Defining Moments

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An evening of killer blues at the Englert last night.  I’ve been a Robert Cray fan for a long time, and was eager to see him.  I had no doubt he would be incredible.  Iowa’s answer to Robert Cray, Kevin BF Burt, was every bit as fun to watch.  What an amazing voice, and a HUGE sound for just one guy with a guitar.  Both of these guys were ON last night, and I’m really glad I got to see them.  Of course, I got a few pics, too!

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In late June I was contacted by Bass Player Magazine to do a portrait of their featured artist for September.  The guy is Chris Wood, of Medeski, Martin, & Wood, and the group was here in Iowa City for the Jazz Fest.  To be honest, I had not heard of Chris or MMW, but then I don’t listen to a lot of jazz.  Turns out to be an unfortunate oversight on my part, because MMW’s music is incredible, and Chris rocks the bass!  I saw their performance on July 4th, and have since purchased two of their CDs.  Really, really good stuff!

Chris and his tour manager came to my studio for the portrait shoot, which took maybe 20 minutes. Very nice guy, and he made it easy and fun to get the shots.  Hopefully he thought it was a good experience, too.;) I was only supposed to get the cover, but I wanted to grab some other shots as well.  The magazine ended up also using a shot for the table of contents page, so I got two shots in the issue!  Below is the cover and the TOC page with my shots.  I just got my copies today, so they should be on the newsstands soon.

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Amy is an old friend and high school classmate who came in earlier this week to update her pics.  Hopefully she won’t mind my posting this one shot from her session, because it’s one of my favorite shots ever. Her cello playing sounded pretty amazing in my studio, too!

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Julia is from Russia, and just visiting for the summer.  She came to the studio last night , and we got lots of fun stuff, including some cool motion blur experiments.  She gave me a preview of her show, too!  A really interesting mix of traditional Russian songs, what sounded like a Bossa Nova influence, and even included some Elvis.  She sings and plays beautifully, accompanied by CD music.  She mentioned that she might be peforming in the ped mall tonight, so if you’re downtown, look for her!

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I shot another show for the Englert last night. Oddly enough for being a long-time Iowan, I had never seen Bo Ramsey play before. I was impressed! This guy put on a great show that was a lot of fun to listen to and shoot. I might be adding him to my CD collection soon.;) The full gallery from the show can be viewed HERE.

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This guy has long been one of my musical heroes. I got to photograph (and meet!) him at the Englert tonight. This was the first time I had seen him do an acoustic set. Brilliant. A set composed heavily of ballads, and the audience so rapt and attentive I was sometimes hesitant to click my shutter. It was a small but very enthusiastic crowd, and both players unplugged and played out in the seats for a while. What an awesome show! David Pulkingham is the guy who played with Alejandro and added some backing vocals. His playing is incredible! A few images are below, and the full gallery is HERE.