Back in June of this year (2018), I had the honour of photographing a 7 piece funk band out of Vancouver called Air Stranger. I had photographed their performance at the Blackbird Hall earlier in the year and can’t say enough about how great this band is! All the members are extremely talented musicians and performers. I wanted to capture the fun loving nature of this band that comes out when they perform live. After some standard shots and we found a rhythm, the band members felt relaxed which allowed their individual personalities to emerge in the shots. In the end we created some serious shots, fun shots, and some just plain playful ones that the band could use for social media and promotions. If you ever get the chance, check them out live as you won’t be disappointed! https://www.airstranger.com/
Over the past couple of years I’ve been working on a series of shots using long exposure shooting at night. My goal is to create some great images that people will be proud to hang in their homes or offices. Recently while my kids were at a Concert at Rogers Arena, I took the opportunity to take some shots around English Bay and Coal Harbour. It was a cold wet rainy day in Vancouver, but that for me makes for interesting compositions when things are wet which allows the light to reflect off things in a special way. Here is a small preview of the shots from the series…
Back in the fall of 2017, I shot Jonny Lang at the Commodore Ballroom for Patchchord News. The opener for that show was Zane Carney, a fabulously talented singer/songwriter and guitarist. Not only was he the opener, but he is also the guitar player in Jonny Lang’s touring band. I had the chance to meet Zane after the show and gave him my card while we chatted about playing with Jonny Lang, John Mayer, Avril Lavigne and music in general. I sent him some of my shots from the show and stayed in contact as much as people do these days, by following each other on social media, etc. It was through Instagram that Zane reached out to me about shooting his AirBnB concert in Vancouver on May 5th, to which I agreed to do!
The concert was in Queen Elizabeth Park right in the heart of Vancouver and the night couldn’t have been any better. The sun was shining and spring flowers were all in bloom. The pavillion is acoustically spectacular for this type of show, and have to say I would love to see more of these types of shows there. I arrived to find Zane set up and running through a sound check. I got to meet actor Meganne Young who recently relocated from LA to Vancouver earlier in the year. The concert was a small, intimate show with Zane performing solo, playing guitar and telling stories. It was brilliant!
After the show I introduced myself to Patrick Warburton who is an actor some of you may know from Seinfeld, The Tick, voice of Joe on Family Guy, etc. He’s a great guy, very nice and laid back. Zane and Patrick were on Dave’s World 20 years ago, so he stopped by to see Zane play guitar and visit.
Have to say, I love my life as a photog!
Zane Carney opening for Jonny Lang in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom