The bricks (trivets) weren't really supposed to be there. This was a test shot prior to working up to the full picture (see Phototalk > New years Day.)
The background is plain blue wrapping paper. The shadow is by firing the flashgun through a glass chessboard suspended over the surface (hence the trivet pile acting as a support). Flash is snooted with a kitchen roll tube stuffed with 3" length black straw sections to give a very tight grid spot.
EXIF will give the real details but about f11 at 1/160 with a wireless flash trigger on an SB800 at half power, about 1m from the chess board.
