Ottawa Portrait Photographer - Toronto Studio Portraits

Taken at Mint Room Studios, Toronto, Canada

Back in early March (2020), I was really privileged to work again with my close friend Saba B. who is a super talented Toronto based UX Designer, and also, a freelance model. I am so thankful (to say the least) to have planned this session well in advance and to have booked my favourite studio called Mint Room Studios located in Toronto.

As a Portrait Photographer, people always come first in my mind. Your image is your brand. Well, at least a substantial part of it. I really enjoy working with models and helping to build their online or print portfolios. Photography matters and if you are a model looking to join an agency, freelance or just build a model portfolio, I'd love to connect with you and learn more.

I am available in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Thank you for reading.

- Alex Sarna 

December Ad Campaign for Farah Studio

In mid December, a local design boutique here in Ottawa called Farah Studio sent me a lovely note. They reached out about my fashion and beauty photography which they were following on social media and wanted to plan a fashion session at their new location on 483 Sussex. 

They brought me on board for a whole morning session as well as the elegant and talented Joudel Janoska (pictured above) from Models International Management. She was gorgeous in Farah's custom designed gowns and truly showed off her beautiful dresses incredibly well.

If you are currently in the market for a new custom design, or really any design, there is certainly something for everyone at Farah's place.

I do look forward to photographing the studios next ad campaign sometime in the new year.

As always, thanks for reading.

Alex

Winter Fashion Shoot, Country meet City

Country meet City - an Ottawa fashion blog combining unique looks both fresh and modern, and some more country style, has garnered a sizeable following on social media and via their blog. The two gals that make up this fashion blogging team are Lacey & Kay, and if I do say so myself, they are just incredible! Both of them have such energy and were so motivated to have a Winter fashion photoshoot in collaboration with the various designers they team-up with. This time it was a Christmas Holiday theme, which meant modelling beautiful dresses and simple clothes outside in the cold, in addition to some lifestyle portraits we did outside. 

This ''wintery'' fashion portrait is one of my favourites. The colours, the dresses and the mood really make the image stand out. Now that the days are getting earlier and darkness falls late afternoon, we played around with outdoor lighting. This allowed for more creativity and beautiful contrast within the portrait itself.

I am so happy with our session as it was truly a days work. Wishing these two the best and a very happy holiday season indeed.

Cheers,

Alex

Fashion Shoot with Power Model Management

What a pleasure it was to have been assigned this creative, lifestyle portrait project. Power Model Management is a local Ottawa modelling agency similar to MIM and Angie’s. They had hired me to photograph for their client, Chobhi, a local scarf designer here in Ottawa who is dedicated to producing ethically sourced fashion pieces and to empower women designers. 

The whole point of the project was to produce lifestyle advertising images with models wearing the designer scarves. These portraits are ideal for the clients website, image galleries, Instagram posts and of course print material.

We agreed to do the session at Mer Bleu Conservation Park early evening this past Sunday to capture the beautiful colours in the sunset. This made for an elegant lifestyle portrait with the agency models wearing these unique scarves.

Working with the PMM agency and their client was a great experience indeed. They had a concept in mind and knew the mood of the images beforehand, which really can make all the difference. 

I look forward to working with Power Model Management again for future advertising projects and producing fashion & branding images for their clients.

Until next time,

- Alex

Ottawa Beauty Portraits with Camille

What a busy month August has been. Meetings, consults and family get together’s really tires you out! I’ve been working on collaborating once more with a local modelling agency known as MIM - also known as Models International Management.

So the other day I photographed Camille, who is quite a talented model and has been with the agency for a little while now. The entire shoot was done outside in soft, natural light and we found this great location in downtown Ottawa to take these portraits.

It's funny, I recognized Cam via her Instagram profile - we were in the same Business college program, but I didn't know her personally back then. It was great to connect with her yesterday and work together professionally. Together, we created some everyday lifestyle and beauty images to add to her portfolio.

Working with models is great for portfolio building and general advertising. My goal is to collaborate with agencies and stores for their branding, ad campaigns and other marketing material. Local clothing stores hire agencies for model bookings and they will certainly need photos taken and perhaps video also for behind the scenes coverage.

As always, thanks for reading!

- Alex

Behind the Scenes: Model Headshot, Toronto

Spending some time here in Toronto has certainly been an adventure. What a month it has been. Ottawa is still home, but working and assisting a local fashion & beauty photographer here has brought about something new and different. And a change is good. Last week, I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with a model sent to the studio for one of his first portrait sessions. Thanks to Brogan for this behind the scenes photo while I am hard at work.

The fashion and beauty scene here in Toronto is quite large. Working downtown within the fashion district of the city made me see all of the unique trends that are current here. It's a big city and coming from Ottawa, there is more to see and do for sure.

As June comes to an end, and I begin to pack up not only my camera gear, I am grateful and appreciative of the time and efforts in coming to live in a new city, collaborating with like-minded and talented professionals, and of course to the studio for having me.

Thanks for reading.

- Alex