YES! It’s the moment so many of you have been waiting for…The Instagram Gallery Show at Low Key Studio & Gallery!!!
This is YOUR time to shine! To share your perspective! To see YOUR PHOTOS in a Gallery Show!
On April 28th at 7:00pm, Low Key Studio will open its doors to the public to mingle and look at…
It was through skateboarding that I first got into still photography, so I was stoked when I got a call from Phil asking if I wanted to go shoot with him at CBMK last week. Z Roy came along as well and we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves for the night. I haven’t been to this park in about 4 years, but not much has changed, and it’s still one of my favourite winter spots in the GTA.
Phil McKnight with a large Ollie to Fakie
Z Roy with an Ollie from the Upper Flat into the Mini-Half
Z Roy with...I guess a Nosegrind up, 5-0 down?
Phil with a lofty switch kickflip
B-Roll Weapon of Choice...$5 from an antique store and it has a hot shoe!
Z Roy again, with the 50mm instead of the 15mm
My favourite photo from the night, cropped square so it's Instagram-ready 
I also decided to warm up the motor drive and try out a couple sequences. Z Roy’s finished up a bit sketchy, as every other attempt I’d had to duck under his board flying out of the mini-half…so I was a little uneasy…but I assure you it was a land.
You already know.
Sometimes 1 frame just isn't enough.
...or one angle...
It felt really good to get back to my roots and shoot some quality skateboarding with old friends, I’m really looking forward to skating street in the coming months!
So stoked to be sharing this with the world! We just released Johnny Major‘s first Music Video for Ghetto Fabulous, off their debut album “This Is The Sound”. I had the pleasure of Directing this video, and could not have done it without the extremely talented camera operator and editor, Chris Wardle. Anna Cyzon is also featured in this song and video which was shot in entirety in Hamilton, Ontario. Take a look and spread the love!
I finally got a chance to make it out to a Steel Gold show over at the Casbah Lounge on Friday. I love the intimacy of the Casbah for a venue.
The main event of this month’s Steel Gold was an insane DJ Battle, I’ve never witnessed live DJ stunts like this before, so it was hard not to put the camera down and just enjoy the show!
In the end it came down to a heated battle between DJ Rix & !Kryme Won. There was just so much going on I didn’t think one photo would do these guys justice!
!Kryme Won Holding it Down
See if you can spot my logo in that one!
DJ Rix for the Win, let's go
To me it was all good, but in the end the judges handed the win to DJ Rix. I’m definitely looking forward to the next Steel Gold event! In the mean time, if you’re looking for something to do after Art Crawl this Friday the 13th, why not head over to Low Key Studio where we’re having a FREE SHOW and VIDEO RELEASE PARTY for Johnny Major! More details www.lowkeystudio.com.
I’m working on a little Time Lapse Video to showcase the beautiful city I live and work in to the rest of the world. My goal is for outsiders to see this city the way we (optimistic!) Hamiltonians see it!
These are some of the test shots I did when I was first ironing out the kinks with my super ghetto, self-designed, home-made time-lapse dolly rig…When I say ghetto, I mean I have to move it by hand, 1/8th of an inch at a time, 500 times per shot…in the freezing cold! But I love this city, so it’s worth it!
Please excuse the shakiness…again, these were just the test shots. The final video, which will drop sometime towards the end of January, will be flawlessly spectacular!
I’ll be shooting up until mid-January, so if you know of any cool locations to set up for a time lapse, please email me at christoph@lowkeystudio.com and I’ll make sure you get credited for the location in the final video if it’s used! If anyone knows of any ways to get funding through sponsorship or something, let me know! It would be awesome to have proper equipment, but if not…I’m perfectly fine to do this by hand, 1/8th of an inch at a time!
Please, enjoy (and share!) the video!
Christoph Benfey
I was hanging out with Chef Bradley Yip over the weekend. Bradley is the Managing Chef at Seven, which is the fine restaurant inside the McMichael Gallery. I shooting some new menu items for them and I had my 7D with me so we decided on a whim to shoot a quick little segment for one of the salad’s Bradley had been playing around with.
I didn’t have any sound gear or video equipment with me other than the 7D itself, but the video ended up getting picked up for Litro Magazine over in the UK! Here’s the result, and let me tell you, it tastes better than it looks! Enjoy!
Hamilton has some fantastic architecture, and lately I’ve been scrambling to capture some of the finer buildings in the area before the cold weather really hits.
The Herkimer at Bay building is a fine example of a building which was headed down a path of dilapidation until the right developer came along and saw a diamond in the rough. After almost 100 years of use as rental apartments in Hamilton’s Durand Village, the building had seen its fair share of mediocre repairs and unmitigated neglect. In a time when most developers are knocking over historical buildings to make way for skyscrapers, Core Urban Inc‘s Steve Kulakowsky decided this building deserved to be preserved in time and updated tastefully, while maintaining the deliberate intention of integrity and character of the original architect, William Palmer Witton.
Herkimer at Bay Luxury Condominiums
I’ve had a few people in the building ask me for prints of this one, so if anyone else is interested in getting in on the order before Monday hit me up at cbenfey@mac.com. Or, if you would like your own house/building photographed, send me an email with the details.
Now if only it would stop raining every night!
