The last day of July, so I will get another Photo of the Month in. This time we are going to do a repeat of the work of our co-ordinator, Richard Beland. We featured a macabre shot of Iggy Pop a few months back, and this time we will have a much more pleasing photo, of Natalie McMaster, famous Canadian fiddler.
Richard shot the cover of her 2011 album “Cape Breton Girl.” The shot above shows Richard’s favourite shot of the shoot ... although Natalie liked another pose, and chose it instead (you will see it if you Google the album title.) Richard related an interesting story about shooting these images, which were taken at the end of the day when the lake was mirror calm.
Natalie is standing on an egg crate, which is sitting on the soft sand of the lake bottom. Every few seconds it shifts, making it highly unstable. So there is a photo assistant standing in the water, just out of camera on either side of her to prop her up between shots. Natalie’s instructions to them were to the effect of: in case of disaster, let her fall into the water, so long as they keep her concert violin from getting wet.
No disaster happened, but taking chances like this resulted in a great shot.
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Another accolade for Richard: He was chosen as one of only 20 Canadian photographers exhibited for the Canadian North by Northeast Music Festival held last month. Several of Richard’s photos were chosen for the exhibit.
