i like mob movies, mint chocolate chip ice cream, law & order SVU, the wire, twitter, photoshop layers, rasberries, hoodies, the ocean, hip-hop, elephants and everything new england patriots. pats! pats! pats! pats! pats! pats! go pats!
christina elfar of threeSIXnine THE HAIR STUDIO is a genius. i asked her to join me in the studio last month for some beauty shots, along with 5 fabulous models. she transformed these lovely ladies with five unique...
christina elfar of threeSIXnine THE HAIR STUDIO is a genius. i asked her to join me in the studio last month for some beauty shots, along with 5 fabulous models. she transformed these lovely ladies with five unique looks. i can’t say enough good things about her talent. christina, you are a master with hair and make-up. THANK YOU!
a big thank you to the chicas who joined me that day. alexandriaserafini, tiki nguyen, jenn spanks-castiglione and jordyn leigh and lisa bello.
i went with a retro 80′s color thing. semi-inspired by rihanna’s rude boy video. there will be more posted soon.
ALEXANDRIA
“it’s mr. steal yo’ girl….” here is a 4 minute slideshow from last tuesday night at the td garden. trey songz on the omg tour. it was nothing but good times with the trey songz experience...
here is a 4 minute slideshow from last tuesday night at the td garden. trey songz on the omg tour. it was nothing but good times with the trey songz experience [TSE], on their stop in boston. every single person on the tour staff and the garden staff was wonderful. the write-up can be found on the examiner website: here. <—- let’s not judge sentence structure and spelling. let’s just look at the pretty pictures. lol.
ralph ‘buttaz’ kearns on the keyboard,nate joneson bass, and ricky ‘strings’ ramos on lead guitar and antwan ‘amadeus’ thompson on drums. you guys rock! yuuup!
press play on the slideshow below.
be sure and download: keyshia cole’s ‘Where Would We‘ – produced by amadeus. go buy it! i did.
i’m kidding. it’s just the td garden. check out the examiner.com review of pearl jam from last night at the td garden. big thank you to liz hennigan, tom giusti and will dailey for supplying the expert pearl...
check out the examiner.com review of pearl jam from last night at the td garden.
big thank you to liz hennigan, tom giusti and will dailey for supplying the expert pearl jam opinion of the show. it really wasn’t a show about fancy lights and stage tricks – it was a dude in flannel rocking the roof off that place. a crazy sight to see, for real. and they played for 3 hours! all you 45 min set bands, take notice! they do have a million cds to choose from. the 90′s were alive last night.
i swear i saw a troll doll. wait – that was my early 90′s.
a note about photography…they split the pit with two lines of tape, leaving the center clear of even security. us photographers had to pick a side and stay there. it was cramped. shoutouts to mary. i couldn’t figure out why this weird rule was in place. i’m still not 100% sure, but i’m guessing the eddie vedder spit might have something to do with it. dude can hawk.
the rest of the world is watching the celtics right now. i lack cable in my life. so i keep watching the live updates on celtics.com. heck yeah! final score: 95-92. let’s do this!
some weeks, i feel like i live at the house of blues. last week was one of those weeks. CORINNE BAILEY RAE one of my favorite artists. i can’t narrow it down to top 5. not even top 20. but she’ll always make...
one of my favorite artists. i can’t narrow it down to top 5. not even top 20. but she’ll always make whatever list. i remember shopping in tower records back in ’06 or ’07 and the lady at the counter suggested i purchase the cd. andrew kendall, one of my favorite music photographers, had just finished posting her images from the cd shoot…so, i bought it in support of his photography. and then fell in love with her music. i was all set up to photograph her gig at the paradise a few years back and something fell thru in the end. in short, i had the opportunity to photograph her show this time around and she didn’t let us down. you go, corinne!
click here for the examiner.com review and a million photos.
SAY ANYTHING
the folks over at the sony office, who had approved me for alicia keys back in march, asked me to cover say anything at the house of blues last tuesday. they were opening for angels and airwaves and whipped the crowd in to a frenzy. i swear i saw the barricade move. tons of crowd surfing and moshing (both forbidden at the HOB) – i don’t know how the security staff does it. someone threw a condom. i ran into chad b. and dave g. at the show and saw the angels&airwaves set from up top. thanks, guys! shoutouts to VATER percussion. fam.
click here for the examiner.com review and a milli pics.
^ ^ what’s up with that watermark? where’s my logo. oh well. it’ll do.
OK GO
so, i request shows that a.) i have the evening open for and b.) i kinda know a few songs of the band. i knew HERE IT GOES AGAIN and danced alone, when they played it. i really thought their stage show was clever. a little bit of everything. they did some weird hand bell thing, jumped into the crowd, tossed out tambourines, had little webcams on the end of their mic stands and that fed up to the screen….it was cool. i dug it. the confetti is from the FIRST SONG. who shoots confetti at the beginning? they do and i love them for it.
click here for the examiner.com review and the photographs.
the red sox/yankees game let out around the same time i left OK GO. fail. kenmore station was a mess, so i walked all the way up to hynes convention center and got on there. 4 cleveland circle, 2 out of servce and 2 boston college trains later, and i got on an empty D riverside train. headed outbound, the train picked up the massive amounts of fans leaving kenmore and fenway. there was yelling and one drunk girl fell and crawled around on the floor. she thought it was so funny, she did that silent laugh – followed by some miserable siren-pitched cry that lasted thru to beaconsfield. at this point, the train was emptying out, but the drunk section remained. i have to admit, as much as i was annoyed, i was amused…until….
one kid took it a little too far. you could pinpoint it in his eyes. the joke turned to rage in SECONDS. i stood my behind up and moved to the front of the train, as an all out brawl commenced. there were fists flying. blood. profanities. profanities en espanol. it involved too many people and it was going to out of control in moments. luckily, the train slowed and the doors opened at my stop. amen! the police came as i made my way out of there!
GO C’S!
good times. check out all the reviews/photos i’ve posted, because you care. and hey! leave a comment so i know you were there/here. i will repay you in gum. KMD
…goes up on this blog. i’ve never been to vegas before. this was my first time. i’ve memorized movies like casino and oceans 11. i’ve watched leaving las vegas and very bad things. 21 (read the...
…goes up on this blog. i’ve never been to vegas before. this was my first time. i’ve memorized movies like casino and oceans 11. i’ve watched leaving las vegas and very bad things. 21 (read the book too) and of course, the hangover. for years i’ve wanted to go. and i’ve also wanted to see what all the hype was about at WPPI (Wedding
& Portrait Photographers
International). 2 birds one stone. what a crazy place. i collected a ton of hooker ads for my brother. haha. i need to go back, that’s for sure. i probably walked 9 miles and only saw 1/4 of the city. if that much. what a special place. i gave them my money. i won it back. and then gave it away again. the house always wins. always bet on black. and so on.
run that slideshow:
if you watched the slideshow, yes, i was excited to meet some of those rockstar/celebrity photographers. they have mastered marketing and getting you to buy their stuff. i appreciate what they’ve done and they do make beautiful images. shoutouts to: the image is found, jessica claire, amelia lyon, jasmine star, jesh de rox, matthew jordan smith and those are my favorites. the image is found is #1. i personally think their work stands out and i like their style. i think i told them that. it was more like: YOU GUYS ARE MY FAVORITE $#*@ING PHOTOGRAPHERS EVER. I LOVE YOU GUYS. my bad. it’s weird to admire their success from afar and then be standing in line for a burger next to them. i dunno. it was different. i’ve been reading their blogs since i was a baby photographer. there were so many awesome photographers in one building. it was a cool experience.
and jesh de rox made me cry my face off during his beloved session. i’ve always loved his images. what a great speaker. i can’t say that for all the WPPI panel members. haha. during one of the business platform classes, i attempted to stick a pen in my eye.
yes, that is a chocolate fountain above.
all of the platform speakers were trying to sell their CDs or DVDs or books or what have you. i fought the power and held off, otherwise i’d walk home with impulse buys. i tend to do that. the tradeshow was overwhelming. crowded and i wanted to buy everything.
i had to go to one party and chose ‘airhorns and lasers’. i didn’t really have anyone to go with. my roomie wanted to go to the welcome dinner. so i went on my own and met up with phoenix mcpeek and her friend daria bishop. they only stayed for an hour, just as the dj was getting started. um, the dj was FANTASTIC (the flashdance), so i stayed. made new friends. felt awkward by myself. whatever. i paid $50 and i was going to get my $50 worth! p.s. the wynn is a beautiful hotel. unlike the mgm, where the toilets overflow and the lady at the front desk tests your patience. oh! and the luxor was cool. i’ve ALWAYS wanted to go there.
they kept beating in the importance of social media during the conference, so i started using twitter again. and RANDOMLY, my cousin bianca tweeted “viva las vegas”. my little mini-me cousin was in vegas, in the mgm (same hotel) and thanks to twitter, i found her! we walked around the bellagio.
oh vegas. you’re so expensive. but we shall meet again. and i’ll be ready. below is rob van petten’s photo. he was one of my instructors at CDIA. i want my photos sponsored by nikon. #justsaying.
more shoutouts: cheryl colombo, josh kane, jennifer hudson, ck, marilyn nakazato and that’s all i got.
omg. if i don’t post about my trip out west, my father will shoot me. he has become a facebook stalker. “where are the pics?” “waiting patiently.” HERE THEY ARE PA DUKES! ok. so my...
omg. if i don’t post about my trip out west, my father will shoot me. he has become a facebook stalker. “where are the pics?” “waiting patiently.” HERE THEY ARE PA DUKES!
ok. so my father-father moved out to AZ at the end of october. i tried to plan a trip out there around the WPPI las vegas weekend to do both in a week. boston has had a pretty mild winter in terms of snow, but it was great to get out of the cold and get some sun!
why not check out a video of the entire trip here. the song makes you want to dance with glow sticks, right? this is 7 LONG minutes. sorry. the first one i made was 2 minutes and waay too fast. my father is probably the only one who will watch. stalker.
it almost never rains in arizona. it’s the desert. my first day there…it poured. so i helped my father with some construction on his home theatre project. when i say help, i mean watch him do most of the work. the image below is a smudge of adhesive that marred his masterpiece.
i got to use a power saw thingy and a caulking gun. and a nail gun. w00t! my father has been smoking since…FOREVER. why not send him an email, reminding him of the dangers. md1953 at yahoo dot com.
reppin’ the patriots in AZ. i sent this to him for christmas.
and now you get to meet BETO, my stepmother’s father’s ancient pet. he likes peanut butter and he waddles. he has a very strict daily routine and mr. bob’s voice goes up really high when he talks to beto.
we drove over to sedona to check out the red rocks. BEAUTIFUL. nothing like massachusetts. ended up in flagstaff. it seemed like a good idea. DO NOT GO TO FLAGSTAFF. THERE IS NOTHING THERE. amen.
i spent the whole trip looking for spiders. well, avoiding them. and i didn’t see one. except for this guy…
mr. bob wanted a picture with berto and the fountain in the back yard. the other picture is of some john wayne character who tried to scare us into buying his book. we ran.
and my flight to vegas was late enough in the afternoon so that i could join the old farts playing golf. i must admit. they were pretty funny guys. you’re not old farts. i was just kidding. my father hit a tree smack in the middle while swinging. he was not pleased.
oh. here is a picture of the theatre all done. when i was there, it was lawn chairs and exposed wires. we still played call of duty with my brother online and i got like 4 kills in. i’m bad playing against other people.
for some reason, last week was packed with shows. every night. monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, saturday and sunday. too much for my shoulders. looking up to the stage with a 70-200mm heavy lens in your hands takes...
for some reason, last week was packed with shows. every night. monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, saturday and sunday. too much for my shoulders. looking up to the stage with a 70-200mm heavy lens in your hands takes a toll. i need a massage (holler). but i enjoy it, so i will not complain anymore. it’s practice for wedding season.
ALICIA KEYS @ AGGANIS ARENA
thank you to the people at sony for dealing with my constant emails. and thank you to akila robinson for helping me get approved for this show. although i did not have a review ticket for this show, i was still able to photograph the first 3 songs of melanie fiona and the first 2 of alicia. alicia emerged onto the stage in a cage, surrounded by fog. she stayed in that cage for 80% of the first song, and all of the photographers were covered in fog, trying to get their camera to focus on something. anything. a hand, some hair… eventually, miss keys stepped out to the front with her dancers, and just as i was getting warmed up, security pulled us out. one song for alicia. dream killers.
ROBIN THICKE @ HOUSE OF BLUES brandolini at vater put me in touch with robin thicke’s drummer, ronnie lawrence ‘lb’ breaux. i went in a little early, just after soundcheck, and grabbed a ton of pics of lb on the drums. thank god this worked out before the show, because the house of blues made the world’s smallest pit for this show. i mean, it was the width of me, with no wiggle room. this makes taking pictures…quite difficult. and i only had the first 2 songs (which isn’t long enough) to get thicke, lb and all the other musicians. tough. again, i’m glad i did a lot of shooting beforehand. lb was a pleasure to work with. he played the drums to the tunes the dj was playing, so i could get some pictures of him playing ‘for real’. i wanted to do the running man on the house of blues stage, but i played it cool. the sticks in his mouth were my idea. he played along. thanks chad. thanks, lb.
TOWER OF POWER @ WILBUR THEATRE
my parents wanted to go to this show. the venue promised me two tickets, so my mother bought one. i’d sit in the one she bought and my folks would sit in the 2 they gave me. error. the night before they told me i’d only have one seat, so i went alone. my father is doing OK, but there is no way he would have been able to climb up to the balcony at that place. super steep. no hand railings. not cool. i ran into rich gastwirt and enjoyed the show. i saved the earplugs from the daughtry show and used them again. it cuts down on the headaches i get after a show.
THE DONNAS @ THE PARADISE ROCK CLUB
at this point, i’m exhausted. at work on thursday, i get an email that says i’m approved to shoot the donnas show later that night. yay, but boo! i’m running on empty at this point and the weekend isn’t even here. every show i take on is another review to write. i’m a photographer first, who writes as best i can. it doesn’t come as naturally and is at times, painful. luckily, i ran into some very knowledgeable fans who had pretty much traveled the country, going to donnas’ shows. i just made their statements the review. it’s better than me giving a generic overview of the show. the fans of the artists know the most and it’s cool to have a more personal account of these concerts.
HIM @ THE HOUSE OF BLUES
i literally dragged myself to the train station on sunday night for this one. i had a ‘portrait mayhem’ event on sunday from 10am-4pm, where i set up a studio set and photographed 2 babies, 2 kiddos, one dog, one band and 3 others. can we say, too much? i’m glad i went. i hung out with robb noxious and met Bill Baker, who was following the band for a book. good conversations. lots of laughs. my favorite part of the night? upon entering the pit, one of the kids in the front row yelled, “let’s hear it for the cameragirl!” and i did a little dance and they all cheered. hilarious.
remember that rapper who would do the yearly wrap-up of pop culture? what was his name? he was on the sprite liquid mix tour back in the day…i think. Skillz. LOL. well, this is my monthly wrap-up. i went to...
remember that rapper who would do the yearly wrap-up of pop culture? what was his name? he was on the sprite liquid mix tour back in the day…i think. Skillz. LOL. well, this is my monthly wrap-up. i went to arizona and las vegas at the beginning of the month. just before i left, i had a week of concerts that i never posted about. i’m going to try and rewind and catch up on all of the shows from the past month+, including last week!
oh wait. i did post the week before i left. look at me, being efficient. new found glory, the black eyed peas….they are posted. i even gave a little shout out to mike posner and citizen cope. ok, ok. this post will just cover the march shows.
AMADEUS (TREY SONGZ)@ TD GARDEN
i ran into my old buddy, chad brandolini of vater percussion at the new found glory show. i told him…as much as i love shooting weddings and portraits, i miss photographing music/concerts. i used to ONLY shoot concerts. i explained my new side gig at examiner.com and told him i need more hip-hop shows in my life. chad to the rescue.
chad put me in touch with drummer/producer amadeus (antwan ‘amadeus’ thompson in long form). ha. amadeus was on tour with trey songz, who was on tour with jay-z for the BP3 gig. omg. sign me up. the night of the show, i ran around the venue looking for the correct entrance with the credentials i had. finally, i gave up and hollered at chad…who had amadeus give me a call. now i had never talked to this guy on the phone before, so i was nervous. he put me at ease immediately. super nice. not an ounce of douchebag in him. not that i expected that. i just didn’t expect to be welcomed with open arms. he introduced me to the staff and band waiting in the cafeteria backstage. wicked nice. i sat while they went through their pre-show routine. trying to keep it together. ha. jay-z walked by in the hall. i secretly sh*t myself. memphis bleek walked in. i was cool. trey songz set was pretty darn good. i sang to myself while taking pictures of amadeus, who is a beast on the drums. thank baby jesus that the soundboard guy let me stand on the side of the stage, because i couldn’t get great shots of amadeus behind the drumset from the front of the stage. i’m too short. stage is too high. they killed it. and the plan was for amadeus to sneak me out to shoot jay-z. HA! it didn’t work. i was immediately removed from the pit. hova’s security doesn’t play. dream killers. amadeus could see my soul was destroyed, so he tried to sneak me into the other side. double HA! security dude had already made it over there and they were escorting the photographers out of the pit. so close. no cigar.
either way. trey songz was good. jay-z was fire. amadeus is the truth. he even danced with one of the security guards. that was hilarious. and i got great pictures from the show for them. go to his website: platinum boy entertainment. and buy a drumstick from vater while you’re at it. boom.
DROPKICK MURPHYS @ HOUSE OF BLUES
the dropkick’s come thru every year (10 years to be exact) and do a week long string of shows for their hometown. ‘i’m shipping up to boston, yeah yeah yeah.’ that’s them. their song was in THE DEPARTED. and i shot them back maybe 4 years ago at locobazooka. the one with disturbed as the headliner. i remember how crazy the crowd went for their set. this saturday matinee show was just as sick. they had a little platform sticking out from the stage so the lead singer could walk out to the people…which meant the photographers were shooting him from behind most of the time…or really close up. i got a foot to the chin. thank you, crowd surfer. security was working hard, just pulling people out of the pit left and right. good show. shoutout to mary mare!
ALICE IN CHAINS @ ORPHEUM THEATRE
i didn’t even think i was going to shoot this show. i’ve been a fan of MAN IN A BOX, since my hypercane days. it was one of those songs they’d always close with and dana would kill it on the drums. their management emailed me the day before saying i was set to go. surprise! they asked that i only post the images in the article, so i’ll respect that. i guess. chad to the rescue again. ran into brandolini and he helped me get the tickets that were not at the box office. that happens too frequently. 9/10 times everything is set. your name is on the list. all good. it’s tickets that the tricky part. there is either one, two or none…but never what is discussed beforehand. it’s cool. i go with the flow and usually have a person to call/email if something goes wrong the day of the show. i am fortunate enough to make my own deadlines, so i try not to stress out too much. AIC asked to review and approve all the images that would be posted for this, so you’ll have to visit the article to see photos from this show.
DAUGHTRY @ AGGANIS ARENA
phew. the good people at sony called me friday afternoon at work to confirm this one. i tried following up with no email response, so imagine my surprise. thanks, RCA. and thanks to my cousin akila for helping me reach out to folks over in that office. i appreciate it, cuzzo. i shot at the agganis for mixfest back in 2006. rihanna was there and had the flu, but tried to sing anyway. trooper. jessica connor is in charge over there and is the nicest venue person ever. tricia at the garden is pretty awesome also. mary mare was in the house again. and daughtry was looking very
aj mclean that night. good show either way. lifehouse was great and i missed cavo due to INSANE traffic on commonwealth avenue. parking near boston university is painful. too many one way streets. the stage lighting at this gig was perfect.
visit review: CLICK HERE!
more photos from daughtry.
i have 5 more shows to post. i’ll do a part 2. word.
phew! i finally got this one posted. the band allowed me to photograph the entire show AND wander around the entire venue. when you’re not limited to just the first 2 or 3 songs, you come home...
phew! i finally got this one posted. the band allowed me to photograph the entire show AND wander around the entire venue. when you’re not limited to just the first 2 or 3 songs, you come home with 500+ images. i put them into an animoto slideshow to accompany the article this time, featuring Rebelution’s tune: SO HIGH (remix). great show! loved SOJA! missed zion I because the green line train stopped for 20 mins at longwood station. at least the snow never came. KMD
shoutouts to joe and ashley! i’m shooting their wedding in june and saw them at the show! sorry i didn’t recognize you right away, joe. it was the hat!
^ ^ click on image above to visit the examiner website.
been there done that messed aroundim having fun don’t put me down i’ll never let you sweep me off my feet…. click here for photos and my review of LA ROUX: http://tinyurl.com/yfj8sph ^ ^ click on...
glad you survived the pink tape! Nice shots in spite of the restrictions.
Look at you..so good with your shout outs! I think the pink tape was just to humor him while he watched us jockey for position….