LamboGenie Promotion Evening

Saturday the 19th September (Still catching up!!!), and LamboGenie (the parent company of Lotus Car Hire) is holding a promotional evening to showcase the various companies and their abilities. Following on from the track day, I was asked to photograph this event. The remit was very simple, "Make us look good!"

Hmmm, ok.

Besides the Lotus cars, they also deal in exotic car hire for events and more. With an events co-ordinator on board now (With vast experience, I might add) they are able to manage those events too, if required. Part of the promotion was to show the various aspects and abilities of the various team members, including the likes of John, the lighting guy. He spent three days lighting the premises and erecting the rather exotic looking marquee and the final effect really was quite magical. The above shot of the marquee details are as follows:

Nikon D3 24-70mm 2.8 @ 24mm f2.8 1/15th sec ISO 3200 hand held

 

Of course, the preparation for the evening needed to be duly captured, with the above image useful for the event co-ordinator's portfolio as it shows their attention to detail. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 38mm f3.2 1/50th sec ISO 1600

 What would LamboGenie be without their cars. This particular shot was a nightmare. Yes, a nicely lit floor. Yes, smoke to help distinguish the light and add atmosphere. Yes, the car's interior was nicely lit too. BUT, the damned floor was strobing about once a second. It was supposed to be constantly lit, with an option for variable speed strobing. It just wouldn't switch over to constant, and the slowest it would strobe was once a second. Oh joy of  ruddy joys!

No point in whining, you have to work with what you've got. Took a total of eight shots, five missing the lit floor and three managing to catch the strobe. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 58mm f4.5 1/13th sec ISO 1600 hand held (yep, proud of this one due to the lack of tripod).

 

Another of their cars, again beautifully lit. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 42mm f3.5 1/13th sec ISO 1600 hand held. Not as pin sharp as I would like, but perfectly usable for their publicity literature and website etc. (actually, good for an 8x12 print).

Different view of the marquee, taking in the woodland backdrop which had also been painstakingly lit to enhance the overall effect. (John is a bit of a fanatic, to say the least!). Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 27mm f2.8 1/15th sec ISO 6400 hand held.

Final shot of the night, requested by the lighting guy (John) as he particularly liked the view whilst tampering with one of the lights during the evening (he spent most of the evening fine tuning the lighting). To be honest, I have to agree with him, it's a really nice view that non of the 50 or so corporate guests got to see, which was a shame really. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 32mm f2.8 1/60th sec ISO 6400 hand held. The higher shutter speed was chosen as there was no need to capture internal detail within the marquee or people etc, and I also wanted to saturate the light on the trees and bushes, keeping the sky black.

Adendum - Lotus Track Day

Remember the Lotus Track day article? Well, this is a small update to that entry which I should really have mentioned long before now. I mashed a quick slideshow for the company to use with a promotional evening (more on that later!).
For those that want to know more of what they do, visit their website

Just For Me

Yep, still playing catchup.
So what was I to do with two cancelled regattas and five days between them in Wales? I made it a weeks vacation instead, and photographed anything I fancied. Just for me. No editors, no clients, no one. Just for me.
So, pretty much a week in Betws-y-coed with pretty good weather and a motorhome stuffed to the gills with gear and no deadlines. I felt 18 again! It was great.
er........... what now!
No deadlines means no pressure, no editors means no agenda, and no clients means no subject. Hmmm, that means I have to find something all on my own. Strange how all of a sudden there is nothing to photograph.
Walking along the riverbank, I came across this solitary toadstool/mushroom thing on a log. With not alot else to occupy my time, I dropped anchor and set about taking a few snaps to check the lighting and overall feel of the composition. I felt there was a little too much ambient lighting, giving a rather flat look to the whole image. I took a single SB-900 and put it on its little footstand just out of picture left, basically crosslighting the toadstool thing. The flash was co-ordinated and commanded by an SU-800 and utilising Nikon's CLS.
Nikon D3 24-70mm 2.8 @ f4 1/320th sec ISO 800
This was actually done as a test run after getting my D3 back from service.

Portpatrick Weekend

A bit of a disaster really. Arrived on the evening of the 26th August, and looking forward to photographing the jetskiing and spending time with good friends. Well, the friends were great, the jetskiing was short lived (very!) and the weather was tripe!
Wondering why this entry is regarding August but filed in September? just too damned busy! Got back from Portpatrick, a bit of rushing around and then off to Wales.
Oh yeah, remember those two regattas I was looking forward to? they both got binned. I was gutted to say the least.
I have to say, I felt particularly sorry for the club and it's members, as this had taken a lot of organising and was to be their first National event for the CYRC. However, the water board had other ideas.
The above shot was taken with D2Hs Sigma 120-300 f2.8 + 1.4TC @ 1/1600s f4