Ben and Bob at Ragged Records in Davenport prepare for Record Store Day.
Looking over a Daytrotter offering sold specifically in their shop.
Writing a press release about said Daytrotter offering. Aaaaand, finally, my favorite. Ben being a boss.
Latest
The Last Glimpse
I adore shooting this band.
Dayne Burton never never never looks into the light for me, so I’m especially proud of this one.
Healing Power
A local band called Healing Power had their first gig at Rozz Tox in Rock Island last month. I hadn’t been to the club yet, so I thought I’d check it out. The show was fantastic.
The making of a bout poster
Mondo K.O., Cap’n Tate and I hung out at Skate City in East Moline, Ill., this evening taking pictures for the upcoming Quad-City Rollers bout. Here are a few of the lighting test shots that I took.
Tate kindly held a flash for me until the batteries ran out. Good man.
The as of yet unnamed
Some friends of mine have been playing together for a few months here in Davenport. They’re like the home band for Boozies in downtown and they’re at every open mic night on Wednesdays. If you show up to the bar during the rest of the week you’re likely to catch them practicing upstairs, singing to an empty room and scattered beer pitchers. It’s pretty fantastic.
Update: My sources say the band is either the “Inappropriate Bastards” or the “Arrogant Bastards”
Moline
I had one of those moments about a week ago where you pass something you think would make a great photo and tell yourself that you’ll come back later. Then I remembered how often I do that and how few times I actually go back to photograph the thing that caught my eye. So, I stopped and by the time I did, the sun had positioned itself rather fortuitously in the sky, so here it is.
The Skunk River Navy
A few years ago during my time at The Iowa State Daily, I wandered down the Skunk River with a group of biology students that do an annual clean-up. It was both eye-opening and thrilling as there were several occasions where I had to swim with my camera held above my head.
It also happened to be one of those times where I wrote the story to go along with the photo. You can find the text here http://bit.ly/Ab0CJP
While you’re at it, poke around the ISDaily’s site a little bit, easily the best training I got to be a journalist. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have paid that much for my degree…
Waterloo part deux
Here are the rest of the photos from the set I took of The Last Glimpse as well as a few from the other bands who played.
In going over this set I realize I was apparently seeing in shades of red and blue for most of the night.
I am at loathe to crop my photos. I really just hate doing it. However, my boss at the Times insists that the viewer shouldn’t have to suffer just because your framing sucks. So, crop it down to where you should have been standing when you took the photo. In my head, a wonkily cropped photo is a testament to the fact that the photographer is an idiot. So, there you go. The above photo shows that I’m an idiot. But, I like it anyway. Full disclosure: Since I had to crop it so much, I went ahead and got rid of a microphone jutting out in the upper left portion of the photo as well. I figured, why not make it look better since I’m already cropping it so ridiculously.
I am fortunate that Jeff is so tolerant of me making photographs of his face doing funny things.
I caught a ride with Steven and Jeff in the gear van instead of driving on my own. In the middle of a junk food fest (I’m a sucker for Ruffles and use every road trip of more than 50 miles as a reason to eat them) we had a discussion about the nature of friendship and relationships. It was the best kind of long drive with a relative stranger.
The next couple are of a punk band called No Coast Criminal that played right after The Last Glimpse.
I swear there are more audience members with cameras then there are bodies dancing.
These are of a band called Dark Mirror.
At least he was using an actual lighter and not an iPhone app or something.
Aaaaaand finally, these are the verticals. They’re relegated to the bottom because they don’t display well next to the horizontals.. jerks.
The Glimpse in Waterloo
My camera is being repaired. It has been gone for weeks. I’m almost positive that I’m displaying classic symptoms of depression. Fact. My friend Jeff Loder understands. He and some friends were playing in Waterloo, Iowa a few weekends ago and Jeff offered up both his 5dMkII and his goodie bag of lenses for my use if I’d come shoot them playing.
It was like finding an oasis in the desert. (I fully realize I’m being dramatic here, but you try hearing sirens every few minutes in Davenport and knowing that if you respond you’ll have to make due without your camera…ugh).
So.. here is the first installment in my photos of The Last Glimpse show.
Commercial stuff.. sort of
I shot these quite some time ago for Max Muscle magazine. We had a (tiny) argument about compensation so they ended up going with a photographer who didn’t mind working for no pay, but I still have these photos. They’re one of my first expirements with light outdoors because I usually rely on natural light.
This is the other Derby-related photo that I took for the assignment.
