Sometimes getting access to shoot concerts or major concert events can be tricky. Dealing with publicists, event planners, and even security. But one band is making it super simple to get into the pit with your camera in hopes of capturing great shots — for a fee.
Well-known American rock band Hawthorne Heights has posted an advertisement of sorts on their website, selling anyone the chance to take photos of them at this year’s Warped Tour. Read more…
It’s an unfortunate truth in the world of concert photography that some bands refuse to issue press passes to “small time” local music photographers. The Killers are one such band.
After the group performed in Dublin earlier this month, music website GoldenPlec wasn’t able to send a photographer, so it decided to think outside the box to “get around” the ban. Instead of publishing actual photos of The Killers, the site featured LEGO recreations depicting what the show was like. Read more…
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I recently created two band photos that feature motion and blur. The premise for this shoot actually started as far back as a couple years ago. I was on the search for a fun and energetic band with which to create a couple of promo images that featured motion. It took 2.5 years to find the right band for the shoots, but when 604 Records recording artists Fighting for Ithaca came calling, the perfect fit had been found! Read more…
Check out this album cover portrait photo of the Belgian indie pop band SX, shot by photographer Benjamin Von Wong. While it looks appears to show the band standing in the ocean with the sun rising (or setting) in the background, it was actually shot in a much more controlled environment: a swimming pool. Read more…
Musician Lauren White recently came across a “gold mine” at a flea market in Saugus, California; she discovered 23 candid never-before-seen photographs of the Rolling Stones captured in 1965 while the band was enjoying a road trip. Read more…
A rare Beatles photograph taken in the same shoot as the iconic Abbey Road album cover is set to go up for auction on May 22nd, and is expected to fetch up to £9,000 (~$14,300). The photograph by Iain Macmillan was one of seven photographs captured while the band walked back and forth across the zebra crossing. A police officer held up traffic while the photographer was given 10 minutes to do the shoot while standing on a ladder. Only 25 copies of this “wrong way” photo were ever printed.
San Francisco-based indie band Wildlife Control made this creative music video for their song “Analog or Digital” using both time-lapes and stop-motion techniques. They spent a day on at Ocean Beach in SF, shooting the entire video in one take as a series of 3,060 individual photographs. The fast playback makes the world around them pass in time-lapse, while their synchronized movements cause them to move around like stop-motion claymation figures. It’s definitely not an easy feat — they had to play the song slowed down 35x!
Some friends of mine asked me to shoot a quick band photograph of them recently without any preparation or planning. Luckily, the location was pretty nice (we were at a hostel) and the weather was a bit cloudy so there wasn’t harsh sunlight. Read more…
About a week ago I did a shoot with the band Strange Birds as we were walking there was a point that I saw light rays trickling down right in front of us. I told all of the guys to stop and arranged them to my liking.
One of the most important things about shooting for me is having an idea of you want the photo to come out in the very end. I tend to adjust my white balance in camera and set almost everything up so it makes less work on the computer and closer to the final product. Below is the original image: Read more…
Hanson’s new music video for their single, “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’” is really something — and it’s no MMMBop.
The video was shot on a Canon 7D, fitted with some Nikon AI (automatic indexing) prime lenses.
Paul Lawson, the creative director and director of photography for the video said:
I chose the Canon 7D, primarily because this was before the 5D firmware finally came out and I got sick of hearing the rumors so I just went with the 7D to shoot the video. (a week later the firmware actually was released this time). I used an array of old 80’s Nikon AI Prime Lenses to shoot the entire video, to really try an emulate the look and feel of the vintage film.
There’s definitely a lighthearted, vintage feel to the video, which pays homage to the film, “The Blues Brothers,” and features a cameo of “Weird Al” Yankovic on the tambourine.
