Philippe Roy - International Photographer - Blog

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Cafe Transat (food and interiors)
2008-05-18 03:00:00
Éric is a friend of mine and fellow Montrealer living and working here in Shanghai. So I was more than happy to help him out to get some photos of his food and interiors for his new venture: Café Transat. They say food photography is the most difficult there is. A balance of natural and studio lighting, a fight with time as the food has a very short lifespan on the table once it’s beneath the studio lights and a challenge with composition with all the shapes, colours and textures. Photographer: Philippe Roy Style: food and interiors photography Client: Café Transat Studio: Rimagine – The Photography Company Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Food , Cafe , Interiors

DMG Suzhou (Industrial Photography)
2008-05-17 03:37:00
Photographer: Philippe Roy Style: corporate/industrial photography Client: DMG – Gildermeister Agency: Montfort – Shanghai Studio: Rimagine – The Photography Company Location: Suzhou , China
More About: Industrial

Classic Travel (group portraits)
2008-04-27 03:10:00
Photographer: Philippe Roy Client: Classic Travel (travel agent) Style: creative group portraits Studio: Rimagine – The Photography Company Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Group , Portraits

Red Scooter (Product photography)
2008-04-26 03:48:00
Photographer: Philippe Roy Style: Product photography, vehicle Client: personal portfolio development Studio: Rimagine – The photography company Special thanks to Lou for lending me her precious scooter for a day!
More About: Photography , Scooter

Solutia - Corporate Portraits
2008-04-15 03:32:00
Photographer: Philippe Roy Client: Solutia Style: Corporate Portraits Studio: Rimagine – The photography company Location: office building along the Huangpu river, Shanghai, China

Vedas (interiors)
2008-04-09 03:20:00
Photographer: Philippe Roy Client: International Interiors Studio: Rimagine – The photography Company Location: Vedas Indian Restaurant, Shanghai, China

Big & Baby Bamboo (Interiors)
2008-04-07 02:31:00
Big Bamboo Baby Bamboo Photographer: Philippe Roy Client: Big Bamboo Style: Interior and Exterior photography Studio: Rimagine – The photography Company Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Interiors

Simply Thai (Food Photography)
2008-04-05 13:15:00
photographer: Philippe Roy Client: Simply Thai Studio: Rimagine – The Photography Company Style: Food photography / Thai Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Food photography

Justice is Served (funny)
2008-03-28 07:43:00
95% of the time life is China can be a challenge: a new language, a new culture, a different way of doing things… and most of the time it feels like an uphill battle. But, every now and again justice is served and China puts a smile on your face: This photo was taken by my new international assistant Alex Cheng Loew when we rolled up in front of the Jinan International Airport after a shoot in Shandong province. Photographer: Alex Cheng Loew Location: Jinan International Airport, Shandong province, China
More About: Funny , Justice

Lelo - Hero shots
2008-03-15 12:15:00
The creators of the Lelo personal vibrator for women, have created more than just a great ‘toy’ for women but also an object of distinct design. It’s with it’s flowing lines and sleek design that Lelo got me excited, purely as a photographer, of course. So, when the people at Rimagine came to me to come up with ideas for beauty / hero shots for Lelo – for whom they were already doing the pack-shots – I was more than happy to spend a bit of time in studio. Photographer: Philippe Roy / Rimagine Style: Product photography, hero/beauty shots Client: Lelo Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Shots , Hero

Simply Thai - Food Photography
2008-03-12 02:38:00
I admit that I do not do a lot of food photography. Some say it’s the hardest type of photography there is. Everything is very time sensitive and intense. The photo mus be finished before the lettuce welts and before the ice cream melts… but in the end it’s well worth it. So when Rimagine approached me about doing a food photo-shoot for Simply Thai (a well known Thai restaurant here in Shanghai) I got really excited and wanted to take up the challenge! The photos below were actually taken in 2005, since then I’ve done other food photography with restaurants and products. Stayed tuned on the blog for more, and even possibly a food photography portfolio section… hint hint! Here’s the results from the first shoot: Photographer: Philippe Roy / Rimagine.com Client: Simply Thai Style: Food and Drinks photography Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Photography , Food photography

George, Gina & Lucy - Product photography
2008-03-11 01:16:00
Certainly one of the interesting things of working as a photographer here in Shanghai is to see all the new products being developed before they’re shipped off to the rest of the world. And since everything nowadays seems to be made in China, I get to see quite a bit on my light table. This series was done for George , Gina and Lucy bags that wanted to have ‘beauty’ shots of their products (also called ‘hero’ shots int he biz) to make posters for their shops. Client: George, Gina & Lucy Photographer: Philippe Roy / Rimagine.com Style: Product photography Location: Shanghai, China
More About: Photography

Philips - Industrial photography
2008-03-02 02:06:00
I truly enjoy doing industrial and corporate photography. Maybe it’s the boy in me, but I find a true pleasure at getting my hands dirty and dealing with huge and powerful machines. Through Rimagine, one of our most consistent industrial clients is DMG and it’s not only a pleasure to work for them because we get to travel all over Asia, but they’ve got some of the biggest and coolest machines! Photographer: Philippe Roy / Rimagine.com Style: Industrial and Corporate photography Client: DMG Agency: Montfort – Shanghai Location: Philips factory, Singapore
More About: Photography

Dreams, dreams, dreams
2008-02-28 23:58:00
I just came back from two assignments, one in India and the other in Korea, shooting fro Rimagine – and starting another six shooting-day project now. I love my work, but sometimes I can’t help but dream of the beaches of Thailand… photographer: Philippe Roy Style: Travel photography Location: Koh Samui, Thailand
More About: Dreams

Exercice de style
2008-02-13 12:04:00
One of my favorite plays (and books) is based on Queneau’s book:Exercice de style. It’s a basic story. A guy goes to the bus stop, boards the bus and gets down a few stops later. Simple, straight forward and to the point. Yet, he takes the same story and twists it and re-twists it a hundred times over to recount the events in different styles, breaths and rhythms. Very often, I’m reminded of the book when I open PhotoShop. There just seems to be so many possible directions one can take to treat an image. I keep coming back to this image I did of my old assistant during a light test (I wanted to the the lighting effects of a beauty dish with macro-portrait photography, for those who are curious to know). The photo is simple, yet there’s so many ways to treat it in PhotoShop and I just never seem to be able to decide on which one I’m happy with. And the original: ...if you feel the inspiration, I’ve left the original a bit bigg...
More About: Style

Details on life in Shanghai
2008-02-12 13:15:00
I’ve been teaching photography to two French expats here in Shanghai , they’re mostly interested in portraits, people and street photography. While they were hunting people down the many alleyways of Shanghai, I took a few snaps here and there of different corners of these alleyways. One interesting(?) thing to mention before going on to the photos, is that in Shanghai’s obsession with renovating it’s international image, for the Olympics (Beijing, 2008) and the international expo (2010), it’s tearing down most of these old houses and alleyways to make place for skyscrapers and expensive apartment compounds. The people who are kicked out of their flats by the new landlords are either re-located an hour out of town or given money for their flat – but it’s never enough to buy a new place in the same area, of course. Photographer: Philippe Roy Style: photojournalism / street photography Location: Shanghai (Puxi), China
More About: Life , Details

Winter Blues
2008-02-09 04:57:00
It’s been snowing quite a fair bit in Shanghai lately, though certainly not as much as back home. Sometimes I like winter and sometimes I don’t – when I don’t it’s mostly because it involves digging the car out of a mountain of compact snow! The snow is Shanghai is far from being impressive, to Canadian eyes, but it certainly does make me miss home, a good ski hill and a hot cup’o’coco at the top-of-the-hill ski lodge. photographer: Louise Adele Hubbard (my lovely tender half!) Style: Landscape photography Location: Freelightsburg (Eastern Townships), Quebec, Canada
More About: Blues , Winter

Schlumberger (industrial)
2008-02-08 13:27:00
Here’s a change of pace. From the archives, this is one of my favorite industrial shoots from back in 2005, it was shot in Singapore. It was done through Rimagine, one of the first assignments I did with them. Photographer: Rimagine / Philippe Roy Style: Industrial / corporate photography Client: Montfort Agency, representing DMG machines location: Singapore
More About: Schlumberger

Stalking Legs
2008-02-03 10:32:00
This is the final installment of the series with Bella. My hits have jumped from about 30 to 40 per day to 600 on the days I post the fresh photos. So, I guess I’ll be back to the old traffic in a couple of days. It was good while it lasted, and I truly feel like sex does sell! This is a bit of an idea that seems to have crawled on me and I think we might see more of this series (not with Bella, but with new models) coming in the future. In the mean time, enjoy: Photographer: Philippe Roy Model: Bella style: artistic nudes
More About: Legs , Stalking

The Lamp (nudes)
2008-01-31 10:46:00
This is the second part of the shoot with Bella. I packed the studio lights and we decided to play around with the environment’s light… quite literally! photographer: Philippe Roy model: Bella
More About: Lamp

Texture (nudes)
2008-01-29 08:59:00
Looking at my website stats in the last month I’ve noticed that quite a few searches end up on this website with the word “nude” inserted somewhere in the keyword phrase. Now, I don’t exactly specilalise in nudes, but it did force me to take a second look at my nudes portfolio. I realised that the quality level of the photography in that portfolio is not on pare with the rest of my photography – since most of the photos date from at least 2 years ago! So, I’m taking steps to remedy this. This is the first, of many I hope, of macro nudes: Photographer: Philippe Roy Model: Bella style: artistic nudes / macro photography
More About: Texture

Mishella Vendetta
2008-01-26 09:52:00
This is from a shoot I did while on vacation in Sydney Australia (visiting my better half’s family). I wanted to know how it was to work with a full Aussie team. Each country has it’s energy. So I gathered as many people as I could and I’m happy I did. The team was (beyond) fantastic. I consider myself really lucky to have worked with all of them and look forward to a next time in a not so distant future. Photographer: Philippe Roy Style: Urban fashion / fantasy Model: Mishella Vendetta Hairstylists: x-lox team (Lyndall and Lynn) MUA: Miss Ruby Rouge

Noir Rouge Blanc - Still Life Photography
2008-01-16 05:41:00
This is the result of a great session with Florence Drouzy. Florence and I have worked together on a number of commercial projects, me as a photographer (of course!) and her as a stylist (table top and interior), but we took this occasion to create something of our own. Red on red, black on black and white on white. A suitable photography and styling challenge, but certainly worth the effort with results like these: Photographer: Philippe Roy Stylist: Florence Drouzy Studio: thanks to Rimagine – The photography Company Shanghai, 2007
More About: Life , Photography , Noir , Still Life , Rouge

The Mafia Cat
2008-01-15 11:15:00
They say that “there’s no such thing as ‘the mafia’.” But, there is such a thing as this cat, and by extension, I’d risk saying there’s such a thing as ‘the mafia’. He’s no Tony Soprano, but he’s certainly Don Corleone or Dr. Blofeld material: Photographer: Philippe Roy Model: the father of the Shanghai feline underground no cats were harmed during this shooting, though the photographer almost fainted as there was an obvious attempt to scratch his lens.
More About: Mafia

Wedding photography
2008-01-13 03:32:00
When Ken and Eva came to see me they knew I wasn’t a wedding photographer, but they wanted something different. The young couple are my friends here in Shanghai, and I also wanted to offer them something a little bit more fashionable than the average Chinese wedding photography studio here in Shanghai. The session was filled with love, fun and laughter and it shows through the photos. The last in the series is a creative composition, an idea I’ve been working with for some time in my head and this seemed the perfect occasion to put it to practice. In the end, when we get married, it’s not only our whole but the sum of all our different parts that we’re putting together. All the best to Eva and Ken.
More About: Photography , Wedding

Ariel - Glamour
2007-12-18 07:27:00
I know it’s been a while, my bad, but it does mean I’ve been busy… and if I’ve been busy it means more photos for the blog! ;) I’ll be going to Sydney (Australia) for the Christmas holidays (visiting my girlfriend’s family!) and instead of digging out the car in Montreal, I’ll be flippin’ some ‘shrimps on the barbie!’ I have set-up a couple of shoots in Oz also… so more to come! This is Ariel Chen, we’ve been talking about organising a shoot for the better part of a year but with conflicting schedules, colds and whatnot we hadn’t been able to do it until now! But, as you can see, we finally made it! We rented out a hotel room and got down to work.. a bit of a glamour/fashion twist for you! Enjoy. Photographer: Philippe Roy Model: Ariel Leanne Chen Make-up: Ariel Leanne Chen Retouching: Philippe Roy
More About: Glamour

Nivea - Beauty
2007-11-30 01:40:00
While most photographers would jump at the occasion of having a studio to their full disposition for a few hours, few would jump at the occasion of spending those hours with a bottle of Nivea hand moisturizing cream – versus spending those hours with a beautiful model! Except for me, of course – though models are always tempting, sometimes I like to take up the challenges of product photography. Nivea is one or Rimagine’s regular clients. Photographer: Philippe Roy Studio: Rimagine – The Photography Company Retouching: Philippe Roy
More About: Beauty

Glass Portraits - Victor
2007-11-28 02:17:00
It’s not often these days, but when I do have a little bit of time to myself in studio I usually like to experiment with lighting and different ideas that I have. Most often, or so it seems, my victim of choice is my assistant: Victor . Sometimes I think being a photographer is like being an older brother, when I can take my assistant and use him for my experiments… and he can’t really complain about it. Anyhow, before I digress too far away! The point of that day was to bend the rules of the Bokeh effect and see if I could break them. I didn’t quite succeed as technically my subject in the background should have been so blurry it would only be circles… oh, well another day, another experiment! But, it’s not to say I’m unhappy with the results! I posted, the final result in this post but I was going through my archives today and saw the rest of the shoot and thought I’d share a bit more. Here’s the original f...
More About: Glass , Portraits

Going Crackers!!!
2007-11-26 01:34:00
Rimagine, the studio, has been keeping me quite busy, sending me all over this lovely country (still in China!). I spent the last week in Tianjin, Beijing and Nanjing and I’ll be going back to Beijing this week and off to Macau at then end of it. This lovely photo from the archive seems to fit my present mood with a nice pun: ‘I’m going crackers’ – not the other pun which might indicate I’m a Mason, which I’m not(!!), by the shapes of the cracker and cheese. I originally did this for a weekly challenge at Digital Photography Challenge under the theme of “shapes”. Photographer: Philippe Roy Food Styling: Philippe Roy
More About: Crackers , Going , Goin

Alessandra - Doll Dance
2007-11-11 05:09:00
Slowly, in the middle of the night the doll’s hand twitches. And she awakens. Coming to life she explores the joys of freedoms and movement, as teddy watches her jealously. Photographer: Philippe Roy Model: Alessandra Model Agency: PMG Art Director: Anouchka Tanguy Make-up Artist: Kate Noble
More About: Dance , Doll