Creatives Series - Jherek Bischoff

I first saw Jherek Bischoff when he was one of the opening performers for Amanda Palmer (I should add I was not aware he was also a member of her band and played an important part in the development of her record).  This song totally captured me when he was up there playing it on his ukulele – it was amazing!  After the show, I went to download some of his music-- and the album version of 'Eyes' actually has David Byrne singing on the track.  But the real standout is this amazing song, 'Young and Lovely.' – it really is a lovely track to swoon over.  Jherek composed the record entirely on his ukulele and then fleshed it out over the period of a few years – taking his laptop to other instrumentalists' apartments to record them and then weaving all the pieces together.  It really is a pretty irresistible record.

Thanks to Jen and Connor for arm modeling their arms for me and to Pam Mandel, who loaned me some of the ukuleles and also plays with the Seattle ukulele band the Castaways.

Creatives Project - Hey Marseille

I had the chance to photograph the band Hey Marseilles this week. If you have not heard them, you definitely need to check this song out (directed by the amazing Hayley Young – whose previous photos of the band I was in awe of!). I don’t think you’d be able to resist those hand claps. You should also check this one out, too – again, pretty awesome! You can check then out at Bumbershoot here in Seattle this Labor Day weekend as well.  (Note: the image at this size looks a little crunchy -- click on it to see it better).  Special thanks to my 4-year old daughter who assisted in the creation of the sun!

Creatives Series - El Vez

I asked performer El Vez to participate in my Creatives series and he replied that he had a 7-foot tall Christmas tree from last year he’d like to set on fire and use that in a photo shoot. Of course, I jumped at this! As I drove to the location, I was actually nervous – thoughts of fire escaping and burning his house, my camera and lighting gear, ourselves! Visions of police and ambulances filled my head. And, when I got there, we got everything set up and El Vez turns to me and says, “If my hair catches on fire, keep shooting!” And now thoughts of Michael Jackson’s hair on fire in the Pepsi commercial back in the eighties is stuck in my head. In the end, the tree went up pretty quickly and erupted into huge flames – it did fall over but nothing horrible happened. I’m alive. El Vez is alive. And my camera and lighting gear is intact!