David Watt

This is the shoot that pretty much whetted my appetite for a career in photography. The late afternoon had me photographing a dog team backdropped by an Akita drilling rig against an expansive tundra winter scene (later published in the NY Times) and the evening photographing the scenes seen above in steady - 45 Celsius temperatures, that eventually got the better of both of my camera’s electronics that completely froze in spite of several rounds of fresh batteries. I kept warm in my North Face winter parka, MEC overpants and my incredibly warm down mitts over my fingerless wool gloves.

We spent several fun and challenging days with our client photographing several of their warranty properties throughout the City of Calgary. This was a quick grab shot when I spotted the wonderful symmetry of the row of homes under construction. Sometimes the least expected images are the ones that eventually adorn the covers of the Annual Reports!

ATCO Power’s 760 megawatt Sheerness Generating Station steam turbine blades were brought to life by raking warm gelled Profoto strobes on grid across their angled surfaces making for striking image.

Every few years Canada Towers brings us back to their facility to capture their latest mega lights and towers, that make for terrific subjects against a winter cobalt blue sky. It is quite simply a goldmine of stunning subjects.

Don’t ask me how these contraptions work, but I expect only an engineer would be able to design these massive water filtration units! Many times, we have photographed these various units against our photographer’s supplied large pure white background. Challenging to say the least given the white and multi-reflective surfaces. The setup is very elaborate and typically involves the use of at least 5 powered Profoto strobes with various light modifiers.

It was an interesting and insightful day photographing at the Cargill High River beef processing plant. Here lovely Genalyn, is nicely smiling for the camera on the walkway above the main processing area.

We spent a day in Three Hills, Alberta photographing Billy Coles, owner Billy’s Construction and Painting, for Costco. It was most delightful finishing off the day photographing Billy and his wonderful family in their home. The greatest challenge of the day was getting that little guy running in front of his wife to cooperate just the way we wanted, so we finally had to take the perfect shot of him from one image where he cooperated but someone else wasn’t quite captured the way we were seeking and clone him into this image!

The devil is in the details and location, timing, lens choice (500 mm Nikkor) and getting that perfect exposure was challenging, indeed. This was one of several images shot for G2 Architecture’s RAIC Awards of Excellence for Innovation in Architecture of the EDT University of Calgary Education Tower.

A simple headshot of Billy Coles, BCP Construction, Three Hills, Alberta taken for the cover of the Costco catalogue? Nope! This was shot in a 3 sided, glass walled office with all the attendant challenges of reflections and space - I am jammed against the back wall between my tripod and the wall and lighting Billy was beyond problematic but somehow we managed it. Thank you for your patience Billy!

We spent most of the day at the Enerplus head office shooting for their Annual Report, sales literature, print collateral and advertising campaigns and to finish off the day we photographed this team of workers on Stephens Avenue, Calgary, Alberta for their Enerplus Careers brochure. Lots of fun crawling around on the pavement, bringing out the smiles and finding a cool perspective with the buildings providing a great backdrop!

In the heyday of oil and gas production I spent countless hours on rigs, helicopters and driving the ice roads in the Mackenzie Delta in the area bordering the Beaufort Sea. Warm clothing and camera gear efficiency were paramount. I must say I loved everything about those shoots although the noise factor on those rigs was a nuisance with having to constantly place and pull out those ear plugs. I finally got myself a few pairs of the headphone style and whey, do they ever nicely work.

For years I have been returning to Westeel's Olds facility to photograph their manufacturing processes and workers and as part of those projects we annually photograph their new products just off a gravel road in a field adjacent to the plant. The greatest challenge was placed on Stan, the amazing forklift operator who had to delicately and expertly place the tanks 'just so' to capture the best background, keep the tanks horizontal and most importantly to deal with whatever ambient light position to optimise the our lighting and composition.

Days spent travelling all around Calgary, photographing properties under construction, inside and out. While stumbling through the mud I came across this shovel from a digger and loved the grittiness of it to show what actually starts the process of construction on these properties.