In Which I Gush About Oli

Q: What do you get when you cross a hate-on for cheese, a penchant for Heavy Metal, the talent of playing some mean air drums and a Belgian immigrant with a wicked tattoo sleeve?
A: My good friend and colleague Olivier Du Tré. Yeah. That guy.

Oli has the supreme honour of sharing cubicle space with me which has caused us to dub it "the cool side." I'd say we're both pretty lucky.

I told him just recently that I would have to blog about him sometime soon and he promptly and unsurprisingly gave me a excellent opportunity to do it. In addition to all his ultra hip and cool qualities he's also got some mad photography skills. Skillz.

Six months ago in the dead of an Alberta winter Oli went about scouting locations and setting up 10 pin-hole camera's between his home in Cochrane and Ghost Lake. There wasn't a Christmas tin in sight that was safe from his clutches. I totally forgot about them until early this week. That is until he was heading out one night grumbling and sweating with nerves. WTF? Well, I was informed that he was finally off to take them down and see how they turned out. And since I've seldom met anyone as passionate about their work as our Oli, I told him he better not fail.

He didn't and the results as you will see are amazing, beautiful, interesting and super inspiring. But then I never had any doubts.

Now then, I won't hold you in suspense any longer. Feast your eyes on these little pin-hole beauties!

He's now stocked up with a multitude of Starbucks TAZO tea tins from the deepest, darkest, depths of my desk for the next round. It was almost like Christmas time again, he was that excited about them. Apparently they're the perfect size. I think this should mean one of the next pinhole shots should be mine by rights.

Oli's got this quiet and genuine demeanor he disguises behind inventive curses and angry desk slams when Photoshop crashes. Seriously, don't bat an eye. (You can't hide those lyin' eyes Oli. I know the truth!) In the way of good-natured ribbing we affectionately refer to him as 'waffle' from time to time. Poor lad. It IS with affection though. I'm completely in earnest when I say that I'm constantly in awe of his talent and count myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with him and more so to become pals.

Check out his other spectacular work on his website. He's also got a whole personal entry on these shots and the process on his blog as well. Fascinating little read.
http://www.olivierdutre.com/
http://odutrephotography.blogspot.com/


Gushing/