Just in time for the hockey playoffs, the Budweiser Red Lights are taking over man caves across Canada after a sold out launch a few months back. We had a great time with Ron, the Head of Red Light Operations, and his crew (below), getting this campaign fired up.

If you don’t know about them already, the Budweiser Red Light connects to your smart phone with Wi-Fi and automatically sounds the horn and flashes when your favourite team scores. Genius, no?

You can see more about the Red Lights and the rest of the campaign details at Budweiser.ca/redlights.

Finished up another fun photo shoot with Maisonneuve magazine recently. It involves Monks, Prince Edward Island, organic food, and cold hard cash.

If you’re not a subscriber, here’s a snippet:

A mysterious Buddhist organization recently arrived on Prince Edward Island with millions of dollars and a taste for organic farming. The monks and their followers are friendly—until you start asking too many questions.

See more at: http://maisonneuve.org/article/2013/03/18/when-monks-come-town/#sthash.AdNJO1tM.dpuf

I really wanted to play on our western idea of what we think a Buddhist monk is (poor, ignorant, and simple), and juxtapose it with the monks that are featured in this article (savvy, smart, and cultured). So for the opening image, I had his forward facing body language be typical and be what we’re used to seeing (positive, tranquil, etc.), and then juxtapose it, visually and physically (as it’s laid out in the magazine), with what we don’t normally see, and in this story, what they’re not prepared to show the writer (their cold, hard cash).

Here’s how the magazine laid them out:

Here’s how the portrait was featured as a spread in the magazine:

In the very heart of our most recent winter, I had the great pleasure of shooting a feature for Monocle magazine on Finnish culture in Thunder Bay, one of the most remote cities in Canada. Sitting atop the largest and most northern Great Lake, Lake Superior, Thunder Bay sits alone in a vast wilderness with one of the largest Finnish communities in the world outside of Finnland.

Joined by writer Markus Hippi, a Finn himself (oh, and let me get this out of the way now. Yes, it was a constant source of amusement that my name is Finn, and I was doing a story on Finns…), we spent a frigid 5 days documenting and reporting on all things relating to Finnish heritage in the city.

The issue is out now, but if you don’t have a chance to read it, Monocle did a nice job in creating a little film of our work which can be viewed here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pleased to announce that my smoker photos for the The Grid have won two big photography & cover design Awards of Excellence at the recent Society for News Design awards show.

Our cover shot (above), won a Award of Excellence for cover design, and our feature spread won an Award of Excellence for photography (below).

The awards show was huge for The Grid, as they came home with a boat load of photography & design awards, as well as a mantle worthy World’s Best Designed Newspaper.

Not bad for a 1 year old!

Read all about the shoot in a previous post here: http://wp.me/pkceL-CF

My latest athlete profile features Mountain Bikers in North Vancouver. Shooting started very early in the AM, and as the shoot progressed, so did our riders enthusiasm with some of the course’s most challenging obstacles.

There really is no place like the West Coast of Canada, and athletes there really do make the most of their sporting passions and the environments that are afforded to them. I mean, who thinks to make a 20 foot high roller over an old growth forrest stump! So much fun.

I’m always thrilled to see how a great magazine uses my images in their art direction, and Maisonneuve’s AD Anna Minzhulina really delivered in this issue. Below is her cover treatment of an egg I shot, and the feature treatment.

Here’s a little BTS they put together:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is some of the other holiday card awesomeness we’ve done in the past:

http://finnohara.com/blog/?p=2377

http://finnohara.com/blog/?p=1131

Here’s the last batch of images from the newly launched campign I shot for Sport Chek’s Your Better Starts Here . To read up on the campign details, see my previous blog post here: http://www.finnohara.com/blog/?p=2731

Our outdoor basketball shot (above), was photographed in downtown Vancouver. We fell for it immediately, and knew it would look great at night.

Our skateboarding & bmx shot (above),was shot at the PNE in Vancouver. It’s sacred ground for a lot of skaters, which added to the depth we were looking for in this shot.

Our mountain biking shot (above), brought us back to the Lynn Valley in North Vancouver. I can’t say enough how lovely this location was. It was teeming with bikers and hikers of all abilities. All we could hear throughout the day was the hooting and hollering from all the thrills happening down the mountainside.

Lastly, we shot our soccer (football), photo at the University of British Columbia.

We could not have completed this job if it wasn’t for our incredible caterer Laura. If you’re ever in need of an incredible, on-site chef, let me know and I’ll gladly put you in touch!

Our Alpine shot (above), was shot back in May at the end of a very long season at Banff’s Sunshine Village. They had great conditions, and a super supportive alpine staff. This pitch is steeper than it looks!

Bad Ass on-site vehicle!

Our Baseball shot (above), was the first shot we completed in Vancouver. Photographed at UBC, we were lucky to avoid rain during the shoot time, as rain really messes with those awesome, starry lights.

Our Art Director Stuart getting things juuuuust right.

Our hiking shot (above), was captured in the gorgeous Lynn Valley, in North Vancouver. One of the best tools we had on this shoot were our two custom made hazers from Hollywood North (they get the credit for that foggy look in the background).

Sometimes this…

…created this.

Best set catering ever. This was delivered 2 kilometers into the Lynn valley trails were we were shooting!

That’s it for this round. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!