Tony Thaxton of Motion City Soundtrack

Tony Thaxton of Motion City Soundtrack:

Pink Converse! How can it get any better? Motion City Soundtrack's rockin' drummer Tony Thaxton braved the Florida sun and crowds of onlookers, many of which began taking photos of our Disney area shoot. Tony's focus was not broken at any point!   Thanks for being a good subject!



Strobist info: Canon 580EXII Photog/Camera left & eye level @ 1/16 power with 1/4 CTO gel, Canon 580EX Far Camera Right @ 1/8 power with 1/4 CTO gel. Triggered with Pocket Wizard II's.

Tony:

Phantom Photoshoot: Jeff Conrad

Jeff Conrad of Phantom Planet:

Shooting Jeff was a real pleasure. Besides playing for the band that has one of the most recognizable theme songs on TV right now ("California" on the O.C.), Jeff is an amateur documentary filmmaker, which gives him a fair amount of understanding of image & photography.

For the shoot with Jeff, we went Strobist key shift style!

Here's a video of the shoot:

Will Hawkins Photography: Jeff Conrad (Phantom Planet) shoot from Will Hawkins on Vimeo.



Strobist info (for the outdoor shots): Canon 580EXII Photog/Camera left & eye level @ 1/16 power with 1/4 CTO gel, Canon 580EX Far Camera Right @ 1/8 power with 1/4 CTO gel. Triggered with Pocket Wizard II's.

Panic at the Photoshoot: Spencer Smith

Ok ok, no panic at the photoshoot... but it was a photoshoot at Panic at the Disco :)


Spencer Smith of Panic at the Disco:
Panic at the Disco is one of the bands that has been getting very heavy rotation in my playlist for a while now. Creative, fun, catchy, unique, talented, I can listen to these guys for hours! The youngest member of the band, Spencer Smith, 20, was in need of new shots, so I traveled out to the Orlando area, camera gear in tow.

Due to multiple publicity obligations, there was no time for a 1 on 1. Climbing through a tangled maze of cables & gear, I sat in at the kit for two songs during their 2nd night of back-to-back sold-out House of Blues shows at Downtown Disney.

Light was extremely limited and flash was not an option, but we got some keepers! The below images are in dire need of sharpening. I hope to get time to clean them up soon!

Spencer:









Respect!

- Will

Greg Upchurch of 3 Doors Down

My third and final installation of drummer images from 98 Rock Fest!


Greg Upchurch of 3 Doors Down:
Greg, the former drummer of Puddle of Mud, has been with 3 Doors Down for a few years now. Sitting by Greg during his performance was quite an experience - I have never seen anyone BEAT the drums so hard! I'm surprised he isn't dislocating shoulders, breaking sticks, and tearing apart his drumheads! He's either part drummer, part superman, or he is taking some excellent anti-inflamatory medications!



Greg:








Peace!

-Will

Joey Dandeneau of Theory of a Deadman

My second installment of images from 98 Rock fest:


Joey Dandeneau of Theory of a Deadman:
Joey, the most recent addition to Canada's Theory of a Deadman, is also a recent addition to Promark's roster of endorsed artists.

Only 24 years old, Joey's schedule has him playing festivals, hitching onto numerous tours, and soon will have him traveling the world!

Joey was definitely holding up well in the Florida heat, even though his home town still had some snow melting from the last snowfall!

Joey:


Strobist info: 2 handheld Canon 580EX's triggered by pocketwizards. 1/4 CTO each. 1/32 and 1/32 +.7. Camera left & right, different heights (I think camera LEFT was higher)






Respect!

- Will

Barry Kerch of Shinedown

My first installment of images from 98 Rock fest:

Barry Kerch of Shinedown
Barry is one of the 2 remaining original members of platinum rockband Shinedown. Shinedown has been killing it on the airwaves for a few years now, thanks to their singer's incredible voice, Barry's driving drums, and some excellent writing.

Working with Barry was a pleasure! Not only is Barry a friendly, talented, and loyal guy (maintaining the same band & equipment endorsements for over 6 years), he is also an amateur photographer! Barry had a classic antique Hassleblad aboard the bus, but the schedule did not allow for a test drive ;)

Here are a couple shots of Barry:

(Yes, I admit.. there was a little bit of HDR and sharpening going on there!)





Cheers!

- Will

Swiss Chris: Drums, Grammies, Pop Stars, Photos with Will

Today I had a shoot in Tampa with Swiss Chris, the young & talented Musical Director & drummer for 5 time grammy winning pop/R&B star John Legend.

Swiss, a native of Switzerland (of course), has a lot of attitude & personality.  It was important that we let it show through.

Swiss and I met up in the Los Angeles area last week at NAMM.  While we were out there, he let me know that he'd be in Tampa the following weekend to play a private party on Derek Jeter's boat with John Legend.  He didn't know his schedule but I was to call him on the weekend.

I drop a line yesterday - he wasn't certain... but overnight, he sent a txt "Shoot @ 2 or 3."  It was set!

It was time to arrange some tech-savvy help.  Seeing as it was already 11am on the day of, arranging talent was going to be tough.

I called my trusty photographer-friend Shem up - she was on day 5 or 6 of being sick!  Yikes!  I called ABC News video/cameraman John Fulton - unavailable.  I drop a line to Bobby Blish - recovering from Gasparilla still.  

My creative & motivated girlfriend Kristen decided to step-up and pitch-in, as well as another amazingly talented drummer Eunitee.  

We loaded up the gear, picked Swiss up at the Hard Rock (after dealing with some serious hotel security), and pointed the car towards Downtown Tampa.

Shem had recently discovered a small location on the North side of Downtown Tampa and shared it with me.  This place worked well - every 10 feet you have different textures, colors, layers, etc.  

After getting a few different scenes finished up, we then shot multi-image sequences!  With the tripod-mounted camera going at the fairly slow 3fps, and Swiss going at near-full speed, we let Swiss go through a series of sticking sequences, rhythms, and tricks!  The resulting 6fps videos are fun to watch!  (I may not be posting them here)

Just before finishing up, we took a couple of shots of ourselves with the artist & Kristen snapped some shots of me playing the cans with Chris.

We shot until the absolute deadline to get Swiss back to the rest of the band, rushed him back, picked up some much-needed Gatorade, and called it an afternoon.

Some photos -