Todays Shoot - Craig Mabbitt of Escape The Fate

I knew today was going to be awesome. Ever since my first shoot with Escape The Fate back in the day (when Ronnie was still in the band) I've seen these guys pretty much once a year, and kept in touch with Max through out, and ended up meeting Craig a few times, most recently hanging out when I was on tour with IWABO. Then on top of that - they were on the same tour bus I was on with the same driver (Brian of HK Army). So it would be like a mini-reunion, I was pumped to see everyone.

So the shoot was going to be in the Webster dressing room, which I am very familiar with from various other shoots. The plan was to get some serious shots, some fun shots, then recreate the Outburn cover USING the Outburn cover.

the first set I did was on the couch - I set up two bares with parabolic reflectors set up fairly high - probably 6-8 feet high, then set the dish up - boomed only to be out of the way - but about 2 feet above where his head would be when seated - pointed at his face but just slightly down to give the light a bit of direction. - These were shot with the Canon 1DS Mark 2 - the 24-70 2.8 IS L - at ISO100 F14 at a 160th - which were the settings on my camera for the entire shoot






























After shooting that set I had him stand up on the couch - I left the rim lights where they were then brought up the dish about 3 feet then I said "go all out, party, whatever you want to do". He decided to jump, which was AWESOME! So the way I do jump shots is 3...2....1... SNAP! - and I tell the person to be IN the air at the height of their jump at "zero". That seems to be the best way to get the best possible jump shot. After his 4th jump he ended up losing his footing and falling backwards over the couch. We both had a laugh about it - he didnt fall hard - he kind of sat down and rolled over it haha, but anyway - these shots are at the same settings - F14 at a 160th






























The next couple shots I did were of him standing on the couch but more serious shots - I didn't like the background - too noisy - same settings F14 at a 160th


















So being that I didn't like the few shots I did there I moved over to the wall which was a cool shade of purple. For the first set I boomed the dish pointing more downward to get a directional halo of light around him - the settings on my camera remained the same but I turned my light down from 1/4th to 1/8th as it was a bit closer to him.






























For the next group of photos i wanted them to look very spotlit - so i pointed the dish directly at his face so it would be non directional. The reason I have it straight at him is it would create circular non-linear light not only on his face, but around him, where the color tone would change gradually from light to dark - i know - simple terms for most - but figured id explain it. Same settings as before.






























The last shot I didnt change anything, but Craig changed out of clothes and into a copy of Outburn magazine and cowboy boots - same settings same lighting.




































aaand that was the end of the shoot. I went downstairs and shot the bands live, got to hang out a bit, and then got ready to do it all again the next day in Mass.

Love getting to see a bunch of friends, always awesome getting to see Craig, hopefully we will be working together again in the near future.