Leigh Ann’s blog

Testing…testing…is this thing on?

So, in an attempt to be all techie and cool, I’m writting this entry directly from my iPhone. It’s been exactly one week since the start of P4k music fest (ok, so the festval gates didn’t open until after 5p, but we had photog crew meeting at 2p). I’ve fully recovered from the lack of sleep and sore muscles and wishing I could have caught every set of the festval. *sigh* while I got to see and hear tons of great music, there are still a few sets/artists I missed that I really wanted to catch. The most noticeable being Bon Iver. His CD, For Emma, Forever Ago is on the top of my Best Of 2008 list so far and his set was my most anticipated one. But, as with my lottery tickets, it just wasn’t meant to be. I was assigned to cover a different artist during that same time slot.

Indoor Storm

Today, despite still being tired and sore and still recovering from the Pitchfork music Festival, I had a photo shoot of the interior of Indoor Storm, a guitar and music shop in Raleigh NC. This was for Performer Magazine. First, the last thing I really wanted to do today was sling a camera, but I said I could do it so off I went. As I’m driving out to Raleigh, I’m driving into black storm clouds. great. I watch lightning strikes ahead of me for the last 20 minutes of the drive. When I arrive at the shop, I rush to get my gear and everything (had the kiddo in town today) inside the store before the rain started. The staff was so nice. I was in the store for about 2 minutes when the power went out. Now exactly what you hope for when you’re trying to take some photos. So, I chatted and waited and the guys were fun to talk to. The definitely were the nicest guitar shop staff I’ve ever met, so they get a big huge A+ from me

Up, up, and away!

My bags are packed and I’m ready to go,
I’m standing here outside your door,
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye…..

I’m leaving… on a jet plane.

I’m here on my lovely Southwest flight looking out at the beautiful blue sky. In a few hours I’ll be on site at the festival. I have a list of the bands I really want to catch but know I’ll never be able to see them all, so my see list will mostly depend on my actual assignments each day. I’m excited.

Packing for Pitchfork

As many of you know, I’m part of the Pitchfork Music Festival photography crew. So, it’s the countdown to the festival. I leave in less than one week and trying to get myself organized. There aren’t many things I enjoy more than shooting a music festival. It’s long hours, tiring, dealing with the weather and elements, but I get to listen to great bands all weekend, meet some really cool and talented artists, and have an all around good time. So, starting July 18, you can check here to see some of the backstage stuff from the Pitchfork Festival (or as we cool people refer to it, p4k). Ha.

iphone madness

So, I’m one of those crazy people who stood out in the hot summer weather to wait in line for the new iphone. It was a long wait, but I must say that Apple was nice enough to supply water and coffee. In the end, we walked out with 2 iphones, one white and one black, and a very tired toddler. Now the addiction has begun. I love my new gadget and keep telling myself I can now keep up with the blog easier since I can post directly from my iphone. 

Playback Magazine

The June issue of Playback Magazine features one of my images for it’s Finale page. Every month they feature a single fullpage image on the last page of their publication. Since they were doing a feature on Sonic Youth, they wanted an image of Kim Gordon for the Finale page. The original was not a horizontal image so it had to be cropped to fit the format. I love Kim Gordon. To me, she’s the ultimate rock chic. The image was originally taken in July 2007 at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.

Terra and Swerve

As a music photographer I get the chance to hear lots of great music and meet some of the most talented and unique people around. Last night was no exception. One of my favorite bands came to town, Terra Diablo. As if that wasn’t enough, I got the rare chance to see Swervedriver play live, as Terra Diablo was supporting Swervedriver on their reunion tour. How great is that? So it was a feast for my ears. Nice to get a chance to chat with the Terra boys again and meet the 2 new band members. I was thrilled to see them received so well, as last year they had issues getting a gig here in NC and I ahd to drive to Atlanta to catch them.  And what can I say about Swervedriver. They’re fantastic. Sounded great. Never thought I’d actually get a chance to hear them live.

Bull City Headquarters

Today I headed over to Bull City Headquarters (BCHQ) to shoot a few interior and exterior shots for a feature article in Performer Magazine. BCHQ is an interesting place. Bull City HQ is a cooperatively-run space that hosts a bike co-op, various workshops & skill-shares, some art, and more-or-less weekly shows. Shows generally start right at 9:00, are all-ages, and non-smoking & non-drinking.

It’s a cooperative-run space that hosts various workshops, has a limited art display (and frankly, this could easily be improved with some paint and lighting IMO), weekly music shows, a bike co-op, and serves as a meeting place. It’s an all ages, no smoking and alcohol free space that is pretty much no frills, but fills a need in the community.

The Swell Season

I’ve been a big Frames and Glen hansard fan for a number of years so I was looking forward to shooting the Swell Season show at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh NC. Besides, Once was one of my favorite films of the last couple years.

Meymand Concert Hall is a nice venue in general. It’s 100% seated with a very low stage. In general, a fantastic place to hear music. It has nice lighting which makes my job a little easier. One oof the obstacles inherent with this venue is the whole reserved seating and low stage. This means there’s no photo pit, and the paying audience is seated right next to the stage. I always try to be considerate of the fans who paid good money to see the show, so I don’t want to stand up in front of the first row. besides, with such a low stage (2-3 feet high) I’d be right in the performer’s face. So I take some time prior to the beginning of the show to chat with the audience and let them know that I’ll be shooting during the first 3 songs, and will try not to block their view too much, and will keep moving as much as possible.

I shot most of the front images from my knees before moving to the soundboard area to get some full stage shots, the to the side aisle to get a few different angles. For this shoot, I was using 2 camera bodies. My Canon EOS 1Dmarklll with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens, and a Canon EOS 350D with a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. This gave me a full range of focal lengths from a fairly wide angle to a nice long reach with the longer telephoto. After the first 3 songs, I was instructed I could shoot from my aisle seat, and I used my longer lens for all of those shots as I was seated in about the 15th row.

The Old Ceremony

The Old Ceremony out of Chapel Hill NC, is one of the more unique bands I’ve run across in some time. It’s fronted by songwriter Django Haskins and this band of troubadours uses guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, violin, cello, and vibraphones to pound out polished lush music. They mix elements of jazz and rock, a little blues seem thrown in there at times, as well as a hint of folk.

This was a little different than most gigs, as the audience consisted of a wide range of ages, from middle school age to the more, ehem, mature adults. And while it was crowded, it wasn’t jam packed so I was able to move around somewhat. As the usual setup at the Cradle, there was no photo pit. The lighting was fairly poor, but at least it wasn’t all red light.

My gear for this show consisted of my Canon EOS 1Dmarklll, and a couple fast prime lenses: Canon 50mm f/1.2L and Canon 35mm f/1.4L. There wasn’t enough light to be able to use my fast zooms. For this show I tended to shoot at mostly at ISO 3200, f/2.0, with a shutter speed between 1/100 to 1/160. Of course there was some variation in those settings, but most of my shots were in that sort of range.

Durham Tech Tones

Stopped by Durham tech to shoot a couple photos of the Faculty-Staff band, The Durham Tech Tones. Unfortunately it began to downpour so the outdoor shoot I had planned couldn’t be done. instead we were stuck in the performance building which didn’t offer us much in the way of interesting lighting or location, so we made due with what we had.

Harry’s Guitar Shop

Today I headed over to Raleigh to take a few interior shots of Harry’s Guitar Shop for Performer Magazine. They had a large space and a nice inventory of, well, guitars. And the best part? it is located right around the corner from Peace Camera, one of my favorite camera shops.

Mon The Biffy

Biffy Clyro, a rock trio out of Glasgow, Scotland, played at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC last night (2 April 2008) in support of Say Anything. it was a sold out crowd.

Live, these guys rock. I mean really rock. Fair flying, bodies moving, guitars crunching, rock. I was fortunate to finally get a chance to see them live last night and it was definitely worth the wait. They put on a fantastic show.

The photo pit allowed for easy movement, especially since I didn’t have to share it with anyone. Lighting was alright, but as always in this venue, a bit on the dark side with a lot of red. Red light is the hardest to deal with using digital cameras. The sensors don’t know what to do with it and tend to be extra sensitive to it, resulting in easily overexposed images. This can be even more difficult when I chose to shoot at a high ISO as I find that ISO3200 & ISO6400 tend to blow out/overexpose highlights. At this show, again I geneally was using an ISO 2000 to ISO3200 in order to keep my shutter speed above 1/100. I primarily used prime lenses, 50mm f/1.2 and 35,, f/1.4.

Sidney Faith

Today I had the pleasure to meet and photograph Sidney Faith. She turned 4 weeks old today and is such a sweet baby. Can she be any cuter than this? 

Easter Eggstravaganza

Mercer Island, Washington

When most people think of a traditional Eater egg hunt they picture children in their Easter best carrying pretty baskets combing the garden in search of colored eggs. Now imagine all that, and add about 30 adults hunting right along side those children.

This is the annual Zech Easter Eggstravaganza which features a grand hunt for candy filled plastic eggs. Actually, it’s the 100 or so eggs that contain a prize number that everyone is truly searching for, which gives them a turn at the prize table. This table, while stocked with children’s toys is also fully outfitted with things for the more mature egg hunters, such as wine, gardening supplies, tools, and much much more.

As if all this isn’t enough, a wonderful brunch is served with separate children’s and adult buffet. Oh, and let’s not forget the clowns, Leo and Daisy. Daisy was a master of balloon animals/flowers/swords and face painting while leo entertained the younger guests with his tricks and carnival skills. While the weather was wet and dreary, it didn’t seem to dampen the spirit of the party goers one bit.

Sadlack’s

Today I photographed the interior and exterior performance spaces of Sadlack’s for Performer Magazine. It’s a small place that serves sandwiches by day and has live music by night. It’s across the street from NC State University.

Super Furry Animals

The Super Furry Animals, the Welsh five-piece, are known for their shenanigans on stage, usually employing some sort of gimmick, arriving on a golf cart, wearing yeti costumes, giant projection screens, homemade Power Ranger helmets, gongs and the like. While these antics are entertaining and do add to the live experience, they certainly aren’t needed to sell their songs.

The Furries played last night at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro NC to a less than full house. While we may not have been fighting for space and packed in like sardines, we all came with enough enthusiasm to make up for our smaller numbers. Those of us that came out for a Furries experience were treated to a 23 song set that included songs from many of their albums, a few B-Sides, and a run through of “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck”.

Lighting for this show was supurb. While I still stuck mostly with my fast prime lenses, the quality of light and placement allowed for more flexibility in my choices for settings.

Chapel Hill

I took my new lenses out for a spin and wandered the streets of Chapel Hill. A bit cold and gloomy but I had the urge to get out and shoot random stuff (which was one of my resolutions this year).

Hammer Time

Photographed Hammer No More The Fingers (HNMTF) at Local 506 in Chapel Hill. They’re one of my favorite local bands, fantastic live. If you’ve not checked them out yet, go have a listen on Myspace, buy their CD, and get out to catch them live. You won’t be disappointed.

So, now that I’ve done my bit to open your ears to something fantasmic (no extra charge for the music recommendations ), let me tell you about the shooting. As always, Local 506 is a challenge for a photographer. Lighting is often along the line of either a dark cave or the red planet Mars. But if you are familiar with me at all, you know that I love the challenge. This was the first test run of my new lenses at a gig, Canon 35mm f/1.4 and Canon 50mm f1.2. Testing how well quickly they focus and what kind of light and color I’d get from them in this type of challenging environment. One word: Amazing. Beautiful color. These are now my favorite lenses and will be my go to lenses in the dark venues.

Meet Nathan

Meet Nathan. Isn’t he the cutest little guy? He’s as sweet as he looks, too. He was so easy to work with even though he really wanted to nap.