David Buzzard's Photo Blog

Food Photo Roundup

David_Buzzard_Blog — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:36:19 +0000

The chef at Sura doing up a stir fry in the kitchen.

I’ve been busy this winter doing pictures for the menus of Korean restaurants in Vancouver. Here are a couple of my favourites.

Stuffed prawns. It took some work with a strobe mounted with a narrow grid spot to light up the antennas.

Boo Dae, or army base in Korean. A classic fusion dish, Korean Kimchi, along with baked beans, diced carrots, wieners, and spam. It started when restaurants near American army bases in Korea started catering to American servicemen.

In a break from the Korean restaurants, I did these photos of the fondu special at the Nicklaus North Golf Club. Very Tasty.

Tech Stuff
One thing about the Korean places is that the interiors of the restaurants are really dark. The walls and booths tend to be painted black, so it really takes a lot of lighting.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B-1600 strobes x 3

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

The Whistler Question

David_Buzzard_Blog — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:49:19 +0000

I’ve been working at the Whistler Question newspaper for the last few weeks. It’s been a lot of fun, as my roots are in photojournalism, and I actually started as a Question photographer back in the 80′s. It’s a nice break from the weddings and commercial photographer that’s been my lot for the last few years.

These are a few shots from the Sarah Burke Memorial on Tuesday night. There’s been a lot of local residents who have been killed or injured this year. It’s a lot for such a small town, and I think as a community we really needed it.

It’s not all heavy stuff. This was a shot from when the Vancouver Circus School gave a workshop for the local kids. Here seven year old McKenzie Jackson works with trampoline coach Travis Johnson.

Sometimes you get shoot sports events. Being in Whistler, it’s better if you do them in the middle of the night in a rainstorm. Kerr McEwen rides in the final event of the Whistler-Blackcomb King of the Rail competition beside the GLC.

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
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 in a small softbox (circus pic).

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

Commercial Photography

David_Buzzard_Blog — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:13:11 +0000

I do a lot of commercial photography in both Vancouver and Whistler, as well the weddings that are really my great and butter. Most of it is pretty dry, but this house I photographed for Whistler realtor Ann Chaisson at Sea to Sky Premiere Properties was something special.

BTW – The place is a steal at only $6,800,000, if you’re interested.

This is, without a doubt, the best patio in Whistler (and I’ve seen a lot of them).

Of course, my main commercial gig over the last few months has been shooting for the menu’s for Korean restaurants down in Vancouver. This spicy Korean seafood dumpling hotpot was an especially tasty looking dish.

Tech Stuff
The one thing I hear is that architectural photography is easy now that HDR has become so common. Well, the top image is a combination of four different exposures, but the images are blended by hand using Photoshop’s layer masking. To see the difference, here’s what the same images looked like when I ran them through Photoshop’s Merge to HDR Pro utility that’s built into Photoshop CS5;

Pretty nasty!

For the main shot, I was able to use my perspective control lens to keep the converging lines under control, but with the patio, the area was just too tight to use the PC, so I used my 17mm zoom lens instead. To keep the lines straight, it’s important to get the camera up as high as possible. I have heavy duty tripod that goes almost eight feet high, which came in pretty handy for this one.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 Perspective Control (top), Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 (patio), Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Natural light, multi-exposure images (house photos), AlienBee B-1600 x 3, SB-900 flash.

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

Liane and Stuart at the Edgewater Lodge

David_Buzzard_Blog — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:35:51 +0000

Liane and Stuart are from Burnaby, and had a great wedding at the Edgewater Lodge last weekend.

The Edgewater makes for great getting ready photos.

It was a really fun group to work with.

Tech Stuff
With the shot of Liane’s father (the grainy B&W shot), the flash didn’t fire. I was going to trash it on the edit, but liked his expression and the reflection on his glasses, so pumped the exposure up +3 stops, which is why it’s so grainy, and then converted it to black and white. I think it turned out pretty well.

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
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 flash, mounted in a small softbox
Tweet

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

Top of the World

David_Buzzard_Blog — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 07:37:53 +0000

Rachel and Chris are from London, and decided to get married here at Whistler while they were on vacation. They decided that the Roundhouse Roll, near the Inukshuk, at the top of Whistler, would make a nice spot for a wedding.

Wedding planner Linda Marshal arranged for a table at Steeps and some champaign.

To end off, we stopped by my favourite photo spot in Whistler, Green Lake, to get a couple of portraits.

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
Tweet

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

Whistler Winter Elopement

David_Buzzard_Blog — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:12:31 +0000

Jennifer and Donald are from Bedford, Nova Scotia, and are probably one of the most laid back couples I’ve done a wedding for in a long time. They asked me a for a good spot for a quiet wedding, and since it was just them, their 9 month old son, and Donald’s brother and his wife, I thought the area around Green Lake, near the Nicklaus North golf course would work well.

The wedding was out on frozen Green Lake.

The whole wedding party.

We headed over to the iconic covered bridge that spans Fitzsimmons Creek, near the Whistler Village. Someone decided to put some bright LED lights inside the bridge, which I thought looked really strange, so I converted this shot to B&W.

This is by the fire place at the Olympic Plaza, which is quickly becoming a favourite place of mine to shoot. On the walk over, the settings on my remote flash got joggled off, so I decided to shoot it with the available light, which I think worked a lot better.

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

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

Winter Wonderland

David_Buzzard_Blog — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:09:30 +0000

Pamela and Cory came from Fort Worth Texas, to get married in the snow at the Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler. A strong pacific frontal system and some just-cold-enough air made for a sudden blizzard. Tailor made for some great photos.

It was first time in the Glade Suite, a huge suite that the Nita Lake lodge has. It’s so big that I could stand on the second floor balcony to get this shot Pamela in her dress.

Pamela and her family just before the wedding ceremony.

One of my favourite spots to shoot at Whistler is the train station next door to the Nita Lake Lodge. It has a great sweeping line where the tracks go around the corner that is really strong graphic element. This is the first time I’ve been there in the snow.

Pamela and Cory, as well as the rest of the bridal party, were stoked to run out in the snow for the photos. Luckily, it wasn’t that cold, but it was snowing so hard that after about 10 minutes, we were all pretty much soaked.

One of the guests playing in the snow. The Texans seemed enchanted by the blizzard.

Pamela and Cory head off to the reception through the Nita Lake Lodge lobby.

Tech Stuff
The thing about shooting in heavy snow is that flash is next to useless. It just lights up the snow directly in front of the flash, and you can’t see anything. The positive side of it is that the light is really flat, and for most, really flattering. With this shoot, we out there about 4:30 in the afternoon, and at this time of the year, it’s a pretty dark time of the year, so I had to push the ISO of my cameras up to 1250.

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
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 mounted in a small softbox.
Tweet

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

On Location in Vancouver

David_Buzzard_Blog — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:14:51 +0000

It’s been a quiet winter for me here in Whistler, so I’ve been spending a lot of time doing commercial photography in Vancouver. All the work has been on-location with studio type lighting.

The biggest job so far has been working with Vancouver graphic designer Jung Shin who’s working on a series of re-vamped menus for Vancouver’s Korean restaurants. The pictures here are from Sura, and were done after the restaurant closed over two nights. We worked from 10:00 at night to about 4:00 in the morning, to shoot over 60 different dishes.

Chicken soup, with a whole chicken in it.

Some action in the kitchen, which will be used for cut away images in the menu.

Tech Stuff

When doing this kind of work, it’s really important to tether the camera to a computer so that everyone, designer, chef, client, as well as the photographer) can see what’s going on.

Where’s the lighting set up for the food shots. It’s really not that different from shooting a portrait, the beauty dish is the key light, the softbox is the fill light, and the light with the home-made snoot is the kicker.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 X 3

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">

Wedding Wire Bride’s Choice

David_Buzzard_Blog — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:05:19 +0000

I got this press release this morning, and thought I would share it. It seems that I’m in the top 5% of Wedding Wire rated photographers. Pretty cool, huh?

{Whistler,BC} – January 30, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce David Buzzard Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, David Buzzard Photography was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

David Buzzard Photography is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate David Buzzard Photography for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that David Buzzard Photography is one of the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/david-buzzard-photography-whistler/e69f82aabfef5eae.html.

To learn more about the Bride’s Choice Awards™, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire™, the nation’s leading marketplace serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 reviewed wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. WeddingWire also offers a comprehensive suite of online planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire is the only all-in-one marketing platform for businesses online and on-the-go. WeddingWire offers one simple solution to build a professional network, improve search visibility, manage social media and reach mobile consumers. Businesses that advertise with WeddingWire appear on WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), Brides.com and Weddingbee.com.
###

First Wedding of the Year

David_Buzzard_Blog — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:24:07 +0000

Anne and Steve came to Whistler from Brooklyn NY to have a small wedding here at the resort.

The wedding was on the Whistler Peak2Peak gondola, with a quick photo shoot on top of Whistler.

That afternoon, we went over to Green Lake and did a quick shoot with Anne and Steve by the boardwalk at Green Lake.

They ended off the day with dinner at the Bearfoot Bistro. They have a world famous wine cellar that’s a great location for photos.

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, mounted in a small softbox

scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px">