Whistler Stagette Party

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

Olympic wrap up

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

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.