Two Light Portrait

While I prefer to keep things as simple as possible, sometimes the elements (like a hot looking red Ford Mustang) call for slick multi-light shot.

Tech Stuff:

The main light was a Nikon SB-900 on a stand to the couple's left. The sun was directly behind them, so other than some rim lighting, without the flash, they would be completely dark. The initial shots looked good, but the front of the car was still in shadow. I gave my spare flash to the best man, and asked him to aim it directly at the Mustang emblem on the front grill of the car.

I use the SU-800 infrared controller to fire the flashes. While you can use with the iTTL system, I usually just set the flashes manually from the controller, using the rear LCD screen to adjust the lighting levels. Being able to adjust the flashes from the camera is a real pleasure, and saves a lot of putzing around with the separate flash units.

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: Nikon 17-35mm AF-S f/2.8

Light: Nikon SB-900 (camera right), Nikon SB-800 (camera left), Nikon SU-800 controller.

Hot Sunny Day Portrait

Duncan wore a Scottish Kilt for the wedding, and his brother Ewan, who's a medic in the British Army, wore his Formal Mess Uniform.

Tech Stuff:

It was a hot day with bright, hard sun. When you have these conditions, you need to find shade to do any portraits, as nobody looks good in the hot sun. You have to make sure to find an area with a dark background, otherwise you'll either blow it out, or have use excessive flash to balance it out.

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: 28-70mm f/2.8 AF-S

A New Location

Cindy and Duncan's wedding was at one of my favourite locations, the Edgewater Lodge in Whistler. The wedding was originally scheduled to be on the main lawn in front of the main lodge, but since there was a marquis tent set up on it for a large event the next day, a new location had to be found for the ceremony. This is just to side in an area that I often use for portraits, but as far as I know, has never been used for ceremonies. It just goes to show that fresh eyes can can show you new thing, as nobody at the Edgewater had thought of doing ceremonies in this spot. I think it looks really nice.

Tech Stuff:

Camera: Nikon D700

Lens: 17-35mm AF-S, f/2.8

Edgewater Lodge Wedding - A quick peek

Cindy peeks out from the Edgewater Lodge's back garage, where she'd been hiding out before her wedding.

Tech Stuff:

While I'm really liking the full frame D700, I also still carry my old Nikon D2x, which has a lens conversion factor of 1.5x, i.e., your 200mm gives you the same throw as a 300mm on a full frame camera. This was a totally unexpected moment, and without the extra magnification that the D2x gave me, it would have been way to loose too do anything with.

Camera: Nikon D2x

Lens: 70-200mm AF-S, f/2.8

Out with the old, in with the new

It's one of those strange things, but web pages are like closets. The longer you go without cleaning them out, the more old junk you don't need accumulates to make it impossible to find the good stuff. That was definitely the case with the wedding section of my web page, with galleries going all the way back to 2002. Interesting, but not indicative of what I'm doing today. After spending the last few days doing a monumental edit, I've totally revamped the page. Here's the direct link to the page