A few nights ago, after I had already gone through my bedtime routine and crawled into bed to go to sleep, my phone rang. It was one o’clock in the morning. Not when I normally receive most of my phone calls. It was a friend in Tallahassee telling me that some friends of her’s had a gig for me. They were in a band called “Brigthside” and got booked last minute to open up for “Mayday Parade” a local Tally band that went big back in the 2000’s. I remember listening to them in my angsty years at the skate park. This was a huge show for them so they wanted to make sure they had a photographer there to cover it! The only issue was that the show was the next day and I was about 300 miles away in Tampa. But they covered my travel expenses and it seemed like a cool opportunity, so I woke up the next morning, packed my gear, and started my five hour drive to Tallahassee.
I’ve photographed plenty of bands and concerts in the past, but I’ve never had a personal connection to the band. I normally talk to their PR director or manager, shoot from the photo pit and then send them all the images the next day. The personal connection meant I got to hang out with them backstage, meet the headliners, shoot for as many songs as I wanted, or shoot on stage while they were playing. Most importantly it meant they were willing to do some portraits backstage or outside after their set which sounded like an interesting challenge and just fun!
We wandered around the venue a bit before we found a grungey hallway with some bright flouresent lighting that would make for some badass images. The guys were super cool and all about getting these images right. We had some fun and came up with these…
