Nowherebound at Elysium
Christopher Klinck and Natchet Taylor, from Austin punk bands Born To Lose and New Disaster respectively, formed the primarily acoustic Nowherebound in 2010. I'd seen New Disaster play a bunch of times over the past few years, but this was my first time to see Nowherebound in action. It was at first a bit disconcerting to see Taylor perched on a bar stool with his acoustic guitar and harmonica, having ditched his usual cocky frontman swagger, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this performance. Klinck's vocals instantly reminded me of The Pogues, which can never be a bad thing.
Jens Lekman at Mohawk
Jens Lekman is a Swedish musician, renowned for his quirky, witty lyrics. His command of English is impeccable, and it's not even his first language.
I've been a fan of Lekman since becoming hooked on his song Black Cab years and years and years ago (it's still featured in my regular playlists to this day, in fact). However, I'd never seen him perform before and I wasn't actually sure what to expect from his live show. I certainly was not disappointed. Choosing to play his most recent album in its entirety before dedicating the second half of his set to some classics from his back catalog, Lekman has an effortless, affable kind of charm that wins the audience over in no time at all. I can't imagine anyone left this show feeling anything other than all warm and fuzzy inside.
A Halloween Wedding Reception
I love Halloween. Love it. And one of my absolute favorite things about the United States is the sheer, unwavering enthusiasm that people seem to have for celebrating it. You go for the gusto, my American chums, and I salute you for it.
You can imagine my delight, then, when I got the call to shoot a Halloween-themed wedding reception for Erin and Alex. I had first met Erin when she was a bridesmaid at a wedding earlier this year, a wedding which was actually the subject of my very first blog post on this site. Anyway, she and Alex were married in the summer, and I'm not sure if it was their intention all along to have a Halloween wedding reception, or if it just transpired that way because of the date. Either way, I now kind of wish that all wedding receptions were Halloween-themed. It was fantastic.
I can't even begin to describe how amazing the place looked. Dry ice in the hot-tub, skeletons in the swimming pool, gravestones and cobwebs everywhere. The bar was even serving pumpkin-pie martinis. As a lover of all things Halloweeny, I couldn't have envisioned a better party.
Troy and Deena's Wedding - The Photo Booth
Troy and Deena are one of the loveliest couples you are ever likely to meet, and I had the distinct pleasure of being their wedding photographer. The wedding photos are coming soon, but for now I thought I'd share some of the pictures from the photo booth we set up.
I love manning the photo booth (and I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the term "photo booth" here. It's just me with a camera, a white backdrop and some lights). It doesn't matter if you're young or old, male or female, good or evil - once you don a red feather boa and a plastic viking hat, you lose all inhibitions in front of the camera. Watching gran and grandad pretend to threaten each other with plastic swords never fails to amuse me.
Jonnie & Brookie at the Freeman Coliseum
I've shot many a band in my time. I love shooting concerts. It's certainly not the easiest form of photography, but it can be one of the most rewarding. I've shot rock bands, rappers, DJs, electronic acts, vaudevillian musical ensembles. I wasn't really ever expecting to add "teen pop girl duos" to that list, so I was kind of surprised when Jonnie and Brookie asked me to shoot their performance at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio earlier this month. It was part of something called GirlExpo, an event celebrating 100 years of the Girl Scouts (my knowledge of which is strictly limited to the wonderful, wonderful cookies they sell. Caramel DeLites may in fact be the greatest things ever created by anyone, ever, in the history of time).
Jonnie and Brookie are sisters from Arizona who have been performing since they were little kids. Like many teen girl acts, they perform songs about boys, how they don't need the aforementioned boys, or occasionally that they do in fact miss the boys and want them back. Unlike a lot of teen acts, however, Jonnie and Brookie write their own songs and play their own instruments. Kudos. They won Radio Disney's Next Big Thing competition in 2009, and it looks like they've been garnering a pretty sizable fan base ever since. Both Jonnie and Brookie along with their backing band were great fun to shoot, and clearly the hundreds and hundreds of Girl Scouts going absolutely bonkers had a good time too.
