Los Angeles portrait and music photographer
I was in Las Vegas over the weekend for an editorial shoot at The Rio. I’ll post pictures as soon as the issue comes out, but in the meantime here’s a shot of a test that I did with the makeup artist after the shoot was wrapped. I’ve worked with Jessi Pagel many times before and it’s always fun to work on something new. The model is Dana Bomar.
I probably shouldn’t say this, but I was less than inspired at Warped Tour this year. With a few exceptions (Alkaline Trio, Street Sweeper Social Club), I wasn’t really interested in a lot of the bands (who is Andrew WK and why do people like him???). I wasn’t there as a fan, however. I had a job to do, so I braved the heat, the crowds and the photo pit at the Home Depot Center in a quest for interesting images.
I’ve always kind of felt bad for keyboard players in rock bands. It’s not like you can move around a lot. You’re pretty much stuck in one spot, but Jesse from Motion City Soundtrack made the most of it.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
Street Sweeper Social Club are only playing two dates of the tour and I was so glad this was one of them. Oh how I love watching Tom Morello… I wish I could’ve watched their whole set, but as soon as the first three songs were done it was off to the next stage and the next band.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
But Warped Tour isn’t just about the performances. This little girl was amazing.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
I have two clients that I shoot products for – PNUT Jewlery and Spragwerks. Rusty and Rich, who design and create custom jewelry for PNUT and Spragwerks resepectively, are both great guys, amazingly talented and really easy to work with. I like shooting products every once in awhile because I can set up in my living room and don’t have to get out of my pajamas if I don’t want to.
Most recently, I shot some new rings that Rusty made for the band Rise Against.
Rusty creates a lot of work for bands, including Davey Havok of AFI, who commissioned some work for his Zu Boutique label.
Most of the pieces are shot for the web so I shoot them over white, but once I’m done with that I like to have a little fun.
I’m easily amused.
It’s exhausting!
I don’t usually photograph kids, but I babysat for some friends on Saturday and I thought I’d bring my camera along. She loved looking at her picture on the screen so much that after awhile, as soon as I put the camera up to my face she came running.
Needles to say, it made getting anything other than extreme closeups a little tough.
That’s the motto of the Taproot Foundation, a non-profit consulting firm that brings people from the corporate world together with non-profit organizations that need marketing, branding, HR, IT and strategic planning services. I can’t say that I’ve ever really been a part of the corporate world, but these organizations also have a need for photographers, writers, etc. to provide content for annual reports, websites, etc. I thought this would be a good way to put my skills to use and do some good at the same time.
After signing up online, I attended an orientations session last night. I found several projects that interest me, have applied to the Project Manager and now I wait to see if I’ve been selected to participate in a specific project.
I recently shot the band The Dillinger Escape Plan for “Define the Meaning” magazine. The shoot took place before their show at The Glass House in Pomona. Their known for their high energy shows, so the idea for the shoot was to have them throwing their instruments at the camera. I arrived an hour before the shoot was to start. Since it was an extremely low budget shoot, there was no assistant, makeup, styling, etc., just me and the band. I wasn’t sure how they were going to feel about throwing their instruments (and themselves) around since their tour manager told me they had just woken up. They were troopers, however, and spent half an hour jumping up and down until we got the shot. Here’s one of the outtakes:
Dillinger Escape Plan
The magazine will be available for the first time at Barnes & Noble stores at the end of May. Check it out!
The “Doubles Poker Championship” is a new show coming to the Game Show Network. I was hired to shoot portraits of the players to be used in graphic elements for the show. The show’s Producer told me they needed shots from the waist up over a white background and that I was going to be sharing a suite with the interview crew at the hotel where they were filming the show. What I didn’t know until I got there was that my “studio” was the suite’s bathroom. After I got over my initial thought of “how the f*** am I gonna make this work?” I looked at it as an interesting challenge and I was going to make it happen.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
Strobes went in the shower, the backdrop was hung in the bathtub and my key light was put on a c-stand in the closet.
Annie Duke in the bathtub
When the players saw the setup it actually helped create a light mood for the shoot.
Here’s how the final shot looked. I’m excited to see how they use the photos in the show.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
I got a call on Friday to see if I was available to shoot a party for Guitar Aficionado Magazine on Saturday night. It sounded like a good time and a great opportunity to meet some of the people from the magazine, so of course I said yes.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
I arrived at the Sunset Marquis Hotel and immediately went to work, capturing the details along with the overall feel of the event.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
Jaguar introduced the 2011 XJ (an amazing car). Miranda Lee Richards entertained the crowd. Overall, it was a night of good food, good music, beautiful cars and nice guitars.
A year or so ago I did a shoot with Rusty Pistachio of PNUT Jewelry. While we were shooting I thought it would be fun to do a couple of shots of Brittany, the model, that I could place in other interesting scenes. For the first shot, I went to the Hollywood and Vine subway station with a Fuji panoramic camera and shot a train pulling into the station.
©2009 Stephanie Moore
A 5 foot wide print of the image has been hanging at 5th and Sunset studios for several months now. Apparently it gets some interesting reactions.
In the second shot, Brittany was jumping on a trampoline. For the longest time, I couldn’t decide what scene would work as a background. When I was in New Orleans, I found the perfect location.
©2010 Stephanie Moore
I think I may continue this series as a personal project. I’ve got some ideas for what I’d like to do next. Now I just have to make them happen.
After 7 days on the road, I’m back home in Los Angeles. New Orleans was definitely the highlight of the trip, but there were still many interesting sights along the way. Amid the beautiful scenery of New Mexico and Arizona, I couldn’t resist a stop at the world’s largest teepee…
and a papier-mache dinosaur eating someone…
Good times!