Sexiest burger winner - Photoshelter Big Burger Photo Contest.

I’m happy to post that the above photo was voted “Sexiest Burger” in the Photoshelter Big Burger Photo Contest. I won a Photoshelter standard account for one year. I have been using Photoshelter for the last five years and it’s a  very important part of my business. I not only use it as an archive but it’s also how I share images with clients.

To check out more photos I shot with theses two lovely ladies eating a 50 pound hamburger please check out the gallery here.

Portrait of Marine Ian Lennon who was severely burned while serving in Iraq.

Photographing wounded men and women recently home from war for the Wounded Warrior Project has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I have met amazing heroes and feel good knowing that my pictures are making a difference in their lives. 

Here is the purpose of the project from their web site:

Dinner party in the wine room at the Montville Inn.

When I was assigned to shoot a dinner party for a NJ magazine in a private dining area with a wine room I knew the lighting could be a challenge. I knew there would be five or more people and I would need to light carefully to maintain the ambience and avoid distracting shadows. The client had a very specific shot in my mind and I had ideas, sketches and comps ready to go before arriving. The shoot was in a private dining area with a beautiful wine room at the Montville Inn. First thing I noticed when I arrived was the big glass wall encasing the wine room.I knew this would the biggest challenge.

Checking the ambient light before lighting the room.

My assistant Steve and I arrived an hour and half early so we could set up and get a few shots in the camera for our client to view and discuss. I am always early to my shoots. The earlier the better. For many years I have had the voice of  friend and mentor Joe McNally ringing in my ear saying “Go early, stay late.”  As with many of Joe’s lessons, that one should be a mantra.  I like to work out all the kinks and get the light right before the shoot begins so I can forget about the light and focus on the gesture and the feeling of the photo. I knew I had to get the cover shot first so we set up and had people stand in as our dinner guests and made the adjustments as needed to get that shot. The images for the magazine are to go along with a wine story so once Steve and I knew we had the cover down we made quick notes of our aperture, shutter speed, kelvin temperature, strobe settings and light placement and began hunting around for detail shots.

There is a wine for every connoisseur at the Montville Inn.

Once our dinner guests arrived we quickly began working on the cover shot. Having planned ahead and knowing what the light would look like we were able to focus on the feel and forget about the light. There were four lights used to light the cover photo.  To my camera right and raised high was a midsized Octa bank on a Profoto Acute B600R pack. Across from the dinner guests was another Profoto Acute B600R with a beauty dish. I also used the new Profoto BatPac and it was awesome to not have to hunt around for outlets and mess with extension cords. The outlets and cords are not needed with the Profoto Acute B600R’s but it’s nice to not even think about battery life.  I love the new Profoto BatPac and will be adding another one to my lighting arsenal. Inside the wine room we put two Nikon SB-900’s with David Honl grids on light stands to light the wine room.

Diagram of lighting set up.

Here are a few more shots from our evening which ended appropriately with me home editing the day’s shoot while eating a fantastic steak dinner from the Montville Inn and a wonderful glass of wine (hence my enormous belly in my lighting diagram).

Thanks for stopping by.

Wine and appetizers.

Inside the wine room.