for me to try people photography, specially portraits and I told her "I am not good in telling people what to do and besides no one would be willing to pose for me". She laughed and replied "I will model for you...lets set it up and we can just have fun outdoors"... May 24 2009 we set the date for our first photo shoot. We went to Birds Hill Park and just literally walked around the paths while she occasionally posed for some photos. We both had an amazing time, walking around while chatting about this guy she used to date then. The photos turned out Ok... we both agreed to plan more sessions for us to both improve. In my, slightly over a year in people photography, we managed to schedule a few sessions in between my paid commitments ever since formally putting up my studio in May 2009. I was busy that year but I made sure to be able to work with Heather. 2010 rolled in and we had more organized photo sessions, we planned each session from location, wardrobe to makeup. We even had a few out of town location sessions to add to our portfolios...the drive was just as fun as the shoot.
I would credit Heather a lot for where I am now, I learned a lot through our "concept sessions". It was so much fun since in most cases it was just be a day out with friends(we invite a few friends to come with us). She also became a recruiter once...when she asked Sharon, a flight attendant on a lay over in Winnipeg, to model for me. There's so many great stories that we share from all our photo sessions... a lot of laughs, stories & gossips shared along the way.
THANKS "H" FOR ALL THE AMAZING TIMES...
As her wedding fast approaching, I am happy to see "The Face of Dodgie Dator Photography" be part of my portfolio as an actual bride. A lot of my co photographers became a fan of this beautiful orange haired model they always see on my web galleries...sorry guys no more hope... SHE IS DEFINITELY TAKEN...lol.
I've worked with a lot of really amazing talented models and I can confidently say that Heather is one of the top models I've worked with. Her work ethics is amazing, she's never been late and she always ready for the session. We planned a session once and she had a cold, instead of backing out, she didn't even mentioned anything to me at all. She came at the scheduled time and was ready for the shoot. This is something that marks a true professional and if I am asked if she is a professional model...no hesitation do I say "she definitely is". Her portfolio is definitely very strong and her very distinct hair color adds to her charm as my official model for my early years in glamour and fashion photography.
Congratulations to Heather and Dom...looking forward to your summer wedding.
Here's some of Heather's photographs through our journey together in people photography, some may not be "portfolio grade" but they are here to be part of our story.
