Crispy as ....

Another set of images for Mark Kincaid's dj promo. Keepin it simple

Girl Talk at the Miami Fillmore 5-19-11

Miami Beach, FL- Girl Talk takes mash ups and mixes to another level. It's almost like you can play the game of "guess that sample" when listening to his music. I kinda wished I didn't have my camera and bag with me so I could of gotten my dance on. Tough to shake what ya momma gave you in such a tight space with out worrying about your gear. I did stay to the end. Two steppin like a geezard. Check out the full gallery over at Skope.

Pretty Lights with Mike Menert & Paper Diamonds at Miami Fillmore 3-24-2011

Miami Beach, FL- I recently got into Pretty Lights after a friend suggested I check out his music. You can actually download the Pretty Lights album at his site for free. He definitely justified his name, with an elaborate stage set up with lights and effects galore. These set ups aren't necessarily awesome for photos. You are basically photographing a light straight on with all sorts of flare and blown out highlights. I always aim for the few frames where there is just enough light on the performer to match with the surrounding lighting. The full color light creates some interesting effects too. Usually it is the first three songs and you are out of there at the Miami Fillmore, but due to the DJ aspect of the show, we were able to roam after the first three. I've always wanted to do more of a crowd/balcony shot at the venue so I took full advantage.

Mike Menert

Paper Diamonds

The Story Behind the Picture: Dancegiving

Sometimes they say a picture can tell a thousand words right? Well, sometimes it is nice to hear the actual story behind how a picture is created. So I thought I would start a series of blog posts on the story behind the picture.The full gallery is over at New Times

For this image, I was covering Dancegiving, an all day electronic music festival in downtown Ft. Lauderdale at Revolution, The Green Room, and America's Backyard. I had already been at the event for 9 hours and the music was starting to blend together. The lighting was pretty rough all day, but I kept on trying different things to make it work. The headliner, Steve Aoki, was playing and after taking a few photos on stage I headed to the back area to take a little break. As I was talking to someone, one of the event's staff made his way to the stage entrance with an inflatable raft and told someone "this shit is about to get crazy". That's all I had to hear for I know Steve Aoki tends to crowd surf. I immediately headed to the crowd. I really wanted the epic shot of Steve Aoki crowd surfing in the inflatable raft (where did they get it?), but a few minutes later as I am packed in the middle of the crowd, out comes the raft......

The Crystal Method at Gryphon 8-13-2010

As soon as the guys of The Crystal Method got on the decks their DJ skills were on display. The guys have been at it for some time now, but haven't let up. Through out their set the guys bounced around and were in it just as much as the crowd. It was my first time shooting in a club with my new wide angle lens, the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8. It's great for tight situations such as the DJ booth. Here are the best photos from the night. See the full gallery over at Irockparties.com

Steve Aoki at Club Cinema 8-10-10

Got my first gig for New Times! The crowd for Steve Aoki at Club Cinema was livid and the place was steaming. Through out the night I continually had to wipe the fog of my lens from how hot it was in the place. Aoki went all out, all night, spraying the crowd with bottles of champagne and hoping around stage. Check out the full gallery over at New Times

Gryphon with David Solano and Pangea 8-6-2010

Another night at Gryphon and Pangea. Got a chance to get up to the room over looking Gryphon and got some cool shots of the club. David Solano was bringing it and had the crowd going. Check out the full gallery over at Irockparties.com

Marco V at Gryphon 7-30-2010

It's been forever since I've been to Gryphon with the last time being Dubfire. It was the old stomping ground. Marco V from the Netherlands kept the energy up.  I also spent some time in the neighboring club, Pangea. Here are the best photos from the night. The full gallery can be found at IRockParties.com

Apollo Vendetta Promo Cover

I previously shot Apollo Vendetta during his DJ set opening up for Dubfire at Gryphon. Here is the promo cover put together by graphic designer Joe Brent.

Along with the blue and green light trails, I also gave him the choice of red and yellow.

To start, the portrait was shot with a single flash with side lighting. Going into the shoot I thought about maybe doing something in post with backgrounds or overlays so I also took blurred photos of the city lights from the high rise balcony. Using an image of blurred city lights I overlayed them over his face. The vibrant color was created by altering the hue and saturation.

Here are some other shots we took from the balcony with downtown Miami in the background. In the first photo I added city lights in his sunglasses. I thought for the close up it would be a bit cheesy to add lights. 

 

Here's another shot with side lighting , using a wall inside the apartment as background.

Roger Sanchez @ Monarchy

It was my first time making it up to West Palm Beach and the club Monarchy on Clematis. The place was packed and Roger Sanchez kept the energy up. It was good to get a chance to shoot at a new club. For a full gallery of the night go on over to IRockParties.com

Dubfire and Apollo V @ Gryphon

     I had been looking forward to this night for a while. Dubfire's tracks and mixes have been on my playlist for a while now. Even better, my friend Apollo V got the slot for the opener. I've shot Gryphon plenty of times and continue to try different ideas and get better shots.
    My goal for this night was to get some killer shots using blue and red gelled flashes on opposite sides of the DJ. Using my pocketwizards, I could trigger them from anywhere in the club. Freezing the DJ with my flash, I then dragged the shutter to bring out the rest of the club. Those without the blue and red flash are shot with a similar concept using on camera flash directed towards the DJ.

I love Dubfire's style and he had the club moving. I had to tell myself to stand still while taking long exposure.

 I would of liked to of shot more of Dubfire with colored flash, but the DJ booth was packed and this limited my angles.

Dubfire and Apollo V

A few crowd shots from the night