Legends Never Die..

A non-photo post.

You know what rules?

growing up with posters of a band on my wall, then, just a few years later, opening up lighroom to see my portraits of those bands staring back at me. sometimes its even surreal. As a kid, I know if I saw some of these, they would but cut out of the magazine, id put 4 small pieces of poster putty behind it, and then on my wall it goes.

Alot of people dont get it. Sometimes im not even sure if i get it. But I know growing up, those photos were so important to me. At the time those photos were my gateway into that bands life and image. Id see photos of Manson, White Zombie, Metallica, Korn, Megadeth, Slayer, Cradle of Filth, etc. and see what they were wearing, where they were in the world, what it would be like to be right there where the image was taken and be as close to the bands i grew up worshiping as possible.

You may think I’m blowing it out of proportion here… but thats what I did growing up, id buy a magazine if a band i liked was in it - cut the shot out - and put it on my wall, and that was a big part of my life growing up as a fan of these bands, and a fan of music. If i was having a bad day - I would go to my room, surrounded by photos of the bands i loved and listen to metal so loud it would usually end in my parents taking away my cd player. haha. But being surrounded by those images made me feel like i was within reach of my heroes.

So I guess what im trying to get at… is its really and truly an overwhelming honor to be able to create images that I hope, one day will be cut out of a magazine, and put on someones wall, just as I had in the past. and just as important, when I get the rare and sometimes surreal opportunity to work with a band that had spent some time stuck to my wall, it just solidifies the reason I got into doing what I do in the first place.

With out YOU - the fans - the bands… I would not be able to do this… so thank you

Keep cutting out photos, getting them signed, and putting them on your wall.

“Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” - The Sandlot.

Warped Tour Shoots - Weerd Science

My buddy Josh aka Weerd Science was on the tour, so we figured it would be kinda cool to do a quick shoot for the warped spread.

We set up in a few areas for this one - first off was the backroad behind the main stage where I also shot Kevin and Johnny, I went with the same triangular lighting here, Shooting at F13 at iso 100 at a 200th - for some reason the sun was blazing at this time so i jumped my main light up to 75%

Shot again with dynalite uni400s and the canon 24-70 2.8 on the mark 2 1ds


































































for the second shot we went around to the green fence nearby and shot with a boomed beauty dish at F 16 for a few shots












last up I did some natural light shots against a green wall behind main stage (well, the MAIN STAGE not warped tours main stage). and shot these between F8 and F 2.8 to get a variety of depths of field - i was at ISO200 because the sun was fading out a bit and I needed that extra kick of light for the shots.









































Always awesome getting to see, hang with, and shoot Josh. Its amazing to see where he started and where he is now. Such a talented dude.

Warped Tour Shoots - Kevin Lyman

A bit more behind the scenes is the creator of Warped Tour (and Mayhem Fest) Kevin Lyman.

Between my many shoots today, I decided it would be cool to snag him for a minute and do a quick shot of him to pull this Warped Tour spread together.

SO, I shot him in the same area I shot BVB and Johnny Plague, because it was not only the only location around that worked, but it was the best location around.

I had him grab his bike he was riding around, and set up triangular lighting (two bare rims and a main light which was a large beauty dish)

for lighting - its the same as the rest - 3 dynalite jackrabbit uni400s set at 50% power - shot with the 24-70 2.8 L canon lens on the canon mark 2 1ds body at F10 - ISO100 at a 200th (as it was very bright out)

I shot him so the road would create a bit of depth and the sky would create a perfect balance between the road - which i made sure wouldnt go dark so there wouldnt be and over abundance of contrast.














































































It was awesome getting to do a quick shoot with him, I havent photographed him since the first taste of chaos with my chem and the used so its been a while, but I think having the person who is responsible for the tour in the tour spread is a key shot and really brings it together, and in this instance, there truly isnt a nicer or harder working person out there.

Thanks Kevin!

Warped Tour Shoots - Asking Alexandria

At the venue in Mansfield, I know exactly where I can shoot that will look good. There is a concrete bridge/tunnel I tend to do alot of my shoots in there (murderdolls, deftones, etc) where I know I can make it look different each shoot.

For this one, I knew I had to be quick and simple, it was 100+ degrees out, if I shot for too long my batteries would overheat and possibly pop a circuit or a light could blow as that type of weather is NOT good for using equipment that is weather sensitive (only had an issue once though, cause dynalite rules).

Anyway, I went with simplicity and set up a quick triangular lighting set, two bare parabolic rims and a single large beauty dish main - for this one i left the main at 40% and kicked the rims up to 50% so they would just be a touch brighter. - shooting with a dynalite jackrabbit kit - three uni400s

I shot these at F13 at ISO100 at a 160th














































































Next up I did some solos of Danny against the sky - keeping with the same lighting structure - I turned all my lights to 70% and jumped to F14 to bring in the sky but not completely blow out the highlights. - the trick to these shots is making sure the light hitting your subject is equal to the light around them - and balancing the two with your shutter speed (letting the light in for the right about to time to balance it) - and fstop to be dead on with your exposure. - i used the canon 24-70 for this shoot
























See more of these shots in print in the next issue of hails and horns, outburn, and amp magazine

Todays Shoot - Fireworks, Guns, and Canons

Anytime I get an invite from Phil (Labonte of All That Remains) to go shoot stuff, blow up stuff, or eat food, im always down, because a solid 80% of the time it turns into some sort of adventure, or I get to do something awesome for the first time, like shoot a gun, watch a canon go off, etc. Plus hes a great friend that I dont get to see too often due to him being on the road always.

SO! when he told me to come up for a fourth of July cook out and shoot out and he sent the words "BRING YOUR CAMERA!" I knew it was going to be good times.

So I made some food and hit the road for NH. I wasnt sure exactly where his new place was, but I hit a road that goes around a beautiful lake, then I see a sign that says "dont tread on me" and another that says "gun store"... yep. im here!

As im parking I hear POP! POP! POPPOP! PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA! yep - i have definitely arrived to phil-land. ha - machine guns!

First thing I see when I get there are two tables full of guns.. awesome! one of them was pink! so epic!
























So the first thing to really kick it off was a canon! Rob shot a concrete filled can of soda out of it - and you can actually see it in the photo (just above the smoke). I shot all these photos on high speed so I had a solid chance of getting the fire-shot - which i got 80% of the time - anyway - here are canons and guns. tadaa.












































































































Next up I handed my camera to Phil and shot a machine gun for the first time! it kinda ruled and kinda sucked - the smoke went into my eye toward the end of the mag, and oooof that shit stings! my eyes were tearing up badly. haha. oh well.








































































Rob set... some impact smoke explosion things - i forget what they are called - but you shoot it - then BOOM - loud explosion and smoke - check it!




























































yeah there was a grenade launcher, shot orange smoke marker thingys - used for training - sorry i dont know the terms for these things ha
























Another canon...
















































I shot a few fireworks from the side of a road near water - I should have gone down to the dock to get shots clear of trees and everything but didnt think I could - so heres the first group - from the water


















































































































When we got back to the house they had their own plethora of fireworks - I experimented with long exposures - shooting at 6-10 seconds at F19-22 - got some really cool stuff from it - check it out!


















































































































































































































Last thing they did was shoot fireworks out of a canon... yyyyyyeah. that happened. it worked once but the other two times it was just a loud explosion.
























SUCH! an AWESOME! way to celebrate the 4th. I dont think that will ever be topped, but I hope to be proven wrong one day.