David Buzzard's Photo Blog

New Blog Site

2011-06-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

I'm moving my blog to a new site, David Buzzard Photo. It's a far more contemporary looking blog, so please come and visit.

Dave

Henrique and Moritz

2011-04-29T00:53:00.000-07:00

We've got a couple of Grade 10 exchange students staying with us for the winter. Henrique from Brazil, and Moritz from Germany. Since they weren't around to get their school photos at the beginning of the year, I thought I'd just grad a couple of quick ones in the studio. For kicks, I thought we'd do something more interesting as well.

Henrique

Moritz

Tech Stuff

I lit the guys with an Alien Bee B1600 with the stock 7 inch silver reflector on it. Another Alien Bee with an extra small softbox was used as a fill light to soften the effect of the hard main light. This is not something you want to do with someone much older than a teenager unless they have perfect make-up on.

Camera: Nikon D700

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

Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 x 2

Note

If it seems that I've haven't done any blog postings in a while, it's that we're in the shoulder season between winter and summer here and I'm not that busy. Alan at the Urban Pie toodled off to thailand for a long vacation as well, so I haven't been doing much with those guys either. I've been filling my time with long walks with my wife, fixing some badly needed things on my pick-up truck, and finishing some wedding albums for clients, and generally goofing off. Come June, I get busy again for the summer season.

Peak2Peak Wedding, Josh and Paul

2011-03-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Josh and Paul came out to Whistler for their wedding on the Peak2Peak gondola from Australia. Paul had a large group of friends from Dublin Ireland, and Josh's mother came out from Australia.

The wedding inside the Peak2Peak gondola at Whistler. There aren't a lot of places you really need a fisheye lens, but this is one of them.

Paul and his Irish friends serenade Josh as the gondola comes into the Blackcomb station.

Heavy snow on the way to Champaign at Christine's at Blackcomb.

We finished up the wedding at the Nita Lake Lodge. It's a nice spot, and I always like to do some non-alpine shots with these weddings.

Tech Stuff
A big part of planning for a wedding is knowing the equipment you'll need for a certain job. Often I'll pack specialized gear, like the fisheye lens I used in the gondola car, if I know I'll be in a tricky situation.

Cameras: Nikon D2x, Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon 10.5mm DX, AF-S Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8, AF-S Nikon 28-70 f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-800 bounced into a photo umbrella (last photo). Controlled by the SU-800.

Whistler Helicopter Wedding

2011-03-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

Ashley and Duncan are from the UK, and came out to Whistler for an extended vacation, and thought they would get married while they were out here. To make it really special, they decided to get Blackcomb Aviation fly them up to Beverly Lake on the back side of Rainbow Mountain for a high altitude wedding.

Here's a link to the wedding album I designed for them.

I don't to photograph in a lot of cathedrals, but this is way better.

Ashley gets a new hairdo as the helicopter takes off.

I love doing black and white landscapes, and it was a beautiful day for it.

Dale the mountain guide leads the parents over from the helicopter. It made for quite the entry.

Ashley and Duncan get a lashing as the helicopter lands to collect us.

While I love being in the high alpine for weddings, if there's a lot of snow, it's sometimes tough to get a good portrait, so we stopped off at Green Lake for a quick portrait session.

I put this little animation together of the helicopter taking off and landing. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Tech Stuff
A helicopter wedding is tough thing to co-ordinate, especially in the winter. Before Ashley and Duncan arrived, I had a long talk with Dale, the mountain guide, to make sure we were in a safe area, and to see if he had any off limits areas to keep out of. Avalanches and steep slopes are a real hazards in the back country. Helicopters, especially when they're running, are very dangerous to be moving around, so you want to have someone there who really knows their stuff.

I packed all my gear in a backpack, as the rotor blast from the helicopter blows snow into pretty much every crevice imaginable, and you want to have as much as possible packed away.

Rainbow Park in Winter

2011-03-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sharon and Ed came to Whistler from Washington state for small low key wedding with their close friends and family. Sharon made an advance trip out in February and toured every outdoor wedding location in Whistler I could think of before finally settling on Rainbow Park, on the west side of Alta Lake, and about as far removed from things in Whistler as you can get. I love Rainbow in the winter. There's almost nobody there, and the views can't be beat.

The Bridge of Sighs over the River of Golden Dreams and no, I'm not making up those names).

With family in from Florida and Texas, I had to get a group shot with everyone on the frozen lake.

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8

Nicklaus North Winter Wedding

2011-03-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

Trina and Mark came to Whistler from Washington State to have a intimate wedding at a Nicklaus North Chalet. If Trina looks a little cold in the outside pictures, it was -11 degrees outside when we did the portrait session.

Tech Stuff:
The pictures are a little misleading, as we shot the portraits the morning after the wedding. The ceremony was 8:00 in the evening, and there was no natural light at all for portraits. For the pictures of the ceremony, I turned the camera flash off and turned up the camera ISO up to 3200 for a few photos. It was so dark that the guy doing the ceremony couldn't read the vows, so he grabbed one of the candles for light, and that made the photo. For the group photo, I brought an alien Bee strobe unit with a softbox mounted on it. My camera flash just didn't have the juice to do a photo like this.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (ceremony) , Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (portraits)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 Studio Strobe, Medium six softbox.

CabaRadio with Teddy Smooth

2011-02-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

CabaRadio at CITR radio at UBC, (L-R) Iona Beerwagon, Teddy Smooth, Miss Fitt, eRoc, Suzy Shameless.
I did a late night shoot at UBC's student radio station, CITR, on the CabaRadio show with DJ's Teddy Smooth and eRoc. They cover the cabaret scene in Vancouver, so we had local burlesque dancer Miss Fitt, and roller derby queens Iona Beerwagon and Suzy Shameless (to see them in action, check out my blog posting on the Faster Pussycats roller derby).

Arriving at the studio in UBC's student Union building (despite all the new construction at UBC, the Sub looks like it could be a set from Animal House) at 10:30 for the start of the show. We shot until 1:00 in the morning, and then Urban Pie publisher Alan Forsythe and I headed to a 24 hour coffee shop to edit and process the photos, as the Pie was going to press the next day. Leaving Vancouver at 3:00 AM, I finally got to bed at 5:30 in the morning. I did get some nice photos though.

Teddy Smooth and eRoc in the radio station's record room.

Hello Ladies. Iona Beerwagon and Suzy Shameless.

Urban Pie publisher Alan Forsythe gets sandwiched.

Tech Stuff
The main shot was lit with two Alien Bee B1600 lights, one as a key in front, and a kicker off to camera right. The key light had a medium softbox, and the kicker an extra small 12x16" softbox.

The photos in the hallway and record room were shot with an alien Bee and extra small softbox. In the hallway, I took the light off the stand and put it on the floor to get some low angle lighting.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B-1600 lights x 2

Chateau Whistler Wedding - Melissa and Keith

2011-02-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

This giant Percheron draft horse took a bib bite out of Melissa's wedding bouquet during our wedding portrait session.
Australians Melissa and Keith came out to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler hotel for an intimate wedding at the Chateau rooftop wedding chapel. It's a great location for small weddings, especially in the winter, as it has glass sides, a terrific view from the roof, and the Fairmont staff do an awesome wedding service.

The Fairmont wine sommelier sabred a bottle of champaign for the wedding.

Portraits on the Fairmont's roof.

Melissa and Keith went for a sleigh ride that evening at the Fairmont's golf club. They had a big gas fired bonfire going that made for nice photos in the low, late afternoon light.

And to finish things off, a sleigh ride around the Fairmont Chateau Whistler's golf course.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 flash, controlled by SU-800

Whistler Peak2Peak Wedding

2011-01-20T00:19:00.000-08:00

Catriona and John came out from Manchester in the UK and had a nice wedding on Whistler's Peak2Peak Gondola. Interestingly, it's my second wedding on the Peak2Peak in a row.

Damien and Harold, Peak2Peak gondola

2011-01-06T16:27:00.000-08:00

Harold and Damien had a nice Wedding on the Peak2Peak Whistler gondola on December 26th. There's a funny story that goes with, but I'll let Harold and Damien tell it themselves.

The Best Wedding Photos Slideshow, 2010

2011-01-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

A little slide show on some of my favourite wedding photos from 2010

New Year's at MoJo's

2011-01-03T23:12:00.000-08:00

I got a call on the 30th from Mojo's co-owner Greg Britnell asking if I'd like to come over and shoot some pics in the bar on new year's eve. I wasn't doing much else, and it sounded like a cool gig, so I said sure. It was a total blast.

Tech Stuff
This shoot was a little challenging, as it was really dark in there, and packed to the gills with drunk kids. I brought a light stand and umbrella, which I used for the shots of the fire spitting bar tender, the DJ, and the shot glasses. The fire breathing shot was nuts, as I was inside the bar, and close enough to the flames that they singed off some the hair on my right arm.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm
Lighting: Nikon SB-900, on Camera and mounted on a photo umbrella.

Sugarray's Boxing Gym

2010-12-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

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.

Bearfoot Bistro Evening

2010-12-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Wedding Equipment Tour

2010-11-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

My standard kit for shooting most weddings. Nikon D700 and D2x cameras. I'll be replacing the D2x in 2011 when Nikon finally comes out with an update for the D700. Three zoom lenses, the 17-35mm, 28-70mm, and 70-200mm. Two flashes, an SB-900 and SB-800, along with the SU-800 infrared controller. I use a ThinkTank belt pack to carry whichever lens isn't mounted on a camera, as well as all the various extra batteries, lens cloths, business cards, and an Expodisk for custom white balances. I always like to have a Moleskin notebook for addresses and notes.

One of my favourite web pages, the Digital Wedding forum, is holding a contest on who can do best "what's in my bag" photo. The prize is a new ThinkTank camera bag, so I thought I'd have a go for it.

Some of the lighting I use. A small sized softbox that has convertible sides is really handy, as well a Honl Speed Snoot. Both lights were controlled by the SU-800 controller.

My main commercial lighting kit. Three Alien Bee B-1600 lights, a Rubbermade container for all of the radio slaves, cords, brackets, stacks of cords, clamps, and various modifiers. For most of my portrait work, I use the 22" Alien Bee 'Beauty Dish' reflector.

Ready to travel. My old Norman lighting kit took two suite case sized aluminium Halliburton cases, as well as the packs and reflectors. This is a big improvement.

A ThinkTank Airport Addicted backpack that I use to carry spare gear, or things I don't need to have on hand. Here I have an 85mm f/1.8, a 28mm PC Nikkor, and an old 300 f/2.8 that I use once in a blue moon, and a Domke pouch full of Honl light modifiers. I have a D200 spare camera, and a 35mm f/2, but I used those for these pictures. When I'm traveling, all this gear goes into this bag.

Stock Photography sales for 2010

2010-11-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

A picture of Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg, that sold to a Japanese trade magazine for $55.43
These are a few of the stock photos I've sold this year. Early in my career, I spent two years assisting one of the top stock image photographers in Canada. It was a lot of fun, and times were great. I later went on to do a lot of stock work myself, but I haven't done much in a while, as there's been a flood of semi professional work on the market, sending the price for images to, literally, down to pennies an image. Now, it just doesn't make financial sense to hire a couple of models for the day to earn $.75 a shot. However, I do get around a lot, and I shoot a lot of pictures, so I hooked up with an Agency in the UK called Alamy that handles mostly travel and editorial images, right in my comfort zone. It's not much money, probably about 1/20th of what I made at it back in the glory days, but it's still a lot of fun. I've included the publications and prices they sold for as well.

The Apartheid Museum in Johanesburg, that ran in an American in-flight magazine for $115.00.

The Radium Beer Hall in Johannesburg. Something I snapped as we stopped in for a few beers at lunch. This one ended up in a British in-flight magazine for $63.78

Some nuns in front of the Marrionhill Monastery, near Durban South Africa. Another quick shot that ended up in a British educational magazine for $92.86

Some tasty sweet & sour pork from an editorial story I did down in China Town in Vancouver. I happened to find a bunch of food pictures in a file and uploaded the lot of them. Showing the true state of the stock photo industry, this picture sold twice in 2010, once for $1.00, and again for $0.49.

A shot from an Urban Pie Story this year on Vancouver roller derby teams. It ended up an American text book for $135.00. I wonder what they were studying?

The Lili'wat Cultural Centre in Whistler. I was just driving by one morning, and thought that it looked cool. This ended up in an Australian travel brochure for $87.14

Halloween on Davie Street

2010-11-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

Gia and Coco
There's no better place to spend halloween than in Vancouver's Gay Village. People really take it seriously there, and it's a way better vibe than on Granville Street, where you risk getting your head caved in if you pull out a camera. In true Vancouver fashion, it was raining like crazy the Saturday night before Halloween when I shot these.

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D2x
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8

Whistler Heli Wedding - Rainbow Mountain

2010-11-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

I love doing helicopter weddings, they really are a lot of fun. Kirsty and Billy came out from the UK for their wedding, and flew their entire family to the top of Rainbow Mountain. It was perfect weather for it, with calm winds, and cool temperatures, unlike the last helicopter wedding I did.

This was a few years ago, but this morning, Billy posted some shots on his Facebook page and tagged me in the gallery. His Dad had a few nice shots of me at work, which is something I don't have a lot of, so I thought I'd put them up on my blog.

A view you just can't beat, with Whistler/Blackcomb in the background.

That's me waving at the helicopter pilot to move in closer for the shot. With the wide angle lens, he really needed to be on top of us for this to work. He was on his way back from dropping off the family members, so we able to set this up before he landed to pick us up.

Timothy Taylor

2010-10-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

These are from an Urban Pie story on prolific Vancouver writer and best selling author Timothy Taylor. Taylor has a great office in the turn of the century (the last century, that is) Dominion Building, that made for some great photo locations.

When we arrived on the 12th floor, I fell in love with the central staircase that ran through the middle of the foyer. It's one of those old fashion staircases with a central well that you could look all the way down to the ground floor. Timothy warned me that Mark Mushet, another Vancouver photographer, had already photographed him there on the stairs, but I didn't care. The old wooden doors and wood panelled office also made for great locations.

Tech Stuff
This shoot caused me a lot of problems, not so much technically, but that my camera decided to take a dump in the middle of the shoot. I set my flash up, and it wouldn't fire. I grabbed a spare flash, and the same thing. I managed to get it to work for a few shots, and that was enough to get what I needed without having to go to the spare camera. After I finished, I drove straight to Richmond where the Nikon service centre is located, and told them to over haul the camera.

Lighting-wise, I used Honl Snoot on an SB-900, and then SB-800 flash for the B&W images. The Honl is a terrific tool for high contrast, dramatic lighting, especially when you don't have a lot of time to work in. The photo of Timothy in his office was shot with the available lighting during the interview.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 and SB-800 flashes, controlled by SU-800. Honl 9" speed snoot.

Caribou Road Trip

2010-10-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

Burned forest near Barierre
Joyce and I took some time and went on a really nice road trip over the Duffy Lake road to Lillooet, on to Clinton, then Kamloops, and finally back home.

Along the the Duffy Lake Road. The valley drops almost 1000 ft.into Cayoosh Creek. It's one of those places you definitely don't ever want to drive off the road

Joyce shopping for nick-nacks in the hamlet of Clinton. They have terrific antique stores here for some reason. They all seem to work on the honour system, we got there about 7:00, and all the goods were still piled up outside the store

Want to buy a 1950's era Chrysler? One of the tires even holds air.

Burned forest near Barierre

A feral wheat field near an abandoned homestead, The Bonaparte Indian Reservation, near Cache Creek.

Auto White Balance

2010-10-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I really hate, it's the over automation on modern cameras. Especially high on my list is auto white balancing. Last night I was shooting a hockey game at the Meadow Park Arena, and since I forgot to bring something to set the white balance with, I set it to Auto WB. Luckily for me, the pictures will probably run on a B&W page in the paper, as the Auto WB didn't do any good at all.

Anyways, I was out shooting some pictures this afternoon of the fall colours. For the first photo, I had forgotten change the WB back to 'Cloudy', my standard setting, from Auto WB. In the lower photo, which is was actually the first one I shot, you can see that the camera has read the all the yellow leaves, and added a pile of blue into the image to balance the colour out to neutral. In the main photos with the bike in it, it's set for 'Cloudy, which is what I almost always have the camera set on. The colour seems to be about spot on.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 70-200 f/2.8

Fun with the Hipstamatic

2010-10-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Sonya McCarthy
A pleasant feature of the Apple iPhone is a pretty good camera, and someone topped it off by coming up with an app called Hipstomatic, which makes the photos look like early 70's snap shots, like what you'd find in a shoe box in the back of you parent's closet. I've been playing with it for the summer, and came up with some fun shots.

Beavers at work along Green Lake.

An old bathtub we found in the bush. It's now sitting in our garden.

I can fix that.

My wife Joyce.

The tastiest bacon cheeseburger in Whistler can be found at the South Side Diner. On Monday's, for $12.00 you can get a burger and beer, one of the best deals in town.

My real camera.

Here be Monsters

2010-10-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is a story on the 'Here be Monsters" alternative threatre troupe in Vancouver.

Here's an outtake from the shoot that Urban Pie publisher Alan Forsythe and I ended up in by mistake. It gives a good idea of the process.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 strobe w/ small softbox.

Giant Pumpkins

2010-10-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

I got an assignment from the Whistler Question to head up to Pemberton, and "get some kind of fall photo". Stopping in at the North Arm Farm, I found these guys harvesting some huge pumpkins in the field. There was a large storm breaking over Mt. Currie, which made for a nice dramatic image.

The hayride.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8

Lost Lake Wedding

2010-10-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Andrea and Richard are a nice couple from the UK who came to Whistler for a quiet wedding. I sent them a list of different places in Whistler where they could have quiet ceremony, and they picked Lost Lake.

There are some really great forests in the park, which make for nice portraits.

When Andrea called me and said she wanted to have thew wedding at Lost lake, I had to tell her that there was one big draw back to the area, it's a local nude bathing spot. Nobody seemed to mind too much. When I posted this photo on my Facebook page, it got 40 comments overnight.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8

Whistler Executive House

2010-10-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

These are the exterior shots of a house I photographed the inside of back in February. It's a beautiful place, and the builders asked me to get the exteriors done before the weather turned rainy and miserable.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikkor 28mm PC f/3.5

Terry Miles making Popcorn

2010-10-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is a shot of independent film director Terry Miles, who has a new film debuting at the upcoming Vancouver Film Festival. We wanted to do a story on do-it-yourself film making for the cover of the Urban Pie. First we thought we'd get him working in the projection booth at the Rio Theatre, but they had a show going when we arrived, so we had to settle for the concession stand. The first couple of shots we had going just we're working for me, and then I noticed the popcorn maker and thought it would make a cool photo to get Terry running that. The problem was that the glass was covered in a thick film of popcorn grease, and as soon as I put a light on it, it became impossible to see through. The solution was to put a flash up on the popcorn cooker inside.

Here's the lighting setup. The cooker was still hot from the last batch of popcorn, so I got a wet rag from the dish sink and put the flash on that. I fired it with the SU-800 controller.

Here's the original shot, which isn't bad, but just wasn't making the cut.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900, trigger by the SU-800 controller.

Whistler Heli Wedding

2010-09-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Natalie and Steve, with the storm we flew through to get to the location in the background.
Helicopter weddings are a rare treat for me, and something I really enjoy doing. This one with Natalie and Steve from Kamloops almost didn't go because of the stormy weather we've been having over the last few days. Luckily, we got a small window of clear weather and Natalie decided she wanted to go for it. The original plan was to land on the Rainbow glacier, but the high winds flowing over the peak were throwing the little A-Star helicopter around like a toy boat in a storm tide, so the pilot took us to Sprout Mountain, a much lower peak, but much more sheltered.

Our window of good weather was very short, and after only two minutes of portrait shooting time, Andy the pilot was yelling at me "we gotta go NOW!" By the time we took off, the area had already started to sock in.

Since we had such a short time for portraits, we stopped off at the Green Lake board walk for some extra photos. The weather was much calmer.

Since they were staying at the Four Season's resort, and since it's such a beautiful location, I thought I'd do a few photos there to finish up.

Tech Stuff
During the helicopter ride, I put most of my equipment in the rear luggage compartment, except for a D700 with a 17-35mm lens. Sitting in the back of a helicopter is like having four people in the back seat of a Honda Civic, so you don't have a lot of room for shooting pictures. There isn't enough head room for a camera flash either, so you just have to let the outside blow out.

There's almost no flash used in any of the photos except the last on in the Four Seasons. For that, I used a SB-900 on a stand with a photo umbrella.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 (inside helicopter, Green lake), Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (all wedding and mountain portraits), Nikon 85mm f/1.8 (B&W portrait and Four Seasons).
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 fill flash, SB-900 with SU-800 controller for Four Seasons.

Sheri and Justin at Tantalus View Retreat

2010-09-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Sheri and Justin are a nice young couple from Grande Prairie Alberta who came down for a holiday by the mountains and oceans of BC. They booked a cabin in the Tantalus View Retreat, a really out of the way spot between Squamish and Whistler which is so low key that after 20 years of driving past the turnoff for it, I had no idea it was there.

The owner of the retreat makes beautiful wooden furniture, and has a big shed packed with interesting pieces of wood he's collected. I thought it would make a really cool photo. Getting the photo umbrella for the flash in there was a real chore, but the result was totally worth it.

Bungee Jumping Video
They decided to go bungee jumping as way to finish off the day. I go a few photos, but it's not my specialty. While I was putting the DVD slideshow together, I speeded up the sequence of them jumping, and I thought it turned out pretty well.

Tech Stuff:
One of the nice things about doing weddings with just the couple is that you can take a little extra time to try things that you wouldn't during a larger wedding with a a tight timeline. Nikon has just come out with a new 85mm f/1.4 lens that everyone is raving about. I've got an 85mm f/1.8 that I bought in the early 90's that's a pretty cool lens. Normally I just use it for working in the studio, but I decided to try some shots with it at this wedding, full open at f/1.8. I have to say that it's not as sharp as the big zooms I use, but the super shallow depth of field is a great look. The first two lenses in the blog are shot with the 85mm.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8, Nikon 85mm f/1.8

Jodie Emery and the BC Marijuana Party

2010-09-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

These are from an Urban Pie story on Jodie Emery, the wife marijuana advocate Marc Emery who just started a five year Federal US prison term for selling mail order pot seeds.

We arrived at the BC Marijuana Party office, totally by accident, just before 4:20 that afternoon. 4:20 is the pot head tea time, and sure enough this guy pulled out a giant bong pipe, took a huge hit, and blew the smoke straight in my face. Apparently the pipe was packed with pure THC crystals (I guess they brought out the good stuff for the guests), and not being a smoker myself, I spent the rest of the afternoon wrecked out of my mind.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 28-70 f/2.8, Nikon AF 85mm f/1.8

Vancouver Fringe Festival

2010-09-09T01:13:00.000-07:00

Here's is a shot of Vancouver Fringe Festival Executive Director David Jordan I did for the Urban Pie magazine in Vancouver. The Fringe is the annual alternate theatre festival in Vancouver, and is home to some off the wall stuff, so we really wanted to get something crazy looking. We started in the festival office (seen in the background of the photo), but it really wasn't working so well. I thought the building looked cool, so we moved outside for a couple of shots. There were some parked cars that I couldn't get out of the frame, so David offered to climb up on a big bollard,and with a couple of rubber chickens grabbed off someone's desk, it all came together.

I was really busy with commercial work that week, so I called Pie publisher Alan Forsythe and told him "I can shoot anything you want, but I have to do it after 7:00". He called me back an hour later said, "we're all set to go at 4:30". As a result, I had to go tearing down to Vancouver and barely made the shoot, with only about 15 minutes to spare. Not having time to set up my regular studio lights, I jammed an SB-900 flash into a softbox, and hoped for the best. I think it worked pretty well.

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900, mounted in a 22x16" softbox, controlled by an SU-800 flash controller.

Split Light Exterior Exposure

2010-09-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Whistler construction company Peak Ventures asked me to photograph this townhouse that they had done a major renovation on for their Georgie Awards (which are like the Oscars for BC home builders) 2010 submissions. I spent a day photographing the inside of the unit earlier in the summer, and had done a photo of the outside in early morning light. The exterior shot was okay, but because of the location of the unit, it never really got good natural light on the front of it, so they asked me to come back and do a dusk shot of the unit. This is one of the most technical photos you can do as an architectural photographer, as you need it light enough to see the details of the buildings, but you also want it dark enough for the lighting to show up, and in this case, as I was looking almost due west, dark enough in the sky so that the building isn't totally silhouetted. What you do is take a series of exposures as it gets darker, the first where it's light enough to see the details in the building, and then later as it gets darker to get the effect of the interior lighting. Once you have a series of shots with the proper exposures, you combine them in Photoshop to make one exposure. This is what's called a split light exposure.

Here's the set up for the shot. It's very important that the camera is absolutely still throughout the series of photos, or 'in registration' in technical photo speak. I locked the camera down on a heavy Gitzo tripod, and then tethered it to my portable computer. Nikon has software that controls the settings of the camera from the computer, rather than the camera itself. That way I can change the shutter speed without touching, and possibly moving the camera. The step ladder makes a handy computer stand.

The tri-coloured thing is a white balance target that I can use to accurately adjust the camera's white balance. The darker it gets, the more of a blue cast the light picks up, so you have to do constant white balance checks to ensure accurate colour.

This is my 28mm PC shift lens. It's a critical tool for keeping accurate perspective on the rising lines. If you tilt the camera back, it will make the rising lines on the building converge together and make it seem like the building is leaning backward. With the PC lens, you keep the camera parallel to the building, and shift the lens up instead.

Just for kicks, here's what the place looked like before the renovation.

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: 28mm PC f/3.5

The Head Shot

2010-08-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Business portraits, or head shots as they've macabrely know as, are a fairly new thing for me. Being in Whistler, commercial space is expensive and hard to come by, so I've always worked out of my house instead of a traditional photographers studio. About two years ago, we had a big fire, and as a result had to strip out all the drywall and floors. Since it was open, I took the opportunity to knock down a few walls and opened up a space just large enough to use as a photo studio.

While I've done a few tests, I hadn't actually had a paying client in here until this week when Nick Davies, a local lawyer, called me up and asked for some new photos for his web page. I've done shots of Nick in the past, but mostly in the Whistler business style, casual shirts, outside, maybe a set of skis in the shot. He's working a lot with Vancouver clients these days, and needed to look more a suite wearing, boardroom prowling, big city lawyer.

Tech Stuff:
I used three Alien Bee B1600 strobes. A key light with a 22" beauty dish to camera left, a kicker and hair light behind Nick with a extra small 12x16" softbox on it, and a background light against the wall on a short stand. The wall to camera right is painted bright white and makes a great fill source. The background wall is painted 18% grey. To get the tone, I took a Kodak grey card to Home Depot and got them to colour match it.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 x 3

Jordi and Scott's Wedding at the top of Whistler Mountain

2010-08-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

Jordi and Scott are from Hinton Alberta, and came out to Whistler with some friends for a quiet wedding on the top of Whistler Mountain. To top it off, we got one of the nicest days of the year.

The ride up on the Whistler gondola.

The ceremony, with a view that can't be beaten.

One of the things about working on mountain tops is that it's really bright, and I don't mean that figuratively. It's 1 to 1 1/2 (in non photo speak that twice to three times as much light) stops brighter than it is at the bottom of the mountain, which can give you real head aches for using fill flash to even out the shadows. If you were to use the standard camera sync speed of 1/320 (1/250 on most pro cameras), that would mean you'd need an f/stop of f/16, which means that everything in the frame is in focus. For this shot I wanted the background out of focus, but still needed some flash to fill in the harsh shadows. On the Nikon pro cameras, there's a high speed sync feature that lets you shoot up to 1/4000 second with the flash, which is what I did with this shot, and that brought my f/stop down to f/4.

While I love shooting on the mountain, it can be a harsh environment, and there's almost no shade or shelter from the sun. Just to get some better looking personal portraits, I asked Jordi and Scott to come out to my favourite location along the shores of Green Lake.

The hem of Jordi's wedding gown. It did a trip up and down Whistler in the dust, and I marched her all over the whistler Valley trail for extra photos.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8, AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8
Flash: Nikon SB-900

Vancouver Zombie Walk

2010-08-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

A highlight of the summer is the annual Vancouver Zombie Walk, which has grown from evening event to an entire week of parties. As part of the Urban Pie coverage, we did a photo shoot with professional burlesque dancer Tristan Risk.

For the main shot, I wanted something that was going to look really dark and moody. Since it's been bright, hot, and sunny in Vancouver for the last couple of months, this posed a real problem. I've seen some cool shots where the camera white balance was set to tungsten, which gives the image a dark blue cast, and the flash had been gelled with a double CTO (colour temperature orange) to bring the subject up to a normal colour tone. Unfortunately, the only CTO I had was a 1/4 CTO, and it was only big enough to go over the front of my Nikon speedlight, hardly big enough to go over the 22" dish reflector I used for this photo. My plan was to stop at Beau Photo and pick up a few sheets of gel on my way to the shoot, but I got hung up in Lions Gate traffic, and didn't make it before they closed. I had a few scraps of warm gel that I was able to stick on the light, so the effect was a lot less than I would have liked, but I think it worked out pretty well.

We shot in front of Tristan's Vancouver apartment, and ended leaving a nasty looking pool of prop blood. I'm sure she's going to get a letter from the strata.

This was shot int he hallway of the character building Tristan lives in. I thought it had a great old building look that went well with the zombie theme. I lit it with a Nikon SB-900 flash in a small 22x16" softbox, and held by Urban Pie editor Alan Forsythe. It came out looking kind of flat and overly bright (lower photo), so I burned down the edges, and then ran a high pass filter over the file to pump up the contrast.

The building had a really post industrial looking meter room that we decided to use as a location. I noticed a huge switch in the back of the room, which I thought might work really well for the zombie theme.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 w/ 22" beauty dish (top two), Nikon SB-900 with 22x16" Photoflex Whitedome softbox, controlled with a Nikon SU-800 (lower three shots).

Helene and Robert's Wedding at the Brew Creek Lodge

2010-08-14T22:38:00.000-07:00

Helene and Robert are something unusual for me, a couple who actually live and work in the Whistler area. By far the majority of my clients are destination clients who come to Whistler to get married. They had a great, really laid back wedding at the Brew Creek Lodge, a great wedding location about 20 km's south of Whistler.

A spectacularly disheveled bathroom. I love shots of the mess that always seems to come with getting ready for a wedding.

The ladies helping Helene to get dressed.

It was a beautiful day for a wedding. I had a bit of a misstep when I tripped over a flower bed and went flying just before the ceremony. Thankfully, nobody caught it on video, so I didn't end up on a million viewed YouTube video. It was a pretty good joke for the guests for the rest of the day.

At the end of the ceremony, they released butterflies, which was something I hadn't seen before. It made for some nice photos.

Helene's niece, a really cute flower girl.

Tech Stuff:
Cameras: Nikon D700, Nikon D2x
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 28-70 f/2.8, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8
Lighting: Mostly natural with fill from Nikon SB-900 flash

Perseid Meteor Shower

2010-08-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

I've been trying for a few years to get a good shot of the Perseid meteor shower, which is an annual event here when the Earth orbits through the dust trail left from the Swift-Tuttle comet. It's always been an issue, as it's only for a day or two a year, and we tend to get a lot of overcast, fog, lately smoke from forrest fires. This year was perfect, with clear weather and no moon.

I started out at a couple of highway pull offs around Whistler, but it quickly became apparent that that for a mountain resort, Whistler has a shocking amount of light pollution. Next I tried Pemberton, but the mountains around it are too high and I couldn't see enough of the sky. I headed out to the Duffy Lake Road, the highway between Mt. Currie and Lillooet. It's a backroad pass over the coast range mountains that's over 4000 feet high, and has very little night traffic. It was perfect.

I set the camera on a tripod, pointed the lens at the sky, and started doing 5 minute long exposures. I quickly figured out that there is so much movement in the stars that it blurred everything badly, and meteors, which were coming in every couple of minutes, weren't registering. I cranked the ISO to 6400, opened the lens to f/2.8, and knocked down the exposure to about 90 seconds, and just kept doing them until I got a nice clear meteor trail. The green and red colours are traces of the northern lights, which gave the sky some definition, and cluster of stars at the top is the Milky Way.

One meteor came through and was so bright it lit up the entire valley, but unfortunately I didn't have the shutter open.

Marlene and Kyle's wedding at Nicklaus North, Whistler

2010-08-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

Marlene and Kyle are from Evanson IL, which is close to Chicago. They came out to the Nicklaus North Golf Club here in Whistler for their wedding last week and really had a great time.

Marlene and her bride's maid got ready at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, which is one of the top Whistler hotels.

We were all able to squeeze into an elevator.

The ladies in the Mallard Bar at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

Kyle and his father and brother just before the ceremony.

Giving away the bride.

Nicklaus North has one of the best patio's in Whistler, and it's a favourite location of mine for weddings.

What I have to put up with. The valley trail boardwalk is a great spot for bridal portraits, except for the almost constant bike traffic.

A great way to introduce the couple to start dinner.

Tech Stuff:
For most of my wedding photography, I keep it pretty minimalist. For a nice sunny day later in the afternoon, lots of extra flash just blows out the already beautiful looking light.

Cameras: Nikon D700 and D2x
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm, AF-S 28-70mm, and AF-S 70-200mm. All f/2.8

Kelly and John's wedding at the Edgewater Lodge

2010-08-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

Kerry and John came out from London with their two young children to get married at the Edgewater Lodge in Whistler, a favourite location of mine. It was a really small wedding, but they were such nice people that it made up for it.

Kelly and her mother getting ready

There's a terrific wooden fence at the Edgewater that makes for a great backdrop

Abby and Ben's wedding at Steeps Restaurant, Whistler Mountain

2010-07-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

Abby and Ben are a nice couple who got married this last weekend at the top of Whistler Mountain at Steeps Restaurant. It was a beautiful evening to be on the mountain, and it made for a beautiful wedding.

Abby getting ready in the Roundhouse. Whistler closed off one of the women's washrooms for them to get ready in. Being in there always makes me feel a bit weird.

Veteran Whistler wedding co-ordinator and old friend of mine Linda Marshal fixes the flowers in Abby's hair.

Ben walks down the aisle on the sun deck at Steeps Restaurant.

Sunset on the mountain is incredible, with bright red colours. The last two photos are straight out of the camera, no colour filters applied.

Tech Stuff
Pretty simple really. D700 camera, and my three main lenses, the 17-35mm, 28-70mm, and 70-200mm. With the evening shots, I try not to use flash.

Happy Logger's Day

2010-07-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo from a few a few years ago that I pulled out for a Garibaldi Times issue on the up coming Logger's Sports weekend in Squamish.

Tech Stuff
I shot this with a D2x camera that has very poor wide angle coverage because of it's 1.5x sensor. Nikon produced a great fisheye lens dedicated to the DX format, the 10.5mm. It's coverage is close to 180 degrees, so you needed to get really close to the action to fill the frame. It doesn't look like it, but the nose of the chainsaw bar was less than 4 inches from the front element. After the shoot, I found that lubricating oil from the saw chain had sprayed all over the front element of the lens.

We shot in the heat of the day, so I put the logger in full silhouette, and had writer Alan Forsythe hold a Nikon SB-800 flash aimed at his face.

Camera: Nikon D2x
Lens: Nikon AF10.5mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-800, controlled by a Nikon SU-800

Cheakamus Crossing Demonstration

2010-07-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

Cheakamus Crossing is a new Whistler housing development on the site of the old Olympic athlete's village. It's looking like a great place to live, apart from a local paving company running their asphalt plant illegally next to the development. The Whistler Municipality has refused to force them to move the asphalt plant, and the new residents are, understandably, really pissed off. I have friends moving in, and they have formed a group to fight it, and had a demonstration on the highway Saturday.

Cheakamus Crossing residents Amanda Connor, and her mother, Angela Connor.

Cheakamus Crossing resident Tina Symko.

Sarah and Kris's Wedding at the Brew Creek Lodge

2010-07-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Sarah and Kris are a really nice and fun loving couple who currently live in the UK, although Sarah is from Vancouver. They had a great wedding at the Brew Creek Lodge, which is about half way between Squamish and Vancouver.

Sarah marshals her bride's maids

A beautiful day made for a great outdoor ceremony.

It's a really hokey photo, but sometimes it works pretty well.

I was doing some standard pics of the guests, and didn't notice this until I was reviewing the photos back in my office.

What's the secret? The bride's maid's were trying on Sarah's wedding ring.

The Brew Creek Lodge is one of the prettiest locations I work in.

The first dance.

Tech Stuff
Although I try not to let it show, almost all the photos have some degree to flash to either fill or light them. The portraits are shot with a SB-900 mounted in medium Photoflex softbox. All the interior photos are shot with on-camera flash, with the light bounced off either the ceiling or walls.

The main lens I use for weddings is the medium zoom 28-70mm. The couple portraits were shot with my 70-200mm, and the ceremony was the 17-35mm

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8, AF-S 28-70 f/2.8, AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8.
Lighting: Nikon SB-900. Off camera flash controlled with the SU-800.

Outstanding in the Field

2010-07-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

I spent Sunday even photographing the Outstanding in the Field dinner at the North Arm Farm for Insight Photography. It was a fun job, despite the harsh sun and bugs at the farm.

Outstanding in the Field is a company that travels around North America and Europe staging dinners at farms, working with a local restaurant to cater the dinner, and using ingredients from the farm and surrounding area for the meal. The North Arm Farm in Pemberton is a premiere location on the tour.

The famous Whistler restaurant Araxi handled the catering and did a superb job.

Farmer Jordan Sturdy takes the guests for a tour around the farm before dinner.

The first course dinner menu.

An Araxi cook stirs a pot of beets and carrots.

Beef tenderloin on the grill.

Araxi Executive Chef James Walt plates the main course. Despite the stereotypical image of the volcanic Gordon Ramsay-ish chef, I never heard Chef Walt even raise his voice, although he kept complete control of his kitchen and cooks, despite the whole thing being moved into a farmer's field. The kitchen and wait staff also showed great patience with the big photographer generally getting in the way of everything. A really classy show all the way around.

Pemberton raised beef tenderloin with horseradish, beets, and carrots from the farm.

A waiter tops up the wine

A toast between courses

Fruit dessert.

Tech Stuff
It was a fairly straight forward shoot. The big issues where colour correction, especially as I was moving from the shaded kitchen area, where the light has a strong bluish cast, so the full sun of the dinning area. Rather than do custom colour balances, I have preset balances programmed into my copy of Apple Aperture that I can easily apply in post production.

I tried to avoid using flash, as it generally ruins the really nice evening light you get in Pemberton.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 (Scenics), Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (Food and Kitchen), Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (Waiter)

In the studio

2010-07-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

My buddy Paul "Fabio" Fournier just go back from a month spent crewing on a yacht from Vancouver to Puerto Vallarta. He looked really rugged after that, with a big beard when I ran into him yesterday, so I asked him to stop by the studio and we'd get a few snaps of him before he shaved it off.

Lesley-Anne is a really old friend of mine from way back in the day who spent the Canada Day weekend with Joyce and I here in Whistler. I grabbed her for a couple of quick portraits before she went home.

Tech Stuff
Very simple lighting, a 22" beauty dish on a single Alien Bee head. The wall of the studio is painted 18% grey, so it has a nice dark tone to it when you don't light it, not quite black, but dark enough to get the subject to pop out. Perfect for B&W.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF 85mm f/1.8 (Paul), AF-S Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 (Lesley-Anne)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 with a 22" beauty dish reflector.

Family Portraits

2010-07-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

Tech Stuff
These are a few shots from a family reunion photo shoot this week for Greg at Insight Photography. This was a fun shoot, but because there were some younger kids, we had to shoot at 5:30 in the afternoon, about two hours earlier than I would have liked. As the light was still really bright, and we had some larger group photos to do, I brought in an Alien Bee B1600 studio strobe head with a 48"x36" softbox to use as a huge fill flash. Once I finished the group photos, I did a few individual family photos (the top and bottom photos) with the big softbox, which worked really wonderfully. After I was done with the posed photos, I spent a few minutes in the back yard with the kids and came out with this (middle) nice portrait. For this I didn't use any lighting, but as the yard by this time was in deep shade, I had to use a high ISO (800), and had to to do custom white balance because of the deep blue colour cast in the shade.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (top, bottom), Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (middle)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 strobe with Photoflex 48"x36" softbox (top, bottom), available ISO 800 (middle)

Bard on the Beach

2010-07-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

Actors Alessandro Juliani and Dean Paul Gibson from the Bard on the Beach production of Falstaff in the cast dressing room.
This week we're doing a story on Bard on the Beach, the classic Vancouver Shakespearian theatre that runs through the summer at Kits Beach. The actors are the best the city has to offer, Alessandro Juliani is a veteran of the Vancouver filmed Battlestar Galactica, many of the others are well known from local TV and film production, and the productions are lush and well staged. Definitely a must see for the summer in Vancouver.

Actor Dean Paul Gibson looking pensive.

Bard on the Beach Artistic Director Christopher Gaze.

Assistant stage manager Samara Van Nostrand checks the prop swords back stage.

Tech Stuff
This was a difficult shoot, as the subjects are busy guys who aren't, in my experience, tolerant of having their time wasted. As they were being interviewed by Urban Pie editor Alan Forsythe, I scouted the locations and set up the lighting so it would be ready for them to step in. The session with Alessandro Juliani and Dean Paul Gibson lasted less than 5 minutes, and I was able to get three usable photos from the session. A well timed dirty joke from one of the actors got a great expressions from everyone.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 strobe with a 22" beauty dish.

Whistler Stagette Party

2010-06-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

You end up doing some odd gigs in this job, but this one was one was really out there. I got a call from a friend of the Bride, who asked me if I would come and photograph their stagette party in the Whistler Village Saturday night. The group was from Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, so I obviously wasn't going to be shooting the wedding, but it sounded like a fun job, so I said why not. It was actually a ton of fun, and we counted seven other stagette groups in the village that night, so it seems that Whistler has become the destination of choice.

Tech Stuff:
We didn't start shooting until after they had finished dinner at almost 10:00, so it was almost dark outside. With such a large group, it was too much for a flash on-camera set up, so I had to use an off camera lighting set up for all the pictures. I had an assistant hold an extended light stand with a photo umbrella and a Nikon SB-900 flash on it, and walk beside me as I followed the ladies around. Joyce had to stay to camera right, and slightly in front of me for the SB-900 to read the signal from the controller.

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

Tattoed Ladies

2010-06-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Cherry Chichi
This is an interesting story I did for the Urban Pie on Ladies with Tattoos. I had spent the day on an exhausting shoot in a re-modeled house here in Whistler. I had time to grab a shower and a bite and head to Vancouver to shoot this. I got home at midnight, 16 hours after I started the day.

Maila Harlow

Tech Stuff:
I used two Alien Bee lights, the key with a 22" beauty dish, and a kicker with background reflector on it. I still haven't replaced my grid spots, so I just turned the back ground reflector around so it aimed at the models instead.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm
Lighting: alien Bee B1600 x 2, 22" Beauty Dish, background reflector.

Linda and Eric

2010-06-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

The boardwalk at Green Lake
I was having a nice brunch last Saturday when I got a call from the groom, Eric. He said, "I'm getting married today at four, and we wondering if you could photograph our wedding?". Not having anything else to do that day, I said sure, it would be a pleasure.

Linda and Eric are a nice couple from Miami Florida who booked one of my small Elopement wedding packages. It was just them and their parents.

The Stone Circle, by Alta Lake
I do a lot of wedding in the Whistler area, but sometimes someone comes up with a location I've never been to. This is a feature just off the Valley Trail by Lakeside Park. It made for a great wedding location.

Yellowstone Park

2010-06-09T17:56:00.000-07:00

Grizzly Bear
Checking my map, I realized that I was 100 miles from Yellowstone prk, so took a short detour through the park. Well worth the trip.

A Bison and her calf walk around a geyser.

The Old Faithful Lodge

Tech Stuff
For the picture of the Grizzly Bear, I used my old 300mm f/2.8 manual focus (when I say old, it's probably 25 years or more old) on a Nikon D2x, which with the 1.5x magnification factor makes it actually a 450mm lens. The bear was a long way away. It was such a spur of the moment trip that I packed the 300mm (which I hardly ever use), but forgot the monopod to steady it with, so I had to hand hold it. As a result, of the 60 or 70 frames I shot, only two were sharp.

The other photos were shot with with my D700 and the 17-35mm lens.

Cameras: Nikon D700 and D2x
Lenses: Nikon 300mm f/2.8 ED-IF, Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8

St. Anthony's Dunes

2010-06-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Jason Sheppard
I finally arrived in Idaho to meet up with my fiend Jason and his buddies at the Sand Dunes in St. Anthony. They took me out and put on a great photo show.

We had an epic bon fire that night, plying our Mormon neighbours with cheap tequila and potato vodka.

Tech Stuff:
Oddly enough for Idaho in the late spring, it was rainy, cold, and really dark out, which made for tough shooting conditions. I pushed the D700's ISO settings up to 500, and then 800 for most of the shots. The bon fire was at ISO 1600. The D700 excels at high ISO shooting, so this was no problem.

With any kind of motorsports, you never want to use a shutter speed higher than 1/500th of a second. Without some movement in the wheels and background, the bike or car just looks like it's been parked. The 70-200 has an image stabilizer in it that really helps to keep the subject sharp when you're panning with it.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (top three), Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 (bottom two).

More of the Road Trip

2010-06-09T17:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Idaho. Fuck the speed limit.

Another delicious breakfast.

Abandoned train station. Lima, Montana.
My trip across the western United States had a melancholy feel to it. Most towns seem to have seen their best days a generation ago.

Old drive-in restaurant. St. Anthony, Idaho.

The Columbia River. Washington State.

Tech Stuff:
When I'm working, my main two lenses always seem to be the 17-35 and 70-200, but when I'm just walking around, it's the 28-70mm I tend to use the most. When I get around to replacing it (I've owned this lens for over 10 years, and it's heavier and bulkier than my 70-200), I'll probably semi retire the 17-35mm, as I usually just use the top half of the zoom range on that lens.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm AF-S

Idaho and Montana Road Trip

2010-06-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

Thunder storm over Butte Montana
The time between the Easter school break and the summer vacation in Whistler is known as the shoulder season. It's when there's nobody in the resort, and everybody's hanging around waiting for the tourist season to start.

Which is why I jumped at the chance to head down to St. Anthony's Dunes in South Eastern Idaho to shoot some old friends of mine who are down there on a quad biking trip. I drove to Seattle last night, and this morning I lit out at 5:30 and spent the day on the road. Tomorrow morning, I arrive in St. Anthony.

My first night's hotel room. I was half expecting to get attacked by Norman Bate's dead mother.

Truck stop breakfast in Ellensburg. French toast, bacon, and eggs, all for $7.50. And the waitresses call you "Hon", to boot.

A trucker from Greenbay WI. having breakfast.

Looking to buy a stuffed bear? Wallace Idaho.

Tech Stuff:
The biggest skill a photographer can have is getting people to let them take their picture, like the trucker, or getting someone to let you shoot in their very foreign (to you) surroundings. The place with all the stuffed animals was pretty crazy, and included things like belts of live machine gun ammunition, and a wooden crate full of 30mm rifle grenades (I asked the lady in the store if they were live, and she just shrugged. One of them could have killed everybody in the place if it when off). The trick, just ask.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8

First Wedding of the Season

2010-05-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is the first wedding of my 2010 summer season. Actually, it's the first one I've done since January, which is a break courtesy of the Olympic Games, which shut everything in town down for the entire winter. These guys were a lot of fun to work with, and really made for great photos.

Tech Stuff:
It was an overcast day with some light rain, which made for nice soft light, and not much need for any flash. The Edgewater Lodge is a great place to photograph a wedding, because it gives you a real range of locations and backgrounds, all within a short walk of the main lodge.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: AF-S Nikon 28-70 and AF-S Nikon 70-200
Lighting: Natural

Le Bouffon

2010-05-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed doing the story on Trilby Jeeves and her Buffoonery classes, the one thing were missing was a shot Trilby in character. A couple of weeks later I was able to catch up with her after one of her acting workshops, in her character, Madam rouge.

A wide view of the lighting I used for these shots. There's also a kicker out of view to camera right.

Tech Stuff:
I used two Alien Bee lights, one with a 22 inch dish on it, and the other with just a bare reflector as a kicker.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF-S Nikon 28-70
Lighting: Alien Bees B1600 x2

Alexandra and Zachary's B'nai Mitzvah

2010-05-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Alexandra and Zachary with some of their school friends
I've been doing wedding and event photography for over 13 years full time, and I've never had the opportunity to photograph a Bar Mitzvah (or in this case a B'nai Mitzvah, a Bar Mitzvah for twins) until now. I have to say it was a complete blast.

The Olympics on, my wedding business has been pretty much shut down since January. This was a really nice event to do, and it also got me ready for weddings, which start up again in June.

Alexandra and Zachary's dad Jack had a terrific party at the Whistler four Seasons Hotel.

Everyone danced well into the night.

Top of the layer cake

2010-04-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

This a local three bedroom townhouse that is going back into the rental pool after a major renovation. While it's not the fanciest place I've been in, it's fairly typical of the work I do on a day to day basis. While it looks fairly straight forward, it's actually three separate photographs stacked on top of each other.

Here is the base image, except with the colour target in the frame. The lighting is very warm because of the halogen track lighting, and the colour target gives me a neutral tone to use to get an accurate colour balance. The biggest problems with this photo is that the light outside through the window is totally blown out, there is a big reflection in the painting of the strobe's softbox, and the fireplace is dark.

Here is another version with the strobe turned off and exposure set for the outside lighting. I dropped in the view of the exterior overtop of the original photo to balance the light outside. I also copied out the painting above the fireplace to fix the reflection in the glass.

In the final image, I turned off all the lights, and lit a big fire, and then dropped the image of the fireplace onto the final image.

The image was lit with an Alien Bee strobe with a medium softbox.

You can see more of my architectural work at http://www.davidbuzzard.com/

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alienn Bee B1600 640 w/sec strobe with a 24x16" softbox. Radio Popper radio slaves.

Vancouver Buffoonery Workshops

2010-04-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Trilby Jeeves and her VanArts class of Buffoons.
Based on the teachings of Jacques Lecoq of Paris, "Le Bouffon" is a clown of sorts- an intelligent clown, perhaps, from the depths of our earth. Its pleasure is to mock and to imitate the absurdities of the human being (we do strange things!). They get sheer joy at playing their opinions (and they tend to be exaggerated in their appearances!) There is no limit to the expressions of "Le Bouffon".....

I had a great time shooting this story for the Urban Pie. It was actually the first story I had come up, but I wasn't able to catch up with Trilby Jeeves, the course instructor and champion of Vancouver Buffoonery, until yesterday. This is the last Buffoonery class of the VanArts acting program, and I was able to sit in on part of it.

I've been working on multimedia slideshows and did a quick one from this shoot. There's some extra photos and an interview with Trilby here.

Facial expressions are a critical part of the course

The Buffoons don't break character for anything, not even a photo shoot.

Trilby Jeeves

Costumes left over after the class

Terminal City Rollerderby

2010-04-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to really enjoy shooting for the Urban Pie, and it hasn't even started to publish yet! Last night I got to spend the evening shooting a Roller Derby match at the Kerisdale Arena between the Faster Pussy Cats and Atomic City, presented by Terminal City Rollergirls. It was an absolute blast, and about 1700 screaming Vancouver hipsters came to enjoy the show.

Tech Stuff:
While the event organizers had provided lighting for the derby, it was woefully inadequate for normal photography, especially of an action sport. For the first time I set the ISO on my Nikon D700 all the way to ISO 8000, or 0.3 boost from the maximum native ISO of 6400. I have to say it worked really well. There was a mix of lighting sources in there, so I did a custom white balance using an Expodisc.

Camera: Nikon d700
Lens: AF-S 70-200mm VR f/2.8

Sweet Soul Burlesque

2010-04-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

Crystal Precious and Burgundy Brixx
I've helped to launch two independent newspapers based in Squamish, both published by my friend Alan Forsythe. It's been so much fun that he decided to start another one in Vancouver, the Urban Pie. A part of our lead up to the first edition, I spent yesterday shooting for the first feature stories, Sweet Soul Burlesque and the Rio Theatre.

Crystal Precious, leader of the Sweet Soul Burlesque Troop and Burgundy Brixx are a big part of the vibrant Vancouver burlesque scene, and can be seen in live shows around the city.

MC Purrfessor, Burgundy Brixx, and Crystal Precious

The Rio Theatre

2010-04-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Daniel Gagliano, Alex Chisholm, Corinne Lea, Paul Hendriks, and Chris Redmond.
This is an assignment for an upcoming edition of Urban Pie that we're hoping to launch at the end of April. The Rio Theatre is an old 30's era movie palace that's been restored as a movie theatre and live event venue, and is a really cool looking place. It's right in the heart of Vancouver's Commercial Drive area, and well worth stopping in for a show.

In the projection booth.

Corinne Lea, the diminutive and energetic owner of the Rio

Executive House Photo Shoot

2010-04-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

I spent a busy day shooting this brand new executive Whistler house for CR Contracting, the builders of the place. The house contains some amazing timber framing, with entire tree trunks being used for the upright posts.

This first shot is the front entry, looking towards the kitchen and breakfast nook. One of the great features of this house are the three story high, floor to ceiling windows, but that also caused me huge problems, as it's such a bright light source that almost everything in the room is silhouetted. To balance the light, I used a 640w/s strobe with a large softbox on the second floor landing to camera left to light the the centre and camera right posts, another 640w/s light on the floor to camera left aimed at the bar, and a third 640w/s light with a small softbox behind the post on camera left to light the kitchen.

Actually, the biggest problem with this shot was the $35,000 Steinway baby grand piano that was in the middle of the room and generally in the way of everything. I grabbed a couple of painters who were finishing some work, and we moved it off to the side of the room by the window. The thing weighed more than an old Buick.

This is a shot of the living room from the top mezzanine. Although it looks fairly straight forward, it presented a number of problems. First, there are some very strong vertical lines created by the wooden posts. With a regular wide angle lens, when you aim it down into the room, you get downward pointing converging lines (as you can see in the bottom version of the photo) that make it look like the posts are splaying out. I used a special perspective control lens that allowed me to keep the focal plane parallel to the posts, keeping lines on the posts straight.

Second problem was that there was a large canvas painting on the wall that was bright blue, conflicting badly with the earth tone colour scheme in the room. To fix that, in Photoshop I selected the painting, then I sampled a tone from the coffee table and used it for a gradient overlay to get the painting to match the surrounds a bit better.

The kitchen and library were also problematic. The dark wood panelling looks great, but sucks up light like a black hole. To get any definition, you need use some serious strobe light. In the lowest photo, you can see the room sans the strobe.

The other problem is that the light outside was several stops brighter than the inside, even with the strobe. To deal with this, I needed to take a shot exposed for the light outside, and then make a special Photoshop mask so that only the outside part of that photo shows through the window, and then overlay that shot on the original image of the inside of the room.

This was actually pretty easy to shoot. The perspective control lens kept the lines straight. I still have another day of work on the house, so there's still a few shots still to come on this one.

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 and Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 PC
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 640w/s strobe units X 3, 48x32" Photoflex Softbox, 24x16" Photoflex Softbox, 22" Alien Bee Beauty Dish with diffusion sock. Radio Popper Slave Slave Units.

One year anniversary

2010-04-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a year since I started this blog, and that's no April's fool. As a present, here's a couple of shots of probably the last snowfall of the year, which although it was really annoying, it did look kind of cool.

The new studio

2010-03-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

We had a big fire in the house in 2008 that required that we strip the entire inside right down to the building studs to repair the water damage. While it was apart, I took a reciprocating saw and sledge hammer, and knocked out the walls of one of the downstairs bedrooms that we weren't using, creating a nice large space that I've finally converted into a photo studio.

My bohemian pal Mona was up from Vancouver this weekend, and I asked her if she would be the first person to pose in it. I'm going to do a few more test sittings, then we'll be open for business. The link to the Whistler studio is http://www.davidbuzzard.com/headshots/

Charissa Belle and Nick's Wedding at the Nita Lake Lodge

2010-03-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Charissa and Nick came up to Whistler for a quiet wedding with just the two of them. I knew it was going to a lot of fun when Charissa told me that instead of exchanging rings, they were going to get tattooed instead.

The Wake of Isobel & Don MacLaurin

2010-03-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

Isobel and Don MacLaurin are two of Whistler's most colourful residents. Isobel is a very well known local artist, and don is a retired forester. They started with a Whistler cabin back in the 60's, and have lived here full time since the 80's. I've known them for years, and they're really delightful people.

Don called me up the other day and told me they were holding a wake for themselves, as they didn't want to plan a big party and then not be around to enjoy it, and asked if I'd shoot some pictures and video for them. They even had their own coffins, which did double duty as the bar for the night. It was a real old time Whistler party, with all sorts of locals who came out of the woodwork especially for the event.

Marcel and Joan Richoz

David and Maggi Thornhill

Isobel and Sonya McCarthy

Sheila Walker, Alex Klineman, and Colin Pitt-Taylor in front of Don's coffin/bar

Ace Mackay-Smith and friends

Issy and Don on the dance floor. The picure behind them was taken about the time they were married, 52 years ago. The party raged on until almost 3:00 in the morning.

Rachel and James, top of Whistler

2010-03-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

It's pretty funny, I make my living shooting weddings, but this is only the second one I've done in the last six months. I finished up my last one of 2009 in October, and then took off for South Africa for three months. I did another small one in January when I got back, and then started all my Olympic gigs, which I finally finished up last week. Things are finally getting back to normal, with another wedding next week as I head into the summer season.

Rachel and James are a really nice couple who came out from rural Louisiana to get married in the snow and mountains here in British Columbia. We were lucky to get a small window of good weather, and by the time the ceremony was over the wind and snow had totally whited out the top of Whistler.

James Bondage Party

2010-03-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

Garibaldi Times art director Jody Iverson and friends
Last night I popped off to the James Bondage party in Squamish to grab a few photos. It was a pretty good time, but did I ever feel like a square.

Brian Raiser (R)

Olympic wrap up

2010-03-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

That's me (bald spot and all) filing my pictures back to head office in Toronto from the Canada Place Starbucks. I spent the Olympics covering ministers from Industry and Foreign Affairs, and members of the Canadian Tourism commission, as they lobbied, and generally sold Canada to an incredible group of International VIP's and CEO's.

I have to admit that I was really peeved that I didn't get any contracts to shoot the sporting events. On second thoughts, who am I kidding, while I was a really good sports photographer back when I was a newspaper photographer, it's been 14 years since I really did it seriously, and the best sports photographers in the world were at the Olympics. I'm good at event photography, and while it can be pretty dry at times, I take a lot of pride in the work I do.

Monday morning, I start all over again with the Para Olympic torch relay.

Granville Street, Vancouver

2010-02-21T19:30:00.000-08:00

Having spent all of Friday following a couple of government cabinet ministers around, I decided to take some personal time to hang out on Granville Street and take in some of the revelry. A good time was had by all.

Olympics, The International Broadcast Centre

2010-02-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

Me in front of the Olympic Torch
I've been spending the Olympics in a novel way. Since I'm not working for any of the large news agencies, I'm not accredited for any of the Olympic events. However, the Canadian Press has a commercial photography division, and they've been keeping me very busy, believe it not, documenting Canadian Government Cabinet Ministers as they tour the various Olympic facilities.

Thursday, I had a fascinating tour through the International Broadcast Centre in Vancouver with Industry Minister Tony Clemente.

The CTV main studio

CTV control room. There are 10 broadcast network feeds for CTV alone.

Minister Tony Clemente (centre, with glasses), in the broadcast nerve centre, where the producers monitor the broadcast feed.

Inside the server farm

Olympics around Whistler

2010-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

A German fan in the Whistler Village

Local photographer, and Munich native, Andy Dittrich, is interviewed for Bavarian TV.

Whistler writer Stephen Vogler watching the men's downhill race from Citta's patio, in the Whistler Village.

The Sardis Secondary Drumline. I wish they had one of these when I was in high school.

Olympic Protests

2010-02-13T00:44:00.000-08:00

Protesters marching down Georgia Street, in front of the Bay store. Downtown Vancouver.
Since I didn't have any other gig for the Olympics, I decided to head down to Vancouver and check out the protests planned for the opening ceremonies. Generally, it was pretty peaceful, with some pushing and shoving, but no serious agro to speak of.

Masked protesters

That's actually a pretty good point

A native elder confronts a police officer in front of BC Place stadium

A masked protester

Wary looking police officers

The Black Brigade

More Torch Pics

2010-02-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

I got a call from the Canadian Press assignment service last night asking if I could spend the day covering a famous British athlete who was in town to do the torch run. Matthew Pinsent is a four time gold medal rower, and a really nice guy.

An idea of how crazy things got. The guys in the track suits are RCMP security, who took some real pleasure in pushing us around. There were TV crews from CTV (the host broadcaster), the BBC (Matthew's a sports journalist now), and a private crew from the Canadian Tourist Commission (my client).

Matthew handing over the flame to former Whistler Mayor Drew Merideth.

Olympic Torch Relay

2010-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

I've been kind of grumpy about the Olympics for a while now, but I have to admit that it's hard not to get a patriot lump in your throat when the torch comes through. It was nice seeing it going by in Britannia Beach, as it's a long way away from the big Olympic machine

The flame is handed off to a new runner

The runners do a little dance at the trade off

Chances Casino - Squamish

2010-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Alan Forsythe is a newspaper publisher in Squamish. When I have the time, I come down and shoot the pictures for his paper, the Garibaldi times.

This is a story on the opening of the new Squamish Nation casino in Squamish. Alan was interviewing Gibby Jacob, the Chief of the Squamish Nation band, and asked how he felt about the new casino. He didn't say much, but his expression gave it away.

Back in Whistler

2010-01-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

Dave and Kathleen, from Scotland
After 2 1/2 months in South Africa, I'm back in Whistler. The first week back, I had a small wedding to photograph, and three commercial commissions. The first was to shoot a beautiful local house (I'd love to show you pics, but the home owner requested that they remain private), and two public spaces.

BonBon anyone? The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
This was shot for the contractor who had just done a recent renovation. When I was still in South Africa, I ordered three Alien Bee strobes to replace my old Norman strobe set up (although I did keep the 2000w/sec pack, and a couple of heads, just in case I need some real horsepower). When I got home, they were sitting in my studio ready to go. The Norman's were great, but heavy and awkward to use, and took a small truck to carry on location. Three Alien Bee 640w/sec heads, all the cables, speed rings, and a couple of folded up soft boxes, all go in a full sized LowePro roller case that used to hold my RZ-67 set-up (another great technology sadly gone the way of the buggy whip).

This is the Whistler Museum and Archive. I was hired by Panther Management, the company that did the museum exhibits and design, to do some photos of the newly renovated museum. They called me Thursday afternoon, said they needed pictures ASAP, as they were needed for a bid on another project. I shot the job Friday morning, did the photoshop work after lunch, and had the pics uploaded to Panther's FTP site by late Friday afternoon.

The key to this shoot is that it had to look like a museum, with low key warm lighting, but it can't be so dark that you can't see what's going on. In the large photo, you can see that I have a large light source to light the chairs and front of the scene, and another smaller light to brighten up the exhibit just off to the left of the frame. In the smaller photo, that's what the scene looks like without the extra strobe lighting.

This week coming, I have two more clients with work to be done before the Olympics start.

The Sani Pass

2010-01-19T02:51:00.000-08:00

My Dad took us up the Sani Pass, which is the main southern access road into the Kingdom of Lesotho. Lesotho is a separate country that is actually completely inside South Africa. It's a pretty desolate place, and all they seem to do is raise sheep and provide hydro electric power to South Africa. If you've ever seen the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy", this is the view point where the little San Bushman throws the coke bottle off the end of the world.

The Sani Pass cuts right through the Drakensburg Mountains, and the views are truly amazing.

This what passes for a major highway up here.

Custom 4x4 minibus taxis climb the final switch backs into Lesotho. If you're a local on your way home, you get to ride in one these nail biting machines.

Ah, scenic Lesotho

Joyce in Jo'burg

2009-12-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

Joyce flew in from Whistler for Christmas, and after three days of the Buzzard family goings on (Christmas lunches on the 24th, 25th, and 26th), we decided to pop up to Johannesburg for some peace and quiet.

Joyce riding a WWII German 88mm antiaircraft gun, and about to get us thrown out the Johannesburg Military Museum. Take that Ken Melamed.

We had lunch in the arty suburb of Melville, and while Jo'burg is a huge cosmopolitan city, it never quite lets you forget you're in Africa.

Finished the day off with a great meal on the patio in Sandton.

The Durban Club

2009-12-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

A close family friend invited my father and to lunch at the Durban Club, the self declared final bastion of the British Empire. It's an exclusive men's club located in downtown Durban. The club has been operating since 1861, and has been in the current building since 1903.

Arnold is my sister Joanne's father-in-law. He and my father have been doing business together since long before Joanne and Simon ever met, and now have the pleasure of having their children married to each other.

Head waiter Dennis Zondo, chef Khanyisile Mhlongo, and waiter Bernard Khuzwayo

My host, Arnold Taylor

The Blue Horizon Club

2009-12-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of attending the retirement party for my father's friend, Colin Govender, at the Blue Horizon Social Club. Colin was a shift supervisor at the chemical plant my Dad ran on the Natal South Coast. There was a terrible accident where a huge chemical reactor failed, and Colin crawled on his hands and knees to the control room to shut it down, saving the plant, and everyone in it. After 43 years of service with the company, he's retiring, and he asked my Dad to speak at the party. I thought it would be interesting, so I tagged along.

Funny enough, we came directly from our lunch at the Durban club. We had two fantastic curries, back to back.

Burning the Cane Fields

2009-12-18T00:57:00.000-08:00

Before the farms harvest the sugar cane, it's burned to remove wide grass blades, or trash from the cane, leaving the bamboo like cane behind. This saves a lot of work for the cane cutter, and clears the area of snakes and rodents.

South Coast Sugar

2009-12-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

A worker climbs between two sugar cane haulers.

This week I had the pleasure of touring the Rhodes sugar cane farm on KwaZulu-Natal's South Coast. The owner, Craig Rhodes, and his father Chris were kind enough to let me have the run of the place for two days. It's a large operation, with over 300 workers, mostly Xhosa speaking Pondo's from the Eastern Cape, and stretches for more than 25 km's across the rolling hills.

Loading cane onto trucks for the trip to the nearby Sezela Mill

A tractor is pulled out of a flooded access road

Craig Rhodes checks the oil on an ailing tractor.

Sugar cane cutters at work. Cane is burned, and then harvested by hand.

Craig Rhodes confers with his foreman.

A cane cutter at the end of the day.

some of the locals

2009-12-03T00:39:00.000-08:00

A couple of the locals around the Limpopo region, around Kruger Park.

Nothing but rain and cold weather here in durban, nothing much else to report.

Caspir in Action

2009-12-03T00:32:00.000-08:00

It took some searching, but I knew I had a shot a Caspir Armoured Car on patrol, to add to the one that's in the museum. This was in KwaMashu, a Durban area township, in June 1996.

Kruger Park

2009-11-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

African Elephant, near Lowe Sabie Camp

Cape Buffalo, near Punda Maria Camp

Boabab Tree, near Punda Maria Camp

Punda Maria Campsite

Elephant Skull, near Letaba Camp

Submerged Hippos in the Oliphant River.

Hippo on the bank of the Sabie River

Hyena, near Lower Sabie Camp. This guy would make a Pit Bull look like a Toy Poodle

I had originally planned to drive into Zimbabwe, an area I travelled in extensively during my time in South Africa in the mid-90's. I had really fallen in love with the area, and wanted to see for myself what the years of economic turmoil had to done to her. As I got up near the border, I met the local police inspector at my hotel bar. He said that you can travel in Zimbabwe, but you need to take all the fuel and food you need for the trip, as outside of Harare, there isn't much of either available. The condition of the refugees coming across the border is appalling, as they're essentially walking from Harare to the border with no food. With my little car, I thought it would more reckless than adventuresome to do Zimbabwe, so I cut across to the north end of Kruger park, and worked my way down to the southern most part, a distance of nearly 600 kms.

Kruger is a South African national park, similar to Banff or Jasper back in Canada. While there are some very expensive private camps inside the park, catering mostly to foreign tourists, there are also very reasonable priced public facilities and restaurants. For my three nights/four days in the park, the bill was less than R1400 (about $200.00 CAN), and that included a night safari drive.

I must admit that I really loved the northern sections of the park, even with temperatures in the high 30's celsius, and a lot less game than the lower sections. The above makes the northern park areas almost deserted, while the southern part is closer to Yellowstone Park at labour day, wall to wall with brash Jo'burger's and their floosey wives, all armed with 'big 5' game check lists.

Tech Stuff:
While I brought a 300mm f/2.8 lens, I found it too big to use in my very small Fiat car, so all the game pics were shot with my AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8, and the scenics with my AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8. I used my Nikon D700 for all the photos.

Kruger Park at Night

2009-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Civit Cat

Spitting Cobra

Spring Hare

Impala

Something I really enjoyed at Kruger was the night drive I took at the Lataba Camp. We were on the back of an open safari truck with sets of spot lights mounted on it, and it was led by a park ranger. Most of the animals in the park are nocturnal, and bush there is alive with life. Believe me, you would not want to be on foot here at night.

The crown jewel that got away was a hunting Leopard we spotted. By the time I got the camera up, it had disappeared into the bush.

Tech Stuff:
I've stayed away from giving a lot of technical information, as I've really been travelling light, with one camera and three lenses, but this shoot involved some problems.

First of all, it's really dark. Most of the time, I had the D700 camera dialed up to either ISO 3200 or 6400. It's the environment the camera was built for, and it handles the low light beautifully.

To get the colour balance, I asked the ranger to train the spot light onto some white cars in the parking lot, and then used those as white balance point so I would have a clean look to the photos, not the orange "in the headlights look".

I used my AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 with the vibration reduction, as most of the shutter speeds were in the range of 1/125th to 1/30th of a second.

Apartheid Museum

2009-11-23T00:37:00.000-08:00

The Apartheid Museum is a must see. It's a thought provoking place, and being a journalist for the tail end of, a bit of personal history as well. Above is a self portrait in the mirror display.

This is a frighteningly realistic solitary confinement cell they had mocked up. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the photo, and I was getting seriously wierded out after only a few minutes in there.

This bad boy is a Caspir armoured car, one of the most recognizable symbols of the Apartheid days. This what the police used to patrol the townships. It has to be one of the ugliest things ever put on four wheels, and from the bullet pocked windows, this one has seen some action.

Now it's like Apartheid itself, just another museum exhibit.

South African Military Museum

2009-11-23T00:21:00.000-08:00

I was driving around looking for the Apartheid Museum, and came across the South African Military History Museum. I figured they'd be able to give me directions, I stopped in to ask, and found that some history buffs were holding an Angolan War re-enactment. The South Africans fought a war there in the 70's and 80's against the local rebels, and their Cuban advisors. Several of my cousins and family friends fought in it, and if I'd been still in South Africa when I reached draft age, I would have fought there too, which is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

The older guys in the photos are real veterans, and the younger guys are mostly their kids, there to get a taste of the old days.

The guns are de-activated, but still really scary looking.

Around Jo'burg

2009-11-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

My first day in Johannesburg, or Jo'burg to the locals, my friends Philip and Sue took me for a tour of all the cool old haunts. This is the Radium Beer Hall, which has been a operating as a local pub non-stop since 1926. It was one of the first bars in the country to intergrate, long before the end of Apartheid. We came that evening for some kicking live music

Me in front of the giant Nelson Mandela statue in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton City in the Northern Suburbs. Every tourist has to do this. I covered Mandela when he was South African President, and he's personal hero of mine, as well every other South African from one side of the political and racial spectrum, to the other.

My hosts, Sue, Heather, and Philip. Sue and I became close friends during our time working at the Durban area newspapers.

Jo'burg is far safer than most non-Jo'burg residents would think, but still, don't be a schmuck. I took the precaution of clipping my camera belt pack to a chair during lunch.

We had the good luck to run in to a good friend of both Sue and I, Michael Schmidt. Michael and I covered one of the worst atrocities of low intensity civil war that hit South Africa after the 1994 election. Twenty villagers were slaughtered by their neighbours on Christmas Day 1995, and ours was the definitive coverage of the event. It hit me so hard that I never really went back to covering conflicts after that. Michael has been to the West Bank, Darfour, the Congo, and just about every African hot spot since. Now he runs a foundation that trains journalists in developing countries.

I think Jo'burg is a little like Michael, Sue, and I. We've grown more mature with the years, and the restless dangerous parts of us have mellowed. Twelve years ago, Jo'burg was a tense place, where you watched yourself all the time. Now, as long as you stay out of the scary parts of town (just like visiting any other city), it's pleasant and laid back with a friendly population, a thriving arts and culture scene, and great place to spend a few days.

I've collected my anti-mlarial pills, kissed Sue good bye, and now I'm off to Zimbabwe

Essenwood Flea Market

2009-11-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

I spent Saturday at at the Essenwood flea Market in Durban. Flea markets are a big South African tradition, where you can go to buy some authentic african crafts and beadwork, or hear someone play a township flute, or 'Penny Whistle'.

Around Durban

2009-11-13T05:44:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last week getting my bearings in Durban. I lost my wallet on the way in, and had to order a new VISA card from Montreal, which should be arriving soon. I've also bought myself a little car, so I'm almost ready to hit the road.

Yesterday, my Dad and I went for a walk along the Durban beachfront. Half of Zululand seemed to be down there enjoying the surf, and we were the only two white guys who didn't look like they were trying to score some methamphetamine. Quite the experience.

Umhlanga Rocks is a popular resort area just north of Durban that has a famous lighthouse, a fantastic beach, and great fishing.

Back to South Africa

2009-11-09T04:22:00.000-08:00

I finally made it back to South Africa. Three back to back plane rides, 36 hours of travelling. The first thing my family did was throw me a traditional South African barbecue, or "Braai". It's a huge grill up of sausages, boerwors, ribs, and corn. I haven't eaten this much meat since the last time I was in South Africa. I have another one to go to on Saturday at my sister's house.

I haven't been back since 1996, and I've since acquired a sister-in-law and two nephews who I've never met. I've spent the last few days getting to know everyone, looking to find a cheap car, and cancelling my credit cards, as I managed to lose my wallet on the trip here. Once everything gets set, I'll be hitting the road.

This guy is the local fruit seller that my Dad buys his avocados from. Durbanites are particular about the local avo's, which are massive (those raisin like things in the lower left corner are supermarket avocados that you would get in Canada), very tasty, and grow naturally throughout the area. While there are many large, very modern shopping malls thoughout South Africa, little guys like this still do a thriving trade.

Pharmacist of the Year

2009-11-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

These are part of a series of photos I did for Pharmacy Practices Canada magazine. Carmen is getting an award for her pharmacy, located in Lillooet BC, about 150 km's northeast of Whistler, over a frightening 4200' mountain pass. Whistler is the closest major centre, so I get dispatched there for all sorts of photo and video jobs.

The clients asked for a simple shot against a feature-less background, which is the first one. Carmen was really busy because of the H1N1 outbreak, especially acute in Lillooet, the pharmacy itself was small and crammed with merchandise, and the only blank wall I could find was in the small hallway that led to the storeroom, so we were really rushed for both time and space. Despite that, it turned out okay, but looking too much like a fancy passport photo for my taste. Next I asked her to pose in front of the pharmacy display, which made it a more interesting photo, and gave us a lot more room to work in. Being able to use a longer lens makes for a more flattering photo, and the background makes it a lot more interesting.

They also wanted some shots of Carmen working in her pharmacy for a slideshow that's going to be shown at the awards gala in Toronto. I thought this was a little more interesting, and it's easier to get interesting photos when the subjects are actually doing something, as opposed to just standing there.

I wanted to finish with an exterior shot, just show how beautiful, and isolated Lillooet is.

Tech Stuff:
The first two shots were lit with with a Nikon SB-900 bounced into an umbrella as the key light, and a Nikon SB-800 with a flag on it as a background/kicker light. With the SU-800 controller, I can set the levels of both flashes from the camera.

The last three shots were shot with the available light and slight fill fill from the camera mounted SB-900 flash.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (1st), AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (2nd), AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 (3rd, 4th, and 5th)

Alanna and Derek's Wedding at the Nita Lake Lodge

2009-10-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

This is my last wedding for 2009, and I couldn't have gotten a more pleasant group of people than Alanna and Derek and their guests and family. It's also the first time I've done a large sized wedding at the Nita Lake Lodge, and I'm really starting to like this spot as a wedding location.

Alanna's Dad, waiting for the girls at the chapel.

Rough weather for the whole day, but we did get a nice rain free hole just after the ceremony. It was nearly dark by the time we finished the bridal portraits.

We finished all the posed bridal and family portraits early, so I asked if I could try some locations around the lodge. Most of the venues I work in at Whistler tend to more 'Mountain Rustic' in their decor, while the Nita Lake is quite modern and cool looking, so it was a good opportunity for me to try something a little different.

Tech Stuff:
I used a wide range of techniques for this wedding. The first two interior shots are lit with just the available available light.

The guys on the dock needed a touch of on-camera fill flash, because of the generally gloomy and miserable conditions were causing heavy shadows on their faces.

With the bride's maids, I asked one of the groomsmen to hold the flash off to camera left, and then under exposed the sky to get a dramatic look out of it.

The interior shots were all done with a flash bounced into a photo umbrella. The shot at the bar also had another flash positioned behind the bar to act as a 'kicker'.

Camera: Nikon D700 (all)
Lenses: AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 (first, fourth, fifth, sixth), AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (second, seventh, eighth), and the AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (third)

Big Group Shot

2009-10-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

This was a seminar group that asked me to do a group shot of the delegates and speakers. While it's far from the most interesting shot in the world, it did pose some interesting problems. First up, the client wanted the shot taken on the wooden deck behind the Lil'wat (First Nation) Cultural Centre, with Blackcomb Mountain in the background. It was a very tight space, I needed almost the whole throw of my 17mm lens to get everyone in, and even more problematic, the site is heavily back lit throughout the day. Even the most casual of photographers know that the cure to back lighting is to use a flash to fill in the shaded part of the photo, but what about when you have 70 people, and they're 30 to 40 feet from the camera...

You bring in a really huge light source. The above set up is a 2000WS Norman flash pack (the brick like object under the ladder), which is about as big as they get, and a 48"x36" softbox light bank. This light is 400 times more powerful than the average add on camera flash, and although the softbox absorbs a lot of that light, it's still plenty to get the job done. I used my tallest light stand to lift it 10" up, and 25 Lb and 10 Lb sandbags to keep the whole thing from blowing over in the wind. A ladder is also a good idea, as a higher angle is always good for getting a good view of the whole group.

Here's the same photo, but without the strobe, pretty big difference.

Slightly off topic, if you're ever in Whistler, check out this location, the Lil'wat Cultural Centre, it has a great museum and art gallery, and the cafe serves real native banock bread. Well worth the stop.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35 mm f/2.8
Lighting: Norman P2000 strobe pack, Norman 2400 strobe head, and Photoflex 48"x36" softbox

The North Arm Farm

2009-10-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

The North Arm Farm in Pemberton is one of those places I like to go to unwind. It's a working farm, but the owner lets people wander around the fields, and this day they had some horse and carriage rides going for Thanksgiving. I ran into a friend of mine who was there with her Niece and some friends from her church group, and got a couple of nice shots of the fall pumpkin harvest.

That night, my wife and I had fresh veggies and roast garlic soup, along with delicious fresh butter tarts from the farm's bakery.

High Pass Filter

2009-10-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

The job I had scheduled for today fell through, so I was sitting around trying out some oddball Photoshop techniques. This one is a mixture of the highpass filter, along with some de-saturation, to push the contrast and colour saturation through the roof. That looks pretty crazy, but I don't know where I'd ever use it.

High Wire Act

2009-09-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

With the crazy things you see when you're driving around, it's always good to have a camera handy. The guy sitting on the edge of the helicopter is a high voltage lineman, and he's changing the little thingys that go between the wires on those mega transmission lines. The rub is that they haven't turned the power off to the lines, and he's doing it from a hovering helicopter.

I've done some pretty crazy things in helicopters, but this far the stupidest I've ever seen done from a chopper.

Tech Stuff:
I liked the way the the wires crossed each other and made a nice pattern, and framed the lineman and helicopter nicely. I used the Nikon d2x for it's 1.5x conversion factor, and still had to crop about 50% of the image away to get this shot. A 300mm or 400mm lens would have been ideal, but all I had was my 70-200mm.

Camera: Nikon D2x
Lens: 70-200mm AF-S f/2.8