Henrique and Moritz

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

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.

Rainbow Park in Winter

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

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

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

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

New Year's at MoJo's

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

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.

Wedding Equipment Tour

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.

Timothy Taylor

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.