Boyle Renaissance Surprise Photo Impromptu

My friend and I went down to the Boyle Renaissance in Edmonton for a practice photo session today. I will be having a shoot here in a week for a wedding reception in this venue here at Boyle Street. It’s rare to get someone to participate in my projects and I felt great having Lilian here with me today. Lilian enjoys taking photos like many people and she has only shot with iPhones and tiny point and shoot cameras, but this is to proof a great creative mind certainly does not need an expensive camera and gears. Throughout the shoot she was extremely helpful and I enjoyed teaching her all the techniques I’ve learned, and she would add suggestions and add new ideas into what i’m doing. The only down side is that she is extremely shy in front of the camera and would rather hold lights then to get into my camera frame haha.

We played around with lights and painted with my light painting tools, until a bunch of teenagers from the neighborhood in skateboard approached us. They were all on bikes and skateboards in the middle of the night, and kind of caught us off guard since we honestly didn’t expect anyone to show up this late at night. Anyway, we exchanged a few words and I thought it’d be neat if they could stay in for a few photos. It was kind of funny how everything turned out, and it totally put me and Lilian at work too! Anyway we were having such a good time that some onlookers started looking at us and was curious what exactly we were trying to do. A lady asked me for my contact so she could get some photos from me if possible. We didn’t get home until 3am that night.

I love how photography could connect people in such an awesome way. Needless to say, I got something extra today, and im SOOO excited for more surprises to come on the way!

Boyle Renaissance is part of a new city development plan in Edmonton. It is a micro community within downtown area with apartments, accredited childcare with park space and community garden, gym facility,and social space. YMCA, LRT train stations are all within reach here. There are loads of old buildings that’s about to be taken down and a whole bunch of need architecture with tons of potential for some stunning photos! 

If you’ve had patience to go all the way down here, I thought i’d add some raw photos and process of my creation here.