September 24, 2007
Band photography
A few weeks back I put an ad in the back of an English language magazine here offering to take photos of bands for free. As many of you know, I'm slowly putting together a folio of my photography. Photographing musicians seemed a good way to go and so far its been working out really well.
First I did a shoot at the Pink Cow for a female guitarist called Ami, and quickly followed this with a shoot at a much larger charity performance in Shibuya. More recently, I was asked by a young pianist to take photos of her while she played in a hotel bar in Ikebukuro, and then by band to do some portrait shots.
I've found that taking photos at a gig comes fairly naturally - the musicians are performing to an audience so all I really have to concentrate on is getting close enough and balancing the light on people's faces. Promo shots are a little more difficult. Here the musicians are only performing to me, and not always with their instruments. I have to keep talking to the musos-turned-models to get them to play up to the camera and to move into the right poses while at the same time pointing lights, changing lenses and (if its outdoors) making sure my gear doesn't wander off without me. Put simply, its hard work, especially if the weather or passersby aren't cooperating.
Of course, it's also a hell of a lot of fun. Part of that comes from sitting down with the musicians and talking to them about what kind of image they want to project, and throwing around all those fantasy album cover ideas.
To see more of what I've been up to, check out the latest photos on flickr
Posted by Marcus at September 24, 2007 12:01 PM
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