Toronto music celebrity photographer | Photo blog » Toronto photographer and filmmaker RIchard Yagutilov

Promotional Music Photographer | Colin Munro In Studio

Posted on August 27, 2009 – 12:23 AM

COLIN MUNRO IN STUDIO

Colin is an up coming recording artist from Toronto. He got attention from Kanye West when he made an unauthorized remix of “I Want Those Flashing Lights” posted the video on youtube and got the man himself to big it up. I first met him on a music video i directed for Richie Hennesse, where Colin put in a hilarious cameo as a nutty lab technician. I shot Colin Munro at my photo studio in Toronto for a magazine in New Zealand (how strange is that). A bit of an unconventional promotional portrait, but it’s the music portrait so anything goes.

Filed under Music, celebrity

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TORONTO ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER | CROSSFIT

Posted on August 24, 2009 – 12:24 AM

CLICK TO ENLAGE

This photo was shot for the new Crossfit gym on Queen West, awesome workouts used by the military. High intensity, short bursts, you leave your guts on the floor every time. Definitely the best workouts I’ve ever had, yielding the best results. I am shooting all the promotional and advertising photography for the gym’s website and marketing materials. This shot is a Muscle Up on the Olympic rings. http://www.crossfitgyms.ca/

Filed under Advertising, Promotional

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Toronto Fashion Photographer -NTM Studios- newest downtown photo studio

Posted on July 7, 2009 – 11:39 AM

Its been over 2 months since my last post, finally i catch my breath. Been busy moving into a great new studio space in the heart of downtown Toronto, just a few doors down from Sutherland Models on Spadina Ave, north of Queen St.

The new photo & film studio is to be called NTM Studios (Next Top Model Studios) and we’re still working on the website and logo. Been hard at work tearing down old walls and ceilings. We had the concrete floors exposed and newly polished. Sprayed 25 gallons of paint on the walls and still going. Gutting the 3000 square foot space and making it the hottest new fashion photo studio in the city!

I’ve shot several Sutherland fashion shoots in there even with all the construction. It was an experience working around hanging electrical wires and paint… and dust! The models didn’t complain. Like good troopers, we got through it and got some great fashion photography despite it all.

Check out the before and afters of the photo studio renovation process. I’m actually working on a cool time lapse video of the first 6 days.

Also, I finally joined Twitter and I now have a Facebook page! Call me cool. lol.

Filed under Creative, Fashion, Modeling, Uncategorized

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Kid Kut | Scissorhands

Posted on May 3, 2009 – 3:00 PM

Kid Kut | Scissorhands

Created this image for Kid Kut from the Baby Blue Sound crew (goes way back) Kid’s got a following as a barber extraordinaire. He came to me for some simple promo images for his sites and shop. I couldn’t help my self and came up with this scissorhand concept using his barber tools. We shot at Circa nightclub in downtown Toronto where he MC’s on the weekends. What a wicked place that is, so many cool corners to shoot in and a very crazy looking bathroom, with a bar inside and a dental surgery chair and all. Pretty nutty, i know.
So we shot and composited this Edward Scissorhand vibe, has a pretty cold and dark tone though. Hope you like it, love to hear your thoughts actually!

Filed under Promotional

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SALVADOR DALI | INSPIRED DESERT

Posted on April 22, 2009 – 7:00 AM

DALI INSPIRED KEDAR IN THE DESERT

When I work on creative images I do it mainly for myself as a creative outlet. 98% of the time these creative composites are not created for clients nor used by them. Whenever I shoot a job for a client there are usually a few pictures that get inspired and usually lead me to create something more with them.
In this case we shot clean Herb Ritts inspired beauty type images for a company called Anuaura who makes natural skincare products. During the photo shoot I got inspired by Kedar’s profile (the owner and creator of Anu). I have always been a fan of surreal art and especially Salvador Dali and his paintings of strange ominous landscapes and invisible reflections. I wonder if anyone will notice the subtleties in the image, it is always a work in progress and will hopefully get better as i create more. Thanks for looking, I welcome your comments and creative criticisms.

Filed under Commercials, Creative

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Stephen McHattie | The Watchmen movie

Posted on April 7, 2009 – 7:20 PM

STEPHEN MACHATTIE FROM THE FILM THE WATCHMEN

Zack Snyder’s latest comic book rendition is an acquired taste. I long and drawn out noir style super hero film. I little long for my taste and not enough action. 300 really raised expectations, that was a kick ass movie. The Watchmen, not so much but then again that’s just me I’m sure many people think I’m crazy for thinking that.
Stephen McHattie whom I shot last summer at the Gibson Guitar party room in Toronto made an appearance in the beginning of the film which was cool. He’s got a lot of character in his face a good actor.

Filed under Entertainment, Film, celebrity

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Dearly Beloved - Rock Band | One finger salute

Posted on April 7, 2009 – 6:22 PM

DEARLY BELOVED, PUNK ROCK BAND SALUTE

Another Dearly Beloved shot take at my studio in Kensington Market one summer day, I miss the summer. I like the energy in this shot with the perspective of the fingers pointed. Gives a nice 3d element and real presence. The one finger salute Niva is giving seems to be a recurring theme with me. I seem to encourage people to give me the finger, hmm.. I guess its the masochist in me.. Ah well, The band also used a version of this shot to promote a live concert event they had at Tattoo Rock Parlor in Toronto. Check them out live when you can, they kick ass!

Filed under Film, Music

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Crossfit Gym Toronto | Russian Rockstar

Posted on April 7, 2009 – 6:12 PM

RUSSIAN ROCKSTAR CREATIVE CONCEPT

This image was a creative concept done for shits and giggles nothing more. The concept was what would a Russian Rockstar look like, so my friend and trainer Dhani Oks came up with this F.O.B (fresh of the boat) personality rented a crazy see through red electric guitar and this is what came of it. It was a fun and funny shoot, looks like this FOB is alright!

Filed under Creative, Entertainment

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Stephen Eyes | EYES ON TORONTO

Posted on February 20, 2009 – 3:11 PM

Stephen Eyes | EYES ON TORONTO

This is a series I was inspired to create for my own purpose. The cast and crew of this Independent Toronto Late night talk show came to me for straight forward promo shots. They had a cool concept for a David Lettermanesque late show with live performances by Toronto bands and interviews with cool celebs and personalities. The shot the pilot and a whole season of 13 episodes at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen St. West in front of a live audience. Lots of funny comedians came to do their stand up too, its a pretty cool show which hopefully will get picked up and broadcast in a tube near you.

Anyway a couple of months after we shot I revisited the images, we shot ear member separately and I encouraged them to get a little crazy for the camera, giving me the finger and making faces. I noticed that there we so many cool expressions and there was a total story there, it just needed a little something.

I put together a few pictures i like and composited a surreal story with a theme, or I should say it kind of created it self just used me as a TOOL entering commands and clicking my mouse until these cool composites came together. hmm.. every images has someone stuck in another inaccessible dimension of glass, dunno what it means buts it eerie and cool.

Props to Stephen Eyes (brains of the operation) “Eyes On Toronto” took me a while to put that together- you sneaky devil ;-)) and his crew of talented actors and comedians to really put it all out there and give so much character to the shot.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Filed under Creative, Entertainment, Series, TV

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Kardinal Offishall | NOT4SALE : THE ALBUM

Posted on February 11, 2009 – 5:32 PM

KARDINAL OFFISHAL COVER FOR ALBUM NOT4SALE

Kardinal Offishall’s first album since Akon signed him on to an American label. Good for you Kardi!! Seems like if you’re gonna make it in the big time you will have to do it south of the border with our American friends.
I have been shooting Kardi and the Black Jays for a few years now, and when Kardi’s manager Mayday told me about the upcoming album and the title I was really intrigued. I remembered when I directed Kardi’s video Heads Up from his Fire & Glory album he was wearing a T-shirt with a barcode and it said NOT4SALE.
I spoke with Kardi about my idea to put a barcode where his mouth should be completely eliminating it and i put together a rough composite to show him, he really dug it. So The label Interscope in L.A. gave me a tentative deal to shoot and put something together and if they like it then we got a full cover deal.
I spoke to Kardi again the day before the shoot and we came up with the concept of a soldier holding a grenade in his mouth, which we later had to loose because of legal issues. No ammo in pictures, hmm interesting, weapons are ok though ;0
We shot in Kensington Market and Harlem restaurant and a bunch of other renegade locations, no permits, run and gun. Better to ask forgiveness then ask permission.

Some of the above images were created just for my own amusement and were not included in the album artwork.
Here are some of the images we shot and used in the album art.

Filed under Entertainment, Music

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Norglen: a Canadian rock band

Posted on February 5, 2009 – 7:14 PM

NORGLEN IN TORONTO, MASSEY HALL

Norglen is a rock band signed to an L.A. indie label, again we only get love down in the states it seems. A cool bunch of guys mostly from the west coast Calgary from a town called Norglen, hence the name. We shot mostly on the streets of downtown Toronto stealing locations like the Distillery District, Union station, Massey Hall. Here are a couple of shot’s I later put together.

Filed under Music

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Nike Lights: a spec ad

Posted on January 21, 2009 – 6:52 PM

Nike Spec Ad, Award winner in Applied Arts Magazine

A while back I set up a commercial spec shoot just as a portfolio piece. The concept was to create a 30 second television commercial using stills blended and morphed together to produce a kind of surreal live action/ animation feel. We shot with an real Olympic runner at the Bloor Collegiate on Bathurst and Bloor st. Downtown Toronto during the summer and retouched the images and sent them off to my CGI and FX team to begin the edit. This was a lot more complex then we all anticipated and after some anti climactic shots were edited together I realized it needed something a little extra. Had a very talented music producer and friend Elliot Zeitoune compose a high energy music track and Kevin Swartz put a kick ass sound effect track to it and it started to get more of a life to it. I re-edited the spec ad from the traditional 30 sec spot down to a 15 second teaser trailer and that improved the overall feel for the commercial. This images was a collaborative effort with Filip Radu who took my images of the Nike Runner and used his 3d magic and some after effects to generate this cool electric look.

Filed under Advertising, Commercials, Creative

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Bruce McDonald: Director of Pontypool

Posted on January 19, 2009 – 6:25 PM

Bruce McDonald: Director of Pontypool

Shot with Bruce while he was in the final week of production on his film Pontypool in Toronto. Cool dude very easy going. I was a bit nervous cause I am a fan of his work, his film Hard Core Logo blew me away. It was the first English Canadian film that kicked ass!

We shot this image at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street using natural light with my Nikon D3 and a 105mm prime lens.

Filed under Entertainment, Film, Promotional

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Dearly Beloved: Balls shot

Posted on January 12, 2009 – 6:06 PM

DEARLY BELOVED IN STUDIO, COVER SHOT

Rob Higgins is the lead vocalist of Toronto’s indie punk rock band Dearly Beloved. They were in the studio during the summer for promotional press and advertisement photos. Rob had a cool belt so we gave it a hero shot close- up in this ‘balls’ shot. I think this could make for a really cool album cover.

Filed under Music

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Akon, the original Konvict

Posted on January 7, 2009 – 5:55 PM

Akon on promotional tour in Toronto for album release NOT4SALE

Akon during a promotional tour in Toronto for hip hop artist and rapper Kardinal Offishall for his latest album NOT4SALE.

Client: Interscope Records / Universal Music

Akon “Konvict”

Shot in Toronto at Circa Nightclub

Promotional tour with Kardinal Offishall for Not 4 Sale album

September 2008

Filed under Music, Promotional

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Promotional Music Photographer | Colin Munro In Studio

TORONTO ADVERTISING PHOTOGRAPHER | CROSSFIT

Toronto Fashion Photographer -NTM Studios- newest downtown photo studio

Kid Kut | Scissorhands

SALVADOR DALI | INSPIRED DESERT

Stephen McHattie | The Watchmen movie

Dearly Beloved - Rock Band | One finger salute

Crossfit Gym Toronto | Russian Rockstar

Stephen Eyes | EYES ON TORONTO

Kardinal Offishall | NOT4SALE : THE ALBUM

Norglen: a Canadian rock band

Nike Lights: a spec ad

Bruce McDonald: Director of Pontypool

Dearly Beloved: Balls shot

Akon, the original Konvict

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