Here's a few things that I've had in the vault for a couple weeks just waiting for the right time to drop.

It's Friday so hopefully you've got big plans for the weekend. Go to the beach if it's not too cold and crappy in your area, go to a concert, go camping, whatever............enjoy it.

I recently shot a TV on the Radio show for LiveNation. I have shot some live performances before but this is the first real official one. Press pass, the whole nine yards. When shooting live shows you are generally restricted to shooting the first three songs only. No flash. The stage lighting is usually bright enough and you can definitely get some dramatic images depending on the performer(s). It's not rocket science and you're not inventing the wheel but you have to be quick and have a gameplan. Those three songs go by quickly. I'm shooting Broken Social Scene this Saturday for LiveNation again so I'll post those shots a little later. Here's a few samples from the TVOTR show.

Get there early and scope the venue. Get a gameplan. Maybe an adult beverage.

 

The Commodore Ballroom is a tough space for angles. The don't have a "pit" (area in front of the stage reserved for photographers). Luckily my friends had a booth sidestage so I was able to steady my long lens for this shot.

This is a close as I could get sidestage right beside the giant speakers. Need to remember earplugs next time.

 

This is a shot from backstage. I got yelled at for taking this shot by the bands stage manager and quickly left the scene so as not to get my credentials taken away. Oddly enough this is the shot they used on the Live Nation site.

A full house. Shot from the balcony.

Next up is a couple animated gif's/timelapses from the KNOW?MAG shoot a couple weeks ago

I made these as an afterthought during the shoot. When the art director and stylist were putting the products in place and taking them down I thought it would be cool to shoot and create this timelapse. The idea sort of came about half way through so it's not complete from start to finish but still you can see how much tinkering and tweaking is done by the AD and stylist to get everything in the perfect position and arrangement. We did four set ups in total and it took the entire day.

A day at the beach................

 

What to bring for a music festival/outdoor concert.......

 

 

And now last but not least......................a cover shot of SNOWBOARD Magazine! This time it's Devun Walsh and once again it's the Whistler Backcountry. There will be a huge 15 page feature interview with Devun and Iikka Backstrom so keep your eyes out for that issue.

 

 

I was in California all last week working with DC on some image selection and ad campaign stuff. There wasn't really much time to shoot photos but I was lucky enough to get some very small but fun waves.  And then this morning I came across this surf/skate inspired little video from Animal Collective, a band I like to listen to when I'm working on photos or video projects.



I also came across this video from Broken Social Scene via the Timebomb newsletter (originally posted on Pitchfork). It's very politically charged and visually chaotic and matches the song really well. The riot footage from the recent G20 in my hometown of Toronto is really intense and matched with some random pop culture and funny clips. Definitely worth a look (even if you're not a fan of BSS).

It is the season for road trips. Long drives. Hot days. Cold Beers. Dirty bare feet in the earth kind of outings. Summer is right around the corner and we will all be planning our getaways to our favourites spots and newly uncovered gems. So in that vein, I have a few road trip pictorials for you over the next few days before I hit the road again for my season ending annual pilgrimage to Superpark and Southern California.

For the last 24 hours I have had Broken Social Scene’s new album “Forgiveness Rock Record” on heavy rotation. It’s amazing and reminds me of an epic road trip from the fall of 2007 when I lucked out and spent 3 days on the road with Kevin Drew and members of Broken Social Scene. My good friend Rube Goldberg’s brother Sammy is a member of BSS and Rube was helping the band out with various jobs on that tour. I saw them in Vancouver with Rube and before I knew it the next day I was driving in my truck to their shows in Seattle and Portland with Rube. They were basically cool as shit and let me shoot some photos during the Seattle and Portland shows and we got really drunk a few times. Road trips. Good times.