LIVAN (and Alice Cooper)

On Tuesday, my boyfriend Damien and I went to The Hard Rock Cafe to see a band.  This isn't really unusual, as we met when his band, Sick Twisted Debauchery, played at The Fallout Shelter.  So anyway, Tuesday we go to see this band, LIVAN, that we saw open for Alice Cooper over the summer.  We were both really impressed and when we heard they were coming to Pittsburgh again had to go.  Not gonna lie, slightly disappointed in the turnout - there were MAYBE 30 people there and most came to eat or were groupies of a local opener.  It was still an awesome show though, and I was psyched because I got to try out the lens I'd just gotten the night before - 85mm prime, f1.4, manual focus.  I'm kind of in love with it.

I mean, look at this.  Seriously, click on the picture and make it bigger.  It's freaking sweet and I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to manually focus with that shallow depth of field.  This, by the way, is Livan, who is really cool and nice.  More on that later, first some pictures of his drummer, Seven.  Watching him is the most fun I've ever had watching a drummer and he may be my new favorite (sorry, Rick-O).

I'm quite pleased with the results.  So, after the show, Damien and I go to tell Livan it was a good show and we specifically came out to see him.  Ended up talking to him for....I don't know, I'm terrible with time, probably 20 minutes at least.  We talked about music and I showed him some of these photo on the back of my camera and he seemed fairly impressed.  After a bit someone else came over so we went to the merch stand.  Damien got a shirt, I got a CD, we chatted with Ash the merch guy.  Then Livan comes back over to us, asks how far we are from Erie (about 2 hours) and if we want to come out on Saturday, he's opening for Alice Cooper and will put us on the guest list.  This sounds ridiculously fun so of course we agree and on Saturday drive up to Erie.

Just a quick note - while in Erie, there's this thing called a cocoa cafe that has some the best hot chocolate EVER.  Try it.

The show was at the Warner Theater, where we had never been before.  We arrived just as Livan was going on stage and because he had invited us I was able to bring my camera in.  85mm again and MUCH harder to focus from the seating.  I went up closer to the stage for awhile during his set and got some pretty great shots.

You can't see his mic stand too well here, but it's amazing.  Mechanical, with removable parts and goes up and down.  Super impressive and when we saw Livan over summer I think Damien wanted one for Christmas....

So, let's see...I'm really interested in the top photo in this set because it breaks a ton of rules but still works.  Maybe because he's facing out of the frame but the lights on the other side make you look at them too.  I'm fond of it.  Next one down has guitarist, Will, who wrote "Black Cherry" a song of theirs I really like, then Seven, then Anna.

I also took a couple shots of Alice Cooper from my seat, and my favorite is below.

Hi Alice!  You're a legend and 40 years ago the first rock show my dad ever went to was to see you.  (My first concert was Spice Girls.  It was awesome.)

After the show we went and hung out with Livan, Will and a couple other girls from Pittsburgh for a few hours in the tour bus.  We talked about politics, religion, different world views (Livan is from Greece and England), crowd responses at shows, all kinds of things.  It was really interesting because I don't normally have that kind of conversation very often but it was definitely thought provoking.  I'm also really terrible at talking to people for extended periods of time but this conversation was all very natural and relaxed.  It was awesome and can't wait for next time!

September

I've been meaning to update for three weeks now!  It's been a crazy month, and October is sure to be too.  Let's see....on September 3rd, I photographed Rick and Lisa's wedding - it was at Shakespeare's, this beautiful castle restaurant/gold course out near Ellwood city.  It was a small and sweet wedding.

That same weekend my friend Sherry came in from New Jersey to celebrate our 24th birthdays!  Hers is September 4th and mine is the 5th.  On the 4th we went with some of my friends from River Runs Scarlet to go see Evolove in Cleveland.  RRS opened for Evolove when we were in LA last summer, so it was great to see them again!

A week after my birthday, I moved.  Only about a mile away, but this means I currently do not have studio space, so shoots are all being conducted on location (studio shoots in people's living rooms, that sort of thing).  Luckily my entire set-up fits in my car and I just bought a portable power pack for my lights AND, yesterday, another light (thank you, Shannon!).  Neither of the new things have been used yet and I must admit I'm getting a bit antsy.

Let's see.....what else have I done this month?  ADORABLE pictures of a little boy named Nathan!  His mommy is in Afghanistan, so his aunt wanted photos taken of him.  In this one, he's holding his mother's dog tags.

I need to do more photos of children, they're so fun.

Yesterday I had a senior portrait shoot with my friend Elizabeth, but she's going to get her own post tomorrow.  I have a few more senior shoots coming up within the next few weeks, as well as a wedding, headshots and a band shoot!  Busy busy busy.

Verona Rock in the Park for BarSmart

About two years ago, I did some freelance work for a website called BarSmart.  It's a pretty cool site, so when founder Paul emailed me earlier this week asking if I could shoot at a concert for him, I was all about it.  Despite being there for 4 hours, I only photographed two bands - Sunday Morning (a No Doubt tribute band I did promos for last summer) and a set featuring Billy Sheehan and Reb Beach.  They were ridiculously awesome.

I got there, hung out with Sunday Morning for a bit, met another photographer named Wes, and took pictures.  Sunday Morning rocks at what they do, and they're all over the stage, which makes for a super fun show.

And then....it started raining.  The band took it quite well, and continued playing.  The horn player, Steve, is pretty much my hero - he got a woman in the audience to give him an umbrella to cover his laptop.  Once a tent was rigged to protect the back part of the stage, Steve started running around, giving the other band members momentary shelter under the umbrella.  One of the best moments at a concert ever.

 Rain slowed as Sunday Morning was finishing up, but keyboardist Mary Beth, who is a model of mine, and I went to my car to acquire umbrellas because we knew it wasn't going to hold off.  We were right.  It rained.  A lot.  Of course, it's hard to hold an umbrella while shooting, so I kind of gave up after awhile, especially since the crowd was huge.  Like I said before, the guitarist and bassist are pretty well-known, but the I think the singer and drummer are local.

As you can see, it's raining.  I was impressed that they didn't cancel - everyone was real troopers.

Beer might have helped.

Yeah, it was awesome.  I mean, I was completely drenched, and could not wait to drive the hour home and put on dry clothes, but it was a great show, and the rain made for interesting photos.  I'm happy.