Todays Shoot - The Gamechanger Tour Day 1 of 2 (A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, etc.)

With a job like mine, you meet alot of people and watch their careers as they rise or plummet, make some solid friendships, make some solid frienemies as well.

I was lucky enough to cross paths with the dudes in A Day To Remember back in the day - and forming solid friendships with these guys, who to this day remain very good friends.

The only thing that is a bit of a bummer, is many of my close friends are on tour 80% of the year and dont live anywhere near me the 20% they are home. So I see my good friends just a handful of times a year, at best. - A few of which I travel a bit for - ADTR being probably atop that list.

SO! when I saw they had two back to back shows at the venue I am the house photographer at, I was pretty pumped! then on top of that my buds in Bring Me The Horizon as well as my photo brother from another mother, Adam Elmakias - would be with them.

for this two day trip - I didnt have to do any photo shoots aside from a quick in tune GP (guitar pick) endorsement thing. SO! it would be mostly hang time - and shooting them live.

SO! to kill the wordyness - why dont I just show you some photos?

First up was Pierce The Veil - who had an amazing Mario inspired backdrop and amp covers - so awesome. I was shooting these between F8-F10 at a 10th-15th at ISO400 with a canon 40D - using the 16-35 and fisheye 15mm - with a speedlite and a lumiquest 80/20 with diffuser.








































































































Next up was a We Came As Romans - who had darker lighting than Pierce The Veil - so I was shooting at F8 at a 10th most of the time - for today I wasnt really concerned too much with the shots, knowing I'd see it today then REALLY shoot it tomorrow for WCAR and PTV.

































































Next up were my buds in Bring Me The Horizon - and they always seem to pose a bit for me when they see me so I always get some really cool shots of these guys even if theres like 40 photographers in the photo pit, which there were for day 1. BMTH lighting was a bit better with more movement so i was shooting closer to to a 15th and 20th because I knew I was shooting the next day I mostly got shots of Oli as he kinda got into my lens a bunch which was AWESOME for shots.



























































































Next up it was time for ADTR - now my plan was to shoot one day from the barricade and the next from the front of house and balcony. Their lighting was aaaamaaazing, I was shooting at F8 at a 30th-45th so my flash would light them then the shutter speed would bring in their amazing set and lighting. I would go into details about how insane the show was but ill let the photos sort of speak for themselves. - there are MANY photos - so... be warned.
































































































































































































































































































































































































































Such an amazing time hanging with some really good friends, and as always, watching my friends become a huge success just makes me proud - and the fact that they are still the realest people on earth is mind blowing - most people change with time alone - not even putting major success with it - but these dudes will always be the best people on earth in one of the best bands on earth - putting on the best shows for the biggest crowds - so proud of em! - more photos for day two! peep em in the next post!

Todays Shoot - Jai (NSFW!)

This shoot was in the works for a while. Between one of us being sick, or a snowstorm, I believe this shoot was rescheduled something like four times.

We started with split lighting - two 3x4 softboxes on profoto compact 300s - but i didnt want really harsh shadows - I wanted to soften them a bit from my last few shoots - so i brought the lights out just a bit more to give it a more even light spread. - and i also turned down the light a bunch - ive been told time and time again to shoot at a mid Fstop (like f8-10ish) rather than my normal F16-22... ok - sure - why not? ill give it a try... SO! these are at F10... can you honestly tell a difference between another shoot that was at F16? - thats a legit question - i really want to know what YOU think.
















































































































































We added corpse paint and kept the same settings, which in hindsight I feel are about a stop too bright - but whatever - I was experimenting a bit - so these are still F10 - using the 70-200 lens






















































I boomed the dish directly above - pointing straight down at the model - but had it a bit closer than I normally do - however I turned the light down all the way to shoot at F14 rather than 20-22... again - can you see a difference here from these shots to others ive done?






















































Lastly I turned the dish toward the model a bunch more, turned on two parabolic rims, and shot with triangular lighting for a set on white and a set on black - I LOVE! how her hair just pops out in these shots - these were at F14 as well.


























































































SO! what do you think? - is there a big difference between shooting F10-14 and F16-22? - honestly interested in what you have to say about it - let me know!

Awesome finally working with Jai - and its looking like we will be shooting again when it gets warm out to get some shots outdoors!

Todays Shoot - Cradle of Filth

So todays shoot was going to one of those I check off on my proverbial photo bucket list (not to be confused with the website photo bucket, but ya know).

Anyway, The band that first got me into black metal aside from Darkthrone and Satyricon - was Cradle of Filth, who, about 10 years ago, I could absolutely credit as my favorite band at the time of the Cruelty and the Beast era.

Anyway, I have shot COF live a ton of times, but have yet to do a session with them.

In my work, I tend to shoot more of the younger, and non-metal bands more so than black metal bands, just for the fact that there is about 100 pop punk/pop rock/young band tours - to every 1 real metal tour.

So finally it was time to do a COF shoot, which, though I have not really followed the band in years, I was still pretty pumped about it.

When I arrived, their tour manager was pretty strict as to shooting directly before they go on stage, which I assumed would happened as does with many other bands who wear stage clothes and make up (like behemoth, gwar, slipknot, etc). but when I had found a good location, three actually, they were all shot down... the tour manager again was very very strict.

He suggested I shoot them in the catering room... which is too small to shoot a 3 peice band let alone a - what? 6 peice band? right? yeah... I couldnt do that

so I had set up on the loading door ramp, out of sight of the audience but the side of the stage, as there was no room in the dead case room.

The tour manager came over and basically said I cant shoot there in so many words..

...awesome...

luckily turisas ran in and grabbed their large wardrobe case which gave just enough room for about four people in the dead case room - so I set up there. one light bare parabolic behind pointed toward me and one beauty dish boomed above,

it was going to be tight, but the tour manager said "ok, this works" - so - the band started gathering - and I started shooting at F16 at a 160th, F100 with the 24-70 - which was good for the wider side in such a small and tight shooting area with 6 people. - after the first shot, I knew this would work. I shot a few group shots for about 30 seconds, then sent the band on their way







































After finishing with the band I did some solos with Dani - still with the same settings



















































After i finished the intro music started and they took the stage so i ran up front for live shots before breaking down and heading out.

It was great getting to work with a band I have literally been into for over ten years. I always get really pumped when working with any band I actually grew up listening to, especially if they were one of my favorite bands, and needless to say, it was their sound AND their image which really made COF one of my favorite bands, and to be able to capture that image... is an honor for sure.

They ended up using the images on their official blog and website, which was pretty cool, hopefully we will get to shoot again and next time go all out.