JAIME HOGGE / BLOG

Jaime Hogge is a photographer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has long arms and this is more or less what they're up to at any given time.

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SUMMER OF GEORGE

I know I've been a delinquent blogger, but it's been a wonderfully busy year for business. The website should be updated imminently, and maybe we can start fresh?

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MAY DAY

I'm back. May was awesome and busy. Awesomely busy even. But, lets get back to some updates from before then. First up, here's a quick round up from the past little while of some portraits shot for The Grid.

I had the pleasure of shooting Howard Glassman and Fred Patterson, also known as Humble & Fred, in their Etobicoke radio studio. These guys have spent time pretty much all over the dial when it comes to Toronto radio, making stops at several big stations such as 102.1, AM 640 and 99.9. What does this mean to anyone who doesn't live around here? Well not much, however now thanks to the magic of the innernette, Humble & Fred have their own station. 

Next up, I got to have a local organic food market on lockdown to shoot professional model/TV person, Stacey McKenzie. Well, one old lady knocked on the door and wandered in anyways, but still. I had actually shot Stacey once before a couple of years ago for Toronto Life, so it was neat to meet again. A nice gal, who is the polar opposite of many of her peers - in a good way. 

But wait, there's more! I also had the opportunity to shoot the local graffiti artist/Toronto Mayor adversary simply known as "Spud" the day after his gallery show opening. This was a unique assignment because Spud had requested that his face remain hidden, as he's in no hurry to get busted for the infinite number of vandalism charges he's no doubt got waiting for him. I actually have no clue what he looks like either, from the time we met up until the end of the shoot, he was totally decked out in army fatigues and a ski mask. Really friendly guy though, and yes, a fellow potato fanatic.

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TEXT

As you may have heard, I have a new website! This is exciting for a few reasons. It's still new and shiny, it works faster/smoother/better than my last one, it's extremely easy to update and last but not least I was able to work my new branding into it, which is what inspired this whole thing in the first place. I wouldn't say that my previous "branding" was half-assed, but it wasn't really anything that I had worried about very much. At the time of creating my previous website and marketing material I more or less looked at the cost of a designer, died inside and went ahead and typed out my own name on some business cards in Photoshop. It worked just fine for me as I was just at a stage where I just really needed local publications to learn my name and my work. That's not to discount the value of solid branding at all (and some might argue that it was perhaps even more important at that stage of the game), but my main priority was just being able to show as much of my work to as many people as possible, so that's where all time/money/resources/effort went. Now, I'm certainly not dominating my corner of the industry or anything like that at all, but I'm much more comfortable with where I stand now vs. 3 years ago with the work I've done and am doing. It just seemed like it was time to start to finesse the finer points of my business, starting with a better web presence and a more professional (hopefully) brand that can extend across all aspects of my business from website to business cards to invoices to my portfolio and so on and so forth. Enter: Trevor and Aftermodern Lab. Trevor came as one of many recommendations from the fine folks at Mason (who I've worked on a few projects with previously), but his work stood head and shoulders above the rest to me. I've been looking for a designer who is extremely talented with all things font related for a very long time and Trevor fit the bill perfectly. I know next to nothing about what makes text look good, but I know what I like, and thankfully Trevor and myself appear to be on the same wavelength as far as visuals are concerned. What started as rambling and notes in a coffee shop eventually ended up in some solid ideas and samples passed back and forth. I think there were something like 20+ options overall in the end. Here are a few samples of the process, and who knows maybe it's something I'll revisit in awhile:

Once I had kind of established what I was liking and what I was not liking, we started to tweak and fine tune things a bit until eventually landing on the basic design that I was going to go with:

From there, a winner was selected and Trevor tightened things up where they needed it and worked his magic to finish it up, which brings us to where we are now:

Next up: portfolio etching, leave behinds and maybe a tattoo on my face.

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NEW SITE

My new site is finally up and running! Blogging normalcy should happen this week! For now I never want to see a computer screen again! Go!

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CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

So, I got some of my newer work printed up in an effort to update my book. This made me think it would be a great time to update my website. Now, for the last 2-3 weeks all of my time, when not shooting, has been dedicated to building a brand new website (one that will hopefully have this here blog embedded, for those that are stumbling upon it that way). 

I also spent some time working with a very talented designer on a little bit of "re-branding," which I'm excited to blog about shortly!

In the meantime, here's some pollution courtesy of Sudbury, Ontario.

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SPORTS!

There's a new(ish) magazine in town! Sportsnet Magazine started up here in Toronto about 6 or so months ago, which is exciting news for all photographers and illustrators who moonlight as beer league hockey stars (all 3 of us). I'm glad to say I've had a couple assignments for Sportsnet thus far, and I hope there are more to come.   One such assignment happened just before Christmas. I was tasked with traveling to Guelph, Ontario, to shoot a portrait of the OHL's Guelph Storm assistant coach Bill Stewart. Bill, a former NHLer, has a bit of a rocky coaching past, but has been given another shot at it in Guelph. I found him to be extremely down to earth, positive, excited and very refreshing. Definitely not quite how I remember my hockey coaches being when I was the age of his players, though I suppose it wasn't in his best interest to be screaming at me to skate harder at the time. These images were all shot in and around the Storm facilities in Guelph, which is apparently attached to a shopping mall. Crazy.

  Also for Sportsnet, I had the opportunity to shoot portraits of professional soccer player Ashtone Morgan. Ashtone plays in the MLS for Toronto FC, and is also a member of Canada's national men’s soccer team at the ripe old age of 21 (though he was 19-20 when he first started playing with the big boys). These images were shot behind the scenes at BMO Field. Unfortunately, it was during the off-season and we weren't permitted on the pitch. It was also freezing that day, but Ashtone sucked it up and donned the shorts anyways while I shot from the comfort of my coat.

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LE GRID

I haven't done a Grid post in awhile, so let's change that. Here are a couple portraits that were shot a few months back, near the end of 2011. Back in November I was asked to shoot some portraits of Steven Page (previously of Barenaked Ladies fame). We met up at Mercury Espresso Bar, a cafe in the east end. The cafe people (and their customers) were kind enough to let us shoot there, even if half of the customers had no clue what was going on. It all went off without a hitch however, and Steven was a really great subject as well as a snappy dresser.

Equally as great a subject, though somewhat more flexible, I also shot Guillaume Cote for The Grid. Guillaume is a principal dancer at The National Ballet of Canada and, despite us having the exact same chiseled body, we're not actually related. I shot Guillaume at the National Ballet HQ, and while he was an extremely nice guy, there is something strange about having a serious conversation about grocery shopping and rock music with a guy who's doing the splits.

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GOO GOO G'JOOB

Another one from the fall! I shot a neat little assignment for The Walrus back in late October, which appeared in their Jan/Feb issue. This assignment was a bit different, more of an architectural documentary (if that's a real thing) kind of gig vs. the portraits I typically shoot. I was tasked with shooting some key locations in Waterloo, the centre of Canada's tech world, to go along with an interesting piece about the tech, architecture and city itself. Check out the article here.

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OG MARKETING ROUNDUP

In an attempt to get current with everything, I think I'm going to do a few rapid-fire posts, grouped by magazine. How does that sound? First up, some late fall/early winter work for Marketing Magazine. The first portraits are of Facebook Canada CEO Jordan Banks, shot on location at the FB Canada offices. Yes, they had video games.

Next up was Jacqueline O'Sullivan, head of advertising at Microsoft Canada. You guessed it, shot at one of the MS offices here in Toronto. No video games here, but I did get a custom visitor pass with my photo on it. I had to give it back unfortunately.

Last but not least, a cover feature on Stephen Graham of Maple Leaf Foods. I learned a bit about Sidney Crosby's pre-game meal plans from Stephen. Needless to say, it didn't work out quite the same for me.

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AV O' W&W 4 OTM

Back when the weather was less depressing/disgusting I spent some time shooting portraits of Adrian Vieni, the man behind the music-centric video production outfit Wood & Wires. The images were for a little feature about Adrian in the Off The Map webzine, which you can check out here if you please.

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JEFF LEMIRE

Before I jump into this post, I just want to mention that the Heather Morton Fundraiser last week turned out to be a great time. Thanks and congrats to Jamie, Kristin and Lisa for organizing such a fun and successful evening. For more on the subject, from the guest of honour, check it out here. Also, big thanks to Derek Shapton for spending his hard earned money on my print, and a big no thanks to everyone who outbid Laura and myself on the print we wanted! For this week's first update from the backlog, let's visit artist/comic book writer Jeff Lemire's studio. Jeff is perhaps best known for being the first (and only?) graphic novelist to be nominated for the annual Canada Reads award with his Essex County trilogy. If you like anything Canadian, moody or visual you should probably check it out. I won't lend it to you, but you can find it at any self-respecting bookstore. He also writes and draws a monthly series called Sweet Tooth, writes a couple DC Comics titles and is currently working on a completely new graphic novel. He's a pretty busy guy. I approached Jeff in the summer about shooting, half expecting to receive no reply. Thankfully, he liked my work and was also going to be in need of some images of himself for upcoming projects. Finally, we found a time where schedules aligned and went to work. Here are some shots of the man at work, as well as a couple portraits.

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HEATHER MORTON FUNDRAISER

Yeah, I sorta fell off the wagon this week I guess. Back on it next week. In the meantime everyone in Toronto should come to this:

For those that don't know who Heather is, check out her site. For those that do, you know how awesome she is and how supportive and amazingly helpful she is. A truly crucial piece to the Toronto photo industry in my opinion. Not to mention she started me on this whole blogging thing.

Heather is having some health issues (the low down is here), so a bunch of great people banded together to organize one hell of a fundraiser to help offset some costs. There will be a silent auction with prints from about 40(!) different photographers, as well as talks by the talented Daniel Ehrenworth, Naomi Harris and Brett Gundlock.

I've donated this photo of Lake Ontario for the auction, which is being printed at 24"x36" by the fine folks at Pikto. It's really an honor to be included in the impressive list of photographers asked to donate an image.

Prints! Talks! Beer! (I think).

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2011 IN 2012

Moving along in my attempt to get caught up with 2011 before the end of 2012: a couple portrait shoots for The Grid. First up I was tasked with shooting portraits of Krista Ford, now former Lingerie Football League player and niece of Toronto's _______ Mayor. Given the Mayor's general oddness and longstanding feud with certain Toronto publications, it was an interesting assignment to say the least. Maybe I'll just leave it at that.

Next up were some early morning portraits with Kevin O'Leary, of "Dragon's Den" fame, on what was potentially the busiest day of his life. In addition to being on at least two TV shows on CBC, Kevin was releasing a book that day and had just come from doing a radio show. At 5 in the morning. We were short for time but we tried to make the most of it in and around the CBC building. One of these images was also just picked up by the Financial Times in London, so that's pretty neat.

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I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW

Sooo... I wrote this a month ago (and yes, even at that point it was a couple months late) but then had a crazy pre-holiday rush. I'll do better, I promise: Holy shit, it's been a while. Really though it's not you, it's me. I'm on (what I assume to be) the tail end of the absolute busiest stretch of my career thus far. What's that mean? Constant shooting, editing, uploading, emailing and general ignoring of the blog. I feel a bit like an abusive boyfriend, but I swear I'll change. Since I'm like 20+ jobs behind schedule now and things feel like they were shot ages ago, let's just post a couple editorial updates from a few weeks ago to get the ball rolling. First up, Steam Whistle for Benefits Canada magazine. I would say that Steam Whistle (a brewery here in Toronto) is one of my favourite hobbies, so I was excited to shoot Greg Taylor, one of the founders, at the actual brewery for Benefits. I had actually shot Cam Heaps (another founder) at the brewery for Report On Business magazine a couple years ago, so it was a comfortable return to a really nice space. This time around there were tours galore going on, but we still managed to find a couple quiet spots to shoot.

Next up let's do a little marketing. I was tasked with shooting some portraits of Sophie Turner for a Marketing magazine cover story on higher up business types who left their positions to pursue careers in non-profit. Sophie left her job at American Express to become director of marketing for Habitat For Humanity. As such, I got to shoot Sophie on location in Scarborough at one of their build sites. Though it was tough to find a hard hat for my gigantic head, I do wish they let me keep the boots I got to wear.

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MANY MASONS

Since it's nice out again, let's do another post from this summer featuring some summery images. A couple months ago I was contacted by Stanley Sun and Ashley Rumsey, the nice folks behind a new design firm in Toronto called MASON. They were looking to get some portraits of themselves taken for use on their website, social media, promotional materials, etc. They wanted something somewhat casual but at the same time not too lifestyle-esque, which was right up my alley. We more or less spent the day touring the city trying to find some fresh locations. We had a couple spots (sort of) pre-picked out, but I'd say at least 50% of the others we found whilst adventuring. It's really not every shoot that I get the opportunity to do this, or spend this much time with my subjects. It was a great change of pace and I was really happy to get so much variety, again something that's not always easy to get. Also, the BLT I had at lunch was delicious.

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P&G&MARKETING

A new addition to the dudes in suits portfolio! I shot these portraits of Tim Penner, retiring President of P&G Canada for Marketing Magazine a few weeks back. Unfortunately, their office building was being renovated at the time (well, probably still is) so we were confined to shooting in the lobby area. Thankfully it was a pretty big and open space with some good lines and no weird paintings on the walls, so things worked out pretty well and we didn't even have to haul gear around very much.

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LLOYD ROBERTSON

Ok, next up let's go with a shoot I did for last week's issue of The Grid. Those of you in Canada most likely know that Lloyd Robertson was retiring (sort of) after 35 years on the air at CTV last week. As such there's been lots of Lloyd-ing going on in all kinds of publications, and I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of his time and shoot a few portraits.   These were all shot in and around the CTV studios building one evening before one of Lloyd's last broadcasts. His folks were really pushing for us to shoot in the "newsroom," but the magazine and myself really, really didn't want to have that dude-behind-news-desk shot. So with some persistence (friendly of course), and plenty of cooperation from Lloyd we at least got outdoors, and I got to watch him kick someone out of a picnic bench (friendly again, of course).