Dead Bodies and Rock and Roll

Bert did a sidebar story for AltPress.com. I did a screenshot because I'm a nerd.

FINALLY!

So a little over a month ago I photographed a little band called The Used for a little magazine called Alternative Press. It's finally in circulation to subscribers. Of course I'm in Montana, my copy was sent to LA, and I have yet to actually see it in person. This photo comes from my friend Laura. Thanks Laura!



When I got the call that I'd be photographing The Used I literally thought someone was playing a joke on me. The Used were part of the neverending soundtrack when I switched from Graphic Design to photography. It was kind of amazing to work with them as my first AP subjects. Such a great group of guys. I hope to get the chance to work with them again.

What goes in this space?

At some point tonight while watching Blink 182, I think it was during Man Overboard, I was slapped hard by the insane amount my life has changed since moving to LA. If anyone had told me 10 years ago, when I was photographing Jay, Pat, and John's little basement band for a fake Rolling Stone cover for art class, that I'd be standing where I was tonight, I would have laughed in their face. A little extra effort goes a long way, and I'm really happy that I avoided slacking off in school. I'm happy I drove those extra hours around California to make connections with every band I could. I'm amazed every day I'm down here how fast life moves. I honestly can't believe it's been nearly a year already. It's been the hardest yet most rewarding year of my life. I wanted to give up so many times, but didn't because life is a rollercoaster, and it always puts you back on the ground safely. I'm looking forward to finally going home for a while to enjoy being in Montana. I'm making this trip a vacation even though I'm working for most of it. It's going to be fun work, and going out on Warped with Byron and Hide & Seek will be such a blast. I can't wait to meet even more amazing people, and see more amazing places. The next year is going to be an even bigger change, and I hope I'm ready for it!

It Might Get Loud

I can't wait to see this movie...

3/4 of Goodnight Sunrise and some bikes. I miss them already!

In This City

This song sums up LA for me so well. It's almost spooky.

Iglu & Hartly - In This City

You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself
You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself

And I found that round here
In this city
That I wont disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city,
In this city

Close those doors
Close those doors
Now, now, just keep em open
Keep em open
Yea, keep em open
Ill keep on, keep keep on going
Taking it in so, so heavy
Take it easy son, this ain't so deadly
Got keep on, gotta go on, gotta go on
Take it all with what we've done
Gotta push it push it push it
To the top of the building
Even when no one is feeling
It might bother you
Don't let it
If these people just don't get it
They cant express it
They wont accept it
She said its okay that they may never give you that credit.

And I found that round here
In this city
That I wont disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city,
In this city

I've been down here
Down these roads
People pass through
Some stay some go
Standing here broke
Not a penny to my name
But she says she loves me all the same
I try my best
And you do to
And all you want is something you can move to
Everybody's gotta get their kicks somewhere
Everybody gotta fit in somewhere
There's, an open road
And I'm traveling down
Don't know where to go
But I lock and load
Shoot that sky till the moon explode
Moon explode
Now were laying in a field
White flowers on our backs
Talking bout home
But we can't go back
I guess that's why we left
So we could take a step
Keep moving and forget the rest.

You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself
You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself

And I found that round here
In this city
That I wont disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city,
In this city

Life is good...

Tonight was one of those kind of nights where things go wrong, but everything works out in the end. Shooting promos at the Key Club didn't work out so well, but just getting to relax for a night and have fun with my goof ball friends was very much needed. Joe Simpson was at the show. Yes, Jessica Simpson's father Joe Simpson. He dug Goodnight's cover of Jessica's song "With You", but proceeded to tell Dan that he "wasn't as hot as his daughter" after the show... okay? Todd from Ultimate Ears flew in for the show, and took us out for some diner grub after the boys played. We made sure to take advantage of the photobooth we found downstairs in the Key Club and we should have some new Twitter profiles soon haha. I love photobooths! Tomorrow I'm taking the guys to the Ultimate Ears lab to try out some monitors and hopefully get them set up with some in ears.
I'm ridiculously tired, but today was one of those days that just left me really happy for no real reason except for the fact that I have the greatest friends in the world. I love living in this city.

Na, na, na, na, na, na, Na, na, na, BAT CAVE!

The After Party in the Bat Cave from the original Batman TV series. Spooky scary!I'm so stoked on how my monsters came out. :)

"Dos"

Chris #2 from Anti-Flag at the Ventura Warped Tour. He has to be one of the nicest guys ever.
I know I say that about everyone, but with Dos I mean it. Out of this world friendly!

I'm just going to keep posting these...

More fun time Hide & Seek action. I love how Lenay looks in this photo. She looks like she's going to turn you down at a high school dance because she's the popular girl who's so out of your league... er something. Funny because she's super bubbly and hopped up on Red Bull because she works for them.


Today's photoshoot with The After Party went really well after we climbed a bunch of mountains disguised as speed bumps. The band got here 30 minutes early, so I wasn't really prepared. Usually if I say 10am the band rolls in at 11 at the earliest, but they were on top of it. They also drove in from Vegas, and were going on zero sleep since yesterday morning. Yippee! Once my new fantastic assistant Kris Ross got to my apartment we loaded up the car and started our caravan out to the super cool location we had picked out. Unfortunately once we hit Hollywood Kris and I noticed our caravan was missing, just as Nico called to inform us that one of their cars had broken down. We backtracked to find the third car stranded off of Hollywood, in a red zone. After about 30 minutes of head scratching, and me looking under the hood pretending like I know anything about cars, we called a tow truck and had the car moved to Pep Boys. We spent some time hanging out in the Pep Boys parking lot while they diagnosed the car, and we all got mildly sunburned. It turned out to be a timing belt, which had potentially destroyed the engine in its mission to ruin the day. We decided to cut our losses and everyone piled into the two cars as we went off in search of the location. What we didn't know was that on the way to Pep Boys we had passed the street we were supposed to turn on. We took a 20 minute detour along Mulholland Drive before we got back into Hollywood and were able to find the street which was disturbingly close to my neighborhood. Finally, three hours behind schedule, we made it to our location... the BAT CAVE from the original Batman series! We didn't waste time in setting up after hiking to the cave, and the whole shoot took about 45 minutes. During the session a group of the worlds laziest tourists rode up on a fleet of Segway scooters. I think the tour leader might have reported us, but either way they didn't make it up there in time to bust us for not having a permit. We bid them farewell after all seven of them piled into the drummer's Jetta for the hour drive to the studio where they are recording. Hopefully they get the other car fixed without too much financial hardship. That must have been a huge bummer.
After going to hell and back it turned out to be a very successful day! Many thanks to Kris for all his help, and to The After Party for being so great to work with. I can't wait to start on their images. The theme is pretty ridiculous, and it's going to be a lot of fun!

Without Fail.

It's safe to say that if I tell a band to meet me at my house before we go to our shoot, there will inevitably be someone passed out on our couch. Today it's Zach. The band and my assistant get here in 45 minutes and the kitchen is completely trashed (because I refuse to do anyone's dishes other than my own), so basically I'll meet them outside on the steps and try to figure out where to shoot after I regroup and collect my brain together into a pile. I'm not annoyed by the Zach on the couch, but this kitchen mess is getting ridiculous. If I so much as see one cockroach, I'm moving out.

I suck at updating this...

Sorry I'm such a blogging failure lately. Last week was a complete blur of things going wrong for the sake of things going wrong. I hate blogging when I'm in a terrible mood because it always ends up reading like I hate my life. So today I'm in a fantastic mood for no particular reason, and it seemed like a good day to update.

I spent Thursday, Friday, and Sunday at Warped Tours in Pomona and Ventura. Ventura was lovely, and the temperature couldn't have been more pleasant. I got a lot of photos that I'm pretty happy with, and that I think Ultimate Ears and Todd will like as well. I'm actually kind of happy I didn't end up going on Warped for the first week because from everyone's blogs and Twitters it sounds like it's been an oven out there. I've been content to sit at my computer with the windows open eating popsicles. I'm all caught up on editing, and booking as much work for July as I can. On the 21st I fly into Billings, and then make my way to Helena for my best friend Claire's wedding on the 25th. I still have to find a dress. I wish I was four inches shorter, it would be a lot easier on me. On the 29th I fly from Bozeman to Minneapolis to photograph my friend Matt's wedding on the 31st. It will be my first wedding in a couple years, but I'm really excited to do my first "Trash the Dress" shoot the day after with Katie. It's going to be a really rock and roll wedding, and the theme is old Hollywood, so everyone will look amazing.

After the wedding I fly back to Montana and head out with Byron and Hide & Seek for more Warped Tour madness! I'll be hanging out in the booth when I'm not shooting, so come by and say hi and buy a shirt from me if you'll be in Boise, SLC, Denver, Portland, or the Gorge. It's going to be a long haul, but I'm really excited to hang out with some old friends and all my the new friends I made when I was out the first couple days. I'm also doing some promos for a band that many of you may have heard of, so keep posted. I'm ridiculously excited for that craziness!

Here's another one from Hide & Seek's shoot...