I own both the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D. I’ve used the 5D Mark II for some small video projects in the past (mostly video’s of my son’s drumming), but when my friend (Pat Collins, drummer for the band Eclipse) hired me to do a full-scale promo video for them, how could I refuse?

I elected to use my 7D for this video, instead of the 5D due to the 60 fps feature that the 7D has which the 5D lacks, in case I needed to do any slow-mo (not much) or motion tracking / stabilizing in post-editing (much).

The band rented the amazing Old Town Temecula Community Theater in Temecula for four hours to do the shoot and lip synced to their pre-recorded covers while I shot multiple takes of each band member for 12 songs as well as some “crowd” shots behind a small row of extras the band had dragged to the theater to take part.

I am fairly pleased with how this came out and wouldn’t do much different — except perhaps spend a few more weeks before the shoot working out my biceps. That camera/stedicam rig got heavy in the last hour of shooting.

Enjoy!

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On Saturday, May 29th, my sons’ progressive rock band, Diminishtry, performed at the world famous Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, CA. Josh (18, guitar) and Brandon (15, drums) along with Drew Howard (15, bass) got to step on the same stage as music greats like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Van Halen, and Mötley Crüe. And, they rocked the house!

They don’t allow video taping there (since they offer that as a service themselves for $150), but they did allow me to take pictures. So, here are just some of the 100+ shots I took during their set.

Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders did his first ever clinic on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at the Fender Center for the Performing Arts in Corona, CA. Resident guitar instructor Lee Zimmer led off the evening with some amazing classical guitar work:

Then, my sons’ progressive rock band, Diminishtry, got their turn and performed songs from their debut CD:

Finally, Tosin took the stage and performed live guitar parts to pre-recorded backing tracks of some of his Animals As Leaders songs. Tosin is off-the-charts on guitar, and played 7-string and 8-string guitars for all of his songs. It was a great evening of live music, especially for the musicians in the crowd.

On January 17th, I was at the Hollywood House of Blues with a photo pass at the invite of Chris Letchford, guitarist for Scale The Summit, an amazing instrumental progressive rock band.

It was a night of prog rock music for sure. The headliner of the night was Between The Buried And Me (BTBAM). The band Cynic was also an opener this night. I had never heard of Cynic prior to this night, but they totally won me over as a fan, because they were amazing. All of the bands were insanely talented and put on great shows. And, I had the best seat in the house. Actually, I had NO seat. Instead, I got to stand in a little 3 foot-wide gap between the front of the stage and a wall that was put up to keep the crowd on the floor back. Just me, one other photographer, and the security staff were allowed in that gap. Amazing!

Here are some highlights from the night. Starting off with some of my shots of Scale The Summit:

To see more shots from Scale The Summit, go HERE.

Next up was Cynic. Usually, it’s difficult to get clean shots of the drummer from the floor. But, Cynic’s stage setup was such that the drummer, Sean Reinert, was closer to the front of the stage to the right, giving me some unbelievably clean shots:

To see more shots Cynic, go HERE.

Finally, BTBAM hit the stage. They were so animated, it made for easy action shot opportunities.

To see more shots Between The Buried And Me, go HERE.