Saturday, February 20, 2010
Scenes from Rock & Wrestling at Bottom Lounge. February 19, 2010. Chicago. I chose to shoot this event for The Chicago Reader for two reasons. 1) there was wrestling involved, which sounded interesting and photogenic and 2) Cougars were playing and I’m a fan of theirs. In those regards, the show was great and I got some nice images out of it. Unfortunately, there was next to nobody there so any chance of getting a nice balanced set of photos for print in The Reader was impossible. So it goes.
As far as the wrestling photos go: I set up a strobe off to one side of the ring and used that, along with some very hit or miss spotlights they were using, as my light source. The last few shots might’ve also been aided by an additional hand held flash. I forget. It was a fun experience and I’d love to shoot more wrestling-like events in the future.
Scenes from the Illinois Democratic Primary Election with current Governor Pat Quinn campaigning for re-election. February 2, 2010. Chicago. I had the privilege of documenting a good portion of the Governor’s day, from casting his own ballot in the morning to his victory speech at night. It turned out to be a close race between Quinn and candidate Dan Hynes, with no clear winner the night of the election. It was, for me, an introduction into the world of political photojournalism. I’d been wanting to get more involved in this field for a while, so shooting a governor was a great experience and gave me some insight into this world. Much like any field, you will find plenty of crazy people who are so entrenched into the scene that they come off as maniacs to an outsider such as myself. I was more taken, however, by the general generosity and drive possessed by most of the people I encountered, namely the dozens of people behind the scenes, volunteering their time to help a candidate they believe in. Quinn himself came off as a very genuine and likable guy, not so much like a typical politician we’ve all become accustomed to. Our stop at Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s office was also inviting. Taking a break from “Da War Room” campaign responsibilities, Jesse offered us food and drinks and insisted we heat up the pizzas in his microwave. The majority of the politicians and staff I encountered all day left a positive mark on me and gave me a sense of optimism that perhaps there really are quite a few people out there dedicating their lives more to serving the people and less to serving their own self interests.
Time will tell if these initial insights are at all accurate in the big scope of things. Hopefully I will have more opportunities in the future to be a part of the political scene here in Chicago and elsewhere.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Scenes from Every Drop Counts, the hiphop benefit for Haiti relief at Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago. January 31, 2010.
Shooting live music is usually fun but also challenging. Unpredictable shooting conditions make it hard to plan and this show was no exception. I set up a few strobes tucked away on stage and linked them to my camera via pocket wizards. It was very exciting since I have yet to utilize this setup in a live concert situation before. While great in theory, it didn’t quite pan out as planned since I was mostly unable to shoot from in front of the artists because the crowd was too thick and impossible to fight thru all night long. Regardless, they did come in handy and make for some fun light, along with a little assist here and there from some of the countless other cameras snapping away all night long. All photos taken on a Canon 5D w/ 24mm f1.4 lens, no on camera flash, multiple off-camera strobes used in some shots.
Posted in music, photos | Tagged: bbu, chuck inglish, dj izzo, he say she say. glc, hiphop, hollywood holt, jean grae, kids these days, mano, mic terror, rhymefest, the cool kids
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Came up with this idea while slightly drunk on Tecate. Hire me.
PS- can anyone fluent in Spanish verify the translation of ‘dinner is served’ ?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Scenes from Kevin & Kho’s wedding day. August 22, 2009. Outside Knoxville, TN. Kho was my roommate for a few years in Chicago, so I was honored to shoot her wedding down in the rural countryside of Tennessee. It’s safe to say we had a pretty damn good time.
I shot this for the Voyeur section in the December issue of CS. It was rather difficult considering the room conditions & candid nature of what we were trying to accomplish, but aside from a little more motion blur on the foreground subjects than I would’ve liked to have, I think it turned out nice.
It’s amazing how much cooler a photo looks when it’s printed in a magazine opposed to being viewed on a 15-inch MacBook screen.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I bought myself a new camera for Christmas. My main thought was that I wanted something small and simple. I’ve had numerous Yashica T4s over the years, and I’ve always loved that camera. Unfortunately, I also ended up losing them all the time and finding a replacement was a timely and sometimes expensive endeavor (they would usually go for $5 in a thrift store–which was a rare find, or else a few hundred on ebay). My second thought was to get a nicer 35mm body, maybe one of the Contax bodies (check out some of the stuff Bronques does with them over on lastnightsparty in any of his ‘drive by’ series). They are remarkable cameras, and if money was no object for me I’d have a half dozen of them next to me as I type this. Unfortunately, spending a thousand dollars on a camera body, in addition to endless film and processing was not really in my ideal budget range.
Fast forward to December. Before doing any research, I discovered the Canon s90 at a Best Buy and almost bought it on the spot. It’s small, sleek, has manual options and also a pretty fast lens. It’s kind of like a point-and-shoot for people who actually know what’s going on inside the camera. After some thinking and internet research, I was swayed over to the Panasonic GF1, which is a little bigger but also has the ability to use different lenses. It’s in the new breed of “micro four thirds” cameras that seem to be getting fairly popular these days. Think of them as an SLR but without the mirror and with a smaller censor. Because of this, you can manage a much smaller camera size, however, there is no built in viewfinder so you have to use the LCD screen (unless you buy an add-on digital viewfinder). The image quality is also not as good as a larger SLR, especially at high ISO (I try not to go over 250) and there is a short wait from the time you hit the shutter button to when the photo is taken, which is probably my biggest complaint. All negatives aside, it’s still a great little camera for bringing out wherever I go. Check out the photos below, or see the entire gallery of shots. Keep in mind, all these images have been run thru photoshop actions to give them that analog look. Faux Analog, that is. They are also all shot with the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens.
More to come, once I figure out what this camera is capable of…
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Scenes from various Halloween parties in Chicago. October 28-31, 2009. I know the season is way off, but I’m still un-burying myself from month’s worth of photos I wanted to post. My pre-New Year’s Resolution is to be all caught up by the start of 2010, at which point there will be no more Halloween photos posted on Christmas.
by clayton
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