portraits

desert vibes: south mountain park with jane n' the jungle (Phoenix, AZ - 12/16/23)

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When I headed to Phoenix, AZ last month for A R I Z O N A (more on that later), I knew I wanted to take advantage of the desert scenery and do a creative photoshoot with my friend Jordan White, frontwoman of Jane N’ The Jungle. My internet pal Kelly (a Phoenix native, though she was out of town that weekend) suggested heading to South Mountain Park, and Jordan knew just where to go.

Jordan brought a few outfits with her and I was particularly excited about two items: a leopard print hat with a gold chain, and a black jacket covered in fringe. Both made their way into plenty of the photos.

Most of my photography is concerts, which means I need to freeze action, usually in low light. That means: cranking my ISO (translation: potential for grainy photos) and opening up my aperture (translation: potential for out-of-focus photos) so that I don’t have to slow down my shutter speed (which would create the potential for blurry photos). Shooting in bright sunlight is … well, pretty different. Especially when you’re posing someone for portraits - they’re more still so there’s no worry about needing to freeze action with a certain shutter speed.

We had a GORGEOUS day at South Mountain Park - sunny with clear skies around. I actually took these first few shots with flash - a technique I want to play around with more. Lighting my subject with flash means the background will be better exposed. (You ever take a photo of someone outside and the sky just looks blown out, all white? Using flash can prevent that.)

We went for some wider shots next, to show more of the desert around us. Jordan was a great model to work with - she was comfortable in front of the camera and took direction well when I suggested little adjustments to her poses.

I wanted to create images that JNTJ might use on Instagram, so I worked with Jordan to settle on a visual aesthetic that felt right. The promo for their last single, “Cut Me Open”, was high-contrast and largely black and white, so I knew I wanted to do some black and white shots. Take a look at the images below - presented first in color, then in black and white. See how different they feel?

I’d also brought my prism, and wanted to take some closer shots with my aperture all the way at f/1.4. This did make it trickier to nail focus - but it gave a gorgeous blur to the background, and more importantly, made the glass of the prism itself disappear. This way, you see the light reflected by the prism (aka, the cool prism effect) without seeing the prism itself.

While the look below - with the pink/purple tint - wasn’t ultimately Jordan’s favorite, I did want to include a few photos with this look, because it is something that feels very representative of my style as a photographer.

I wanted a few wider shots involving the prism - and I’m obsessed with how the first shot shows the prism reflecting an outline of Jordan holding the hat. The entire time I shot with the prism, I kept rotating it and moving it around - in photos 2 and 3, Jordan is in almost the same pose, but the light hits her face and hair in a different way, giving a different emphasis to the images. Oh, and again - take a look at this photoset in color, then in black and white; what do the images evoke in each variation?

That fringed jacket Jordan’s rocking in the photos above was simply begging for an epic, “walk down the lonely desert road” shot like this (and a moody image like this begged to be in black and white).

And because I love a cactus… here’s Jordan next to a beautiful, giant saguaro cactus. (In my mind, a saguaro was like, 6 or 7 feet tall. Mayyybe 8 feet… apparently, they average around 40 feet tall!)

I don’t often turn the camera around on myself - but I had fun doing it this time and letting Jordan take a few photos of me. Maybe I’ll have to get my picture taken more often. For the photos of myself, I went with a “warm desert sun” vibe. (Wait, can we talk about the light hitting my pink hair?)

And of course, I had to pose next to the big cactus, too.

I grabbed some photos of the scenery, too. I don’t do much landscape photography - but it was fun thinking about what to capture and what story I wanted to tell without a person in the frame. I’d definitely love to come back to South Mountain Park or anywhere else in Arizona, really - so many cool photo opps.

cinders: portraits

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Back in July, I took the train down to Anaheim to see Family Thief, a singer-songwriter I’ve been listening to for a decade (no, really: he put out a split EP with Forever Came Calling in 2013 that I loved from the first time I heard it). He was playing the side room at the House of Blues, and one of the opening acts was a band called Cinders.

Cinders are from Salt Lake City. They’re an indie band and one of my first thoughts was that they were weird. Weird in a Walk The Moon way: when Cinders take the stage, they’re throwing a party - and you’re invited. Yes, you. What, you don’t know the words? No worries: you will soon enough. They hold up signs to help you sing along. Safe to say, I was hooked, so when I saw they’d be coming to Los Angeles (or if we’re being technical, West Hollywood) in early September I reached out to set up a portrait shoot. (Unfortunately, I ended up missing the actual show due to a migraine attack - ugh. Next time!)

I met Montana (vocals/guitar), Adrian (bass), and Brad (drums) behind the Troubadour, where they all got ready and we chatted a bit. Montana, Adrian, and Brad all told me they do well with a lot of direction and cues - so with that in mind, we headed to our first shooting location: a staircase right out back.

I had a lot of fun posing Cinders. They took direction really well but they also let their personalities shine through - and I appreciated that they wanted to keep some of the “silly” photos I got where they all goofed off. I love those moments (like Brad showing off his socks in the final photo in the grid below) - they feel like the best way to really give a window into who an artist is.

Next, we headed to a park right across the street (and, I came to realize, right on the border of WeHo and Beverly Hills). There were a lot of park benches and trees, which I thought would make for good posing opportunities.

We weren’t the only ones who had come to the park: as we were situated on somewhat of an incline, several skateboarders rolled past and photobombed. Just after the skateboarders passed, some of the members of Sub-Radio walked by, and Cinders uh… gave some greetings.

Before we wrapped, I had time to take a few more photos of each member individually. The light on this day was a little tougher than I’d anticipated - so I was super glad I’d thought to use flash (seriously, daytime outdoor flash = my favorite tool for portraits right now).

I really enjoyed doing this shoot with Cinders - and I’m really hoping they come back to the LA area soon so I’ll get a chance to photograph them live!

gavin magnus: portraits

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Last Friday, I got an invite to see Gavin Magnus - a musician and viral content creator (he’s big on TikTok and Instagram as well as YouTube - where he’s been making videos for over six years!) perform at The Noise Nest. The Noise Nest is a recording studio located in Hollywood - and I can never pass up a chance to nerd out at a recording studio!

The Noise Nest was hosting a UFC viewing event, and Gavin was performing. It was his first performance since signing to Big Noise Music Group. I arrived just after 7pm, where I met up with Gavin and his manager to take a few portraits.

I started off by having him pose in front of this wall - I was digging the greenery and how it contrasted with the color of the wall itself. We took a few photos horizontal - but I ended up switching to vertical pretty quickly.

I love these vertical shots. It’s no surprise considering his history creating content and entertaining people - but Gavin was great at working the camera.

Adjacent to the first wall was… this wall with the Big Noise logo! I couldn’t miss this photo op.

I didn’t even think about this till I was editing later - but Gavin was wearing a black shirt, posing against a black background. I had brought my flash and even set it up - but didn’t end up using it. I’m not really sure why? I really like how the colors in these photos ended up though so I think it worked as-is!

When it came to editing these, I flipped through some old pre-sets I’d created - settling on one I’d used for an indoor portrait shoot a few years ago, and adjusting slightly. I did have to change the settings a bit when it came to the photos in front of the Big Noise logo; I decided I’d rather have my images look consistent, than stick to having the settings be consistent.

Gavin put on a short-but-sweet, highly energetic performance - including a new song that’ll be coming out soon. He’s definitely an artist to keep your eye on. I’m pretty excited to hear what he does next - and hope to shoot with him again soon!

chase petra: portraits

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I mentioned in my last post that I’d taken some portraits of Chase Petra. Well, here those are!

I took an early bus so I had time for two important tasks before the show: one, pick up some extra AA batteries for my flash; two, scout out some potential locations for portraits. I wanted locations with interesting backgrounds and good light, so I snapped some photos on my phone of spots I wanted to hit. When I met up with Hunter (lead vocals, guitar in Chase Petra), our first spot was in front of a Thai restaurant across from the venue. It wasn’t somewhere I’d originally scouted - but this mosaic background was something I couldn’t say no to.

Up next, we headed to a mural I’d spotted when walking around. Part of the mural was shaded and part was hit by direct sunlight; I played around with my flash to get the correct exposure for my subject (Hunter). Later, in editing, I still had some careful work to do to get things just right. I wanted to make sure to show detail in the white dress Hunter was wearing, while not underexposing everything else.

The last spot Hunter and I went to was an ivy-covered wall around the corner from the venue. I grabbed some shots of her sitting, and switched out my lens to my 50mm/1.4 for the close-ups. I liked both color and black-and-white for these shots; if you look closely, you’ll notice that I didn’t just turn the color image to black-and-white. I wanted a higher-contrast image for black-and-white, with darker blacks and a sharper feel; I wanted the color version to feel softer and almost pastel.

While Hunter went to soundcheck with the rest of the band, I headed to the pizza place next to the venue to grab some dinner. It was a nice vegan slice (the tomato sauce was really fresh and flavorful) - but I honestly wish I’d gotten another slice. I was still a little hungry after!

I reconvened with Hunter and Chase Petra guitarist Genevieve a little while later and we headed to what ended up being my favorite spot: a bank down the block. The reflections in the windows proved tricky to edit; I cleaned them up where I felt the images in the reflections were distracting, but in some cases I left them be. We shot at two different sides of the building to experiment with the light.


As we were about to head back to the venue, I grabbed these last few shots, trying to take advantage of the golden hour light. I like the contrast and simplicity of the black-and-white, but the light really shines in the color shots.