November 22, 2016 in Kansas City
Kansas City
Pale Waves : Kansas City /
Billy Raffoul : Portraits /
This fall, I spent 3 days on one of Billy Raffoul's first tours. It was a blast spending time with these folks and I hope we get to do it again! In addition to shooting the shows, I took portraits two different days: Sunday in Omaha and Monday in Kansas City. On Sunday, the neighboring brewery allowed us to shoot inside and on Monday, we utilized the nearby buildings. Thanks to Billy, Alex, Sara, Justin, and Interscope!
KC with the Boys /
Blake and I have come a long way since our first roadtrip last summer. I mean, literally. We've driven lots of miles in my little car. So far, we've successfully roadtripped every season, but this was our first adventure in Kansas City. We drove up early for the Japanese House show at Riot Room and spent the day eating food and drinking coffee and taking photos with Charlie. There are a ton of photos: this is your warning. But they're all of coffee or donuts or Charlie or Blake, so you really can't complain about that.
This first photo is of Joe's, where we had stellar BBQ. From there, we ventured to West Bottoms to get coffee at Blip.
You know you've got good friends when they humour you for a photo like this. I hope I never grow up and always take silly photos and always dance in parking lots and always adventure and always laugh.
No trip to KC is complete without a stop at Doughnut Lounge.
Nearly the entire day was cloudy, but the sun ventured out for just long enough for a few photos with harsh shadows.
When you hold your camera above your head to take photos, sometimes you get some happy accidents.
Charlie took us to a part of town with cute little antique stores and it far too closely resembled the 1975's newest album art for us to pass by without a photo or two.
I'm grateful for these two human. One of the best Tuesdays of the year so far.
James Bay in Black and White /
In highschool and even a little into college, I had time to scour myspace and Facebook and Pure Volume and find new music. The older I get, the more life demands my time and the less time I have to wander the internet for new songs. A few of my younger friends have been lovely and recommended new music to me so I stay moderately relevant, but rarely do I find artists myself anymore.
Somehow around April, I stumbled across James Bay. Perhaps I’d heard a song on the radio and spontaneously decided to listen to the entire album. However it happened, I discovered him and as a result, his music is quite endearing to me.
For the seven months I processed claims, I listened to music in my cubicle from 7:25am to 4pm. James Bay’s The Chaos and the Calm became how I woke up; it was my first cup of coffee in the morning. I’d fill my french press with water and coffee from the last city I’d visited and I’d begin that album. Sometimes once-through, sometimes until noon.
Shooting James was on my photography bucket list. Between his music and his general photogenic-ness (he models for Burberry), I hoped to shoot his show someday. And I still hope to get portraits of him.
As of the Friday morning prior to the Saturday night show in Kansas City, my friend Brittany and I only had tickets. I didn’t have a photo pass and I was still pretty content with that. I would dance and sing every single word and it would be beautiful. By 2pm on that same Friday, I’d received an email confirming a photo pass. Undeserved and grateful.
That Saturday night I was the only one in the photo pit during James Bay’s set. The only one. In a giant theatre of beautiful faces and delicate melodies and deep feelings, I was right there in the middle of it. The night was poetry and if I can even do a fraction of justice in illustrating that poetry, I’ll be satisfied.
Grateful and full of words. Thank you.
The Band Joseph /
If you haven't ever listened to Joseph, jump on the bandwagon before it leaves, because these gals are lovely and talented and even wear great denim. I have few regrets in life, but one of them is not seeing them at a house show a year or two ago. Not about to make the same mistake again, we arrived at the Midland early enough to both see and shoot Joseph. Catch them on tour sometime or check out their new album: I'm Alone, No You're Not. Thanks, ladies, for a lovely evening and for letting me shoot your set!
Tour de Compadres: Needtobreathe /
I saw Needtobreathe for the first time about five years ago, opening for David Cook at an outdoor amphitheatre. Prior to seeing them, I wasn't a particular fan, but their live show won me over. Since then I've seen them close to half a dozen times and each time their performance and production has been amazing. This year they released a new album entitled Hard Love. I'm a believer in times of day and places for certain songs (for example, listen Coldplay in the city at dusk), and Needtobreathe hits the spot while driving midday through Kansas with the windows down. Give it a try sometime and you won't be disappointed.
Once again, for Needtobreathe's set, I was limited in the areas I could shoot from. But, once again, I decided to get creative. They had a superb lighting setup, which made using a prism quite fun.
I isolated parts of this image by literally putting my fingers in front of different parts of the lens. The other images with huge negative spaces I created in the same way: covering the lens with my hand.
Tour de Compadres: Mat Kearney /
The second artist I shot on the Tour de Compadres Kansas City date was Mat Kearney. I've shot Mat before, but once again, the distance from the stage forced me to be creative with the shots. These are some of my favourites.
Tour de Compadres: John Mark McMillan /
This tour was one of the best I've seen. There's still a solid bit of it left, so if you missed this first leg, check out the next leg. Midwestern cities coming up include Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. I photographed three of the bands on this leg of the tour. The first was John Mark McMillan and company.
Mostly I'm impressed that his suit is white and I don't know how he doesn't spill coffee all over it all the time. And from a photography perspective, it was insanely helpful for white balancing the lights.
For this particular date, the venue had strict photography restrictions. Primarily this meant that I could only shoot from the far sides of the stage, but on the ground. Sort of next to where the photo pit would be. At first I wasn't stoked about this (I didn't have my 50mm lens, so I was shooting everything with a 35--not ideal for faraway shots), but I decided to take it as a challenge. How can I differentiate these shots? How can I make them interesting or exciting, when I'm taking them all essentially from the same two angles? I worked hard and challenged myself and I'm more than excited about the result. These don't look like my typical concert shots because they are indeed further away. But different isn't always bad, and in this case, I think the result was something pretty neat.
