January 2010 – Photogeek Blog

Legion of the Sonne solo shots

This weekend I had planned to see Legion of the Sonne perform live at Outburn Magazines “Battle of the Bands”. Due to the death of a childhood friend I will be attending a wake instead. I know I promised David I’d be in attendance but I’m sure he understands the weight of my reason. A few months back I had the opportunity to work with the band on some promotional photos and had a great time. I had stepped away from working with bands for some time but these guys made me love getting back into it. As the session came to a close I stepped away from the band shots to photograph them individually. If you guys ever decide to do solo albums. You know where to come.

Welcoming the New Year

Beauty, Portraiture, Studio Lighting

In case you haven’t noticed we’ve entered a new year and decade. I’ve been feeling particularly creative as of late and have my eyes on new projects, new adventures and new avenues for exhibiting my work. As the new year rolled in I signed up with a few networking sites and groups including Smug Mug and Model Mayhem. I mention these important networking tools because this week I had my first face to face experiences with both. Attending my first Smug Mug workshop at B&H and working together with my first Model Mayhem contact Diana. My first experience with Smug Mug and Rob ‘Ninja’ Nicholson was excellent. Entertaining, informative and completely reassuring at the same time. Listening and watching Rob made me better understand why people join cults and believe in alien abductions. I wanted to stay and meet everyone but there’s something about crowds that sometimes give me overwhelming anxiety. The room was so packed that all I could think of was fresh air and how close I was to the door. The very same week I had my first meet up with my very first Model Mayhem contact Diana Lo. What drew me to Diana’s profile was the simple beauty of her pictures on the site. A lot of the work I had seen on the site was a combination of sex, raunch and endless hours of Photoshop. Her photos stood out to me. After a couple of emails and a phone call we chose a date and time. I’m always a little nervous before a session. I admit that after all these years I still get the butterflies before every session. Working with someone and trying to capture their essence five minutes after you meet some one for the first time definitely has it’s challenges. But Diana and I had instant chemistry. During our phone conversation she told me how much she liked the location work I had done. So I promised her we’d visit some of my favorite spots before we went back to the studio. She had never been to Hoboken before so I was more than happy to give her a tour. As we talked and took pictures Diana became more and more instinctive. I almost immediately noticed that the pictures on her profile, although beautiful, didn’t even scratch the surface. I meet a lot of beautiful, unique and special people in my line of work. Diana however took it to another level. She reminded me of someone who was very special to me a child. Someone who opened my eyes to the beauty the world has to offer. Whenever I think of that particular person I have so many special memories. To this day I get choked up just thinking about her. As we went from one spot to the other Diana would thank me for showing me these new places, explaining my approach to each photo and making her feel included. She told me about growing up in Hong Kong and living in Manhattan. What was scheduled to be a two hour session went past five hours and I can honestly say that not a minute was wasted of forced. We both loved the shots we took and enjoyed the whole process. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to be doing what I love. I’ll go back to this session and this blog post whenever I need a reminder.

My own worst enemy

Uncategorized

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve always been a little clumsy. I’ve had my share of slips, trips and falls. I’ve even broken a few things in my time. Having to work in a small place doesn’t help any. Before I went wireless I was always tripping over wires and getting tangled up. I’ve improved a lot by using simple common sense and analyzing the situation before taking action. Yet everyone now and then I have to go and prove just what an accidental prone dork I am. The other day I decided to trim one of my seemless backgrounds. Over the past week my white background had been walked on, stained and torn at it’s edges. Now I love working with the seemless backgrounds but being that they are basically made of paper does not allow for a longevity. Cutting paper might seem like a no brainer to most if not all. But if anyone is going to complicate the simple it would be me. Most of the time I use a scissor but it always ends up crooked and uneven. So this time I decided to lay the background down at the edge of the tile and use a razor. Fast, simple, straight and neat. So genius here is laying down that razor making a nice clean, straight cut when things took the slightest turn and Sliiiiiip…….. I cut my hand deep and the blood is everywhere. There was that initial rush of pain but what put me in fear was how fast the blood came. In a matter of seconds my hand was covered in blood. Blood on the background, floor, carpet and before long the sink. I was amazed how much blood I lost and how quickly. Luckily there was someone in the other room to bandage me up and stop the bleeding. I kept thinking of that scene in Goodfellas where Henry helps the guy who was just shot near the Pizzeria. Tuddy looks at Henry disgusted and says “You wasted eight fuckin’ aprons on this guy.” I really need to pay more attention to safety and the little things.

Joe Coffee and a host of others @ Dingbatz in Clifton

Music

On January 2nd my buddy Chris and I decided to brave the below freezing temperature and ring in 2010 with some live music. Cold, hungry and thirsty we gassed up the Civic and headed to Dingbatz in Clifton for (in particular)Joe Coffee and a host others. As usual we arrived early so we grabbed a couple of seats at the bar and just watched as the people began to come in from the cold.

Next up were another NY band Step to Far. I remember meeting their singer Frank in the 90’s down at CBGB’s. He was always a familiar face and a friend on the scene. On this particular night he was doubling on sound while also fronting his band. Step 2 Far brought some gold old NYHC to Jersey on this particular night. Just in case those Jersey kids forgot who was runnin’ shit. Nice seeing Frank. It’s been a while now. Maybe since the closing of CBGB’s.

By the time Joe Coffee took the stage I was a bit snoggered but steady on my feet. As Paul and the band took the stage I felt a slight crack in the concrete as the world seemed to shift on it’s axis. I had not witnessed Paul Bearer’s greatness since his days fronting Sheer Terror but have had Joe Coffee’s “As bright as the stars we’re under” on heavy rotation for some time now. Needless to say the man is an ominous, dark anti-hero. Yet he still has this “favorite yet oft hidden uncle meets W.C. Fields” quality. With all that said Joe Coffee is a band to be reckoned with. Mixing so many different styles. Call them Punk. Call them Hardcore. But I’d best describe them as brutally honest Rock n’ Roll. In between songs Paul went on lengthy rants while drinking a bottle of gin. Brutally honest, spiked with humor, fueled by booze. I’m glad the years haven’t softened him.

Last and not least were the Hub City Stompers. I’ve been hearing about this band for quite some time now but finally got to see for myself what everyone was talking about.After the dark cloud (and I say this with great respect) that Joe Coffee brought. This band was definitely what the crowd needed to send the crowd home on a very high and positive high. The Hub City Stompers hailing from that great band factory New Brunswick keep that great Reggae/Ska/Oi beat going strong. Great musicianship and a contagious energy. They had the whole place showing love. I love a show when you have bands who bring different styles and moods. This was a really good example of it. I think all of the taste buds were refreshed with this one. It was good seeing a familiar face in Brian Macko and meeting the guys from the band Feet First. The ride back to Hoboken was an adventure and story in itself. Flirting with the Dunkin Donuts girl at 3:00 am and Chris’s Jack Daniel’s fused jibba jabba. One of those nights that reminds why live music will always be a special part of our lives.