I'm a Canadian photographer now living in Sydney Australia, specialising in performing arts, live events, editorial and corporate / commercial work. Having trained as a lighting designer for theatre, dance and opera, my work is driven by that experience and my knowledge of how to light a subject for an audience. Photography is quite similar to lighting in a lot of ways - except the camera is the audience, rather than the source of light.

The portrait work I do includes headshots for actors’ portfolios, promotional images for musicians and writers, environmental portraits for small businesses, album covers for bands, and corporate images for press releases and annual reports.

When creating new images for yourself or your business, it helps to have a photographer who can keep in mind all the end uses of the image you've got in mind - whether that's an immediate story or press release, or longer term speaking engagements, conferences & conventions, or social media use, it's good to have options available that will work in each of those contexts.

The most important thing in this sort of work is to get a feel for the person, and try to develop a look that suits what they want to convey about themselves. Are they friendly and approachable, or serious and intense? For actors, what kind of roles are they auditioning for, and how can we make them look right for the part? For musicians, is the album soft or hard, urban or rural, light or dark – and how can we support that in the image, through colour, tone, light, framing, depth of field, attitude; everything that makes a great image.