April 13th, 2011 Scream (4/08) & Scream LoudER (4/09)

What a busy weekend!  I did back-to-back nightlife coverage over the weekend for Scream (All Ages) & Scream LoudER’s (18+) dance music events this month.  One of the main challenges in nightlife, aside from learning to shoot in near darkness, is coming up with unique shots every time.  As one of the resident photographers, I challenge myself to come up with new ways to showcase the event.

The very first thing I do is scope out the lighting and take mental notes. After all, without lighting, there is no photography.  With new lighting setups at each event, one has to take into account the settings at different light sources throughout the room/building/arena and work with it.

4/8/11

Here’s a few from Friday, which was the all ages event.  I did a photobooth setup along with some roaming images for the second half.

Check out this mac decal from DJ Amanda Rose, best one I’ve seen yet!

David, one of the main guys who brings Scream to life every month:

You can check out my photobooth gallery here, and the full roaming/DJ set here.

4/9/11

Saturday was the 18 and up event.  I decided to change things up a bit and use my newly acquired D7000 to shoot some video.

Full set can be seen here.

And finally, here’s the video I made and put together the next day.  It’s actually pretty fun doing video, I just hope I can bring it up to par with the images soon

OH! FYI for those that see me at the events.  You can tell if I’m doing photography or video by what my camera looks like.  If I have a big hook-like object (see pic below) with a camera sitting on top, that means I’m doing video

April 3rd, 2011 Maxim-style mini-shootout!

I host shootouts with the SoCal Photography Group at least once every 1-2 months, and I’m very grateful that they’ve grown in size and depth with each event.  However, with the increased attendance comes more time needed to ensure the shootout runs smoothly.  Not that it’s a bad thing, but I just don’t have time to shoot like I used to.

Fast forward two weeks after the event, and Jerel Fuerte & Eileen Sinsay of Fuerte Photography invites me out to the Maxim-style mini shootout they’re hosting.  Not only do I need to update my glam portfolio, but I get to be a photographer again  But as luck would have it, I received my new Nikon D7000 and Merlin Steadicam the night before, so I literally felt like a kid with new toys.

Here are some of my shots, a mix of natural, one light, and two light setups.  It was definitely good to get back into the mix with fellow artists, thanks again Jerel, Eileen, the MUAs, Hairstylists, photogs and of course the models!

And here’s the video I shot.  This was literally my first time shooting video with D7000, and I didn’t realize I could use it in aperture priority until mid-morning, hence the overexposed and incorrect white balance