While I was in Toronto earlier this year, I planned to shoot something, anything, anywhere in the city. The city is a breeding ground for creative ideas especially photography and on my 2nd trip there in 3 years, there was no question that I'd want to shoot in the Kensington Market area.

I called stylist Aziza Brown who immediately agreed to work with me again and when I told her where I wanted to shoot, she instantly came up with the style direction for the clothing. We just needed to put a team together and with the help of MORGAN Model Management, we sourced unique and diverse talents for the shoot. The final piece of the puzzle was MUA (makeup artist) Senita Rodrigues whose work I admired for awhile and I contacted her to work together and she was friendly and very open to my ideas.

On shoot day, we started about 8am that morning, using a parking garage as HQ, yes a parking garage! It was central to everything and we had covering so we made it work. The models were troopers changing in and out of looks and I actually scouted the market from high above.

Kensington was an incredible area, bustling with people, vendors, sights and sounds who all seemingly ignored the fact that I was photographing two unique and diverse models in the street, against doorways, in between stalls and up against walls. I was everywhere and loving the energy the market seemed to throw right back at me.

Check out the gallery below.

Photographer: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Senita Rodrigues
Stylist: Aziza Brown
Clothing Designer: Print Vintage
Shoe Retailer: Heel Boy
Models: Shakhira & Nadia Blackwood

I've always wanted to do a shoot inspired by fur clothing, so while I was in Toronto, I met up with stylist Aziza Brown to help me produce this editorial. Alina, our model had reached out to me on the popular networking site, Model Mayhem and Aziza and I agreed that we both loved her look. So after a few hours of brainstorming, I left it all in Aziza's hands to come up with the looks while I sourced local talent Joan Huang for hair and makeup.

The studio was booked, call time was set and my photo-shoot playlist was on repeat. Aziza laid out her pieces, finalizing the looks which we both went over, while Joan was at her station preparing for the model's arrival and once Alina showed up, everyone put their game faces on.

Alina was incredible to photograph. She moved effortlessly through each frame and her piercing eyes burned through the lens and they seemed not to be distracted by the surrounding fur which hugged her face. The looks were great, and combined with color gels, made for great compositions.

This series was recently featured in intl magazine Institue Magazine as well!