Matisyahu at the Del Mar Racetrack
On friday morning I got an email from Matthew Miller, better known by his Hebrew name, Matisyahu. He asked me if I could photograph his show on Saturday at the Del Mar Racetrack and this is what I was able to shoot. First of all, like many concerts, flash photography was not allowed which meant that in order to have an image correctly exposed and not totally blurry, I would have to shoot at a very fast film speed (iso 1600 or higher). Shooting at a fast film speed allows you to capture fast moving subjects in low light but it ads a lot of grain to the image. Since I knew this ahead of time I took a more creative approach, knowing that the images would have a grainy film-like look. On several shots I intentional positioned my self with the stage lights pointing directly into the camera. This fundamentally breaks every rule of photography, but in this case, the result was an abstract dream-like image. I figured since a perfect sharp crisp image was not possible in these lighting conditions, I might as well have some fun and push the limits a little bit. This is where shooting in full manual mode really is crucial. The stage lighting is constantly changing and if you try to use the cameras light meter to expose the image it will, in most cases, expose the image incorrectly. So once I got an exposure that I was happy with I pretty much stuck to that same exposure. Most of these images were all shot at ISO 3200, f4.0, 1/60 sec.
Another idea that I had going into this shoot was to shoot a lot of stills in rapid fire and piece them together in a stop motion animation. The main goal with every event that I shoot is to capture the vibe and energy in a way that will make people that didn’t attend the event feel like they missed something special… and for the people that did experience the show, I hope to help them relive the great memories and to re-live some of the emotions that they felt. This video is a quick rough cut of what it was like at the Del Mar Racetrack on Saturday night. Matisyahu put on an incredible performance and I highly respect him for staying true to his religious beliefs as a touring musician. Enjoy and I would love to hear any feedback.
Matisyahu
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Matisyahu at Del Mar Racetrack, 2010
Jeff Daniels
Last week I had the opportunity of shooting an interview with Actor, Jeff Daniels as part of NAMM’s Wanna Play Music campaign. Jeff is best known for his acting but said that it all began with his interest in songwriting and playing guitar.
At one point in the interview Jeff said “Songs are stories and they have the ability to capture a single moment in time and the whole song spins around that one moment.” He added “Music has the ability to become your best friend and it is always there when you need it, in bad times and in the good times. You also find out about yourself through music. When you dive into music it takes you on a personal journey that discovers things that you wouldn’t otherwise know about yourself.”
This is exactly why I love working with musicians, actors and others that have an artistic outlook of life. I have always thought that still photography also has the ability of telling a story and in some cases it is more powerful than a moving picture because it captures one moment in time and all of the thoughts about that picture revolve around that one moment.
Find out more about Jeff’s passion for music at www.wannaplaymusic.com
Jeff Daniels
Jeff daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Gary Sinise and Orianthi
I took these photos of Gary Sinise and Orianthi in a studio that I had set up at the last NAMM Show in Anaheim. The photos where taken as part of NAMM’s Wanna Play campaign.
Our appointment with Orianthi was first, followed by Gary Sinise about 15 minutes later so I knew that time was going to be tight.
Orianthi
Right as we were wrapping up the shoot with Orianthi, Gary arrived and struck up a conversation with Orianthi. All of my lights were set up for Orianthi’s shoot and I took a shot of the two of them and this is a perfect example of really bad lighting. Fortunately, my assignment was not to photograph both of them in the same photo and Gary did not have a lot of time so I didn’t want to change the whole lighting set up for this shot.
Orianthi and Gary Sinise
In this photo I used one Elinchrome head with a softbox attached at about 8 o’clock (12 o clock being directly behind the subject. I also used an Elinchrome head with a snoot attached at about 2 o clock. This is what provided the nice outline around the subject and the intriguing highlights.
Orianthi
Gary Sinise
A couple hours later Orianthi performed on the main stage at the NAMM Show. In this shot I slowed down the shutter speed to show some movement and fired the flash to stop the action. The exact exposure was f/10 at 1/25 sec with the iso at 800.
Orianthi
I also shot a video clip with my Canon 5D mark ii of her performance. I velcro’d an Edirol R09 to my flash to capture the sound since it was so loud it would have been distorted with the on camera mic.
The Band from TV
Making Music Magazine wrote a cover story about actor, Greg Grunberg and his role in The Band from TV. They needed a cover shot for the magazine and they contacted me to see if I could get together with Greg at their opening show at the NASCAR race in Fontana to take some photos. I got up bright and early and got to the race track at 7am for the bands sound check. I got the cover shots done with Greg right away, before the rest of the band got there, so that he could focus on the sound check once they started. When shooting cover shots it is important to leave some space at the top and possibly around the edges for the magazine to insert their masthead and story titles. This can be challenging if you like to crop in close to your subject which is what normally makes a better composition. This one didn’t make the cover but I liked the excitement and energy of the shot.
[Greg Grunberg]
This is the shot they ended up using for the cover.
Greg Grunberg
Bob Guiney sang a few songs.
Bob Guiney
Bob Guiney
James Denton
The Band from TV performing at the NASCAR race in Fontana, CA
Signing some autographs for the fans after the show
Robert Downey Jr
Right after Robert Downey Jr had finished filming Iron Man I had the opportunity of working with him in the studio as part of NAMM’s Wanna Play Music campaign. You can also see an interview that we shot about the role of music in his life. We have all seen his acting skills but his music skills are also impressive. He released a solo album in 2005 called The Futurist. A man of many talents, he was also a ton of fun to work with and very unassuming.
Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr
Robert Downey Jr
I normally don’t like to be on the other side of the camera but we were having too much fun on this shoot to pass it up.
- Robert Downey Jr and Jon Moyer
David Carradine
Shortly before David Carradine left for Thailand, I had the opportunity of working with him in the studio as part of NAMM’s Wanna Play Music Campaign. The last thing in my mind was that he would not return from Thailand and that he would not complete his role in his latest film, Stretch. I have always viewed photography as a celebration of life and my approach of photographing people is to capture their inner spirit in a image that will never die.
The nice thing about working with celebrities is that they know exactly what to do and require very little direction. The only thing I told David before taking these pictures was that I wanted to take a photo that really shows your inner spirit. He then quickly said” yeah yeah I’ve been doing this for much longer than you have” and he pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. So I immdeiatley started taking some shots and he started interacting with the camera.
The main thing that I learned from this shoot is that, as a photographer, sometimes it is best to disappear behind the camera so that your subject forgets that you are there. If a photographer tries to give too much direction, then the subject ends up doing something that is not in their own nature and the photographer ends up capturing an image that doesn’t depict who they really are. After-all a photographer can never really tell somebody who the are.
David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine
Lobbying for Music Education on Capitol Hill
On May 11-13 the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) coordinated a unified effort to advocate for music education on Capitol Hill. Altogether there were over 80 meetings with members of congress and their staff, including an event with the John Lenon Educational Tour Bus at the Department of Education with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
The main message that was shared with members of congress was to include a strong emphasis on music education in the reauthorization of the ESEA . To conclude NAMM’s efforts on Capitol Hill there was a Congressional Reception with special guests, Jonathain Cain of Journey and Taylor Dayne . Watch videos of their compelling speeches here . I shot these videos with the Canon 5d mark II
Washington DC
John Mahlmann (MENC) and Secretary Riley
Kevin Cranley (NAMM Vice-Chairman), Joe lamond (NAMM CEO), John Mahlmann (MENC), Tom Schmitt (NAMM Chairman), Mark Goff (NAMM Secretary)
Arne Duncan (U.S. Secretary of Education)
Meeting with Rep. Donald Payne
Now that's an office with a view!
Jonathan Cain at NAMM's Congressional Reception.
Secretary Riley, Jonathan Cain, Taylor Dayne, Joe Lamond
DandyID
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