david cooper photography

I was asked by art director Scott McKowen to take a photograph of a donkey for Theatre Calgary’s upcoming production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Who would have thought an hour away from where I was working at the Shaw Festival there was a donkey farm.

Meet Bob Ray who was our model.

We were lucky to get a fearless Toronto actress  by the name of Alexandra Ordolis who managed to cuttle with our donkey for two hours. Here’s Scott’s sketch for the final poster.

We had a few lucky frames that were at the end of the shoot when they both seemed in love!

My first short trailer for a new novel by American writer Brenda

Marshall.  The cover illustration is by Scott McKowen. I was the

DP, recorded sound and edited the film.

Produced by Punch & Judy.

Several years ago I photographed Ainslie Cyopik dancing for Ballet BC. She’s moved on to manufacturing dance wear for major dance companies across the country. Her company is called Ainsliewear. At the end of a catalogue shoot for her new line of clothes where we shot the front and back of each garment I suggested we try shooting a short video clip. I directed our dancer/model Shandi to gracefully transition in movement from the back to the front. This becomes a moving version of how we could show the garment matching the still photographs. I feel there will be a greater need for still photographers to provide video content to clients. Time to see what else you can do with your Canon cameras that have all that built in.It’s the year of FUSION with stills and film making. On a technical note, I use the modeling lights from my strobes so there was no relighting needed. I shot wide open on my 7D at 60P to capture slow motion.