God today was fun! Haha!
Highlights...
1. My assistant Rian sliced his hand wide open on a knife in his car before we even got started.
2. Coming up with the idea of getting "curb stomped" for the shoot at the last minute
3. Turning my living room into a really functional studio!
4. Getting to use Rian's 5D. I MUST GET A NEW CAMERA!
5. Booking them for another shoot in a month.

It was probably the most fun I think I've ever had on a shoot.
Here are some ridiculous behind the scenes





Yes, Bryce is sitting on me in that picture, but the shot I got is hilarious!

How I achieve my "style": a rant
I've been getting a lot of e-mail lately asking how I post process my images because the writer "is trying to achieve the same look".
Think about that statement before you ask me this question. How about you tinker around with the CS4 suite you just pirated off the internet for a few hours, heck a few days! I am extremely protective of my post process for the following reasons...
1. I went to school for six years (YES SIX) five of which were spent in photography and graphic design. I am now roughly $22,000 in debt from it. However, I learned 90% of everything I know about photography in school. If you ask my advice, I will tell you to also go to school.
2. I gained another $20,000 in debt moving to LA after car breakdowns and the purchase of a 2005 Corolla. I don't have another job, I am a photographer, I make money to feed myself off of photography.
3. If I have a "style" most of it comes from lighting. Something that takes a hell of a lot of practice to get right. You can photoshop a good picture and make it great, but you can't photoshop crap into a diamond. Learn to take good pictures before you learn photoshop, and you won't have anything to worry about. Look at Tyler Shields, he kicks my ass and barely touches his images in post!
So! There you have it. Sorry I'm not being helpful, but I have to pay rent this month.
Oh and I know someone out there is going to flame this post because they kick ass and never went to school... well I did, I'm in debt so you win.

This is almost a year old, but I just found it again on youtube...
Goodnight Sunrise cover Wyclef

I love my adopted little brothers!

I stumbled upon a fantastic blog! Fashion Photography Blog covers everything from agents, to working with art directors, to portfolio cases, all with great links! It's definitely worth checking out.
I'm turning Vogue in the Movement into robots tomorrow. AWESOME!

It's that time of the month when I start freaking out about rent! YAY! I've got more money coming from The Syncope Threshold, and another shoot Sunday with Vogue in the Movement (they make me want to dance), and I should be okay just so long as Yoko doesn't balk at her quote for Saturday's shoot. Friday I'm going to see Vogue play at The Roxy so if all goes as planned I can hand out some cards and maybe potentially book another band for the beginning of December. Hopefully Rian moves it when he gets back from Sacramento and books something for me.
We're having a Montana Orphans Thanksgiving with the three of us and maybe Trevor. Everyone else is heading home. Everyone flew out this week and most of them are staying gone through new years because no new films start up during the holidays, and most of them are trying to ride out this potential actors strike. Thank GOD bands don't go on strike. I can only imagine what it would be like if bands and rock photographers were both unionized... hmm... maybe we photographers SHOULD unionize!

My friend Trish drove up from Victorville today for a shoot for her modeling portfolio. She photographs incredibly well and it was a fun chill day without other stressors. We did hair and makeup by ourselves and looked through magazines for ideas and played around with my new white paper sweep that I bought last week. I love that thing and can't wait to get wallpaper for it!

Back from Victorville again! It was Dan and Steven from Lorene Drive's birthday this weekend so I felt obligated to drive up and have another mini vacation haha!
Last night we went to see Strung Out play at Karma and The Syncope Threshold were the openers. Got to watch Strung Out from the side of the stage, and didn't have to pay to get in. Pretty sweet. My ears HATE me this morning. Last night we totally had a slumber party and watched Wall-e and Tropic Thunder and all fell asleep on the floor. It was a really good weekend overall. Oh, with the exception of getting three bites into my burrito before realizing the beans were beef! I have never felt so sick in my life! It was sooooo gross! Never ever EVER going back to Del Taco. GROSS! I want to puke my guts out just thinking about it. Bleh!
I got home and the roomies had stolen my computer and used it to watch movies on in the living room. I had a crap ton of work open in Photoshop and I'm about 95% sure none of it got saved before they moved my iMac. I'm annoyed.
I'm going to clean my room today, then go to Santa Monica for Michael Brown's ski movie, and then I'm going to go out and do some midnight bridge shots with Mike. Yay Reciprocity failure!

I love the Alternative Press podcast. It's so much better for editing than This American Life.
Aaaaaand I'm officially a complete nerd for judging my podcasts based on their ability to keep me focused on work. Today's shoot with Trish got canceled, so I'll be able to finish all the Syncope promos today. Woo! Going on a coffee break with Mike. Much needed.

This is what happens when you let Rian and I loose in the desert with a metal band, swords, and 6 strobes.
This isn't quite finished yet.

Today I photographed a band in the desert... with six strobes... and remote sensors... and they had swords.
My job rules.
Rian and I have decided to have a symbolic $50 that we pay each other to assist. Basically it's just going to get passed back and forth between us. He paid me $50 to do lights for I am the Ocean, and I paid him $50 today for The Syncope Threshold shoot. Today I used his battery, two extra strobes, and his kickass octabox diffuser. Renting all of that and paying an assistant would have cost easily $300. It pays to have a friend in the business.
We're talking about doing a lot of cool stuff together in the future... maybe trying to get an MSU kid an internship with us next summer for credit or something... keep your ears peeled kids.
Back to editing lightning. I get to say that and it's job related. Haha!

One more in the bag. Finished this and mailed it off to the band and their web designer. The designer is in a band called Vogue in the Movement and now I'm going to do their promos on the 30th. I really like this word of mouth thing when it works the way I want it to.
What this means is that I might actually make enough to pay rent on December 1st! HOORAY!

My birthday gift to myself was a roll paper backdrop and portable stand system. I got a gift certificate to Freestyle from my makeup artist and some of the models, and decided it was something I needed very badly. Now I'm looking for really wide rolls of antique wallpaper to play with on it. I'm really excited... really really excited to play with it!

THIS WEEKEND WAS AWESOME!
I had such a fantastic time! I LOVE my Victorville friends, and totally didn't want to leave last night. We had a great group of friends hanging out on Saturday night and then a BBQ on Sunday with more of the guys from Lorene Drive and tons of great food.
I took so many pictures! These two I took right before leaving last night. Dan was "dressed for a cookout" and looked so funny. I think I'm going to turn these sunset dust kicking in boots photos into a series. They crack me up.
I miss my Victorvillians.

Today was so ridiculously cool! I assisted for one of my favorite photographers, and he was really dang nice, aaaand he took Rian and my photo! Which I unfortunately can't post until the magazine is out in case the gods of music publications are watching me still. Hi big brother!
Now I'm heading to Victorville for good times with Lorene Drive and friends! I sold a couple of CDs of party pictures from last week so I have a little cash to tide me over until those checks come from the labels. I hate waiting on that!
Two days until I'm 25. WEIRD.

3:00 is not human. Today is going to be soooooo loooong!
All in the name of photography. Urrrrgh...
Need Redbull.

I left for a cup of coffee today and ran into my good friend Mike. It really weirds me out when I run into people in Los Angeles. Out of 15,000,000 and I run into one of the 20 people I know in this town.
So we chatted and had coffee and I got out of the house for an hour. Win!
Mike has a lot of tattoos, and he showed me his newest addition; a coffee cup with "Black till Death" around it. Apparently he and his friend were sitting at his house and the conversation went something like this...
Mike- "Let's go to Intelligentsia and get a cup of coffee"
Roommate- "Let's go get tattoos."
Both- "LET'S GO GET COFFEE TATTOOS!"
And they did. I think they also got some coffee while they were at it. I like to live vicariously through Mike's tattoo endeavors.
Back to editing.

I like the one with no fire, the band likes the fire. Le Sigh.

New least favorite thing ever: Waiting for paychecks from record labels. Hurry the hell up guys, I REALLY need that money like now. Uuuuugh!

I got an e-mail back from Rockett and the guy who runs it said he'd definitely keep me in mind for future shoots. Which is cool, if he actually does. He said he loved the pictures GNSR and EAPZ sent him. I'm meeting with a model and another band soon, and heading to Victorville for my birthday and doing a couple of shoots for Kevin (Lorene Drive) and Steven's girlfriend needs some work done on her modeling portfolio. It would be such a nice birthday present to come home with $400 extra bucks to pay bills with. This paycheck to paycheck stuff sucks.

I'm out of contact solution. Frick.

This is Shafer from Flight 409, and yes he is eating a Sonic the Hedgehog icecream bar, and yes it IS probably from 1997. The guy with the icecream cart didn't really specify the vintage.

NEAT! Dan from Goodnight Sunrise texted me last night to let me know that Rockett Clothing did this to their site...
Rockett is a HUGE company, and lately seems to have been sponsoring a ton of bands I've been shooting. For the hell of it I've been having the bands throw on their Rockett gear and taking an extra photo or two. It seems to be paying off! I just e-mailed them to let them know I'm the photographer behind BOTH of their head images. Maybe they'll send me a t-shirt or get the word out or something...

My head feels like a shoe.
Lorene Drive didn't win last night. There's no way that competition wasn't rigged. Literally 2/3 of the crowd was chanting for them and when Vince Neil announced the winning band they got booed, and when their bus drive away the bus got booed, basically there was a lot of booing.
Lame sauce.
So we all went back to the hotel where Dan from LD introduced me to the guys from Monty are I. SUPER NICE! They are in town for another couple weeks recording another record. Why do I keep making friends with people who don't actually live in LA? I think Lorene Drive is going to come up next weekend for my birthday though, which will be awesome because otherwise I'm just going to go down to Victorville to see them because 90%of my California friends are there. When we were saying goodbyes this morning I mentioned driving down there, and Judie suggested coming up to LA because it's more fun, so we'll see what happens. I love those guys, I really wish they lived here.
I need to go sleep now. Sleeping on hotel room floors does not agree with my hip. That and for some reason Lyle, Thomas, and I all decided the best place to crash was in between the chaise and the bed, about 3 feet of space. I need aspirin!

Eff. This always seems to happen to me when I come up with cool ideas... someone with more cred comes up with a similar one. It's definitely not too close, but I feel grumpy now.


Anyhoo, tonight is Lorene Drive's show at The Whiskey a Go Go in front of Motely Crue! Go boys go! I'm off to the venue now with all my gear. Dan was going to try to get me a photo pass. Hope he pulled it off!

Apparently people actually read this thing. Who knew... whoops

This is nowhere near done, but I thought I'd post because I've been working on it for about four hours.
This is Flight 409 from Freson, CA. I like them. They paid me well and gave me a CD and a t-shirt along with a ticket to tonight's show in Long Beach. I like signed bands!

PDN is out and Claire is now immortalized as the weird window long neck lady. Hooray! I got the 1st merit spot, don't know if there is an order or not. The guy who won my category's work is AMAZING! I'm obsessed with it.

Day three of nothing but editing... le sigh.
Flight 409 hasn't e-mailed me back... and we're supposed to shoot on Wednesday. Same goes for the dumb model on model mayhem. I'm annoyed.

Today sucked.
But I got a lot of editing done.

AHHHHHHHH!!!!
Tomorrow Right Away Great Captain is playing at The Roxy! I AM GOING! I AM EXCITED! His new music is so incredible.
For those who don't know RAGC, it's the side project of Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra. He's the most amazing musician in my generation as far as I am concerned. God damn I am excited.

This is half of Archaean, from Helena, MT. Great kids to work with, super nice!

My new favorite Photoshop background music has to be The Quilt by Gym Class Heroes. I usually have a strong distaste for hip hop but I love this band. I had kinda forgotten about them until I picked up the AP with them on the cover... god this is a killer album.

This is Byron from Hide and Seek. He has a pretty cool sounding new musical project called Insomnia CA, which we shot for while I was in Missoula photographing Hide and Seek.
In other news I finally actually installed the software for my Wacom tablet so now it's pressure sensitive and has working buttons... yeah, I've been using it like an expensive mouse since Christmas, shoot me.

PDN comes out sometime soon... so keep an eye out for that I guess.
My neighbor is learning to play the drums, I'll keep you posted on my stance on gun control as this develops.

Alternative Press is better this month... or I guess October's issue is better than Septembers. Dave Hill has some really amazing work in it which is nice to see again. After September's awful Photoshop house of horrors I was losing faith in the magazine. I need to get on my shit and send them a packet.

Today's Sunset Junction farmer's market haul was pretty great. Matt and I made an incredible breakfast of veggies scrambled with eggs, whole grain toast, artichoke hummus, and a huge wedge of the ripest sweetest Honey Dew I have ever tasted. It was an epic meal. I love Saturdays. Today we're cleaning house and throwing a mini diner party. Should be fun. Last night we made cocktails dressed up and sat on the couch eating popcorn and watching Watcher in the Woods and Dawn of the Dead. It was a good Halloween.

I'm glad to be home.