Not My First and Not My Last Band Shoot

On the heels of my first and last foray into the world of wedding photography, I had an opportunity to again shoot something different; something different, out of the norm, and apart from my usual gigs shooting pretty girls, that is.

A few nights ago, I spent a couple of hours with some guys from Brooklyn, NY.

Nothing particularly unusual about that. I know plenty of dudes from Brooklyn and from Queens and Staten Island and Long Island and Jersey and other places in and around the greater NYC metropolitan area. These particular guys, however, have been well known in NYC's hardcore rock scene. In fact, there are places in the world, places other than the good old U.S. of A., where, when these guys are on an international tour and they show up to play, it's like the freakin' Beatles just landed at JFK! These guys are the members of a band called Biohazard.

Not too long ago, Biohazard went on a multi-country reunion tour. Now, they've gathered in L.A. for a week or so to record tracks for a new album.

Biohazard's lead singer and bass guitar player, Evan Seinfeld, asked me to shoot some promo pics for the band, as well as some individual pics of each of the guys. Evan's a friend and lives in L.A. The rest of Biohazard all live either in New Jersey (my home state) or New York.

So, I spent a few hours in the rehearsal/recording studio with Biohazard. It was a great time. Within minutes of my shoot with these 4 Brooklynites, my Jersey accent returned and was fully in control of my speaking voice. (I've lived in Southern California for a lot of years.)

Anyway, the live music was awesome, the company I shared provided lots of laughs, and the photography afforded me opportunities to shoot some stuff I really enjoyed shooting and in ways I don't ordinarily get to shoot.

Pic at the top (click to enlarge) is Evan from the sets I shot of him and Biohazard. Two lights: One modified with a medium Chimera strip box, lying horizontal on the floor, camera right, and the other way up high, camera left, boomed on a grip arm off a C-Stand extended as far as it would go and modified with a small, shoot-thru umbrella. I cranked up the power on the light up high and kept the strip box powered low and soft. Canon 5D with Canon 17-40 f/4 L, ISO 100, f/4 at 100th. Not too heavy with the post although I desaturated the color a bit and added a sepia tint.

Here's another pic of Evan from Monday night. Obviously, different lighting and post-processing then the one at the top.