On Thursday I photographed the band Emmure at the Blender Theatre in New York City.
It was a pretty typical shoot and I love when this happens. I show up to shoot a band. They don’t know me from Adam, nor should they. I’m just another photographer that has to take their picture for some magazine.
It helps that today’s shoot is for Kerrang, since these guys all want the publicity. But I know that bands are usually all about the music and like doing the photo shoot shuffle about as much as most people enjoy a root canal. I try to make it painless, but I still need some cooperation on their part.
I show up with all my lights in tow and start talking to them about different picture possibilities. We don’t have too many options because we’re locked in a venue and they don’t want to go outside. So, I’ll say something like “Wouldn’t it be cool if we took the barricades from the front of the stage and stack them behind you,” or “How about if I light it like this and put you guys over here?”
Sometimes they don’t think it will work or they want to do something else so I’ll use my Jedi mind trick (“These are not the ‘droids you’re looking for”) to get them to go along with my idea.
I get everything set up and take a test frame. Because I’m shooting with strobes, they really can’t see what the photo is going to look like until they see the actual image. Thanks to digital technology, I can show them the picture immediately on the back of the camera. Here’s the good part. Most of the time, they go, “Oh man, that’s cool!”
 
From there it’s smooth sailing. They trust me now and will go along with whatever I want. “Hey, can you stand up on those two rickety tables in the middle?” No problem.
 
At the end, the guys told me this was the best batch of photos they’ve ever had done. Of course, they only saw them on an un-calibrated, 3-inch screen, but I’ll take it. I certainly don’t think this particular shoot was my best work ever, but I accomplished what I wanted and got in and out without having to pull out my dentist’s drill.