Todays Shoot - Philswitch Engage w/Jesse Leach, Cro-Mags & Dark Tranquility (live) DAY 1

As soon as I heard one of my best buds; Phil Labonte was filling in for Howard Jones on the current Killswitch Engage tour… I knew I had to be there to see it.

So I drove up with Phil and Adam D, because carpooling is excellent! and I didn't have any photo shoots to do, so I got to go up later then I normally do. The drive up was pretty incredible... lots of laughing my ass off cause of Adam D. Also found out that CRO-MAGS! were opening the show, which got me super stoked! (I've never shot them before!)

I walked in just before Dark Tranquility went on - and started shooting right away. The lighting was mostly side lighting and was VERY strong, which RULED! I stayed at ISO400 but Jumped between a flash-blend of F5.6-8 at a 20th-45th (because of the strong side lighting) and turned the flash off at F2.8-4.0 at a 125th-250th shot with the 16-35 lens.

The singer of Dark Tranquility as well as the guitarist with dreads really know how to pose for the camera. See unedited images below

































































Next up were the CRO-MAGS! Now… with the Cro-Mags – everyone was super super stoked on them playing. THEY ARE LEGENDARY! The Killswitch dudes were side stage to watch their set. I’m pretty sure Mike D has a Cro-Mags tattoo as well.

They had brighter lighting but much more frantic movement then DT, so I upped the shutter speed and Fstop to lock them in a bit better. The setting for this were closer to F10 shot at a 30th again with the 16-35 lens - See unedited images below


































































Next up was Killswitch (or Philswitch) Engage! As most know, Howard was not able to do the tour, so Phil stepped in to help out on vocals. As best put by Adam D “As you can see, Howard is shorter, smaller, and WHITE!, no no, this is our good friend Phil Labonte from ALL THAT REMAINS! So tonite we are not Killswitch Engage… We are PHIL…Switch Engage!”




















































The lighting for KSE or PSE - was much more even, and much brighter - with lots of whites. I ended up shooting more shots with out flash rather then with flash blend, i was shooting at 2.8-4.0 at a 160th or so. and when i popped on flash - i dropped the shutter to a 30th and 45th - then F8. for this one

I shot with both the 16-35 and the fisheye. I really really wanted to get alot of shots that showed Phil or Jessie with the rest of the band and other band members - rather then more close up solo shots.







































After about 5 songs, everyone cleared the stage which went back and played the intro to “My Last Serenade”. With out any announcement or prior knowledge to the majority – as they kicked into that song – Jesse Leach (original Killswitch Vocalist) was right there on stage singing with them.





















































































































So So after 4 or 5 old songs, Phil came back out to finish the set, which had A LOT of crowd participation, especially during “End of Heartache”, which was announced to be their last song.

































































After the stage went black, the “one more song” chant rang loud, as Adam eventually took the stage to say “You want another song? Well… things are going to get WEEEIIIRRRRRRRRD”. Adam got behind the drum kit while both Justin and Phil sat on the stage, awaiting what was about to happen… Jesse came back out, and for the first time in about 8 years, the ORIGINAL Killswitch Engage line up (Adam on drums, Joel on guitar, Mike on Bass, Jesse on vocals) was on stage performing some classics from Alive or Just Breathing and the self-titled CD.




















































After hanging out a bit, we began the trek home, which was also full of laughs as Adam is pretty much the funniest dude in metal.
Got home, crashed so I could be ready for day 2 of PHILswitch Engage!

Quote of the night… “This song is for women, because they don’t have balls! When you sit down too fast a clip one… it SUCKS!.. When you are on a rollercoaster and they go into your throat… it SUCKS! When its hot out and they become the great salt lake… IT SUCKS!” – Adam D

also check out - http://www.metalarmyamerica.com - for a longer blog (less photo related) about my two days with the dudes. (should be up by march 23rd)

Todays Shoot - House of Pain (sesh) - HOP/La Coka Nostra (live)

Every now and again I get the VERY rare opportunity to work with someone I've grown up listening to for the first time, and I get reallllly stoked on it.

So I pushed really hard to get this House of Pain photo shoot, lined them up with some solid press, and kept on everyone involved to lock it down.

Anyway, so the shoot was at first going to be just after doors, then got pushed to 45 mins before they go on stage (no big, im used to this).

The band arrived about 10 minutes after the shoot was supposed to start, and walked straight to their dressing room, while their tour manager said "yeah, they dont wanna do a shoot"

I dont do that whole "no" thing very well, so I had the TM introduce me to Everlast/crew so I could explain what I was doing, why I was doing it, etc.

First thing said was "NAW Im not tryin to do a 45 minute photo shoot" - I explained it would be 10-20 mins tops at which point, after a group vote, they reluctantly accepted and told me I have 10 mins.

...great.. well - I can do this, I am used to making shoots happen in a short amount of time.

So as we were walking down to the first set up he said "clocks ticking" ...OK! they are serious about this being quick... I'll make it quick!

Anyway - we start off in the newly painted halloween orange - downstairs dressing room - used two umrellas split - shot at F10 - ISO 125 (used the entire shoot) - and used the 16-35 2.8 lesns the entire shoot - and again - I was RUSHING though this - so I posed slightly - took about 2 mins to do the shots then said "OK! next spot!" - for these shots I was really going to push the corner in the wide angle to give it a really wide feel.



















right away they were impressed - "i like the way you work!" hahhaha.

Anyway - so the second spot was right in that hallway of the downstairs dressing room, I used split lighting again but placed one of the lights more behind them to get a bit of the environment lit. - I really wanted more time to be able to shoot - check the shots - reset the lights if needed - but there really wasnt time - so i do regret not being able to spend the time needed on this set to make it look the way i wanted. - settings were the same as the first shoot - and check it out! Everlast even showed some love for METAL!
































The third spot we hit was the walk way from the stage doors to the front of the building, I just used one boomed beauty dish up high pointing straight down - going for a dark feel. - this was my favorite set - shot with a single dynalite uni - at half power - i used the 16-35 lens and jumped the fstop up to 18 or 20 - shot at a 20th to get some ambient light bled in for a slightly warmer tone (which i did desaturate 10% anyway)






































































The fourth and final set we did was in the side room right next to the stage - i couldnt shoot at some angles because there were alot of dicks and balls drawn on the walls, and they wouldnt be photographed with balls or dicks behind them. (understandable) - so again we shot with split lighting but much closer and more front lit then side lit - i jumped the Fstop to F13 - and other then that - all the settings were the same.
































After the shoot I showed them the images, and they were stoked on them! and I did ask "how did i do on time?" - of which they responded "perfect!!"

Sometimes shoots can be difficult, but your job (my job) as a photographer, is to make them work, and make the group happy, even if they arent to begin with.

mission accomplished!

Then - on to the show.

The guys were super SUPER nice and gave me permission to photograph the entire set, which ruled because I wasnt sure if they were going to do La coka - THEN House of Pain... or what.

They ended up combining their sets, which was kind of a bummer to be honest. I would have much rather seen an opening set of La Coka songs, then a closing set of House of Pain - being that its the same line up for both.

the front lighting was all white with purples and greens for back light - i switched between using a flashblend shooting F5.6-10 at a 10th-20th - ISO400 - and would switch up to natural - shooting at 2.8 at a 125th-160th - i used my 70-200 for close ups - my 16-35 for wider shots and the fisheye for super wide shots

Todays Shoot - My Children My Bride (Part 2)

After spending all of last night (til 6am!) working on the "top secret" project I will be announcing shortly, a solid 3 hours of sleep (at best), my body decided I should wake up... AWESOME! right?

Anyway! - So today was the full group shoot for My Children My Bride, but a little note prior to reading on... You will see some shots with four members, and some shots with five members... The reason for this is their current drummer is not a permanent member quite yet, so... just in case, we shot a bit with both line ups. - also keep your eyes out as I will be posting a behind-the-shoot video on my youtube channel in the future.

We started with some pretty standard group shots. What I did for these was boomed a beauty dish at 50% pointing straight down, but pulled it far enough away from the white paper background to have it go dark grey and have a nice ever, scrimmed lighting behind them as well as on top of them. This was shot at F20 - at a 125th iso160

I really like how crisp and clean this lighting looks with the light from above giving a nice fade to shadow on the bottom half of their bodies... it really brings out their faces, and aside from putting a solid concentration on the upper body, it doesnt kill the entire shot.

See unedited shots below
































Rather then going in order... Im going to skip over a set and go back to it... for lighting explanation purposes...

So again, the dudes found the weapon table, and this time we could shoot it with the lighting I originally wanted to day 1.

Its the same lighting as the first set but the beauty dish is pulled further away from the background to make it go a bit darker, and a bit creepier

Unedited photos below






































































Prior to shooting the weapon stuff, I switched the lighting to a boomed 3x4 soft box at 50% power with two bare lights behind them pointed to the center of the back of their heads, crossing for a solid rim/hair light, and this was a bit opposite of what I shot before... rather then mostly shadow/mids work, this lighting is mostly highlight/mids - this was shot F16 at 160th













































After the in studio work we hit the basement, which if you havent seen before, is a creepy industrial park basement - PERFECT for band photos, and for pretty much everything I do.

The first shot was just a boomed beauty dish - but this time I was using my dynalite jackrabbit kit - and instead of the 70-200 i was using the 16-35 - these were shot F10 - iso100 - at a 100th



















































The second shot in the basement was 2 umbrellas split which gives a nice halo beneath the band and above them - so i shot some from a very low angle to get the ceiling in there a bunch, After a few shots I released the hallway to my right (their left) could look cool if i bled it in - so I dropped my speed down to a half a second to bleed it in a bit in the last shot on here

unedited images below



















































After shooting the basement - we hit outside for the last two sets. It was terrible out, windy, cold, rainy... all in all bad conditions to shoot in, but kinda cool for atmosphere.

The first set was shot with two umbrellas split - which I had two assistants (scott lee! their manager, as well as my actual assistant lauren) to hang out behind the umbrellas and keep them from going over... as those things catch wind and can fly away or take a light down and be VERY costly. - these shots are at a 100th at f10

unedited image below



















For the second set - I just used a boomed beauty dish - I LOVED! the test shot with the REALLY dark trees, but for some reason I decided it was a good idea to drop the speed from a 100th to a 20th to bleed in the natural light a bit more - which I now regret - I really liked the darker trees... so I may darken the atmosphere a bit in post-production when images are chosen. - bad call on my part but I still dig it with the lighter atmosphere as well, it was just so cold, windy, rainy, etc. that I didnt want to torture the band and check shots while shooting, plus Scott Lee was hungry, and keeping him from that venture is sometimes a very bad idea! hah.

First shot is the test shot - second shot is a real shot - but unedited


























Well... that was probably one of my favorite band shoots this year, so far. Excellent dudes, and good times, hopefully I'll get to see them around these parts again soon.