Category Archives: Band Photography

Informal Band Photography: Animal Sounds

February 22, 2010 3:19 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

On the heels or writing this blog, I got to do some more informal band photos again last week (the aforementioned band photography blog, incidentally, landed me another spot for Picture of the Day on the Main Street Journal’s site last week.)

Today’s edition of Informal Band Photography is with a band called Animal Sounds.

There’s this great little U of M area house where I’d done photography for Richard last year. A new band that Richard is in, called Animal Sounds, practices in this house.  I was asked back to this house last week to do more photos.


I barely did any shots of the band as a whole. I decided I wanted to focus much more on individual elements. I knew the shots would be gritty and grainy, due to the way I had to shoot in the low available light. I made the decision to just go with it.

Posted in: band photography

Hangin’ out with musicians: My kinda promo photography

February 15, 2010 1:43 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Almost everyone I know is in a band. I love doing live band photography. But guess what? Guess what kind of photos I have most disliked doing? Band promo photos. I always felt like posing dudes wearing hoodies up against brick walls was just not my “thing.” I really seemed to struggle with this as a photographer, because I didn’t think I came out with the sorts of shots the bands wanted and which I was proud of. For the most part, I stopped agreeing to band promo photos a few years back. Things have changed this past year though.

I discovered I did have it in me to take photos that bands might use for promotional purposes, if the band/musicians were open to  “Amanda Style” band photos. Those are the sorts of photos you’ll find in the new gallery devoted to photos of musicians. And are the types of photos I’ve been wanting to do of Andrew Bryant and his band for quite some time now. Which leads me to the reason for this post.

Andrew was a one man show for years. Him, his guitar, and a microphone. In the past year or so, he’s enlisted the talents of our mutual friends to begin playing live shows with him. I’m pleased as punch. Not only does this mean Andrew’s records are translating to live performance better than ever, I can take a wider variety of shots during those live performances, and it also means that I’m privy to hanging out while the band practices from time to time. Such was the case last week, before the boys in the band had a gig in St. Louis.

Posted in: band photography, shop talk

Not a blog, just an update

October 28, 2009 5:20 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

You can find galleries for the following two shows if you click the following links:

Adam and Dave’s Bloodline. Gasoline Heart. Andrew Bryant @ The Hi-Tone. October 22, 2009.

First World @ The Smith7 House. October 24, 2009.

There are some new blogs in the works though. I promise. I sorta have internet at my apartment now, thanks to some unsecured wi-fi network in a nearby home. Wee!

Posted in: band photography, update ⋅ Tagged:

Bazan!

October 19, 2009 12:51 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

If you were  to say to me, “Hey Amanda. Who’s your favorite band?”, I’d have a few answers for that question (I’m not good at having only one favorite. It’s a blessing and a curse.) My answer would go something like this, “Hey. Good question. My favorite band’s The Beatles. And mewithoutYou. And anything David Bazan does. In no particular order.”  I have already gushed about getting to see mewithoutYou (The Weiss Family) again back in August. And here we are, not even two months later, and I’ve just been able to see David Bazan. This made me so stinking happy. So, so happy.

Bazan could’ve played anything from any album and I’d have been stoked, because I don’t know if there’s a song on any of his records that I DON’T like. But I was pleased with the mixture of songs he did. A lot of the new album. Some from the EP. And some from his work with Pedro the Lion. I was quite pleased.

It’s nice when something you’ve so looked forward to meets and even exceeds your expectations. Thank you, Mr. Bazan.

(Pssssst. More photos from this show are HERE)

Posted in: band photography, update ⋅ Tagged: , ,