Thursday, December 16, 2010

Sugarray's Boxing Gym


Georgian (the Eastern European Georgia, not the Southern USA one) professional Super Welterweight boxer Davit Dzavashvili at Sugarray's Boxing Gym, in downtown Vancouver. it's for a story on boxing gyms for Urban Pie magazine.




Davit working out with trainer Guy Martin.




Vancouver boxer Emily allen

Tech Stuff
The owner of Sugarray's had somehow managed to get ahold of a huge amount of stage lighting for cheap on Craig's List, and had it surrounding the boxing ring. None of it was plugged in, but after searching around for some extension cords, we were able to get three of the lights working. I used those as accent lights, and brought an SB-900 with an umbrella on it as a main light.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70 f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 bounced into a photo umbrella, controlled by an SU-800.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Bearfoot Bistro Evening


Polaris Global CEO Shane Krider sabres a bottle of Champagne in the wine cellcar of the Bearfoot Bistro.

I recently had the oportunity to spend an evening with the Polaris Global Media Group in the fabled Whistler restaurant, the Bearfoot Bistro. Boasting one of the largest commercial wine cellars in Canada, as well as a walk in -27C blast freezer vodka bar, it's a one of a kind place.


Guests arrive for the evening by limousine.


Wine somellier Edwin Hammond gives a tour of the cellar.


A toast after sabring a bottle of Champagne.


The -27C blast freezer vodka bar.


Shane Krider, Greg Strom, and Bearfoot owner André Saint-Jacques enjoy some vodka shots.


A toast with friends to end the evening.

Tech Stuff
Everything was shot with a Nikon D700 and AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 lens. In the wine cellar, I'd been in there before with another group, and found on-camera flash to be totally inadequate for the job. this time I brought an umbrella and light stand, and mounted my SB-900 flash to really light the place up. You can see it in the corner when Shane is sabring the bottle in the first photo.

This is also where the D700's low light capability really come into their own. In the wine cellar, I was shooting at ISO 800 with the flash, for rapid fire action. In the freezer, I didn't want to blow out the mood lighting, so I shot at ISO 1600, and for the final shot, that was ISO 6400.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Available, and SB-900 bounced into a photo umbrella, controlled by the SU-800.

The Whistler Independent
Sorry to taks so long between postings, I've started a new Whistler on-line magazine, the Whistler Independent, which has been taking a lot of my time.