"Fallen Art"

Tonight was fun. Next Friday I'm shooting a friend's side project with Dan from A Static Lullaby and this evening we met at the Cha Cha lounge to talk about ideas over $1.50 PBRs before dissolving into giggles and laughing with new friends and Danny from National Product. Outside I met a boy from Butte who was visiting his brother and no one believed it when we knew the same people. Montana is a small world! We then ventured over to the German bar Red Lion for Bloody Marys and more laughter. Then burritos and even more giddiness. Next week's shoot should be a grand grand time. We're thinking either a No Country for Old Men theme or Ski Ball... decisions...
I love making new friends that actually live in the city!

I love it when I hear a lyric that sums up exactly where I feel I am in my life...
"Don't you dare forget, don't you dare forget that nothing with meaning is easy."
-Lower Definition, The Weatherman
I want to paint that on my wall or something. I love this song.


"I know how you are with these things
And you're not gonna stop
I know how you are
Yeah you're an artist
When you tear things apart"

Can't wait to do their promos!

I'm back and the weather is absolutely incredible! It's 72, sunny, and completely clear. I think I might go up to the Greek Observatory today and take some pictures of LA. I actually put on a hoodie and warm socks this morning because my house is freezing, then walked outside and burned up. It's really amazing how weather affects my mood. Or maybe it's palm trees. Palm trees make me ridiculously happy because the ones around my house look like they came from a Dr. Seuss book.
I might make an effort to explore the neighborhood a bit more on foot before the work starts pouring in next week. I ordered the Canon 16-35mmL 2.8 this morning along with a battery grip (of course batteries for the 5D are sold out everywhere!) and they should get here Friday. Then I'm going to break in that sweet lens at In Fear and Faith's CD release show at Chain Reaction with Lower D on Monday. Then I'm going to shoot Vogue's show with Run Doris Run at The Roxy on Wednesday. I've always wanted to shoot at The Roxy, it's got the best lights, and barely a red bulb to screw up exposure! Excited, so excited.
Our mailbox was overflowing last night when I got home. Of course most of it is shredable waste from the Student Assistance Foundation for the three of us. I'm hoping that this tasty americano from Intelligentsia motivates me to clean my room, or the rest of the house which was left pretty trashed.
Welcome home Megan!

The high today in LA is 73. I CAN'T WAIT!
My house is going to be insanely lonely until my roommates get back. Everyone is freaking gone until after the new year. Hopefully I can shoot some bands this week and take full advantage of an empty house and set up my sweep for a couple days. Lower D, let's shoot before the 5th!
To do list:
Order prints from White House
Get tickets to Photo LA
Book stuff for SPE
Get press pass for SxSW
Go see the Vanity Fair exhibit at the LACMA
Finish Trish and From Aphony's pictures
Unpack stuff from when I moved in in the first place.

It will be a productive week alone.

Holy crap the new 5D is incredible! The top image is an unedited photo from my last shoot with Goodnight Sunrise shot with my 8mp Rebel. The bottom one is an unedited image from our shoot yesterday that I took with my 21mp 5D Mark II and an L lens. The difference is ridiculous! I could give them the extreme Jenga image with no Photoshop and it would be just fine! I can't wait to get back to LA to edit these!!

I feel like I just gave birth after 70 hours of labor. Here is the promo for Vogue in the Movement. I feel pretty strongly that these are my best band work so far. I think the end total including the shooting day was around 80 hours of work. I want to take a nap now, but have a huge amount of things to get done before I fly home to the arctic in the morning. So not excited about cold weather... not at all.

Today RULES! My 5D came in, AND... AND Vogue in the Movement is opening for Fall Out Boy on Saturday! I wish I could make it to the show, but I have to go freeze to death. I'm so stoked for the guys. I know they're going to get so huge they'll forget about me, but hey I can say I photographed them when... and I have the embarrassing photos of them to prove it. HA RYAN!
So my 5D is the most amazing thing ever invented. Bassett used it to take HD footage the whole drive back from Samy's and it looks sooooo gorgeous! Back to editing and geeking out like a crazy person!

Monday night Mike and I got to discussing whether or not it was possible to deep fry a hard boiled egg. Most people believed it would be disgusting, I believed it would produce a bouncy ball, and Mike believed it would be delicious. Verdict: "It tastes like breakfast"

Aaaaand the house is restored to its normal housey self. The guys left this afternoon after I forced them to drink massive amounts of eggnog against their will for a Christmas photoshoot. The results are quite... er... captivating. I'm looking forward to editing that ridiculousness.
The show last night was amazing fun, and I got to see another one of my favorite bands, These Arms are Snakes, on the other stage. The security were kind of rude near the end of the night, but we made our way back to the house for some beers and good times despite. Today its been raining non stop and it's 47 degrees. Which I realize is balmy and warm to you Montana people, but we're freezing. Of course Friday, the day I leave, it's supposed to warm up again and be in the 60's. Weather is exciting... anyway, I brought up weather because the guys are shooting their music video today in the mud, rain, and frigid temperatures. They're troopers. Eggnog and mud, you guys deserve an award for today!
Back to editing...

Edit edit eeeeedit!
This week is going to be a complete blur. Seems like a trend the week before going back home for a week. I have to finish Vogue's promos today, Fear Before is coming in a couple hours to stay for a couple days, I have to shoot Stereo Tragedy... sometime this week. I was supposed to shoot tonight, but it's SNOWING an hour north and they closed everything so they can't get here. I hope they can reschedule for this week. I'd love to have some cash right now for Christmas gifts.
Tomorrow night Fear Before is playing at the Knitting Factory and These arms are Snakes will be playing in the other room too! GAH! SOOOO STOKED! Then the boys leave Wednesday morning, and I get back to finishing the promo I did for From Aphony and Hide and Seek, and finish up Trisha's headshots which I have been terrible at finishing. Thursday Vogue is playing at the Viper Room, and I'm going to check that out and have an early night before boarding the plane to the arctic Friday morning.
Gahhhhhhhhh!
I'm marking my Calendar for January and right now I have four booked shoots, three tentative, and two pro bono shoots... all before the 16th. Things are getting crazy here! I love it!

This is what 15 hours looks like.



Finished the first Vogue in the Movement composite! It was a nightmare, but I'm fairly happy with the results. The band is stoked, so that's all that matters in the end. I'm 7 hours into their robot composite. That one is probably going to consume my soul a whole lot more than this one did. Wish me luck!
I put a down payment down on a new Canon 5D today at Samy's camera. Scariest thing ever! But if I could have walked out of the store with that camera today I would have. I can't look at my Rebel and not get scared anymore. It's just a matter of shutter fires before that thing takes its last breath. Knock on wood... seriously.

Here's a peek at what I've been slaving over for the past week and a half. These aren't totally the final versions, just what I have saved as process JPEGs. I'm working on the full band composites now. I'm on about hour 55 of editing the Vogue in the Movement promos... that equals about $10 an hour so far. I'm thinking by the time I'm completely finished it will have dwindled down to around $6 an hour. Sigh.

BRIT MOODY IS HERE!!!!! HOLLAHOLLAHOLLAHOLLAHOLLA! I am SO excited! YAY FOR A GIRL TO HANG OUT WITH!

Vogue's light show is cooler than your light show...


After Vogue in the Movement's show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim last night we spent some quality time in the RV before heading to the neighboring Denny's for a 1am feast. I recorded a bunch of silly videos which I intended on posting... Blogger won't let me though. So you'll have to wait until Blogger stops being lame to see Ryan feeding Chris his dinner, and all the guys showing off their deserts. Instead you'll have to make up your own story about the evening from these three pictures...




Just kidding. The show was pretty uneventful, but good none the less. In another effort to preserve my hearing I skipped most of the other bands playing and hung out on the RV. I was planning on crashing on the RV but it was crowded and after messing with a passed out Connor for their video update I decided to drive home. I met a couple guys from the band Run Doris Run and bopped around to their fantastic CD for my 4am drive home.
Things I learned... I now know more about Vogue in the Movement than I ever really wanted to know. Climbing on top of a passed out guitarist and yelling is REALLY funny. There are a lot of very good bands in Southern California.
Quote of the night came from Vogue's manager Brooke...
"I'll tell you what though, that nose job did wonders for what's her face."

An E-mail I just received...


"hello, my name is melissa and i'm doing a project in my photography class. for this project i have to pick my favorite photographer and write a bio on them but i could not fine one on you so my teacher told me to e mail you and ask if you might be able to send me on.

thanks, Melissa."


That kind of floored me tonight.... whoa.

Oh holy CRAP! Christmas is in 17 days! AHHHHHHHH!!!!
So silent fan kingdom, I have wishlists on Urban Outfitters and at B and H.
... I don't think my silent fan kingdom actually reads my blog.
Sad face.

So Lower D rescheduled for the week after Christmas. Boo, to that. But happy day at the same time because I got to drive to Victorville for Vogue in the Movement and Stereo Tragedy! I didn't get to see most of my lovely Victorvillians but had so much fun just the same!
I've decided there needs to be a Megan Picturetaker Tour next year, and it will be Lorene Drive, Vogue in the Movement, Goodnight Sunrise, and Flight 409... and I'm coming with! At least 50% of it might happen with GNSR and Vogue, I'm trying to get everyone on board haha!
Booked another band today for my trip home to Montana. Stoked. Rent won't be so hard to deal with come January which will be very very nice for once. So two bands booked, one is calling me back about booking, then I think I'll be topped out. I need some relaxed down time.
Today I'm trying to bust out the rest of Vogue's awesome promos then heading up to Canoga Park for Lower D's show and some more networking... I need business cards. UUUUGH!

Today was a loooooong day! I awoke at around 8 after not sleeping well, and constantly waking up to write down ideas for Lower D's shoot on Monday. Rian arrived around 9:30 and we loaded up the cars with our equipment and made a couple stops for coffee (so needed this morning), and a few other things. The day was spent shooting a band called Kingsley. During the shoot I was instructed to scream at each of the band members, and was hoarse by the end of the day. The pictures are hilarious though! I think that if I were male, I would be Stephen the keyboardist... it was weird.
I tore down and loaded gear in record time and hit the road for the hour drive to Palmdale to meet Monday's subjects; Lower Definition. After meeting with Stephan, Matt, and Eddie about ideas and money stuff I remembered that I had neglected to eat anything during the day and headed to In and Out for an animal style grilled cheese, and fries. Driving back to the venue it dawned on me that my earplugs were sitting at home on my desk and I was on my way to a hardcore show. Ugh. I stopped at a couple gas stations but was out of luck in my quest. I decided to save as much hearing as possible and opted out of watching the first two bands and instead chatted with Claire on the phone for a bit before going inside.
Once I made the decision to sacrifice my ears to the gods of metal I had a grand time enjoying Lower Definition's tour mates In Fear and Faith and a band who's name has slipped my mind at this late hour. Both bands had some crazy guitarists with mad skills. In Fear and Faith has two lead singers. One who screams and one to sings melody. It was really interesting, and I definitely dig that dynamic. Lower D played last and put on a pretty stunning performance. Those guys will definitely be a blast to work with Monday.
As for me, I'm dead tired, and it's 2am, and I have to go photograph skyscrapers tomorrow for Vogue in the Movement's backdrop, and decide which of three shows to go to. Vogue in the Movement and Stereo Tragedy in Victorville, Abeline at The Knitting Factory, or take in another dose of Lower D in Anaheim... decisions... I'll let my destroyed eardrums decide in the morning.

I'm having a lot of fun reading Bottle Clings and Late Night Flings, which is the blog of my friend Mike from Fear Before. He writes beautifully about the ins and outs of touring the country. I've read so many band touring blogs that basically say the same "Played a show, then got EPIC TRASHED! Wooo!", that his is very refreshing. I suggest you all check it out!

The Forgotten State was a staff pick over at Blurb! Not sure when that happened, but that's pretty flippin' sweet!
Tomorrow I'm shooting with Rian then driving up to Palmdale to see Lower Definition play and talk shoot business. Stoked.

Here ya go mom and dad! I don't think I've given you any pictures of my workspace. Also it's December and I'm wearing a tank top. Meet me at the airport with a reeeally warm jacket when I get home!

Here are a couple of funny pictures from fall so far that I just dumped off of my PowerShot. I'm so bad at getting stuff off of this camera.

From Aphony gets here today!!!! They are playing in the Ernie Ball battle of the bands with Escape the Fate tomorrow. They fly in around 1:00 and I'm going to go meet up with them and maybe take some pictures for Hide and Seek in the hotel room. They put me on the guest list tomorrow night which was really nice of them since I don't so much have $15 to spare for a ticket right now.
I booked two shoots in Montana while I'm home and a third is pending. It would be nice to make a grand while I'm home to pay for Christmas gifts and January rent. I'm really excited to go home for the holidays this year. That's probably because this is the first Christmas in a long time that I've been living out of state for. I hope Claire can afford to fly back.
Rian and I are thinking about going on "tour" to Vegas, Denver, Salt Lake, and back down the coast sometime this spring. We'd book shoots in every city and get to see our friends on the road. It could be super fun, and we could potentially make a bunch of money. I'm going to talk to the Fear Before guys when they are here about Denver bands that might need promos. I'd get to see Sam if we went! YAAAAY SAM!

This is Rian, my lovely assistant. Please notice his left hand, and his gauze and gaff tape ghetto bandage.

I thought this was funny. Rian snapped this one of me with the band after yelling stuff like "KILL EACHOTHER! ok now, look HORRIFIED! Ok ok... uh... now check out Megan!!"
This one was the silliest.