Weddings! Even more fun when it’s family!
My brother and his bride, Melissa, finally tied the knot this weekend, and, not gonna lie, they’re pretty adorbz. While I wasn’t the ‘official’ photog, I still got off a few great shots, and so welcome to my family, folks, cause here they are:
Right about here, halfway down the aisle, Melissa looked up and realized that instead of khakis and whatever had been previously planned, Andy was wearing a sharp tux. 
Butterfly releases are a little more successful in warmer weather, we think:
“Let’s just hide under here for a while, ok?”
Dancing with my father - she’s one of the family already!
Loved:
Ok, day two!
Who’s ready for some more metal?
I got called in yesterday afternoon to cover a shift, and spent my afternoon at the Dot Com Stage in the Austin Convention Center. Saw some pretty excellent music. I guess that’s the benefit of shooting this festival - finding new bands and becoming a super fan.
Anyway, here’s one of Neon Hitch. This girl had a serious Gaga quality about her, but it had a twist. I’m interested to see where she goes in the next few years. I can definitely see them succeeding.
Then I hopped over to the Ale House for my evening shows. I’m not a metal girl, but for the most part, at least it was good metal. My main focus was supposed to be Daniel Lioneye. Turns out, this is a metal band I could see myself getting behind:
And, as a special guest, Peter Murphy played an acoustic set. That’s pretty rad.
Off tonight to work the Palm Door!
It dawned on me today, as my friend and coworker, Julie-Anne was talking about her experiences in theater as an actor. She said, “The humanity comes from the actor. The director can’t do that, the stage manager can’t do that, the designer and the sound can’t do that. The actor humanizes it.”
That’s what I love. I love capturing those moments when the actor is humanized, channeling the words and directions in the script in a way that defies what most of us are able to do with our bodies, minds and voices. Similarly in music, when most people are bobbing to the beat, the musician is experiencing something completely different.
As I am formerly - and formally - acquainted with performing, I know what this means. Not to give too much trumpeting to myself, but I believe I can recognize it in others. And those with whom I’ve worked in photography can likely attest to that.
Fever Chart has opened at Central Square Theater, and will run through December 19th. Starring a cast of Ken Baltin, Dan Shaked, Ibrahim Miari, Harry Hobbs, Miaria Silverman and Najla Said, this performance certainly gives us much to think about, in terms of humanity.
I hope that the images I’ve pulled for you show such things.
My tenure as resident photographer at Central Square Theater has finally come back around to being forefront (as much as I love the music gigs, the kinds of bands I run with can’t usually pay much).
Later this month, CST will be presenting Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East. I’m intrigued by this show, and based on the scene runs I saw yesterday, it should be great. All the actors have great chemistry together, which is something I love to see when shooting three weeks out from the final dress.
As per usual, we were in CST’s studio theater, which has notoriously bad lighting unless it’s set for a show. I basically get house lights and canisters, and those aren’t flattering at all, ever, namely in the shadowed faces under the awkward spacing of lights. I often deal with extremes in this space, because the lighting is so spotty. Images are usually overexposed or underexposed, and if they’ve not got exposure issues, you’d best pray that you captured the right moment, cause that’s what you’ve got.
Still, we did the best we could.
A Moon for the Misbegotten started at Central Square Theater Thursday night - and plays through November 7!
McAlister Drive rocked out at Collegefest 2010 to the tune of a couple thousand college kids. Luckily, I got to tag along. Unluckily, I can only upload ten images at a time. Look for more soon!
Don’t forget to check out McAlister Drive’s most recent EP, Missing Figures, on iTunes.
Also, check out their official Facebook page - my photo from the show is featured as their profile image! Nice!
It’s funny that when you’re a photographer for so long, you forget how to not see everything as if you’re looking through the lens.
The other night, the Annie McCue Band played at Johnny D’s in Davis Square. I was there, cause they were featuring Jess Leary, a singer-songwriter I had heard of when I was little. Can you believe I was still alive when there were cassette tapes? TAPES!
I brought my camera - just “in case” - and ended up shooting from my seat in a booth on the house left corner in the back. The lighting is ok, not great, but better than some places I’ve been. All in all, maybe not the ideal place for shooting, but I managed to get off a few decent ones. Bonus is that Johnny D’s apparently doesn’t have a camera policy.
Anyway, here they are:
Apologies if I seem scattered lately - summer certainly has been interesting!
I was introduced to the style of McAlister Drive when they played with Living Syndication two years ago, when I was just a baby photog. I did actually take photos of them that night - I just can’t find them. (But the intricacies of digital storage and it’s pitfalls is a topic for another time. Ahem.)
Anyway, after seeing McAlister Drive play at a few other events in the area, I started to dig their sound. They’ve just put new EP out, and so they partied at the Hard Rock, like ya do.
Since I’ve shot at the Hard Rock before, I know how to sweet talk the security guys into letting me run around as much as I can - but even that doesn’t help that the pit is pretty much at only the corners of the stage, and the ramp up to the raised platform that is stage left. But at least the lighting is at least kind of interesting and workable. I shot for MD a few weeks before at Tommy Doyle’s in Cambridge, and, well, it was pretty much disastrous.
On to photos! As a former musician with orthopedic issues that prevent me from playing well these days, I find musician’s hands fascinating - just in case you’re wondering why with the up close frames of hands, fingers, and instruments.
Check out McAlister Drive’s new EP, “Missing Figures” on iTunes!
Ack - I’m behind again!
Reviews have come out for Hound of the Baskervilles, and I’ve just been to busy to post:
Central Square Blog (ok, it’s a repost of the review from the Globe, but still!)
Hound of the Baskervilles plays through August 22 - and if you join the Central Square Theater Facebook Page, I’m fairly sure there are discount tickets available!
This wasn’t a typical shoot for me - usually, I attend the final dress rehearsal and shoot the entire time. This time, however, I attended the dress on Tuesday, where we selected a few key scenes. Then last night, we did a few set-ups, ran some lines from said key scenes, and that was that. It was a little refreshing to change it up like that.
These guys are hilarious. The three of them easily shift between 16 characters, cracking puns all along. I had worked with Remo for the preview photos, so I knew he was expressive, but the other two really help round out the show.
The Hound of the Baskervilles started tonight at Central Square Theater, and plays through August 22.
