The new Bamboo

Bamboo, one of Cayman's favourite sushi restaurants and lounges, recently revamped it's interior decor and added some fresh new flavours to its menu. For those familiar to the space, the biggest and most striking change is the entirely new bar. It's now an open concept that allows customers easier access. I'm looking forward the patio when it opens!
Last week they asked me to come in and capture some of these changes. It was a fun shoot, I really enjoyed working with Marina from Bamboo and Simon from Eye Waves Graphic Design.
Jim Gates Photography.

Sandon Feat

Here's a blog I wrote long ago and for some reason never published...however it's blog house-keeping time!!

In February I was hired to photograph Sandon Feat art gallery in the DaVinci Centre building. The gallery is home to the works of local painter CE Whitney.
My goal was to capture the details of the interior architecture, . From the marble floors to the custom built aluminum furniture and the hanging metal wire ceiling, the space is original in its design. It has a minimalist industrial feel, and the neutral tones allow the paintings to take center stage.
I primarily used two strobes, one with a soft box and one with a reflective umbrella. It was a challenge to light, as I shot very wide angle to capture the entire space, which left very little room to maneuver the strobes. Models Rachel Boraston and Nick Adendorff added a human interaction with the space.

www.jimgatesphotography.com

7am at Camana Bay, Grand Cayman

I love the architecture at Camana Bay, a new community built in the last few years on Grand Cayman. The development is a massive undertaking by Dart Realty, and includes a movie theater and a school in addition to mixed commercial / residential buildings. I must applaud Camana Bay for it's foresight in planning; In much of Western Canada where I'm from, we have made the mistake of developing big box outlet malls on one edge of town and suburban sprawl box-houses on the other, and linking them with congested thoroughfares filled with idling cars. Everybody knows this and complains about it, yet I believe it continues because of developers and banks wanting to make a quick dollar, and people wanting the biggest house for the least amount of money. What's the trade off? Community for anonymity. Walking to work for a commute, fresh air for exhaust.
But I digress...this post is about photography after all...

  So this morning I dragged myself out of bed at 6am, despite my usual insomniac's bedtime of 1:30am. And it was worth it. The water in the harbour at Camana bay was still and reflected a mirror image of the sunrise. The light was fairly soft, yet bright enough to give the sky contrast.
despite the miserable-invisible flies that feasted on my exposed flesh, the morning was well-worth the effort getting up.
 All of these images required a tripod to achieve small apertures and long exposures, and still be sharp. As a rule of thumb, always use a tripod when shooting landscapes or architecture. The first images is an HDR composite of three images, using photomatix pro. The tone was manipulated by adding a channel mixer adjustment layer and bumping up the red channel.
The next four are composites by layering two images in photoshop, then using a layer mask and low-to-medium opacity brush to paint away the top layer.  This achieved the effect of a neutral density filter.
The last shot of the palms is nearly straight out of the camera, except for a slight adjustment for contrast and vibrance in the camera raw editor, and of course some sharpening. (i sharpen all of my images)
All were shot in raw.

I hope you enjoy, if you have any questions about the images please comment and I'll respond asap.

Thanks,
Jim

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