Christa Borden @ Bianca’s

I do a little shooting for the Current from time to time, and I got to catch a small intimate show with Christa Borden down to Bianca’s on water street. Great setting, great atmosphere and familiar faces. Christa has a new album coming out “Rhymes with Orange” check her out online http://www.christaborden.com

It’s been slow, I know – apologies.

We’ve had two shows in the last…. two months? It’s been going slow here. I have a lot of exciting prospects coming up next month including Mariah Carey, John Mayer, The Used and Sam Roberts. Sadly, 3/4 of them are located in another province.

I don’t hate that I have to travel out of province to get music work, but I do hate the lack of support I’ve received here in regards to it. It’s easier for me to get accredited for a show in Ontario or Nova Scotia, than it is here in my own province. Meh, such is life. The province of Newfoundland is making it so much harder to work here, I could easily rip my roots up like most people my age and relocate in Ontario or Alberta, but there’s a drive in me to do work here, despite the screw you vibe I’m getting.

To tie you over until my life explodes with these awesome adventures, here’s a shot from December of my good friend Sandy Stokes in local band Queen’s Maid

Protest The Hero: Fortress Guitar Tab Book

I’ve been hiding under a rock for a month now, and didn’t notice that Protest had used my picture in promo for their guitar tab book for their newest album Fortress. Tim had wrote me after the show here in newfoundland for a few of the shots, and I just forgot to check back! Anyways, here’s the poster! Check the guys out on myspace!

http://www.myspace.com/protestthehero

If you’re interested in picking up a copy of the book, you can purchase it online – here

show me your boobs!

I am in love with the charity Skate 4 Cancer. http://skate4cancer.com/. Rob Dyer, the head of the charity, is currently skating across Australia to raise awareness for Cancer.

This past summer I met Rob at Warped Tour, it was incredible just to see the kids response, he’s educating young people about cancer, they care and are interested! He’s well known because he’s passionate about a cause, he’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.

Tonight while discussing a project I have coming up called “underground love” which is something I’ll get into later, I came up with the idea for this book of boobs project “mounds of love” or something.

I’ll photograph boobs, any size, shape, color. Each shot is framed from the mid-neck to half way to the belly button.

The book will be a 7×7 hard cover, all black and white photographs. The books will be available for sale on etsy and I’m trying to keep a low price, but it depends on the production cost.

How does this tie in with Skate 4 Cancer you ask? Well, 25% of the profit of these books will be donated to Skate 4 Cancer!

I want YOU girls to volunteer. Your names won’t be in the photographs, your faces won’t be in the photographs, just your boobs! We can shoot wherever you want to. You’d have to sign a model release stating that it’s okay for me to use your rack.

If you’re interested get at me! Help support a great cause, and show the world your sweater kittens!!

Kicking the Help

A few shots I did for a local band Kicking the Help. Big thanks to Leslie at the Newman Wine Vaults for lending us the space.

If you an awesome place with an amazing history and vibe for an event or function, check them out!

Hits FM Jingle Jam

This past friday at Mile One Karl Wolf, Danny Fernandes and Sean Kingston tore down the house!

I was shooting for Danny, but I grabbed a few shots of Karl and Sean too. Danny’s crew, Markwell, Romeo, Keith and Mo (and of course Danny himself) are an amazing bunch of guys to work with. Any chance you get check his show out! Here’s just a few, check the rest out on my website.

Karl Wolf

Danny Fernandes

Sean Kingston

John Mayer

If you know me, or even know a little about me – you know that I am completely and utterly madly in love with John Mayer. My entire life revolves around his music, he’s one of the most talented guitarists of our generation.

“Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.” – John Mayer

My ultimate dream/goal in my career is to professionally shoot him. Unfortunately this time around it wasn’t possible as the concert was a televised event, but I’m not going to stop wishing and praying that it’ll happen. That’s not to say I didn’t have an amazing 48 hours of him while he was in the same city as me. It started with him being at the Hard Rock cafe for a private CHUM FM win to get in show. I tried to get in, I pulled every string I could, I begged every friend who had a “higher up” in the industry I knew – but nothing. So early in the morning of the 23rd, me and my good friend Amber trekked down to the Hardrock Cafe in Dundas Square and waited to meet him. Two hours later, we’re a little colder but I was face to face with my idol. There was a small group of us and he graciously met every single one of us, signed whatever we wanted and went on about his way. I actually lost my breath when I met him. It was so unlike me, I do this for a living. I meet musicians on a daily basis and work with them, but this one man took the ground right from in under me and made it hard for me to breathe, or even exist when he was around. He was my living guitar idol.

Amber and I then found out that his extremely talented guitarist David Ryan Harris was going to be performing a small, intimate show at Supermarket in Kensington Market. We headed over there later that evening and sat in awe and the pure talent that is merely BACKING John Mayer. His original tunes, along with his Buckley cover of So Real, just blew us away. David Ryan Harris was also joined by John’s other guitarist Robbie McIntosh, and at one point 3/4 member’s of John’s band was on stage. Amazing. If DRH does smaller shows like this in all the cities that he tours with John, I strongly suggest you drop down and see him play. The intimate setting is just, wow.

On the 24th, I sat around the entire day, I kept saying it hadn’t hit me I was going to be seeing John Mayer in an intimate show with less than 2000 people attending, compared to his usual 20,000 people – my friend Justin joked I was going to spontaneously combust from excitement.

I’ve been trying for the last week to put the entire show into words. I’m pretty damn good with describing how something made me feel, but seeing John perform for two hours straight feet in front of me, hearing his voice sing the songs I’ve based my entire life on, hearing his guitar play the chords I’ve meticulously studied for years – was surreal. I wasn’t on earth for two hours, I was granted an amazing experience and I was just in heaven. I stood silently, I couldn’t sing along, I couldn’t scream the words back at him, I just stood there taking it all in. Watching his lips form the words, his hands slide up and down the guitar neck forming the chords, my heart melting at his laughter and smiles with his band members. I didn’t even realize there were tears falling down my face until Melissa took a photo of me standing, mouth open, silently weeping. It was something I’ll cherish until the day I die. Extraordinary. I would give everything in the world to spend every waking moment of the rest of my life standing and watching him perform live.

Puddle of Mudd

If I had earplugs this would be in the top 5 shows I’ve shot.

Protest the Hero – November 27th, CLB Armory

Returning for the third time, this time a little less hairy, Protest The Hero took the stage to a sold out crowd in St. John’s, Newfoundland on November 27th.

The show being called ‘Short but Sweet’ had almost one thousand screaming fans near heat stroke as they nearly knocked down the security and barricade rocking out to the band. Doing things a little differently, Protest played their entire album “Fortress” from beginning to end – with an encore of two songs from their debut studio album “Kezia”.

Less than Jake – November 22nd @ The Phoenix

After finishing up a great interview with JR (the Sax player from Less than Jake), which I’ll post once it’s up on our website – I set out to shoot the show which included the Swellers and the Casualties. The phoenix has horrible lighting, horrible – and industry standard says no flash. I did what I could!

The Swellers

The Casualties

Less Than Jake