I think my concept of what's "normal" has been severely warped since moving here. Right now it's normal that I can hear terrible Dremel noises coming from my porch, where my roommate is finishing his pinewood derby car. Today it's normal that my friend Brittany is coming over so we can photograph her new bassist, and so that they can film it for her reality show. It's also normal that I only got five hours of sleep. I really wish I knew why the secret to staying this busy, but could add getting paid to the mix. If anyone knows this secret please let me know.

Tomorrow Jered and I have another fun little shoot for a magazine, and then I get to go out to see London for a while and catch up. Then Thursday is my shoot with The Summer Set for Hide and Seek. Excited! Friday is an edit day, and Saturday I'll either be photographing Brand New, Portugal the Man, Pinback, and Run Doris at USC, or I will be filming for AP at Bamboozle. Either way Saturday is going to make my face melt off with amazingness.

I need to drink coffee and make myself look pretty for the cameras. Ugh.

Today was a surprisingly good day on no sleep! Last night was Bidwell's show at the Roxy which was a LOT of fun to photograph! I love creeping around on that stage, the lights are so dope. I shot two videos for the band. One of Sugar and one of the new song they close with. I can't remember the title. After the show we came back to my house and celebrated with a couple of the Love You Long Timers, and Zach from Culprit who we ran into outside the show. It was a very good time with good friends. I was so wide awake I didn't get to sleep until around 4 and had to be up and at em for a shoot with my friend Jered Scott. We got lost a lot, but made it to the shoot which was super quick, very fun, and painless. I returned home before everyone from Bidwell was even out of bed. We all went to breakfast and then they walked out of my life again :(.

Now my life is back to "normal". I'm editing a mountain of backwork, with my myspace inbox filling up with bands and people asking "When are my photos going to be done?!" UGH! I'm sorry, I'm so behind on my own work and I have little projects popping up with Jered and other friends every five minutes it seems. But it's all fun. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. Brittany is back finally, so if I can get work done it would be fun to hang out tonight. I need a nap... seriously.

Hey! I'm in AP this month!

Today I'm playing catch up! The goal is to finish up Settings composite, do all my laundry, and try to tidy up a bit. Bidwell's coming back tonight because I am the hostess with the mostest. Also I have the best cereal.

I haven't yet decided which show to go to tonight. I want to see Bayside SO SO SO bad. I just can't afford it, and they aren't headlining soooo.... marf. They are the only band on the set list I care about and trying to justify $20+ bucks for thirty minutes of pure joy and emotional wonderment... it's that or food. Fear Before is playing somewhere in LA tonight too, so I feel like I should go see my friends and support them, maybe get to take some pictures. They're playing in Anaheim tomorrow at Chain, and Chain is my favorite venue to photograph in, but Bidwell is playing the Roxy. I HAVE TOO MANY FRIENDS IN BANDS! Scratch that, I don't have any friends not in bands. It sucks. You'd think for all of them I would have had at least one song written about me by now. Well Goodnight Sunrise did write me the epic Megan Picturetaker Ponykeeper rap... boys you really need to record that please.

My roommate Matt has entered himself into the monthly Bigfoot Lodge Pinewood Derby Race. He's been on the deck all morning sanding his tiny vehicle. I think he's found a new hobby. The race is Tuesday so if you're in LA come down to the Bigfoot and cheer him on. I'll be there and I'm thinking about making a little pennant to wave while I hoot at him and make sure everyone there knows that I'm his six foot overenthusiastic roommate. I'm good at making friends.

I guess I should post a photo or something... Oh hey there Versa Emerge! This isn't edited, but it makes me laugh every time I see it.

I love HowCast...
How to Choose a Tattoo That's Right for You

Here is my new baby! I'm so happy with Goodnight Sunrise's new promo I think I'm going to print it out and hang it on my wall for real! I photographed the boys in the desert and then photoshopped them into one of my photos from The Natural History Museum trip with Dave and Rian. I wasn't so sure how it was going to work out, but in the end I'm pretty confident it's the happiest I have been with my work in a long time! You really need to click on it and then view it large at Flickr.


Aaaaand I reshot Sleep District last Sunday night and it was cold. I wasn't in a good mood, and I was sick for the shoot, but despite the hardships I'm really happy with the result. I had fun not editing a composite for once!

I somehow managed to make it to the Knitting Factory and photograph Versa Emerge for Hide & Seek today despite all of fate conspiring to muck it up...

I left my house at 2:30 to get to the Factory by 3. I had hoped to be about 10 minutes early to give myself time to set up and unload. I first pulled into and parked in the wrong garage. It took me hauling my pelican case and camera bag into the building and asking the juice bar girl where the knitting factory was to find out that I was on the wrong block! So I put everything back into my car, paid for the 2 minutes of parking I had participated in, and sped off. On the way out I double checked with the parking attendant which way to turn to get to the venue. "Left" to get to the KNITTING FACTORY? "LEFT" ... I was supposed to turn Right onto Hollywood. Fail. So I managed to scoot through tourists up the wazoo and newly found construction and 10 minutes later was parked in the correct garage. I unloaded as much as I could carry, now it's 3:10, and made my way to the entrance. I found someone who looked like they were supposed to be there and told him I was there to photograph Versa Emerge. "Nobody told me anything" Just then Mike, VE's tour manager texted me telling me to meet him at the load in. Hey friendly guy who knows nothing, can I walk through the venue? "You can walk out to Hollywood and up the street to the load in" Gee wiz thanks! So I hiked a full lap around the venue half running. Dumped all my gear at the load in and then sprinted back down the ramp (yes the ramp to the garage is directly next to the load in) and grabbed the remainder of my gear, sprinted back up to the load in and into the venue. By this point I am a disgusting ball of sweat and frizzy hair. I started setting up my lights and put my hand down into my softbox to pop it open and one of the rods snapped loose and cut my hand. This incident also left the softbox unuseable. Thank god for that new umbrella I just bought! Somehow I managed to get my gear set up. By this point sweat was literally pouring off my face, and I feel like a sweaty penny. Then I waited... I Twittered some expletives about my day and before I knew it the band was ready! From then on everything went as planned, THANK GOD! Well except I forgot to change my camera from JPEG to Raw. FRICK! Thank goodness I have the camera I do, because the files are perfect anyway. Hooray! After the shoot I found out they couldn't get me on the list, but Mike told me to basically just hang out and act like I was supposed to be there. That is the hardest thing in the world for me because as many of you know, I am the most AWKWARD human being possible when I'm stressed out or am instructed to "act normal". I spent the soundcheck sneaking around backstage and avoiding eye contact with anyone. Every time someone of importance walked by I immediately pretended to be on the phone so they couldn't ask to see my pass. Yep. I'm awesome. Bidwell came to the rescue and got me on the list somehow and I was able to stop being a freak for the remainder of the afternoon until show time.

So that's my story of today. I'm going to go eat a bowl of cereal and go to bed. GOODNIGHT!

In case I haven't been up front about it. I run a band hotel. The night after Goodnight Sunrise left, Versa Emerge crashed here, and then Tuesday night Josiah, Bryan, and Matty from Bidwell took up residence. My house is finally musician free for a little while anyway. Last night we went to see Versa Emerge play at Chain Reaction. The boys were promoting for their Sunday show at The Roxy, and I was there to take pictures, and be overwhelmed by the crowd.
It's really been a long long time since I've been to a show where kids were moved. I'm so used to the folded arms and scowls in the front row like the audience is judging the musical acts on stage. Kids were dancing to Versa and the Gay Blades and when Ace Enders took the stage I got so nostalgic I almost couldn't handle it. Ace was on stage with just an acoustic guitar and his backing band was the audience. I've never heard kids sing along like that. There were times you couldn't even hear him. He said during his set that it was one of the most moving shows he'd ever played. I'd vouch for that statement. By the time he closed out with Ever so Sweet I was singing along too. It was freaking incredible. I guess I've been to so many shows lately that I've become desensitized to the experience. I photograph rock and pop bands, so seeing some really intense sing alongs felt completely new again. After catching a breather outside Craig Owens took the stage. I didn't know what to expect and from watching the set it seemed like the musicians on stage didn't either. He played everything from Chiodos songs acoustic, to Counting Crows covers. Again the crowd response was intensely moving. I could barely get any photos because of the arms and cell phones in the air capturing favorite songs to send to the owners friends back home. I hardly noticed that I was standing alone in the crowd and had lost the boys. By the time he got to You Told me You Loved Me I was texting friends from home. Chiodos is one of those bands that always makes me nostalgic for Montana. One of those bands that I discovered when I was stressed out with school, and would listen to on repeat in the dark rooms at midnight when I was trying to finish my experimental final. I miss listening to new bands like that. It's starting to seem so rare that I find bands that I connect with on the Bayside, Manchester Orchestra level. The show last night was just... so good. I can't really say much more than that. I can't wait for tonight at the Knitting Factory. Should be easier to take pictures, but even if I don't get to, it would be great to just see these bands again.

I recently photographed a band called Settings as you might recall... Well the amazingly awesome dudes that they are, they put me in their studio update. So for those of you interested in booking a shoot... this is what it's like working with me when I've had 3 hours of sleep! Enjoy!

New analogy... "I'm as busy as Craig Owens..." Honestly how many bands is this dude in these days? This is from March 21st and he's on tour now with Versa. Soooo from what I've heard from my Fear Before friends he now has Chiodos, Cinematic Sunrise, Isles & Glaciers, a SOLO- solo project, and something else I can't remember. How the hell does he write for all of those? This dude is a robot. A tattooed, dreamy robot...

Isles & Glaciers first performance (Altpress.com exclusive) from Alternative Press on Vimeo.

... oh I was originally posting this because my friend Jered Scott is the photographer all up in that huddle in the beginning. I hate my life for not going to SxSW...

IT'S DONE!!!!

www.meganthompsonphotography.com
CHECK IT OUT!

I still haven't taken a nap...
My friend Matt's getting married on July 31st and wants to fly me out to Minnesota to shoot his wedding. So now I'm Kayak.com-ing flight info. Looks like I can go round trip to and from Minneapolis for about $220. Woot! Of course then you have to add baggage bull crap to it. LAME!
So I'm looking at flying into Helena on the 22nd for Claire's wedding on the 25th, then flying out from Helena on the 28th for Matt's wedding on the 31st and flying back to LA on the 2nd... wheew! I can do all of that for $616.

The Lauras did this! So good! Plus you can see me creeping around taking pictures looking like a weirdo. Bonus.

Last night Aria and Stumpe hosted a wine party for the Montana kids and it was a grand time! I'm always in awe of how many Montucky kids are out here and being successful. I wish there were more photo alum out here (wink wink). I love and hate two buck chuck. I have learned to avoid the red unless I want to hate my life after one glass. Last night I was drinking from the assortment of white wines that Trader Joe's had to offer. I had three glasses, and ate a fair amount of the available snackage. We headed home around two and I began the task of half napping while waiting for Versa Emerge to get here from their 24 hour drive from Austin. 2:30am turned into 4:00am which turned into an actual arrival at 6:00am. When they got here I started to get a headache, so I ate two vitamin C tablets and drank three glasses of water. Still, I have a wee hang over. I think I'm just not supposed to enjoy cheap wine. BLAST!
Anyway, finally went to sleep some time around 7, woke up at 10:30 to wish Versa Emerge a happy recording day. How they had so much energy I will never know! Drank some more water, and some coffee, ate a fried egg sammy and now I'm typing this. Why am I awake... no clue. I think I'm going to remedy that with a nap now. Then I get to wake up, drive out to Pomona hopefully to catch Bidwell's set, and then speed out to Fullerton to reshoot Sleep District's promos with the new band members. Wheee! Nap now.

Another day, another band crashing on the floor. Welcome to LA Versa Emerge.

I can't stop sneezing. Here are some photos from the Roxy last Sunday...


Bidwell- Matty and Josiah

Bidwell- Nate

Bidwell- Bryan

Goodnight Sunrise before the curtain

Goodnight Sunrise- Mike

Goodnight Sunrise- Jud

Love You Long Time

Goodnight Sunrise on stage with Love You Long Time

Making Settings disappear... Doot dee doot...

I miss my friends.

Finishing up Brittany's photos for Radash

Done with Archaean's promos!

DESERT!
Back to the grindstone. Chugging tea and popping vitamins like candy to avoid catching whatever Dan from Goodnight Sunrise was dying of. The next three days are going to be nothing but editing. Tomorrow they announce the Pit Reporter, keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hide & Seek's new linky thing is neat...
Anyhoo, it's over and I'm sad. Goodnight Sunrise left this morning for Fullerton and beyond. Sunday was an incredible time at The Roxy, Monday was a fun night of social time off and then Tuesday and Wednesday were the greatest longest days ever! Tuesday was the Palm Springs show at Ignition. We left three hours earlier than we thought we needed so that we'd have time to shoot some promos at the Windmills, and grab some lunch at John and Judeah's house. Wrong. I got stuck in a two lane bottleneck for two hours and just barely got to the show with enough time to throw up merch and catch Bidwell. Matty cruised with us and jumped out of the van on the first drive past the venue just to get to the stage in time. Drummers are important you know. The show was a blast, and then we smoked a little hookah action on the patio. It was watermellon, and GOD it was good! We loaded up and took on about four extras back to John and Judeah's house for some of the most amazing grub I've had in a long time. The Sleep District boys challenged Goodnight Sunrise to an epic game of beer pong with a myspace video bulletin as the wager. Goodnight Sunrise whooped my Sleepy D's, sorry guys, but it was a good game. The resulting video was pretty hilarious and will undoubtedly be circulated when those two bands blow up, and cause much future embarrassment. The Love You Long Time boys brought in OZ's vocoder and the party dissolved into an underground hip hop circle of awesome! We all passed out around 4 in the morning, and I was in charge of being Momma Thompson and waking all the boys up at 10 in the morning for a trip to Disney Land with the Lauras. The Lauras are a couple of AWESOME girls who make kick butt live videos for bands. Disney was as cool as I remembered from childhood, but I still haven't conquered my fear of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. We went on the rollercoaster over in California Adventure twice and on the second go around I lost my Powershot with all of my videos from the van ride and around the park. I was so bummed, but the awesome people at Lost and Found actually found the damn thing. I still can't believe it. It was such a fun day. Soon there will be a video update about it, but today I need to go and sleep. Until then check this video of the boys playing On Your Birthday in Palm Springs. We're making a music video!

Lookit dat shirt! Hide & Seek's all finished! WHEEEEEE!!!

I had a shoot with a great band from New York today called Settings. I got about 4 hours of sleep, after Goodnight Sunrise's show at The Roxy last night, and was dreading shooting. The guys were right on time, and fun and professional. The shoot couldn't have gone more smoothly and we wrapped it up in about an hour! So fast, it was great. I remembered to take a group picture at the end too! I can't wait to have time to edit these. Today is a day of trying to chug through the backlog. Tomorrow I hit the road with Goodnight Sunrise for a couple days and I'll finally have a chance to take some Faith in Fame pictures. I love the desert and I'll be able to get some good ones for the blog out there!
P.S. I've been listening to Punk Goes Pop Vol. II non stop for the past couple days. I LOVE it! Bayside's cover of Beautiful Girls is amazing, and I can't get over Static's cover of Toxic, Dan's voice kills it!

I am slowly but surely chipping away at the gigantic mountain of editing and shooting that's been backed up since my computer crashed. Almost done with editing Hide and Seek, then it's on to Archaean, Rock Jocks, Jade, Radash, Anthony, Raquel, aaaand more... God this is frustrating. I'm going to meet up with Brittany in a bit to pick out some of her Radash pictures and eat our feelings.

Slade from Anarbor, me, Brittany Flickinger, and Arshad from Radash
Last night was surreal and so much fun! I shot pretty much all day with Brittany Flickinger, and Radash Clothing with Goodnight Sunrise, and Slade from Anarbor. After we left the Take Action Tour show at House of Blues we were driving around aimlessly wondering what to do with ourselves. A couple of text messages later and we were on our way to Brandon Boyd's art opening. From there we found ourselves at Lady Gaga's party at Social, it was loud and dancy. Met some cool people, and piled into Arshad's car and went to the Take Action after party, where we met back up with the Goodnight Sunrise guys. It was one of those situations where everyone looks familiar, and it's usually because they've all been in AP. Man it was fun! Talked to lots of really nice people, hopefully something comes from it. I need a manager. Really bad.

Anyhoo, meeting Setting's for a smoothie today to talk about shoot options. Then editing, editing, editing. If I get enough done, maybe I'll swoop down to San Diego with the GNSR boys, but I'm pretty sleepy already.

aaaaaand now I'm shooting The Summer Set for Hide and Seek in April. Damn son. I should just go to bed now, and deal with all this craziness in the morning.

I know, posting again... I have to make up for neglecting it the past week.
Just got off the phone with Arshad of Radash Clothing. I'm super stoked to start working with them. A. Because I love free clothes, and always need some new duds, and B. I'll be working with some really really killer bands! Arshad seems great, Friday we're shooting Goodnight Sunrise, and Anarbor along with Brittany Flickinger. I just landed and I'm already booked like crazy for the next week. It's exciting, but I think I might miss having downtime. Onward and upward!

I'm back in LA! Back to the 65 degree mild wonderland I've been missing the last ten days. Here's a play by play of my trip back to Montana...
Saturday the 28th I drove to Vegas, slept on Josh's floor for about an hour, got on a plane, got off the plane, did a shoot for my friend Brandon, went to the bar, went to sleep. Monday I woke up tried to edit in the labs, failed, ran some errands, went to the bar, got booted from my crash pad, slept at Andy and Jeremy's. Tuesday I woke up, returned the rental car, went and demoed Ian's class, went to lunch with Chris and Dan, demoed Ian's afternoon class, went to coffee with Brittany, went to Senior, went to Goodnight Sunrise's show with Bidwell, went to Kaleen's house, drank some drinks, took some pictures, fell asleep on a love seat and slept about two hours. Wednesday woke up with a stiff neck, packed up my gear, Dad came and got me, met Anthony for his shoot, took some pictures, got a guitar, met Archaean for their shoot, took some pictures, went home, fell asleep in an armchair, ate an artichoke, fell asleep in my bed. Thursday woke up ate some breakfast, wrote some e-mails, booked some shoots, met mom for lunch, met Marilyn and Pat for a catch up session, went home, passed out, woke up, went to dinner at Staggering Ox with Mom and Nana, avoided catching whatever flu my whole family had, went home, passed out. Friday woke up, packed up gear, dad picked me up and drove me to Garrison, Zak picked me up in Garrison, drove to Missoula, arrived and planned stuff for Hide and Seek's Saturday shoot with Ali and Byron, ate a huge sandwich, bought stuff for shoot, back to apartment, listening party for potential Hide and Seek sponsorship bands, planned more, passed out on the reclining couch. Saturday woke up, got dressed, ate muffins, "planted" fake flowers set up lights, Zak took my picture for my sponsorship cards, models arrived, took pictures, card malfunctioned, re-shot all the pictures, did inside catalog photos, cleaned up, said bye to Zak, packed up, went back to the apartment, went to Taco Del Sol, Ate too much food, went home, ate more too much food, passed out. Sunday I woke up, felt sick, photographed some senior portraits for Jade, worked on my website, ran some errands with Ali, went to dinner at the Good Food Store, started feeling ridiculously sick, went home, watched Revolutionary Road with the crew, passed out. Monday slept till around noon, woke up, felt better, worked on the website, ran around with Ali, bought new jeans to replace the ones I ripped a huge hole in on Saturday, went to dinner, went home, picked out Hide and Seek pictures, packed up a box of merch for Versa Emerge and Goodnight Sunrise, tired to sleep, failed. Got up this morning, boarded a plane, flew to Vegas, landed, got a stupid Jamaican taxi driver with no sense of direction, drove Tim to his car, drove aaaallll the way back to LA. Now I'm home... I'm almost back to normal, I can't wait to sleep!