Girls Rock Camp 2019

Back in 2016 I approached the folks at Girls+ Rock Ottawa about a personal series I wanted to do in partnership with them. That first series of their rock camp for girls has turned into an ongoing collaboration. I've now photographed four girls camps and one women's camp!

Every year I do something a little different than the last, and for the 2019 camp I decided to combine portraits of each camper with a photo of them performing at the showcase they held at the National Arts Centre at the end of the camp.

The participants change so much from the first day of the camp to the last, even though it's only one weekend from Friday till Sunday. I thought this technique would be an interesting way to illustrate their growth from an everyday teenager to a badass rockstar.

Scroll on to see a few portraits, as well as BTS images and technical info!

Technical Information: 

I used a single Profoto D2 with a Zoom Reflector and grid for the main light. I used two B1X strobes with Zoom Reflectors for the background lights, with black foam flags preventing spill on to the subject. 

It was important to keep most of the subject very dark so I could overlay the performance photos on top later on, so I needed to be fairly strategic in how the main light was hitting the subject with this in mind. 

The strobes were triggered and controlled by Air Sync and Air USB. I used a Nikon D850 with a Sigma Art 50mm 1.4 lens, tethered to CaptureOne Pro via TetherTools to my Apple MacBook Pro in an SKB case.

Thank you again to the folks at Girls+ Rock Ottawa, the campers, and especially to my rad assistants Kamara Morozuk and Melody Maloney for their hard work (and BTS images)!

Check out the project gallery on my website which includes a variety of images from each year!