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2008

Ok, I’m going to do some blogs on how I know some of the people I photograph.  

Little back history on myself first.  From a young age I’ve always been musically inclined.  Growing up, I always had a guitar around me and played in garage bands as a teenager.  When I went to college in the late 80’s, I had the opportunity to do a work project through Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  Working under the direction of Technical Engineer, John Vrtacic, I got to form a relationship with the staff there.  One person who showed me more than just electronics was the Technical Assistant, Ron ‘Obvious’ Vermeulen and opened my eyes to more than just electronics at a Studio.  From there, I got a contract to do some work while they retrofitted Studio B with an SSL mixing console.  While I was at Little Mountain (even though it was a blip in time really), I was taught an etiquette on how to act around musicians and famous persons.  

I was still playing in my own band at that point and just moved to bass and started learning how to play the instrument.  Fast forward about 10 years and in the early to mid 2000’s, I connected with some players and got heavy into playing blues.   From that I got to form many new connections with different individuals on the Vancouver music scene.  In 2013 I had a full plate with a day job, music, seeing my kids on weekends, and the photography started to pick up.  I made a decision to reduce my stress and step back from performing and focus (no pun intended) on my photography, primarily Concert Photography.

So that is a short version of my story and how I have various connections to different people I photograph…  The following posts will include some stories on my connection to them.  Hope you enjoy!

Got a call from my client Steve Ricardo who let me know his band Bonnie Scott was giving a free concert outdoors in Port Coquitlam. So me and the wife jumped in the car with the cameras to take a drive. On the way the skies opened up and it poured rain. We went to the gig and I managed to get a few shots before the camera got soaked. Didn’t stay for the whole set but the band completely understood with the rain. Cheers!

I got to shoot Dark Originn performing their material off the new CD at the Wolf Bar in Maple Ridge, BC. The venue is a bar accessible from the back alley under some shops. It is a haven for many local metal and alternative bands where they can showcase their talent. Opening the show was a band called Never Another followed by the boys in Dark Originn. All in all a good night of music but a challenge to shoot in. They pretty much only have a single spot aiming down on the drum riser so anyone up front was mostly back lit which gave way to some cool silhouette shots, but that was about it.