The Big Seven

I've got a little secret to share with everyone who was wondering if I had gone to the Big Four concert at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 14. I did not go. But here's the catch, I could have. In fact, I was cleared with credentials to shoot the show and have access to the press box to write up a piece on it for Paragon. The problem is that I found out about it too late. The Big Four show was a very high profile event. You couldn't just email a publicist for access, you had to fill out a form and submit it to a specific email address and hope they chose you as one of the very few people allowed press access to what was literally history in the making for the Heavy Metal world.

I filled out the form but didn't hear back by the time that I had suspected I would, so I booked myself for another concert on the same night. Sevendust was coming through town with a headlining show during a day off from the Uproar Festival, and I had the chance to get a video interview with one of the members and shoot their set. Sevendust put on such a great live show that I figured it was a no brainer, considering I thought I wasn't going to be picked for Big Four.

I found out, after making a commitment to Sevendust, that I could have photo access to Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica, all on the same night, on the same stage. My jaw dropped and I didn't know what to do. On one hand, I made a promise to a publicist that I've had a long time relationship with, for a band that I know I enjoy shooting. On the other hand, the Big Four was a concert event like no other, it was the only time this would ever happen around here.

In the end I chose Sevendust because I'm a man of my word, and especially in this business, your word is all you've got. I made a commitment, and I stuck to it.

Looking at some of the photos that have been released from the Big Four show, I feel that I made the right choice. I've been doing this for a long time, so I know certain things when I see them, and I could tell that the stage was certainly not set up in favor of having people document the show in photos. For one, the stage was obviously too high. Most shots I've seen that involved any members of any band that were not front and center at the edge of the stage, included lots of wires and monitor boxes, meaning you couldn't get a clear shot because everything was in your direct line of sight. If the stage had been lower it may have been possible to get shots that didn't include stage hardware. Secondly, being a daytime show, outdoors in a baseball stadium, stage lighting was a moot point. The sun washed out everything, and without any control over things like fill or bounce, you were stuck with pictures that look like they were taken on a point and shoot camera in the noon sun. I know some of the photographers that were there, at least by name and portfolio, and I know that if they had a hard time, I most likely would have as well.

Sevendust, on the other hand, was set up perfectly with no obstructions, and they made it easy to have access to them. After the interview we were even invited to hang after the show, which we did. Getting some face-time with a great band and going home with awesome shots is always better than no face time with 4 equally great bands, and going home with absolute crap on your memory cards.

I love all 5 of the bands I've mentioned here, and I have for some time. I still hope to some day be able to shoot Metallica, since they're the only band I haven't shot out of these 5, but I'd rather do it in a place that is actually properly set up for it. I'd hate to have wasted my only, or my first chance, in a situation like this.

I'll be posting about the interview with Sevendust once it's edited and online. Check out my Facebook page to keep up to date, or follow me on Twitter.

More soon,
-Rob

Monica Richards, "Like Animals"

I am very happy to share some exciting info with everyone. I was recently asked to put together a video for a song called "Like Animals", recorded by a long-time role model of mine, Monica Richards. Monica is well known throughout the Goth scene as both a solo artist and for her role in Faith & the Muse. After doing a couple of features on her in Paragon, we kept in touch and I've been honored to call her my friend ever since.

On Monica's Infrawarrior album, she recorded her own version of the song "Like Animals" which was in the original Dr. Dolittle movie. She told me that she'd been wanting to release a video for the song for a while now but has never had the chance to get it done. I offered to help out, since I'd already been working on a documentary for For The Animals Sanctuary and have a good amount of footage stored up already not only from there but from other times I've worked with animals or just shot stock footage for myself.



Though the lyrics of the song really point out how terribly humans treat animals, we wanted to keep the overall message positive, so instead of focusing on the horrors we commit against nature, we decided we would show positive interaction instead. In a way, this helps to balance out the message and will hopefully bring a new level of awareness to some people. Some scenes feature very special animals that deserve mention, so I'd like to point those out right now:

Opening - These are wild horses that live in Outer Banks, North Carolina. They've lived on this stretch of beach for years now and are a well known feature of the area for locals and tourists alike. Strict rules prohibit people from getting too close or interacting with them, and that's what's kept them alive for so long.

00:09 - This is Shelby, a remarkable pit pull that was abused and abandoned as a puppy, and is now not only rehabilitated, but working as a therapy dog. Working with Shelby for this video was great, and her owner Joe was very nice to let us have some time with her. You can see a quick interview we did with Joe where he tells us all about Shelby here.

00:28 - Amy is the youngest cow at For The Animals. She's very sweet and loving despite almost being killed and discarded very young. You can find more info on Amy here.

00:35 - Becky and Bridgette, 2 sisters waiting to find their forever home, currently at a nearby shelter in NJ.

00:44 - Here we see Hope, Herbie, Kevina (back, left to right). They are the other 3 cows that currently live in For The Animals, and in front of them is one of the 10 female goats that they rescued.

00:53 - This is Bumper. She's partially blind and has some neurological problems with her back legs and can sometimes find it difficult to stand up on her hind legs if she's not moving.

00:58 - A year ago we took in a stray mother, Smokey, and her 4 kittens Harmony, Melody, Steele, and Luna. This is footage from when the kittens were merely a few weeks old, still nursing from their mother.

01:06 - Katie was rescued from a life of neglect, and eventual slaughter, and brought to For The Animals by 2 caring individuals who immediately went vegan after learning about the horrors of factory farming.

01:14 - Tom and Jerry. If you look in the background of the Bumper footage you'll see these guys in their cage. All of these animals have nothing to fear because the shelter they are living at is a privately-owned no-kill facility with lots of dedicated volunteers.

01:29 - One of the many cats that call For The Animals their home. I don't want to get any names wrong, but I'm 99% sure this is Peekaboo

01:34 - One of the hens living at For The Animals, again, not positive of the name here. Notice how she'd been debeaked prior to being rescued from slaughter. It's common for chicks to have their beaks burned off with a hot knife because farmers don't want them pecking at each other while crammed into tiny cages together.

01:38 - This is Debbie, co-founder of For The Animals, with Brutus. His brother Boo Boo can be seen behind him.

01:53 - Hope, For The Animals Sanctuary

02:30 - Boo Boo, For The Animals Sanctuary

02:35 - Joe Dwyer and Shelby, as we were setting up for the interview I linked to above.

02:41 - Kevina, For The Animals Sanctuary.

02:45 - This Red-Tailed Hawk is missing an eye. I don't know his story, but he was rehabilitated and now can live out his life safe and sound at a local rehabilitation/environmental center in NJ.

02:58 - This fox, along with his family of about 4 or 5 others, live in the same environmental center as the hawk.

03:02 - I don't pick favorites at all, but Herbie here has a special place in my heart. He is at For The Animals because he made news a couple years ago when he broke free from the truck that was taking him to slaughter and ran through NYC for a while before finally being rescued and spared his life. There is a very good piece on him here.

03:08 - Hope, For The Animals Sanctuary.

03:39 - This is some home footage that I asked Monica to send me of her 3-legged Shepherd Fozzie. Monica wrote a very touching, heartfelt piece on him after having to face that awful decision that we often hope we never have to deal with as pet owners.

03:43 - This Siberian Husky was my dog, Ranger. He is also no longer with us. I've had lots of pets growing up, all kinds of them, but I'd never felt loss like when we had to say goodbye to Ranger.

So that's the run-down of the important players in this piece. Some footage is personal, some was shot specifically for this, and some was shot as part of other projects.

I hope that the lyrics and footage touch all of you and will make you rethink how we treat animals. Whether a companion animal, a wild creature, an insect, or a farm animal, we're all connected. Please try and remember that the next time you hear about a child abusing an animal, or someone giving up their pet to a public shelter where its days are numbered simply because they can't care for it, or even the next time you consider a family pet or what to put on the dinner table. We're not better than them, just different, but if you do think we're better than them, then act like it. Choose to live compassionately in all aspects of your life, and show all the Ranger's, Fozzie's, Herbie's, Hope's, Katie's, Tom's and Jerry's, that they're worth more than what some people give them credit for.

More soon,
Rob

Swashbuckle: High Fives on the High Seas

I've mentioned my friends in the band Swashbuckle on this blog in the past. They are a fun bunch of guys that dress up like pirates and play pirate-themed Thrash Metal. They just left to go overseas to play a bunch of European Metal festivals and before they left they did a hometown warm-up show.

I wanted to go check them out but I knew there wouldn't be a photo pit set up at a bar show and I'd probably risk being knocked around a bit by kids moshing. Considering the circumstances, I knew if I wanted to take any photos I'd have to pack super light gear, so I used the situation to my advantage. I've got a 50mm f/1.8 lens that I rarely use. It was something that I thought would come in handy but I can count the number of times I've had it mounted to my camera on one hand. A wide open aperture like that would be really nice in dimly lit close quarters. I decided to put the lens on and hit the road. No camera bag, no flash, no back-up lenses, nothing, just my camera body and a single lens. It's a prime lens, so there's no zoom, I'd have to zoom with my feet instead.

I got up nice and close, right within a decent range for three quarter portraits of the guitarist and bass player, opened it wide to 1.8, and started shooting. The depth of field at 1.8 is kind of a dangerous thing to play with, so it was definitely a night of experimenting, and I treated it as such. I wasn't expecting to come up with much, but I did have 30-something decent photos when all was said and done.

Enough technical talk, let's get down to the actual shots:



Notice the way the focus falls off rapidly from the headstock of the guitar. That's what happens with a wide aperture. Pretty epic looking, if I do say so myself.




Same here, notice how Eric's head is in sharp focus and little of anything else. Makes for great separation from the background.




Another great thing about a wide aperture is how much light it lets in. I can guarantee you this room was not as well lit as it appears here.




I shot this glass that says "Victory" because one of my favorite Swashbuckle songs is "Where Victory Is Penned." I just included it here because I thought it was kinda quirky. Then again, I'm probably wrong.

So there ya have it. You can click on the photos, or on this link to see the full gallery. They aren't really the same as most of my concert shots, but like like I mentioned, I was just testing this lens to see how useful it is for concerts. I think in a setting with more space and more powerful stage lighting, it could make some great exposures, but I do worry about how much depth of field I lose opening it wide. Plus, in most true concert venues you don't have the leisure of being as close to the band as I was, so having no zoom really limits your composition options. I think it would make a great lens to have on a second body, but I rarely ever shoot a show with 2 cameras.


More soon,
-Rob

Extra Credit

After the pursuit of fun and art is over, an artist still needs to eat and have shelter, right? This basic concept is at the root of why you have to pay an artist for their work. After all, we're people too, and we expect and need the same things that everyone else does. But what happens when your needs are met, but not your full demands or expectations?

I recently did a shoot for a long-time musician friend. We've been working on our respective current projects for almost the same amount of time, so we have seen each other through the ups and downs, the struggles and the joys, of doing what we do. Many nights were spent at coffee houses commiserating and congratulating each other. When the time came for him to record a new album, he would give me the first shot at hearing the tunes, even before they were completely finished and totally refined. I was there for the rehearsals, the recording process, and eventually got hired for the promo photos that would be used in the album art and to promote the latest release.

Drawing the Bottom Line

Running a business isn't easy and it isn't cheap. At the same time, though, having a hobby or interest like photography, or any art form, really, isn't cheap either. Painters need a constant supply of expensive items; sketch artists need to buy the right kinds of pencils with specific kinds of lead, as well as sketch pads and other media; craft artists or people who make hand-made jewelry are constantly buying tiny pieces and tools to improve their crafts; musicians know all-too-well the constant struggle to find the right gear to bring them to the next level. Photography and videography is the same, whether it's your hobby or your business. 


Photography is one of the only arenas that I know of where the accessories almost always cost more than the essentials. You can buy a good camera body for as low as $1,000. You can buy a really good camera body for around $2,000-$3,000. You can buy a GREAT camera body for $4,000 and up. But the lenses for those cameras can easily range anywhere from $75 to as high as $8,000 or more! Tripods, cleaning kits, monitor calibrators, neck and shoulder straps, flash heads, pocket wizards, light stands, light modifiers, camera bags. These are all items that could make you go broke in no time. Even though some of them can be considered essential items for certain people, or certain areas of photography, the fact still remains that you don't absolutely need any of them for photography in general. Some are obviously worthwhile investments if you are a serious photographer, and therefore you can't escape the need to constantly swipe your credit card (or punch the numbers into a website). The way you determine which are necessary investments and which are just helpful accessories is completely up to the person doing the purchasing.


In the end, though, we all go through this endless pursuit of gear for the same reasons: We want to be better photographers. 


Now, there is the age old argument that it's not the camera, it's the photographer. While that may be true, there have been certain advancements in recent years that could cripple that argument in no time. For instance, when I first started shooting concerts, my first DSLR was a Canon Rebel XT. That camera was very hard to use in low light because the max ISO setting was 800 but you wouldn't dare ever put it that high. If you did, it would produce photos so grainy that it looked like you had them sandblasted. Meaning getting sharp, well exposed photos was incredibly difficult. After I upgraded to the Canon 5D Mark II, I was able to use much higher ISO settings, which allow more light sensitivity, with much less grain even at very high settings. In this particular case, we are talking about a technology that wasn't available just a few years prior. It's safe to say that the camera made me a better photographer, because it allowed me to capture scenes that were previously impossible to capture. Yes, I'd have to still know all the usual skills like composition, getting the right settings, etc, but the camera certainly did change the game. So in some cases, the gear most definitely does make you better, because it allows you access to possibilities you had not previously been able to venture into. 


All these different tools of the trade, though, can cost you a fortune, like I already mentioned. So here's the thing:


The point I'm trying to make is that If you are working a job that you dislike, and need to put money into it, out of your own pocket, you are going to become disgruntled very quickly. However, if spending countless hours practicing a craft, and honing skills, even at the risk of losing hours and days of your life doesn't bother you. and if spending money you don't have only to try to profit to spend more of it doesn't bother you, then you've found the right path in life. Maybe it's a career path, maybe it's just a time-passing path; that is up to you. How many of us can truly say we have no qualms whatsoever about dumping hours of time and heaps of money into something that we don't even know will give us a successful outcome?


It's a scary idea, and something that people need to ponder over for quite some time before they know what direction to go in. So what category do you fall into? Are you afraid of wasting time and money pursuing something you think you like to do, or are you the type to dive in head-first and worry about the details later? Let me know in the comments!


More soon
-Rob

Facebook

Well, I finally did it, I created a Facebook page for DIGImmortal Photo. I'm not a big social media kinda guy. I'm far too private to feel comfortable in a world of "look at what I'm eating" or "I'm here at this place, come find me."

However, regardless of my own personal use, or non-use, of such a site or service, there is no denying the powerhouse of a marketing tool that it is. There is an old adage of: "You have to fish where the fish are" and with millions of users from around the world it's really stupid to not have an online presence within Facebook. I signed up for Twitter long ago, and use it almost daily as a means of keeping in touch with fans and finding new prospects, and just sharing basic happenings about my business. Facebook always seemed too exposed for me. Now that I think about it, though, exposed is exactly what any business needs in this struggling economy. If you aren't exposed, you are ignored, and that's precisely what any small-business owner feels like these days.

I do have the page linked to my twitter, so both will update together, in most cases. I figure this is a good way to share more images with more people. It's never a bad thing to have multiple places for people to discover you, especially as an artist. Here's to hoping it remains a positive experience on there.

You can find me and "Like" me HERE

What Comfort Zone?

So, I mentioned on my Twitter feed a few days ago that I had a request from a client that put me a little out of my comfort zone. Some people might think I'm a pansy for this, but basically, the client (actually, the clients PR agent) requested that I hand over a few select images the night of the job, immediately following the shoot.

Now, for me, I follow the concept of "get it right in-camera" pretty closely, but the idea of not being able to analyze and do any minor editing before the client sees the work still scares me. What if I had a bad night? What if my settings were a little off for a few of the more important shots? What if I just flat-out failed?

News photographers are probably too busy pointing at their screen and laughing at me to continue reading, but the truth is, for most of us, we're afraid to let people see our raw, unedited work. If we get home, or back to our offices, and go through our images to find out that nothing needed any tweaking at all, then we pat ourselves on the back and feel a sense of accomplishment. Should we return to our computers to find that some images need some CPR, then we make the necessary changes, say a few funny sounding words under our breath, and deliver our newly-perfect, polished images. We then pat ourselves on the back and feel a sense of accomplishment. In the end we don't release anything we aren't proud of, so the concept of not having at least the chance to give ourselves the mental "green light" is frightening! What if we look like completely inept morons and the client never calls us back again!? What if we shot the entire night with the wrong white balance and everyone looks like a martian!? There are a ton of "what if" questions, but in the end, it all comes down to this: Am I good enough?

Really though, we're artists, and we have this relationship with our work where we always want to be better, to do better, to create better things. Maybe our fear of showing unedited work comes from our desire to constantly critique and torture ourselves.

On a final note, what really is a "comfort zone?" Obviously, it has a definition, but seriously, why do we put ourselves into these little boxes of "I can do this" and "I can't do that" and how do we know when to break free? Without sounding like I'm bragging, the photos came out just fine, and client and their PR agent were very pleased and the necessary photos went out for immediate release that night. I delivered the balance of the images to the client on Monday... and the only editing I did was cropping.

Just goes to show you that you don't know what you can accomplish until you are pushed to do so. It's impossible to tell yourself to be spontaneous with this kind of stuff because planning to be spontaneous is in-and-of-itself the very opposite of the concept.