Todays Shoot - The Acacia Strain

Todays shoot was with my good friends The Acacia Strain - for their upcoming issue of Outburn magazine.

Setting this shoot up was a bit difficult now with Vincent living in NY, and DL having a full time night job, but luckily, we were able to make it happen in a pinch!

It was a very humid and some what hot - and VERY buggy.

We started in studio I used two rims at 50% power pointed toward their backs - I had those up a touch about head level - and boomed a 3x4 soft box above them horizontal at 75% - all profoto compact 300s

I was using the 70-200 and 24-70 shooting at ISO100 - F14 - at a 160th - we did some serious and some fun shots along with solos - even some with vincents dog coco - unedited images below
































































































after shooting with triangular lighting I moved on to just a boomed beauty dish - for these shots i was shooting at F18 - as the lighting is hard lighting rather than soft - I really like the look this type of lighting gives me - which is why ive been using it some what often - unedited images below













































After finishing studio stuff - we went outside with three jackrabbit uni400 dynalites - two with cold tone umbrellas - and one with a beauty dish.

The first set we actually did outside - I used natural light - i jumped my iso to 800 and shot at 2.8 with the 24-70. I figured the green would be soft enough to give solid seperation with out overpowering them - unedited images below















The next set we did was on the hill in the sun and it just turned out to be way too buggy and brutal - so we moved to a more wooded area - which also had a small imperial fleet of bugs. - for these I used two umbrellas for side lighting - i turned them on and off during this set - and used a boomed beauty dish up high for a main - i shot this at a 200th at F14 - ISO100 - unedited images below


























the buggy hill













next spot we hit was next to a creepy shed which was also loaded with the swarm of death. - for this i did the same but much closer - used two umbrellas split - a boomed beauty main - and i loved the outcome here - i jumped the speed down to a 100th to get in some natural light - i wasnt really worried about getting motion as the lighting locked that in nicely - unedited images below






































































the last set we did was just a few feet away in the open parking lot - i figured the sky looked decent - i figured id use it - so i put my speed up to a 160th-200th and shot with two umbrellas and the boomed beauty dish. - unedited images below













































We finished up in the same location with solos of vincent while the other dudes were purposefully in the background making fun of him - which i thought worked well for these dudes - unedited images below


























a very quick yet successful shot - the photos had to be fed-exed within an hour of completing this shoot - and they made it! the spread will be out soon and will look KILLER! im stoked we got to do this because I always want my friends to look the best as they possibly can - and i was told by their team - that the photos that WOULD have been used are horrid - which in turn would make for a bad spread.

so big ups to the guys for making it out on such short notice - and to scott and leah for making it happen!

i love being from western mass - we have the best people and the best bands here.

im glad we shot when we did - as i was leaving the sky opened up and didnt stop pouring all day/night

Todays Shoot - The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival: Atticus Pre-Party

For metalfest this year I had a few jobs to do.

I was hired by Monster Energy drinks to shoot for them, I was also doing as much coverage as possible of the live bands, and wanted to do ALOT of behind the scene type shots

I rolled up with my ex-roomie Jessie Lee and my bud WOJO as an assistant.

The first day was a pre-party sponsored by atticus clothing













This was the first time I used my 580 EX 2 - so it took me a little bit to get used to - alot of the shots were blown out at first and not balanced the way i like to balance light

Because the pre-party was upstairs there was no baracade or much for lighting, so I was using my flash as a main (which i hate to do, but whatever)

I did alot of shooting outside - looking for behind the scenes stuff, people holding monster, wearing atticus, etc.

for the entire day my ISO was at 400 and all of the shots this day were with the 40D - i changed up between my 24-70 2.8 and 16-35 2.8 lens - the shots outside with flash were around 5.6-6.7 ish - the ones with out are all 2.8 - around a 200th - later in the day when the sun went down i was shooting at 5.6 at a 10th to soak up the natural light - and the indoor shots are also at a 10th to soak in the ambient lighting

MCMB













Matt (kenmore), Vincent (acacia strain/cockpunch)













Mark













Nick (with words)













Jay (within the ruins)













Sylvia (massconcerts)













Scott (palladium/massconcerts) - Phil (white chapel)













Jay (within the ruins)













After doing some behind the scene type stuff I went up to shoot My Children My Bride - for these shots I was shooting with the 24-70 which i thought was a big mistake (in hindsight) - i dont like in the inability to go super wide. and do to being moshed on - walked on - I couldnt do a lens change - and only shot one song - no biggie though - I was shooting at a 15th at 9.5 because i was super close and didnt want to get any flash blur. - one of the shots i took of dan... vincent (acacia) was lurking in the background so i zoomed in so you could see him being a creep haha




















































Next up - Vincent and Phil were giving The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival - Hall of Fame award away (I was inducted last year, and its seriously one of the biggest honors of my entire life and career). This year it was going out to legendary ex-hardcore vocalist/current booking agent - Matt Pike














































































After the award, the top secret band of the night was White Chapel - again i risked being up front (no baracade) and facing the mosh in order to get better photos - while most other photographers shot side stage... sometimes its worth shooting up front and risking a little mosh - sometimes its not. - i dropped my speed down to a 10th to try to get a bit more blend but the lighting upstairs is so shot it was kind of a moot point







































After that, we hit the hotel, had a pizza party in the room with Matthew of MCMB and got to hear the new record which KIIIILLLLLSSS - its so good, everyones going to be stoked on it.

I prepped a bit for the upcoming day, and went to sleep...

on to day 1 of metalfest...