Saint John Photography by Mike Capson

Mike Capson is a professional Saint John photographer, videographer, and web designer based in New Brunswick. He lives in Saint John, new Brunswick with his wife Jillian and his two cats Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. Mike has worked for many companies and clients including Chatelaine magazine, REM magazine, Investment Executive, Lumenpulse, Currents, The University of New Brunswick and many other agencies.

From a young age Mike Capson was exposed to photography. His paternal grandfather was a photographer who specialized in lifestyle photography and passed down valuable insight into the craft of photography. Mike attributes his early comprehension of artistic philosophies to both his grandfathers. This blossomed into an ability to recognize and uniquely capture imagery while learning to express himself through his photos.

Mike is also one of the owners of ICS Visual Creative Agency, a Saint John based online marketing firm specializing in digital online media. By forming close relationships with clients and understanding their specific needs Mike decided it would be helpful to provide Saint John photography services in-house along with his creative teams already growing talents and services. It only made sense that Mike would head this task. Mike is now managed by ICS Visual Creative Agency and is now the in house lead photographer.

As more opportunities arose and his skill-set expanded Mike found himself with many new opportunities to meet and photograph an amazing set of people and places. He has shot people from Rudy Giuliani, Danny Williams, Jack Layton, and Donald Trump; and has led him to travel to many locations such as Las Vegas, New York, and throughout Canada. Subsequently, his notoriety quickly expanded as Mike became well-respected as an up-and-coming photographer both in his local Saint John community and among photography professionals. This expanded him from being just a Saint John Photographer. Both Mike Capson's early and recent work can be found in various Canadian publications such as Chatelaine Magazine, Here NB, REM magazine, and Investment Executive.

Mike Capson works only in areas he is passionate about which he believes is the only true way to create quality photography. Being close with his home-town community is an important part of Mike's life and he has earned the support and admiration of his local community who respect his hard-work and dedication. That is why he has loved shooting photography in Saint John for so long.

  • Cameras : Canon 5DMKIII, Canon 5DMKII, Canon 1DMKII, FUJI X10, iPhone 5
  • Lenses : Canon 24-105L, Canon 70-200L, Zenit 40MM, Canon 50mmL, Bower 35mm
  • Lighting Kit : Kino Flo 4 Bank, Led Panel, Interfit Portable strobe, Speedlight, Parallax Umbrellas
  • Editing Gear : iMac i7, Macbook 15" i7, CS6, Photo Mechanic, iPad
  • Favourite Sites : Reddit, Huff Post, B & H Photo
  • Favourite Artists : Jeremy Cowart, Joe Mcnally, Sam Abell, Wes Anderson, Annie Leibovitz, Jay Maisel, Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, Mark Hemmings, Sean Mcgrath, Philip Bloom, David Larkin
  • Stuff : VSCO Film Emulations & VSCO Cam, V-necks, nice simple watches, blazers, Guitars, working very late into the night.

Mike's Words

I mainly shoot digital for my commercial work. Mainly shooting on a 5dmkii, a 1dmkiii, and even an iPhone. I use mainly two lenses consisting of a 24-105mm zoom and 70-200mm zoom. For architecture photography I tend to use a 35mm 1.4 prime lens and 16mm 2.8. I try and get all of my shots right in camera for minimal post processing afterwards but sometimes you just don't have time. I am now also a big fan of VSCO Film emulations and lightroom for my workflow. I tend to use both on most shoots.

I still love the warmth and contrast that comes from 35mm films and larger medium formats however it is getting rather expensive to continue using them. I have a growing collection of old film cameras which I inherited from my Grandfather that I have been trying to use more often when the time is right.

I always have my iPhone 5 and take quite a large number of photos with it. It is surprising the quality of pictures that I am able to capture with it. I find that shooting with an iPhone is a great way to focus on composition and storytelling and is a great tool to lead many people down the path of photography. It takes surprisingly good resolution photos for the size of the sensor and lens type. I use the VSCOCam iPhone application for most of my iPhone photos. I also began carrying around a Fuji x-10 compact camera that has great capabilities as well.