Archive for October, 2008

Things I do

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Another graphic that went well with editors.

Two things that they wanted to show: geographical zip codes and home value data. I thought making a map at some sort of perspective would serve both purposes. Anyways, it was good to get some positive feedback.

I shot this concert a few weekends ago. I didn’t think any of the shots were spectacular, so I was in no hurry to post them, but since Christina asked.

Ask and you shall receive….

The main band was Anberlin. I didn’t think they there terrible. Sounded the same as most middle of the road rock bands, to be quite honest. But they were nicely dressed! Which is not only rare to see nowadays, but after experiencing the band right before them, it was a nice surprise.


I wanted to give them more of a chance, but really, I was slightly annoyed because a) security at the entrance made me feel 25 percent molested. Not even at the freaking airport have I been patted like that, and I had to take of my shoes! WTF? I asked why the security crackdown, and I pointed out it had not been like this when I came to see Sigur Ros. The guy goes “well, it depends on the type of crowd we think we’re going to get.” This made even less sense when I got inside and discovered that the crowd consisted of tweens and teens, some with their mothers. And b) the local band that came right before Anberlin, some guys called Scary Kids, Scaring Kids, was just down right awful. I’ll preface that we saying that I personally don’t like bands that make only “noise” instead of music-related noise. Obviously I had to stay for their whole set, but I couldn’t really tell you where one song started and the next one ended, it was all a continuous combination of screaming, running around like a crazy chicken, shirtless-ness and more noise.

So let’s just say that by the time it was Anberlin’s turn, my patience and tolerance was at an all time low. But I did have one slightly interesting shot from this bunch…

That was before the keyboardist decided to lose the shirt. Combined with the extreme low-rise jeans, I was thinking we’d have a guaranteed wardrobe malfunction. PS: flip flops are not very rock ‘n roll. Put some damn shoes on.

But I want to conclude on a good note, and say thanks to the security guys by the stage, who are always very nice and helpful. They prevent me from getting crushed by the people they pull from the crowd… always a plus. And they even recommend some good upcoming shows. One mentioned a metal band with cellos!? Interesting…

Posted in Graphics, Music, Tempe | 5 Comments »

Graphics galore

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

A few recent graphics. I work a lot with maps. Mostly locating places. 

       
           

 

 

 

To the right, I have a graphic that ran on A1. And better yet,
it was on the upper half of the paper so everyone walking by the newspaper on the stands definitely saw my graphic. Well, they probably were more concerned with the plugging Dow and their disappearing 401k than my actual graphic.

Although I liked the original headline of Slaughter in Wall Street. Perfect with all the red! Looking back on it, I should’ve put my name on it, even if it did make it deeper… I’m sure the designer could’ve spared a few points, right? Probably not. 

 
Here’s another good one that was also a bit of a challenge. The reporter filed two sets of numbers: the fluctuation of gas prices in dollars (amounts in the $3, $4 range), and the fluctuation of oil prices (in the $90-$120 range) which he wanted to compare as two lines. One set of numbers fluctuated by a few cents or dollars, while the other changed by 20, 30, 40 dollars. 

 Plotting them together would have  giving me two lines, yes, but it wouldn’t have been visually interesting, since  one line (the gas prices one) would have been a straight line, with no visual  fluctuation. Once again it was a problem of scale, which I always find tough  to explain. 

 So to the left you can see what we ended up doing. Instead of showing  actual dollar amounts, we showed percent change from the start of January  2008. This way we visually showed what the reporter was trying to get at  with the story, that even though oil prices are going down below January  prices, gas prices are not dropping quite as fast. 

 Ayrel and I were discussing for a while how we would calculate that percent  change, which led to massive math related profanities. But reporter Russ  Wiles decided to intervene with his sharp math genius, right after he heard  me say “I’m going to have to Google how to do that”. 

 That’s that with graphics for now. I have a few others I want to post but I  don’t have them in my personal computer.

 I’m photographing another concert at the Marquee this weekend. I might try  to get there earlier to avoid the stupidity of their parking situation.  

 

Posted in Graphics | 2 Comments »

Sigur Ros

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Now, here’s a show that was worth every penny. Icelandic band Sigur Rós brought their unique style of rock n roll to the Marquee Theater in Tempe. The guys just put on an amazing show, with confetti and all! What more can you ask for? If you’ve never heard of them, do yourself a favor and go google them.

The lighting was amazing for very moody, dramatic photos. Not quite so good for faces. I just had so many favorites, it was tough to narrow them down.


Yes, you’re seeing correctly, Jonsi Birgisson, left, is playing his guitar with what I thought was a violin bow, but Wikipedia tells me it’s a cello bow. But man, he was playing that guitar so energetically and passionately, very cool.


Jonsi had by far the best lighting of any member on stage with him, therefore I have more photos of him. Either the other guys like the literal obscurity, or they need to have a word with the lighting guy.


He was “singing” into the guitar, which created a real different and cool reverberation.


A band called Parachutes opened for Sigur Ros, and towards the end of the concert they came back onstage to play together. (I still haven’t edited the Parachute photos, sorry!) They were an alright band, pretty good actually, but at one point I counted nine people on stage, so with that many band members, you better make good music. Geez, can you imagine? Nine people in a band? The fights they must!? I believe those are called riots.


Confetti.

The azcentral.com slideshow has a few more photos here.

I only shot for three songs, which was supposed to be only two, but security didn’t kick me and the other photog out of the pit. But even after the first three songs, I got to stay the rest of the show and just enjoy. Sigur Ros was one of the best bands I’ve seen this year, for sure. Only complain: Parking. Not that I mind paying $5 to park, but the fact that the deck had only ONE entrance, manned by ONE person, creating ONE heck of a line of cars. Took us over 30 minutes to just park. Get. It. Together. Tempe.

Posted in Music, Tempe | 2 Comments »

Alicia Keys

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I have two sets of photos to post, which I should’ve done last week, but everything was just too hectic. I’ll write about it more later. But let’s get to the good stuff that keeps ya coming back!

In this post, I have Alicia Key’s concert at the Dodge Theater last Saturday. I’ve shot at that venue several times, and I’m convince that I hate it, mainly because they put chairs RIGHT by the stage. I mean, everyone who’s gone to concerts know that more often than not there’s some sort of “pit” between the stage and the first row of seats/people. Usually, it’s where security stands, and where photographers are allowed to stand for the first couple of songs. Well, the Dodge is anti-pit apparently, so we have to stand on the far sides.  

Honestly, those first rows of seats are SO close to the stage that, other than proximity to your performers of choice, it has as many perks as that first row of seats at movie theaters. I don’t care how big a fan I am, I wouldn’t want to sit THAT close for several hours and have terrible neck pain by the end of it. I don’t even know why performers allow that! Whatever, those are my two-cents on that.

Mohammad Ali, the legend, the boxer, the man, was in the crowd, and I got to walk right by him; only about five feet and six mountains of men from security separated us! Sorry, we were specifically forbidden to take photos of the crowd, and it was kind of hard to be discreet with the 300mm lens. But people in the audience where definitely getting up and going right infront of him and taking pictures. They weren’t even being discreet about it. I don’t know. It seemed kinda disrespectful. He’s not an animal on exhibit, ya know? He’s just there trying to enjoy the show with his family… well, if he’s even aware of where he is. He did look kinda rough. I guess these celebrities are used to it, but man, it must get annoying at some point… Can you tell I would an awful paparazzi?


I didn’t think those were flattering pants…

There are few more photos on an azcentral slideshow Here. Go check ‘em out. 

Recap. Only three songs to shoot, from the sides, I was very eh with the variety of shots I got. Overall, I really didn’t have many shots that I thought were that great or different. 

Also, I’ve gotten a few comments that I can’t really tell if they’re spam. And I don’t know if I should approve them because then anyone with that email address can leave comments, which, if it is spam, I’m not interested in. So if you’ve left a comment and you’re NOT spam, just leave another comment, maybe hinting at the fact that you’re not a robot, but an honest human being. 

Posted in Music, Phoenix | No Comments »