US Foods Awards Banquet

The US Foods Lexington held their annual Awards Banquet at The Sweetgrass Inn within Wild Dunes Resort last week. It was such an honor to be a part of this special celebration of last year’s impressive achievements, and the amazing individual accomplishments of their team members.

Many thanks to Parke for all her help organizing this event.  CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners!!!

* DJI Mavic 3 Pro, Nikon Z9 (x2), Nikkor Z 14-30 f4, Nikkor Z 24-70 f2.8, Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8, Flashpoint Li-on R2 (x6), Manfrotto supports

Frito Lay Headshots at Wild Dunes Resort

As part of our contract to cover Frito Lay’s Atlantic Region Rollout Meeting at Wild Dunes Resort, we were asked to provide headshot stations for anyone needing an updated portrait.

Over 200 employees signed up…and we had a very short window in which to photograph them before the general session began! So I reached out to my good friend Jason of Docent Prodigy to double up with me. Jason is my Moto Photo Adventures partner-in-crime (check out our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/motophotoadventures), and an amazing photographer in his own right!

We set up our “double-trouble” studio in the Boardroom at the Boardwalk Inn, using a Savage Studio Gray backdrop in a diagonal pattern to allow more shooting space on each side. Each station included a Z9, Flashpoint trigger, 2 Flashpoint Speedlights in a Westcott 60″ umbrella as the main light, 1 Flashpoint Speedlight in a 43″ Westcott umbrella as the fill light, and 1 Flashpoint Speedlight in a Westcott Apollo Strip soft box as a kicker light. Everything was placed on Manfrotto supports, held down by BoaBags for safety. In one station, the Z9 was mounted with 24-120S f4 lens (set at around 105mm). In the other station, the Z9 was mounted with a 70-200G f2.8 (also set around 105mm). Everything was shot at ISO 400, f5.6, 1/200, with the flashes dialed to 1/16 power. These settings ensured fast recycle time and no risk of running out of battery power in spite of such a large group.

Even though we had calculated a window of approximately 2 minutes per person, our task was made even more challenging when we were told we also had to rename each person’s headshot to include their region, first name, and last name. This meant each camera had to be tethered to a computer. We used Lenovo Yoga laptops for the task. But since Lightroom doesn’t yet support tethering to the Z9, we used Nikon NX Tether software for the job. It’s a simple, clean, and robust program. And the best part is, it allows you to press a shortcut key to bring up a renaming dialogue box before you shoot each person. This allowed us to input each person’s region, first, and last name into NX Tether before each client. Thus, each image was being automatically renamed by the program while it was transferring to the laptop.

The system worked beautifully, everyone was so friendly, and we had a BLAST!!!

Many thanks to Kate at Destination South, Jason with Docent Prodigy, and Donna & Tracey from Frito Lay for all their help. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Frito Lay Conference at Wild Dunes Resort

Photographing the annual Frito Lay Conference last week was an absolute pleasure!

During this Atlantic Region Rollout Meeting, we photographed everyone’s headshots, their meetings, keynote speakers, awards ceremonies, team-building activities, and the fabulous Oyster Roast to celebrate the conclusion of this awesome event.

Many thanks to Kate at Destination South, Jason with Docent Prodigy, and Donna & Tracey from Frito Lay for all their help. I couldn’t have done it without you!!!

* Nikon Z9 (x2), Nikkor 14-30S f4, Nikkor 24-70S f2.8, Nikkor 24-120S f4, Nikkor 70-200G f2.8 + FTZ, DJI Mini 3 Pro, Flashpoint speedlights, ThinkTank Speedbelt, Spider Holster