Redwall Photo Blog

JBTV/Goldmill Summer Party

Tasha — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:40:57 +0000

The fantastic (and maybe crazy?) Christian and Britton Picciolini opened their home to their musical family – people from JBTV, bands that Christian manages through Goldmill, and a random assortment of others that somehow fit into the mix (me included!).

They had one of these parties last summer, and we weren’t able to attend, so the second that Christian sent out the save-the-date email, I marked it on my calendar, swearing off all other activities for that date, no matter what. Luckily, it worked out, because it was a fantastic time. I mean, there was a 112 lb. roast pig, ladder ball/bags/badminton/volleyball, friends, campfires, sing alongs, smores, etc… what else could anyone possibly want?

As a side note, I know I haven’t been posting on this blog much lately… there will be blogs forthcoming. It’s wedding season right now, so my energy is devoted to that, but there are great things coming (Company of Thieves and Ludo come to mind…).

(Christian’s such a good sport :))

(must give love to the Treaty of Paris tattoo ;))

(Aaron looks vicious when playing badminton… don’t worry, he’s all bark, not much bite)

(one of my favorites from the day)

(Molly died after volleyball)

(Kyle & I have a longstanding ritual. I take pictures of him, he flips me off.)

(The beautiful and gracious Britton)

(The one and only Jerry Bryant)

And, as a special bonus, a video of one of my favorite parts of the night. Please excuse the less than stellar framing – with the light quality, I needed to set the camera down on a flat surface, so I had limited composition options.

Untitled from Tasha Schalk on Vimeo.

Rev Theory @ House of Blues (Twisted)

Tasha — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:37:06 +0000

Rev Theory is not necessarily my type of music, but I can’t deny that they put on a great show. Frontman Rich Luzzi was on the risers at the front of the stage the majority of the first three songs, with the rest of the band not far behind. They were both musicians and performers, which I think is so important, especially when you’re opening up for Halestorm and Shinedown. It would have been easy to get lost in a such a powerful line-up, but I thought that Rev Theory definitely held their own.

Shooting Notes

Rev Theory is definitely one that you’re going to want a wide angle lens for. Really. If you don’t have a wide angle, go rent one for their show. As mentioned, they were on the front of the stage for practically the entirety of the first three songs, and they weren’t afraid of cameras. I loved using the wide-angle on them so much that I even broke out my fisheye, which I rarely do when I have to adhere to the three song limit. The band moves around, and quickly, so I had both eyes open for this one – one concentrating on my shot, and one looking around to make sure I wasn’t missing a better shot. Ultimately, they’re just fun to photograph.

Exposures for this set were around 2500-6400 ISO (usually closer to 6400), with 1/125-1/200 shutter speeds, and at f/2.8. The 16-35mm was heavily used, obviously.

Rev Theory @ House of Blues (Twisted)

The Frantic @ JBTV (Film)

Tasha — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:34:13 +0000

You’ll be seeing a lot of The Frantic in upcoming posts. I’ve been crashing some of their recording sessions, shooting promos with them, and went to this JBTV taping. Sometimes it just works that way – lots of one band at one time. I like it.

More to come from this, obviously. I still have the digital shots.

And, as always, don’t forget to tune into JBTV – Wednesdays at 11 on WJYS 62 in Chicago. The episodes are also on iTunes the day after airing. There’s no excuse to miss one.

Shooting Notes

After shooting a roll of film at the AM Taxi recording at JBTV, I wanted to try again. This time I wanted to use black and white film (because I got a few weird color casts on the color film), and I wanted to try a new camera I had just gotten. My husband got me a Canon EOS 650, which has an EF mount, and thus allows me to use all my digital lenses on a film body. It also has auto-focusing and auto film advance. Before this camera, all my other film cameras were manual focus and I had to advance the film (I really really like old cameras). So, this camera kind of opened up a whole new world – manual focusing is so hard with concerts, and with the ability to use my digital lenses, I could shoot wide or telephoto.

I think these came out much better, and they were certainly much easier to take. Don’t be surprised if I shoot a bit more film at concerts now (only if I know I’ll have decent light though!).

As mentioned, these were taken with the Canon EOS 650 with 400 speed Kodak 400CN.

The Frantic @ JBTV (Film)

The Young Veins @ Beat Kitchen

Tasha — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:31:58 +0000

Opening up for Foxy Shazam, The Young Veins are a throwback band. For a band that I had not heard of, I was impressed with the amount of fans there for them. A little phone Googling, and I discovered that vocalist Ryan Ross and guitarist Jon Walker were previous members of Panic! At The Disco. That explained it!

The Young Veins is released their first CD, Take A Vacation!, yesterday ( June 8, 2010).

Shooting Notes

As discussed in the Foxy Shazam post, the lighting at Beat Kitchen is just about the worst in any venue I’ve been to (which is 142 of them). It was a bit easier to shoot The Young Veins than Foxy, however, because the The Young Veins weren’t as fast-paced in their movements.

I stuck to primes because of the hideous light, so I shot this set with two 5D2s, the 35mm f/1.4L and 135mm f/2, with an emphasis on the 135mm to reach across the stage (no pit!).

The Young Veins @ Beat Kitchen

Cavalry @ Reggie’s

Tasha — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:39:51 +0000

Cavalry was opening for Gilby Clarke (of Guns N’ Roses fame), so they needed pictures. Obviously. And, in addition to that, singer Collin Patrick’s brother Micah also joined the band (on bass and keys), with this being just his second show. It was definitely a picture-worthy night.

As always, they put on a great show. Really fantastic. You should check them out.

Shooting Notes

On the best days I really really don’t like Reggie’s. For this show, the lights were almost non-existent and made Beat Kitchen look like a brightly lit venue. Luckily, Reggie’s isn’t the kind of place that has any restrictions on camera or flash… including off camera flash. I got out the flashes and set them on the sides of the stage and one on the amp in the back… except then I dropped one of the side stage flashes and it stopped working. So, since I was minus a flash, my final flash set-up ended up being a flash on stage right, and one on stage left, both set at 1/64th power for most of the set. I would have loved to get some back/rim lighting, but that’s the price to pay for being clumsy.

So, this was only my second show where I really utilized off-camera flash as being my main source of light. I think it went okay. It only took me eight years to use flash in concert, but better late than never, right?

Exposures were still around 1/125, f/1.8-2.8 range. My ISO was all over the place, but I don’t believe it went lower than 3200. I also used the 16-35mm and 85 f/1.8 for the entire set.

(This picture cracks me up, thanks Loren)

Cavalry @ Reggie's

5 (More) Amazing Concert Photographers

Tasha — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:04:09 +0000

Over a year ago, I did a post on some concert photographers I admire, and while I still adore each and every one of them, I think it’s high time for a part two. I like all of these photographers for different reasons, and all of their work is very different. Each has something that makes them stand out above the rest for me. These are some of the people that make me excited to check my RSS feed.

Sarah Bastin | Flickr | www.sarahbastin.net

Sarah has the best contrasty black and white concert shots ever. She also does a fantastic job of getting a bunch of unusual details and angles. Her Flickr also showcases some film work every now and then (not usually with concerts though), and as I’m a fan of film, she scores huge brownie points with me!

Darkroom Demons | www.darkroomdemons.com

I posted a concert shot because that’s the theme of this post, and I do love their concert work, but where Darkroom Demons REALLY shines is in nightlife photography. They’re amazing. Not only are they great technically, but they are really fantastic at getting people comfortable in front of the camera and really capturing the feeling and fun of a club. As someone who is definitely not a club photographer, I admire them greatly.

Matt Miller | www.thefivemilegrace.com

I found Matt Miller through his work with Our Labor Of Love, and while I like his wedding photography, I LOVE his concert work. Everytime he posts a new concert blog, I find myself studying the photos to figure out just exactly he managed to get that shot.

Clayton Hauck | www.claytonhauck.com

Clayton is another one that is talented in several areas of photography… currently his blog is full of amazing photos from Lebanon, but I’ve seen great wedding photos, club photos, and concert photos from him. One thing I always like about his photos (aside from his great processing), is that all his photos have a very strong photojournalistic feel. They always make you feel like you’re part of the action.

Corey Hale | Flickr | www.godkindstudios.com

Despite Corey being in Columbia, MO, he and I actually shot together at a show once when I made a trip for a favorite band. Of course, we didn’t know we were shooting together at the time – we had been Flickr friends for a while prior to that show, and I posted the photos, and he realized, “hey, I was shooting that too!” Funny story, right? Anyway. I love Corey’s use of bright colors and he also has some great fisheye shots.

The Frantic @ Audio Is King

Tasha — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:52:48 +0000

I titled this “The Frantic,” but it was really just singer Kyle Dee recording vocals.

I had been trying to get over to Audio Is King for several weeks now to crash a recording session, but with doing concert photography, wedding/portrait photography, and working a full-time job on top of that, my schedule is jam packed. Luckily, Augie texted to tell me that they were recording on a rare day where I had no solid plans, so we (my hubby and I) were able to stop by for a little while. I’m so glad we did. I missed all involved terribly. We must do it again soon.

By the way Frantic fans, I got to hear an almost completed song, and it was amazing. You’re in for a treat when this record is done. For those that don’t know of the Frantic, check them out, they’re lots of fun.

Shooting Notes

Same as always for the studio – shoot primes, shoot wide open, and all is good. Now that Dan and Augie got a lamp and a huge monitor, I have a few light sources that emit nice soft light (I especially love the monitor, it’s like a giant softbox). And, as always, while the color versions of these photos are fine, I prefer black and white for studio images.

Mainly shot with the 35mm f/1.4, but the 135mm f/2 and 15mm f/2.8 fisheye made a few appearances.

(This one should be paired with the next one. This is Kyle face #1…)

(And this is face #2. Love it.)

Frantic Recording @ Audio Is King

Sneak Peek: The Frantic @ JBTV

Tasha — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:10:24 +0000

Had a wonderful time with The Frantic at JBTV tonight. Just a few pictures from the set that make me laugh…. more soon!

AM Taxi @ JBTV

Tasha — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:08:28 +0000

With things being busy with both the day job and with wedding season (hey, shameless plug – I shoot weddings too!), I haven’t been able to go to as many concerts lately as I would like to, so I was very excited when I was able to attend the AM Taxi taping at JBTV. I love both AM Taxi and JBTV, so I felt like I was making the most of my rare free time! And what a show it was, it was loud, and sweaty, full of friends, and wonderfully fun, just like a good concert should be.

Oh, and another exciting thing? AM Taxi’s first record on Virgin is coming out in less than a month (and available for pre-order now here). This episode of JBTV will air slightly after the record release date.

And as always, I highly recommend JBTV, they always have great acts on, with a mix of exclusive interviews and live performances. If you’re in Chicago, JBTV is on Wednesdays at 11 on WJYS 62. If you’re not in the area, the shows are on iTunes and on JBTV’s website soon after airing.

Shooting Notes

As I mentioned in the blog post with the film shots from this set, JBTV has fantastic light. Since they’re set up for filming, they use a lot of white front light with colored, hazy fill in the background. It’s my dream lighting set-up. I don’t think I went much above 1600ISO the whole night – most of the time I was closer to 800ISO. Unreal. I had such a hard time narrowing down the photos because they were all properly exposed and didn’t have any color washes!

I was doing my best to stay out of the way of the camera men, because you know, they were actually doing a job, so most of the set I shot with longer lenses and stayed off to the side with the 70-200mm and 135mm. I did shoot up for a few songs though (thanks to Steph & Sam for letting me squish in with them for a song), and for that, I used the 24-70mm for the most versatility.

Other than that, Taxi is always a pleasure to shoot. Great guys that are totally real onstage.

(The amazing Jerry Bryant in action)

(Oh, Christian, you crack me up)

AM Taxi @ JBTV

Paramore @ House of Blues

Tasha — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:48:11 +0000

I had been wanting to see Paramore for a while by the time I finally was able to…. and I was not disappointed. They’re just a fun band that you can’t help but sing along to.

A fun little tidbit from the show: The House of Blues stage is actually several floors up in the building (which is on the riverfront), so when the large crowd starts jumping, the floor literally starts moving. I have shot countless shows at House of Blues and have witnessed the floor moving several times… this was the first time that I was actually worried it was going to cave. No one can say that Paramore doesn’t get their fans excited and jumping.

Shooting Notes

I was given the wrong pass initially, so I spent the first song and half frantically getting it sorted out, meaning that I was only able to shoot a song and a half (pesky three song limits). While I was quite sad that I missed out on even a minute of shooting the high-energy set, I managed to get some good shots in the five minutes I had to shoot…. the lighting was fantastic, Haley was running around the stage striking epic poses left and right. They were an amazing band to photograph.

This set was a while ago, back in October of last year, but I would assume that their stage show is still the same. I shot most of this with my 16-35mm as Haley favored the front of the stage, plus I wanted to get in some of the epic stage lighting. I would also recommend faster than average shutter speeds, as I did have a few shots that were ruined by motion blur.

Paramore @ House of Blues