Farewell

I spent the day yesterday photographing the band FAREWELL in Greensboro, NC for Kerrang.

They’re a bunch of really nice guys. Instead of spending all day setting up for one big picture (and since I didn’t know the area), we decided to go to a few different locations and just see what happens.

Our first stop was Greensboro institution Beef Burger. The seven of us walked in, I chatted with the manager for a moment, and he agreed to let us shoot in there no problem. I set up my lights and shot away.

Funny thing is, the guy in the background (purposely obscured by Marshall) is the mayor! He just came in by himself to have a burger for lunch.

Then we went downtown to find more locations.

We really wanted to check out this old junk store that’s loaded with all kinds of fun props. There are old, broken washing machines and refrigerators sitting right outside.

As I walked up the door, a surly guy with a ZZ Top beard immediately said “What do you want?” I said that these guys were in a band and we’d love to shoot some pictures in his store. He abruptly said “NO!” I politely said, “OK, cool. Just curious why?” and he said “This is America and I can do what I want.”

Yes, you can. OK. Moving on.

We shot a few pics in an alleyway and then ran into a friend of the band. He said there was a cool roof deck in his building.

After checking it out, I was much more interested in the basement which is under construction and being turned into an art space. It looked like the perfect photo studio.

We decided to go with purple gels on the background lights and made some fun pics down there.

I think we got the guy in trouble w/his bosses because he didn’t ask if we could shoot there, but at least we made some good pics.

Sorry, dude.

We did a final setup at Marshall’s place and then called it a day.

That night, I shared a few adult beverages with the guys at the local watering hole (except for Will, who is underage).

Hope these guys go far. They’re punk-pop with a really tight sound.

TRAVEL FUN: Even with a reservation, my cab to the airport was 20 mins late. And after picking me up, the driver realized he had to stop for gas! It didn’t really matter because my flight was delayed for 90 mins due to strong winds in NYC.

Oh, and during the flight the pilot calmly told us he called in an emergency landing because our flaps weren’t working. He said it was no big deal, but that there would be fire trucks on the runway when we land.

You know how it normally looks and feels like you’re going really slowly when you come in for a landing?

Not this time.

We were going really fast when we hit the ground. The Delta crew did a great job though and I made it home in one piece.

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