The Evolution of a "Promo"

Remember the days of MySpace? It used to be wild how much business you could get from young dudes trying to get some cheap “promos” for their design buddy to design into their MySpace layouts! I don’t really remember how I got started taking these promotional photos of bands for most of my “career” as a photographer, but I do remember loving almost every minute of it.

Check out the photos below to see how these photos evolved over a few year period when I was still shooting them!

This was a fucking blast! Photos were meh, but this band has some of the best dudes ever in it. This was in Downtown Akron, Ohio with The Kids United in the spring of 2009

Legendary - Akron, Ohio. Shot on a Canon Rebel XT with a fisheye adapter and cropped like a punk.

Had a huge opportunity to shoot For Today and I FUCKED IT UP! Look at this shit!

SERIOUSLY, LOOK AT THIS! WHAT THE FUCK?!

I JUST realized this photo is backwards???

Man! I was so stoked on this photo. It’s when I learned how to Dodge and Burn!

“Someday, I want to be just like Dave Hill”

Awkward spacing (full spread for AP magazine) of Andrew WK

Attack Attack sporting awkward placement for a full page spread in AP magazine

My stressful shoot of my life. Forest, the singer / guitarist cut his finger on some of the props right before h e had to play a show at the House of Blues in Cleveland.

It rained all over my non-weather proof lighting and battery packs. Shot in Parma, Ohio.

Chris Connelly of Saves The Day for Alternative Press. Shot in the studio / home kitchen with beautiful natural light!

This is just a handful of the many many shoots I did over the years. But these are the ones I am sad about and proud of. Band photography lead me to meet some really good people and some really shit people at the same time. I had some awesome opportunities over the years that I am glad I was able to document. This is definitely a form of photography I will not be returning too, but I will always be glad I had the chance.

Photo Walk: Ebisu to Shibuya

Today is the last day of my nearly three week long vacation. Because the weather was so great, Eve and I decided to take a trip to Tokyo. We started by visiting our favorite pet shop in Ebisu. We knocked back some Shake Shack and took a walk to Shibuya!

I set my X Pro 2 to 16:9 and got some really nice photos with, what I think, is a nice cinematic look!

Check them out!

The Evolution of a Portrait

Recently, I have been getting pretty annoyed with photo sharing options for Social Media. When I first started shooting, Flickr was by and far the way to go. Everyone was posting everything on there. I built up a decent following, but after a while the shift was made over to Instagram and I was too late to that game.

Anyways, whenever I am looking for an old photo that was on my Flickr I have to use their terrible mobile app / website. I did some searching the other day and found that I could request .ZIP files of all the photos and videos I had posted over the years.

I wanted to throw up a few of the portraits I have taken over the years so we can see how things evolved for me from 2006-2020.

Check em’ out!

Why the hell would I think this is a suitable location?

First night shooting with my Canon 30D. Also, the first time using strobes. (These aren’t in the best order)

The photos after this were all taken after I invested in Paul C. Bluff Alienbees. It was my crutch for the longest time. I have some cheap strobes, but don’t use them nearly as much as I used to back then. These are around 2009.

This was my post popular photo on Flickr for the longest time. That “Dave Hill” editing wannabe.

Lower the brush opacity, paint fake skin on, gaussian blur layer. Reoutching expert.

Taken in my second year of university. I never graduated.

Nick Brewer with my car. I think I lit this in late evening with an AB1600 in a big ass octabox!

Jack in his What-The-Dunks at the elementary school I went too. I still dig this photo.

The last photo and the next photo were taken 7 years apart. I had joined the Navy, fucked around a bunch in California and moved to Japan. I needed to get back into the habit of shooting. Luckily, I have a wife that will let me take her photos!

As we can see, a lot has changed. I can’t say I’ve gotten any better or worse. I will say that 10 years ago I was much more creative. I used to drag my lighting set up’s to the middle of fields, buildings, city streets, etc and shoot anyone and everyone. These days it’s more of a hobby and I am okay with that.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of these!

A DAY IN JOGASHIMA - UPDATE

UPDATED WITH FILM PHOTOS FROM MY MAMIYA RB67 BELOW

A few weeks ago Eve and I headed to Jogashima which is an island composed of volcanic rock at the southernmost point of Miura Peninsula. It’s a 16 mile (26km) trip from where we live in Yokosuka. The drive only takes about 45 minutes and there is only a .50 cent toll for our small Kei-Car and it’s generally pretty easy to find decently priced parking. On prior trips to the area, we took the Keikyu line to Misakiguchi where you can transfer to a bus that will take you the rest of the way.

Once you park on the east side of the island, you are lead down a narrow road that is lined with restaurants and souvenir shops. A few places to grab a beer for your hike (if you didn’t drive that is). On the day we went, there was not a lot of tourist. Eve thinks it’s because there were Kawazu, which is a different variety of the popular Sakura that Japan is known for, blooming a few miles north in Miurakaigan.

I brought my FujiFilm X Pro 2 and Mamiya RB67. The night before, after a few highballs, I set the X Pro 2 to a 16:9 aspect ratio. I had forgotten about it until the next day and after a few shots realized the change. Since I was shooting RAW, I decided to continue in the wider aspect ratio as I would still capture the 4:3 ratio as well. The Mamiya had a roll of Lomography 800, which I have yet the develop.

Jogashima Island has some amazing rock formations to photograph.

As I usually do, I asked my wonderful wife to go stand somewhere, look into the distance and put up with me snapping off a bunch of shots with her dead in the middle of the frame. The overcast weather gave an awesome softlight for most of the day. I am in love with these photos (and this girl).

After a while wandering around the rocks the clouds broke and we captured some photos around the Jogashima Lighthouse. For some reason, they had placed a huge advertisement on the side which ruined the photos for me. I had just seen The Lighthouse (which was fantastic) and I felt inspired. Sadly, it didn’t come together. I will have to try another time!

This is about all I got from the day! Maybe in the future I will join 2020 and actually make a vlog about this place!

Mamiya RB67 scans: