@davidbergman

Last month, KERRANG! magazine asked me to photograph Dillinger Escape Plan in concert here in NYC. After I accepted the assignment, I went to the band’s MySpace page and immediately wondered what I had gotten myself into.

Their style is called “mathcore” or “technical metalcore” which is an incredibly complex style of play featuring odd time signatures and song structures. It’s very heavy and loud, and the lead vocalist is usually screaming the lyrics at the top of his lungs (or at least it sounds that way to me).

While it’s not a style I normally listen to, the musicians are quite talented. Thank goodness for earplugs though, because working right in front of the stage for an extended period of time could do some serious damage to my ear drums.

The audience was rowdy, as expected. Bodies were flying everywhere and I had to keep one eye in my viewfinder and the other on the crowd.

At one point, I got an accidental kick to the face which gave me a pretty good bloody nose. After my eyes stopped watering, I was able to shoot the rest of the set. Luckily nothing was broken — I just had a nice scab on the bridge of my nose for about a week.

I had a feeling that there would be some interesting photos at the show. Near the end of the set, lead singer Greg Puciato pulled a Gene Simmons by breathing fire out over the crowd. He then stepped out into the audience, let someone hold up the rod with the open flame and shot it out over their heads.

 

It was a pretty dramatic moment and one that I was happy to have captured. The photo is the main image for the concert review in KERRANG!

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I also had the opportunity last month to photograph Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz.

Unfortunately, the location I was given for the shoot was a tiny office in the depths of Madison Square Garden. The room was so small that my assistant and I had to store some equipment in the hallway just so we’d have enough space for two different lighting setups.

I knew I would only have about 10 minutes with Pete before his band would take the stage in front of 15,000 screaming fans.

When he arrived, I had to ask the two girls with him to wait outside because there was no space in the room. I later realized that I had kicked Ashlee Simpson (his girlfriend) out of the room.

Sorry, Ashlee!

They didn’t seem to mind though and the shoot went off without a hitch.

Lately, I’ve been doing more creative post-production on my images. This turned out to be the perfect chance to use those skills since I was shooting in a boring white room.

The photo wound up running in the year-end issue of KERRANG!

Normally, I get my assignments from Sports Illustrated only a few days in advance. Last month, however, I put in a request to cover the Miami Hurricanes game against the Virginia Cavaliers about a month ahead of time.

This game was very special because it was the last time the Hurricanes would ever play in the Miami Orange Bowl. They’re moving to a newer facility — Dolphins Stadium — next season after playing 468 games in the OB over the last 70 years.

Since I was born in Miami, attended UM, and worked for the Miami Herald, I practically grew up shooting football at the OB.

As the sun was setting before the game, I walked around and made photos to show the environment. Other than the sheer number of fans taking photos of the stadium with their cell phones, it looked just like every other pregame — tailgaters drinking and kids playing catch.

This young Canes fan (and her socks!) caught my eye and I was able to frame her in golden light with the aging stadium in the back.

 

Just like the Orange Bowl, the Miami football team isn’t what it used to be. They were shut out 48-0 by Virginia. Coincidentally, the Hurricanes lost their very first game at the Orange Bowl 26-0 on December 10, 1937.

Nevertheless, it was still a historic day and I’m glad I was there to document it.

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Last month I spent a couple of weeks in Los Angeles producing behind-the-scenes videos on the set of the legendary game show The Price is Right!

FremantleMedia just launched a brand new website for the show featuring some of my work with more videos going online as the season progresses. I’ve completed twelve pieces including profiles of the models, a backstage view with announcer Rich Fields, and a look at the passionate people who fill the audience each day in hopes they will be told to “come on down!”

With Drew Carey as the new host, the producers decided to do a full Halloween episode this year. They’ve had themed showcases in the past, but this was the first full show to feature a Halloween theme.

I wanted to document the festivities, so I produced the video you see above.

It’s football season again!

In September I traveled to State College, PA to photograph Notre Dame vs. Penn State in front of the second largest crowd ever at the stadium (110,078 people!). For big games, Penn State usually calls for a “white out,” where all of the fans in the student section wear white.

For this game, they had their first ever “white house,” where everyone got in on the act.

In the middle of the second quarter when the sun was setting, I walked up to the very top of the stadium (I didn’t realize that there was an elevator until after I was up there).

 

The photo ran across two pages in Sports Illustrated.