It's weird, sometimes I do my best thinking as the sun rises - and it is not because I am getting up early. Where am I today? Floor of some house in Oklahoma City, OK, where after a long night of not being able to get into the bar (6 more months) and playing some online game I am addicted to I have came to the conclusion that how to shoot a band can get confusing. I try to stay up to date on where my work ends up and who is talking about it, a simple Google browse, Flickr search, or analytic "traffic sources" usually helps. Sometimes I run across some pretty hilarious stuff, and I still have no idea why people in Brazil and Indonesia follow my photography, but the images are universal and not restricted by literacy or rather, the lack of. So I can see the endless Global appeal.

Stumbled upon this thread on flickr :http://www.flickr.com/groups/bandpromos/discuss/72157620275628235/?search=elmakias

Good dude - Pat, started the thread. I gave a quick run through to the responses and came to one that really got me thinking. On another note, cheers to Igor for using a word that wasn't in my vocabulary- I'm not ashamed to say I had to look it up! 



I have talked with a lot of people via Flickr, email, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and learned a lot about them. Basically what I have gathered is people just want to know they are on the right path, what's the next step, what are you supposed to do next.

And that's the fun part about photography, there is no point A B C D. Actually now that I rethink, I guess there technically is, but only if you want there to be. For example. let's take something super simple like riding a bike. Stereotypically - your dad probably said "Son get on it, and pedal, what more do you want, it's easy, man up, GO". Now your mom (again stereotypically) was probably like "okay hun, now take your foot, put it on the left pedal, push with it, hold your hands on the handle bar, also look up, try to balance, don't fall, please don't get hurt, actually let me guide you, i'll hold you up…"

Basically what I am trying to say is you can either do your thing, hope it works out and have fun with it. So on a bike that would be, bike meet my butt, pedals meet my fights, and handle bars meet my palms - let's go for a ride. Now if no one told you that you could fall down, get hurt, break your wrist, you would probably be a little, and you might need a little push to get started, but in the end you will get it. From there you can do anything, heck you just taught yourself to ride a bike, let's go do a backflip now.

But let's say someone lays it out step by step, you are probably going to get it, step by step. Thank your mom you never got hurt, and ride along up and down your sidewalk. But that's where it will end, what next? Bike back home and say mom, how do I do a backflip? Come show me. Now you're stuck, you need your mother to show you how to do anything and everything on your bike.

About now I know you are saying, this isn't true, and I know it's not 100% true, but I am making a big generalization and analogy for the sake of understanding where I am coming from here. You dig? Let's keep this going, the sun's glaring on my screen and I want to type.

Well, that took awhile to explain. After reading Mr. Hamilton's response I thought, hmm why can't all my images pop and be top quality, why can't I bury more people in the ground and toss five dudes in a fish tank. In fact, almost all my images are very similar, and I am fine with that. I have been trying to sing for 12 years and I still can't. I have been photographing junk for about four - two seriously and I actually like a few of my images. Such a weird feeling, I'm sure everyone remembers the day when they learned all the technical jargon and could finally get to do their photo thing, carefree, and actually enjoy your own work. It's like cooking, you make a shitty meal - shucks! Now you gotta stuff your face with it. You take a shitty photo - gosh darn it! Now you have to look at it until you shoot again. Good thing photos aren't a bare essential to living.

I am a very visual person, I like movies that go boom, pro-ADD music, and I love photos that pop, look crisp, and have rich/deep tones. But after the pop ADD boom effect, what are you left with? Hopefully something in your mind, ideally an emotion, a tingly feeling or maybe even just a thought. After all, we are all human, and we all feel.

Anyway, thought I would discuss something that often crosses my mind, how much do you really need to do with a band in their press images? Should you find some railroad tracks, or a red brick wall? Maybe have them jump in the air with a very excited look on their face (don't do any of these). Point being, what do you do with the band? Here is how I begin to process it.

Who the hell am I photographing?

I have some terms I made up on my own, they work in my head let's see if I can transfer it to yours.

Local: you know, your local bar band, scene-core TDWP rip off, or high school jam band, anything like that. Usually ages 40-60 (bar), or 15-20(scenecore). I can't really list any bands here, but I am sure you can all look up your local venue and find a few. Don't get me wrong, there are some local gems, but these days it is so easy to get signed that almost all the local listen worthy bands are opening up some 5 band bill across the country by the time they are out of high school.

Projects: Bands that are just starting out, however have a game plan and are not doing the whole "tour for ten years and hope we make it" - they are going straight to the top. Usually projects have a few members from other bands that joined together and are skipping over the very familiar path of touring and jumping straight to a label push. Think Metro Station and Boys Like Girls.

Weathered: been on the road for a few years, signed, hanging out, loving life. Maybe live on a tour bus, or in a van, depends how much money they want to spend. Usually mid 20s. Bands that come to mind: New Found Glory, A Day To Remember, All Time Low - bands like that.

Rock stars: these guys are up there, making money, own a house, look nice, it's their job - Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, The Rolling Stones. Now this is where I have to clarify. I don't claim to know everything, this is how it just registers in my head, The Rolling Stones have obviously been around for awhile, but I am trying to say during this day and age, why are they still doing this? I am pretty sure it's not because they are 60 and still want to live on a tour bus. Maybe someone is friends with them and can prove me wrong, but for now let's just use it as an example.

I am not going to really cover the different clients you could be shooting for, so let's just pretend you are shooting general press images for the band, with the goal of selling more records for them.

Here is how I look at it, in one really long hunk of words.

For a local band, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Most local bands, don't have an image - your job is to create one. This is great from a business perspective, basically a clean slate, do whatever you want, let's get a little wild. That's the upside to the shoot - downside, you probably aren't going to get much emotion from these shots. If you shot the Beatles on a brick wall playing rock paper scissors, awesome. With a local band? You just solidified their localness for life.. You know what I mean? Passion comes with time, and not all 14 year olds or drunk old bar band folk have a lot of passion, they just do this, cause they want to. I have no problem with that, but from a photographer's point of view, I wouldn't want to photograph them in my free time. Again, these are all huge generalizations I am just using to get some info across, take it with a grain of salt. I am not this naive.

For a project you are usually going to be directed on what they want you to do for their image. This basically means you are making their vision come true, you don't really have to do much thinking as far as concepts go, just make them look like let's say The Jonas Brothers, or All Time Low, they know where they want to be, it's your job to pick them up and put them there.

Weathered - This is middle ground, usually the band has an image, and you just need to reinforce it. The upside to these shoots are that the people in the photos, are most likely doing this cause it is what they love, what they want to do. Trust me, touring in a van isn't very easy, and a bus is easier but it is still a rough life as far as friends and family go. Try to pull emotion, and their image into these shots, but at the same time keep it simple. Most artists of this level don't really shoot a lot of conceptual shots unless its for a publication, and even then, only magazines for a younger crowd really have crazy concepts…cough Alternative Press cough. Look at SPIN or Rolling Stone, all their press shots are about the band, not what is going on in the image. That's because the band has an image, and just their eyes will tell you more then five guys on a playground in their favorite blinding neon t-shirts.

Established Artists/ Rock stars/ Major label bands - Usually once you get these shoots, you will be allotted time, budget, and have everything you need to do everything you want. I am only assuming but I think it is a safe bet. I have shot a few Major Label artists, but mostly artists that have just upstreamed - so nothing too serious. Either way, once you get to this level you can pretty much do it all, if you are getting the shoots, you are most likely a weathered photographer yourself and know what you are doing.

Ironic how I just bashed the concept of someone taking your hand and leading you through followed by me doing just that. But then again, there aren't rules, I am just presenting my way of processing all this and hopefully you can take it and build off of it, I hope.

Anyway, the whole idea of all my shots being too simple and straight to the point is a big thing for me. I put most of my time into positioning a band and move them inches at a time, keeping eyes lined up, shoulders squared and posture that lacks awkwardness is always a plus.

It's hard to know where to draw the line. When you are combining a growing passion with your only source of income at one point you are going to realize that not all your work is going to be portfolio worthy - in your eyes. There is a formula to this sometimes. But just because you don't absolutely love your image doesn't mean it won't meet your assignments requirements and doesn't mean you did a bad job - It just means you love what you do. I think that about two months after I take any image I learn to dislike it in one way or another, I just grow out of what I was capturing at that point in time. I am sure you can all relate in one way or another.

You might think something like "Why are all my images from 2008 HDR?" or "How come all my images from October have hair and grass that is so sharp that the actual object gets loss in its many edges?".

In the end, do you sort of see what I am getting at here? Basically the smaller the band, the more work on what is actually going on in the photo (the concept) you are going to have to do, the larger the band, the more important the lighting and how the people are presented become. If you are shooting an established artist make sure you are working with their existing "image" and not trying to recreate it. Keep it simple.



Thanks to Jessie for proofreading all my blogs out of the goodness of her heart. Without her, most of this would be all jumbled.