One of the members of Throckmore asked if I could do another quick photoshoot at Area 15 in Las Vegas for a new up and coming band: The 48 (name still in progress). Before heading out to the location I did a little more research and got a good shot list together of poses and props that I thought would make some great shots.
Bringing a spare Guitar is always good
Area 15 is an amazing location with lots of interesting background and environments. The biggest boon to the site was the colors so I really wanted to focus on them and make the photos pop. We shot primarily in the Emporium Arcade which was a dream with all the games, tables, and murals. Knowing this going in helped a ton.
Skee-Ball as a stage? Sure, why not.
The 48 is a fairly new band in the Las Vegas area focusing on original rock songs. The three members were great to work with and came in with their own ideas for things they were looking for. We went over my shot list and compared notes to incorporate everyone’s ideas. The end result came out fantastic!
The Hover Guitar (don’t worry, the guitar is fine)
Click the below image to view the Gallery on Flickr for all the photos from the shoot:
Flickr Gallery
* The band is still working on an official name, so this may change.
Since moving to Vegas we have managed to stay pretty busy. The usual house stuff and random projects in what is my normal life. One of the things I have been looking forward to in this area was getting out and doing more photography gigs for local artists. We have a few friends that perform around town and in between fixing house stuff and normal work I did manage to get out and take some shots. One of those friends, SJ, posted about some of my photos on a Las Vegas Musicians group a few months ago and it was cool!
Not Throckmore… This is Sarah Jessica Rhodes
Flash forward a few months and I got a totally random message about a local band that had scheduled a photoshoot but their photographer canceled on them at the last minute. They wondered if I would be available (the next day). I thought, “Sure, why not?”
I spent the next few hours looking up the location we were meeting at on Google Maps, and checking out where there might be a few good places to shoot nearby. Since I didn’t know the band, or that side of town, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Things that would be good to know going into this would be… Are we shooting indoors? Is there a good backdrop? Should I set up lights? Not knowing any of this, I packed up all my gear, including my pop up backdrop and lighting.
In talking with the lead guitarist, who set up the session, I learned that they are a Rock/Metal cover band named Throckmore (https://throckmore.com/) (working on their own stuff too) and they are still fairly new to the scene. We agreed on a general look to the photos and the rest was completely improvised. We met at a dive bar in East Las Vegas and I had the quick chance to walk around and find some good locations nearby. The manager of the bar said we could use the alleyway behind the place and we set up shop.
The chain-link fence and stone wall worked great for some grungy backdrop as well as some used kegs that the bar let us borrow.
From there I talked them in to a quick drive to a desert area. The sun was just settling into the golden hour and we had some great clouds.
It was great to get to know the band and they were all super cool with the last minute change and making stuff up as we went along. They all were fantastic to work with and I highly suggest that if you are in Las Vegas, you should look them up and attend a show!
After all the photos were done we even managed to do a quick flyover with the new drone and got some video that they may use for future stuff.
Shot with DJI Mini 3
Overall, it was a great, last minute, experience! Enjoy the rest of the photos!
This weekend was the first real test of my project idea, “Coffee Shop Portraits”. The idea is simple, set up in a local shop and take photos of patrons. They end up with a nice photo, and I get some experience shooting portraits. I was pretty nervous going into it, but the reception was pretty good and I think it went pretty well. It wasn’t the huge influx of people wanting their photo taken that I had feared, since most folks just wanted to come in from the cold, get their drink, and get back out to the parade. While there was a good sized line though, there were enough people interested that I had a good time.
The setup was very simple. I shot using my [amazon_link id=”B00FOTF8M2″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]D600 [/amazon_link]connected to my [amazon_link id=”B0042X9L6A” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]SB600[/amazon_link] speedlight for external flash. Inside the camera was an [amazon_link id=”B002UT42UI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Eye-Fi Pro 8GB[/amazon_link] card that was set to transfer the RAW file to the computer. I had my [amazon_link id=”B00FG7MVJU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Surface Pro 2[/amazon_link] connected to a large LCD monitor so that people could watch the processing and provide input. I processed in [amazon_link id=”B00CH6ATMO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Lightroom 5[/amazon_link] which was set to watch the import folder and automagicly bring up the last imported files. So within a few seconds, I could take a shot and then start editing it.
People seemed to love the process just as much as the photo. Watching the editing and providing a little extra input was great, and at the end of the day, I didn’t have to go home and work on a bunch of photos, they were all done!
I think for future versions of this project, I may have some templates set up so that I can just upload the files to my site and e-mail out a link to it. Overall I was very happy with the results and the owner of the Coffee Shop (Grounds Central Station) was very pleased with the extra attention and uniqueness of the project.
Decided to play around a little with a different subject…Myself. Well, myself and my son. I picked up a set of extension tubes to play with macro photography a bit and was frustrated when I found that the AF-S lenses auto close up their aperture when you remove the lens from the camera. Without the electronics to “make it go” the $8 extension tubes were rendered useless because the view was too dark to accomplish anything. I found a neat trick to get around that though. Over at Nikon Rumors this article got posted about using a bit-o-plastic to jam the aperture open. Worked like a charm! Also took a few portrait shots to practice. here are the results:
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