2018 Gatsby Bash at Lounge 18
The pyramid of champagne flutes standing over six feet tall atop of a small, guarded table that greeted me as I came in instantly let me know this was no normal event, though it was one I made sure to regularly get out to. The annual “Gatsby Bash” themed party at Lounge 18 was my first time working for the owner of the venue, as up till then I had been there photographing events for his various associates.
I had met the owner before, but never knew he was the owner until the night he hired me to photograph the events of “Gatsby Bash”. It was a resplendent evening where guests arrived dressed in their best evening wear, and oh yes, picked their refreshment from a tower of champagne flutes frothed to the brim. The foamy cascade of the good-stuff was a minimum perk of the evening.
Arriving at the front door of a nightclub and being excused from waiting in line, never mind not having to pay cover, has yet to get old for me. Followed by the ideal experience of stashing my gear bag somewhere safe in the back, as my camera bag tended to end up unsupervised under a table at best. Photographing strictly candid moments in a nightclub is the toughest set of straightforward orders to follow. Never mind the risks of having over four feet of vertically balanced champagne flutes on a table in the middle of the club for me to potentially back into while handling a camera, the challenges become exponential, as liquor consumption begins to lubricate the evening’s guests.
I always work with an on-camera flash setup, hand-held, and bounce my light-fill technique from the low ceiling in the club that blankets subjects from the top down in a smooth gradient of light that dissipates towards the feet. This bounce technique is a great place to start photographing a room, but can quickly become redundant to me no matter how much my subjects say they love the effect it creates. Just the year prior I had invested in two new speed lights that could wirelessly sync with my SLR camera in a relatively clear line-of-sight for up to twenty meters and they’re just as reliable as Pocket Wizards I’ve used in the past. I typically mounted these speed lights on foot-weighted tripods with soft-box diffusers mounted over them for use in portrait setups.
In a packed nightclub with low ceilings I had neither the room nor desire to risk leaving any of my equipment unsupervised for too long, so I worked with my speed lights attached to tiny tripods that let them stand independently on the floor at a low angle. I covered the flash with its supplied diffuser and inserted a special coloured gel over the flash to create greater contrast between it and the white colour of my on-camera flash when they’re triggered together. Standing up the wireless speed light on the floor behind subjects’ feet with a diffuser and blue gel over it would produce a cool burst of colour when triggered that wouldn’t awkwardly colour the subjects’ faces and create extra re-touching work for me, but work to accent the edges of subjects’ arms and shoulders from below while bathing their legs in an electric blue tone (see second photo from top).
I discovered another great effect of using this wireless blue flash setup while the champagne pyramid was being poured and I used a flash burst beneath it to coolly illuminate the tower of glasses along with the shower of champagne (see third photo from top). After that night began a great reoccurring client relationship covering their annual Gatsby Bash.
