the headstones
I met with Hugh at the end of January. He asked if I could do a shoot of the Headstones because they'd gotten back together to do a few gigs. I would have to shoot at the rehearsal space, so I decided to scout the location a few days beforehand. The space was big, but the walls were bright orange and not what I had in mind for the final image of the band. I’ve photographed Hugh a number of times over the last couple of years and had some shots of different locations that we never got a chance to use, so I decided I would drop in the background in post for one of the images.
I worked on a few of the background files the day before, altered them to make the location more unique, and had them ready for the shoot the following day.
I set up while the band was practicing. They sounded amazing. You would never have been able to tell they hadn’t been together in 7 or 8 years.
This is one of the live shots that was taken at the Sound Academy show on February 5th.
not posting stuff
I started this blog a while back and I’ve been terrible at keeping it updated. I might have to change this to a format that’s a little easier to work with. I have a lot of catching up to do and writing is not one of my strong points. I tend to avoid doing it as much as possible. In fact I’ve been so bad at keeping this blog updated, the Millwinders shoot happened in July of 2010 and I have lots to post since it’s now February 1st 2011!
the millwinders
I’ve been working on a documentary on rockabilly for sometime now and didn’t realise I was actually doing it until I was a good way into it and that’s how I ended up shooting this job. A while back I got a call from James Henry who use to be in another Toronto band The Royal Crowns. He had been away for a few years working overseas and eventually moved back to Canada and started a new band called the Millwinders. I like to get out to see them as much as I can.
The Millwinders are:
James Henry- Guitar/Vocals
Sarah Butler- Bass/Vocals
Johnny Gallagher-Guitar
Glenn Kimberly-Drums
gord downie
I was in a paint shop in February with a friend of mine and my phone rang. It was Gord Downie’s manager asking me if we could meet about shooting his next solo project. I was pretty thrilled to get that call.
We met up the following week for coffee to talk about his CD and my ideas for the shoot. The new album was to be called “The Grand Bounce”, set for release in the spring. Gord wanted to give me the freedom to create and simply incorporate him into how I shoot my own personal work. It was a dream job for me in many ways.
When I work with an artist, I spend a lot of time listening to their music, which inspires my own ideas. I start to see images that I hope will be a visual representation of that artists’ music. I always try to work this way and it has been part of my creative process ever since being old enough to get into bars and shooting bands when I lived in Halifax.
For most of the shoot, it was just Gord and I working together with no crew and very little equipment. We would just hop in his van and travel around the city discovering locations and the whole shoot was done in just a few days.
ramona
I had a quick shoot to do with local Toronto indie band Ramona. The location was actually the back room of my friends framing shop and gallery it was being renovated and if the timing wasn’t right I would have lost the location, the floors where about to be re done and walls painted. I often find you have to move quickly with locations. Toronto seems to be so fluid these days if you find something your really like you have to shoot or it will be gone, most likely a condo will be there next week.
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hugh dillon
I've shot Hugh a number of times of the past few years the first shots where of his band “the Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir” it took me a solid 2 days to find the right place, locations can be as important as the subject and it often takes longer to find the right place then it does to actually take the photos although that’s all part of the finished image. I did a number of individual shots a while later that were used in magazines.
Hugh approached me to shoot his CD packaging and I was really happy to actually be shooting his next project. He is extremely busy these days and time is a premium with 2 TV shows Flashpoint and Durham County + the music there is not much time and I had to get the thing shot in 2-3 hours, it was crazy I had a gel on one of my strobes catch fire, someone said hey is that thing suppose to be on fire, so much for heat resistant gels!
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