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are animal sacrifices legal?

I don’t know … but Motley Crue did one Monday night. 😉

The concert was smokey as fuck … I’ve never seen a smoke machine put in to better use.

The motherfucker in the cowboy pants … asked my friend Richard to make a photo of him before the show started when there were no lights on.

“It’s too dark man. Sorry.”

I wish I got his email … wudda sent him this. 😉

Despite that nasty ass smoke machine, which made it almost impossible to make photos, I got a couple good photos.

His mic stand his fucking wicked …

Anyways … back to the animal sacrifice … I dunno if it was a real rooster … I think it was …

It was flapping its wings around.

I dunno how they killed it … it was very fucking foggy, remember?

But after the first song finished … Richard turned to me and showed me his arm which had a small line of blood on it.

Turns out it was the roosters. 😉

I met Richard at the Roger Waters show a couple weeks ago … and then we shot Motley Crue and Aerosmith together Monday night. We’ve become quite good friends since then. A very cool guy. He’s the one that takes his F5 and a roll of black and whites to concerts.

I thought that was pretty cool.

He also had an exhibition yesturday … very cool. A Tragically Hip tribute type thing …

He’s shot over 100 of their concerts … as well as promos and CD inlays.

P.S. — Check out Snoop Dogg’s Myspace …Â and listen to “Vato.”

😉

Fucking wicked song.

He was very cool to Richard and I … gave us a lot of eye contact and attention …

But the smoke killed it …

… for the most part at least.

Anyone a Tommy Lee fan?

Oh … and this is for my friend Michaella:

She knows what it is. 😉

After the first three songs for Motley Crue … we went back to the press space …

Chilled.

More photographers started coming for Aerosmith.

Including one named Dar. It was her first arena concert shoot. She was really excited.

Haven’t seen her photos yet, but from what she showed me on the back of her camera, they looked cool!

Oh yeah … now whenever I go to shoot concerts … I usually cut the line … cause why the fuck would I wait in line, right?

Monday night I went up to the security guard,

“I’m with press.”

“You have to go down to Gate 2A, but go wait in line first.”

Go wait in line first?

I should have made a photo of the motherfucker and told him I was going to give it to his boss so his sorry ass would get fired.

Of course I got through after I approached him a second time.

Whatever.

Aerosmith was so full of energy and spirit.

Such amazing performers and musicians.

Even though my lens was fucking up … I noticed that after I got home … it had some focusing problems. Not the first time either … the problem has come up a couple times, but I didn’t do anything about it. I’ll be taking it to Henry’s this weekend to get it checked out.

I’m fucking tired … kinda sleepy … so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

They were amazing with a capital A. 😉

And go listen to Mindless Self Indulgence’s Big Poppa cover.

I also did a shoot for an Italian model … she needed headshots for an agent in Italy … and they’re apparently being sent off to Prada. Pretty cool. I wonder if she’ll “make it.” She’s in Toronto for another ten months … and then going back to Italy …

But more Aerosmith photos …

A Toronto Sun guy was there as well … and there was a point when Mr. Tyler took a bottle of water and spat it out on to the front row audience … and I’m pretty sure Mr. Toronto Sun guy got wet a little bit too.

I dunno how impressed he was with that.

But hey, he can probably sell his clothes on eBay now that they have Steven’s saliva on em. 😉

so you shoot a lot of macro right …

so i just put up my photography portfolio …

and i was showing it around to a couple of people …

one person says “nice work man, i can see you shoot a lot of macro.”

i say “what?”

“you shoot a lot of your stuff in macro mode … i can tell because the background is out of focus.”

i dunno what people are smoking these days … but there must be some really hardcore shit up on the street if a person (especially one who claims to be a photographer) can say something like that.

but when i asked him to show me some of his photos, all i got were shitty photos from a 2MP mobile phone cam.

figures. 😉

that shit cost him about $400. i guess it’s worth that much if it gives you the ability to shoot buildings at 2MP. 😉

same guy told me that my photos are “friggin national geographic good.”

whatever that means.

but yeah … i finally up’d my photography portfolio … feels good for it to be in the open.

i’ll be updating it frequently with photos from different concerts and street stuff.

it was kind of a bitch … i had to figure out hosting. ended up going with dreamhost. they seem to be very reliable and you get every cent of what you pay for. and it’s fast too. what more can one ask for from a hosting company?

then i was iffy about the design … didn’t know what i wanted to do with it.

i designed it all myself by the way.

coded too …

yeah, it’s nothing special … it’s simple … but that’s the way i like it.

and i haven’t designed or coded a website in about two years so ess my dee. 😉

i like it though.

a lot.

before i go … i’ll tell you another funny story …

another “photographer” … from my school … was telling me about his camera.

“a sick 8MP SLR”

“i don’t give a fuck about mega pixels … what kinda lens do you have?”

“dunno.”

“what brand is it.”

“i think it’s panasonic.”

“you think?”

“yeah.”

“which model.”

“no clue.”

…gotta love it when they don’t know their gear.

i then asked “what kinda stuff do you shoot?”

to which he responded “mostly landscape and stuff like the science center.”

can it get more pro than a person shooting landscape and the science center with an “i-think-panasonic” and an “i-dunno-lens?”

i dunno …

i think he’s pretty close to “making it” …

he brought his camera to school today … since he was taking the class photos for the yearbook …

and i said “yo buddy can i see it for a second.”

i looked over at the mode dial …

and what was it on?

only the most professional mode ever …

AUTO.

“do you know what M is?”

“…no?”

definately a pro.

but i could tell as soon as he told me that he shoots with an “i-think-panasonic.”

that was the giveaway that he was shooting at a high level.

anyways …

i gotta go finish up some work …

and i’m shooting aerosmith and motley crue TOGETHER on monday …

should be really wicked.

i’ll put up some of the wedding photos soon, i promise.

and go check out the portfolio!

all of the stuff there was shot with an “i-think-nikon-d70s” 😉

cheers.

we don’t need no education

The last four days have been the most hectic I’ve had in a while …

I shot Roger Waters on Wednesday night, then Thursday I shot my friend’s mom’s wedding. Friday I went to the best party I’ve ever been to (even though I’m not really a party animal) and Saturday I went to another party.

Roger Waters.

Honestly … he still has it.

I was never really a big Pink Floyd fan. I mean, I knew and loved their really big hits … like “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Money,” etc … but I was always more into the more modern music scene like Korn and Slipknot.

But fuck.

This guy … as well as his entire stage band …

W-fucking-ow.

The whole concert was a light show …

As well as an amazing musical experience.

But that’s a given.

Seems like the light show bit is too.
Sorry Chris by the way. I’ll bring a nice 8×10 to school for ya. 😉

I mean … fuck. You’d think that at 60 something … he’d kinda “wear down” …

But no … he still had every bit of energy in him. He even had the typical Pink Floyd flying blown up pig.

Twas fucking cool. Also had a blown up astronaut.

And he cussed Dubya out in one of his songs! “Leaving Beirut” … an amazing song and performed even more amazingly. They had a cartoon drawn … cause it was written about an experience he had in Beirut … meeting with an Arabic family and how nice they were … that was going on at the backdrop, and the words in the cartoon were the lyrics to the song.

A-fucking-mazing.

He played a lot of amazing Floyd songs …

All the ones I knew too. 😉

It was pretty wicked seeing him perform Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 … one of my old bands did a cover of that for fun. And my all-time favorite band, Korn, covered it too. And it was really cool to see all the old(er) people singing “Hey, teacher, leave us kids alone.”

You could see their “inner-child” as it were.

Anyways … the shooting process was pretty standard.

First three songs, no flash, from the pit. Twas good. Standard is good. 😉

I met a really fucking cool photographer … Richard … He had his F5 with him and a roll of black and white.

I thought that was cool.

And a guy from the Toronto Star was there … with whom I shot my first gig with ever … again, my all-time favorite band, Korn! It’s funny how the first “big” thing I shot was that of my favorite band.

Oh yeah, there were frequent explosions at the Roger Waters show. 😉

Very fucking cool.