Band and Musicians
Towards the end of 2020 I worked with Singer/Songwriter Matt Jackson on photographs for his new EP album GROWTH 101.
I got to pour potting soil all over his face and stick plants into his mouth. It was a fantastic session for a fantastic guy and a really excellent grouping of songs that Matt wrote.
Read about our session after the cut:
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A few weeks before Covid-19 closed down the world in the spring of 2020 I got together with singer/songwriter Liz Simmons to make photographs for her first solo album in 15 years: POETS
An in-depth blog post covering the process from shooting to album design after the cut.
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I don’t hide my love for musicians Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball. Their music; both together as The Story and separately as individual musicians, has been part of my live for almost 30 years. A few years ago I got to photograph both of them separately. And when Jonatha was coming back to the area, you bet your butt I found a way to make another portrait of her as she was passing through the area.
Read MoreCubicle Zombies and war paint and time machines. Since 2012 Weather Mcnabb and I have been trying to work together. In 2018 we finally got to create images for her 5 song EP “Cubicle Zombie”
Read MoreI’ve known Liz Simmons for close to a decade. When it was time to create images for her newest album release with her band Low Lily, she got in touch.
More after the cut.
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I've always surrounded myself with music - in my primary school days I was buying cassettes and records and would sit at home and just listen and digest all these forms of music; from rock to new-age to film soundtracks to rap - I would just absorb it like a sponge. And that has never changed and there isn't a time when I'm not listening to music. I recently brought a record player and all my records to my photography studio so I can spin while I'm working on client images, and I always have a playlist going when I'm photographing someone or something.
I'm not in any way a music critic, nor do I contain a music critics vernacular, but I thought I'd mention a few artists/albums I've been playing a lot lately and maybe find some new ears and make them a few new fans, because they are all awesome.
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an homage of Donald Byrd’s “A New Perspective” cover
I love record and album design. Part of what I hope to do as a photographer is make images and help musicians design album covers for their releases. I love the square format of album covers. And nobody has made better album covers than the jazz music label Blue Note Records. There was a period in the 1950's and 1960's where Blue Note was producing what I consider the greatest album design in history. I wanted to share a little bit about it and why I love it so much.
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I love album art. I love the square format and I love making album covers. It started when I was a kid in high school. I had a big audio cassette collection, and I'd make mix-tapes for my friends. Not one to be satisfied with simply making a mix tape, I'd make jacket artwork for the tapes as well. I'd clip things from magazines and comic books and I'd run down to the public library and I'd shell out a few dozen dimes on their photocopier and I'd layer and copy and layer and copy things, until I'd have a multi-fold tape jacket with song tiles and odd credits and I absolutely loved every moment of it.
When I started getting more active with Photoshop and computers, I started making fake cd/record covers.
When I work with bands and musicians, I'll spend a little extra time with some of the proof images and I'll make very small cd-cover examples; things I can show the client to give them an idea of what they can actually do with the images we've created together.
I've had the pleasure of working on album covers with some local musicians and it makes my heart happy when I get the chance to do so.
For me, when I get stressed out and need to relax, I'll sit down and open up some photographs and I'll mock-up some fake album covers. It brings me great pleasure to do this.
There is an example of a recent little "Moment of Zen" when I needed to tune out the world and just relax. I grabbed a video-still from when I worked with Michael Bellar a few years ago, and I made this. I love it.
Make sure you give yourself brief little "Moments of Zen", where you can just spend a little time doing something you absolutely love for no other reason than to make yourself happy.
Zitong comes to me from the Boston area. He was recently part of an international piano competition, and he needed a headshot created that was going to be used for their program.
This was Zitong's first time in front of a camera in a professional manner. He's a natural! So relaxed! He really liked some of the examples I had on my headshot page with a grey, neutral background. He specifically requested it.
The tones in this shot are gorgeous. I love his slightly reflective tie. And the texture in his shirt is fantastic.
And those cheekbones. Seriously. SRSLY.
I've been developing a relationship with the band HOT MESS over the months, and they were so happy with the work we've done so far that when a new member of the band came into the mix, Jason, the head of Hot Mess, contacted me asking if we could create some new head shots for Lacy, but he also needed one other thing: he wanted a photograph of Lacy in the style of the group shot we did months ago so that she could be inserted into the group photo we had taken months before.
Let's give it a shot.
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