Dining at Tolani Wine Restaurant

Last month, I kept busy by double booking some of my days. Chris and I started our day with capturing some footage for SHAPE magazine and Donna Kim, this time at Stuart Weitzman's Madison Avenue store. But after the review, I had to grab my bag and run through the rain with my assistant for the night, Rey, to hustle up to the Upper West Side for the opening of Tolani, a new wine restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue. Josie Zohny of WeRoqq PR was there to greet us in from the rain and we were honored to be some of the first to taste the food on Tolani's menu. I think a general consensus between the group agree, you must try their meatball! They have many delectable dishes on their menu and of course, great vino (wine).

Here are some photos from their Opening Night.

To check out the rest of the photos from the night, visit their gallery or their facebook fan page album!

Camera settings: It was pretty dark, limited to candle light and dim lighting so I had my aperture wide open and ISO turned way up. I went as slow as possible with my shutter speed without causing a blurry shake effect since all my shots were not locked down. I used a combination of a f/1.2 50mm prime and a f/1.4 24mm prime for wider shots. I knew I would need all the stops I could get before I even got there (past experiences) and I was right. The down side of the aperture wide open was the extremely shallow depth of field. I would've preferred some of the shots to be much flatter without sacrificing angle or distance. I had a speed light on hand, but it really took away from the beauty the ambient lighting was providing. The only thing that could've improved the shots were longer exposures but things were happening quickly and the place was packed so to lock down the camera would've been out of the question.

POSHGLAM review of Fig & Olive

This month, we went to the meat packing district with Donna Kim of POSHGLAM.com to interview William Sears, manager of NYC's Fig & Olive. In the interview, he talks about a few new delicious items on their menu. Check out the interview below!

Here are some stills of their beautiful restaurant, located on 13th street between 9th Avenue and Washington Street.

Camera Settings: We shot the interview using the 24-105mm zoom at f/8, 1/50 shutter, ISO 1250 using a tripod as a monopod. We also used the 100mm macro prime for some of the food footage. We turned down the ISO for the outdoor shots and again used the 24mm zoom. All of the shots were taken with a tripod converted into a monopod or the tripod completely locked down.

Grand Opening: Union Square TGI Friday's

Josephine Zohny of WeRoqq PR invited me to cover another grand opening, but this time of a well known restaurant chain. TGI Friday's just opened it's doors to the public yesterday in Union Square, New York. Here are some photos of the ribbon cutting ceremony.