Had the opportunity to shoot Lex Justice & Ras•Pect at Urban Lounge on Friday night. Great show – loved the music and really enjoyed the shoot. Their manager, Mary Hazell of Lil’ Lion Records was great to meet and speak with throughout the night. It was nice not to be restricted to the “first three songs only” as is the deal at most concerts.

Here’s a few images from the evening.

Lex Justice of Lex Justice & RasPect

Scotty "Hammerhead" McCrady of Lex Justice & RasPect

Leroy "Yardie" Wynter of Lex Justice & RasPect

Jerome "Rebel Ay-Blay" Perry of Lex Justice & RasPect

Antonio "Massive" Gordon of Lex Justice & RasPect

Guitar detail

Be sure to check out my Flickr set, I’ll be adding more soon.

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I had the fortunate luck to land a gig to shoot Bedouin Soundclash at The Starlite Room last night courtesy of The Edmontonian, a relatively new local online news site. It was the Starlite Room’s fifth anniversary and Bedouin Soundclash was headlining the show. I was super excited that my first “official” concert shoot would be of Bedouin Soundclash, as every now and again Walls Fall Down ends up in my playlist (among other great Bedouin Soundclash tunes).

The show was opened by Ben Stevenson, former frontman for Our Mercury. I’d picked a few concert photographer’s brains, namely Simon Pollock from Gtvone Photography, for some tips and pointers to shooting and I was glad I did. Even so, I was very disappointed (and somewhat stressed I must admit) when the lights came on for Ben’s portion of the show. The lighting was VERY dim and really not conducive to photography at all! The best I could manage was 1/60s exposures at 2.8 shooting at 3200 ISO (gulp) with the 70-200. After a song and a half I swapped out the lens for my 50mm f/1.8 and was able to get a few crisper shots at 1600 ISO. All in all though, I must say even at the high 3200 ISO the Canon 5D Mark II performed admirably!

Ben Stevenson; 200mm, 1/60s, f/2.8, 3200ISO

After an awesome performance and a short break it was time for Bedouin Soundclash to hit the stage. And boy can they rock the joint!

Being somewhat accustomed to the low lighting in the venue, I started my “first three songs, no flash” shoot of Bedouin Soundclash and frontman Jay Malinowski. Much to my surprise – and satisfaction – the fourth or fifth shot in I was rewarded with a HIGHLY overexposed shot as the intensity of the lights increased. I made a few quick adjustments and continued shooting at 800-1250 ISO with the 70-200 ranging from 1/60s – 1/125s exposures at f/2.8-3.5. Switched over to the 50mm for the third song I was allowed to shoot for a few more quick shots and before I knew it my shooting time was up!

Bedouin Soundclash frontman Jay Malinowski; 100mm, 1/125s, f/2.8, 800ISO

I absolutely loved the shoot, and I really have no gripes about the “three song only” limit – it allowed me to get in, grab some shots and then sit back and enjoy the rest of the show – and what a show it was! You can read the concert review and see a few more photos over at The Edmontonian. My thanks to Sally from The Edmontonian to hooking me up with this gig, and for Simon for his valuable insight into concert photography and helping make my first concert shoot a success.

Jay Malinowski; 50mm, 1/80s, f/1.8, 800ISO

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Going to be a good week for lunch shooting… the annual Works Art & Design Festival is in full swing.

This is Mike Schlosser, the guitarist for Curtis Santiago performing at The Works Street Stage. Be sure to check them out, really dug TKO.

I think this one is my favorite shot from the shoot, Mike noticed I was in for some close shots and was more than willing to give me a few extra poses/looks for a few seconds – kinda made my day! Turned out perfect I think with the guitar in focus and Mike giving attitude slightly out of focus… I used the Urban Acid action on this, think it turned out nicely!

***Older upload, just moving from other account.*** Moved this over today because Mike just hopped on the Twitter bandwagon. If you’re on Twitter and love music, toss him a Twitter follow!

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Wednesday’s lunch hour performance at The Works Art & Design Festival in Edmonton was provided by Dr. Draw. Interesting mix of instruments – electric violin, electric guitar, electric harp, bass, keyboards and drums… was very cool though, lots of energy.

It was a much different shoot – a little harder shooting a band of 6 as opposed to two. Managed to get a few good black and white portraits in the process, and it was fun trying to figure out how to frame the different instruments.

Here’s a video but it really doesn’t do them justice, they need to be seen live to fully appreciate the talent within the group and the energy that the music provides.

Be sure to check out the entire set, twenty photos in all.

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Had the opportunity to shoot Curtis Santiago performing at The Works Street Stage at the annual Works Art & Design Festival in Edmonton, Alberta. Got a few good shots of Curtis and Mike Schlosser, the guitarist.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the set, hope to have the processing done over the next couple days!

I really liked the sound coming out of these two, full of energy and the lyrics and music was great… you could really feel the energy and it was fun to shoot musicians and feeling the transference of some of that energy. What I wouldn’t give to be a full time concert photographer! Be sure to check them out, I really dug TKO and a couple of other tunes.

It’s going to be a good week for lunch shooting…

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