Tag Archives: Looking For Alaska

Band Press Photos: Looking for Alaska

I have to tell you: here lately, the weather has turned beeyootiful in the Mid-South.  What a perfect time to do some press photos for the boys in Looking for Alaska!

The band and I made arrangements to meet downtown. Did we have a specific plan? No. Did we do some explorin’ until we found a couple of righteous places for snapping  photos? We sure did!

Being downtown, it’s hard to avoid a bunch of cliche backgrounds. When you’re photographing bands for promo or press photos, it’s SUPER hard to avoid cliches.  I had one rule: no brick walls. LFA had another rule: no fields. Other than that, we just set out on a trek around downtown Memphis. We were on a {photographic} mission.

When I started seeing spots that sparked my interest, I didn’t have to think “Is this trite? Has this been overdone?” All that mattered was getting these Looking for Alaska lads into those interest-sparking spots, getting them to interact with each other, and, you know, snapping a few photos along the way.

Someone in the group suggested we go to the Peabody rooftop. I hadn’t really been up there before and didn’t know what was in store for us since the light was getting so dim (thanks to autumn, which brought shorter days with it!) I was not too sure that we were going to have (what I like to call) a “workable situation” on our hands. But then, we rounded a corner on the rooftop and saw that there was an old-fashioned street lamp giving ample lighting underneath it. I breathed a sigh of relief.  I also loved how the camera picked up on the last bits of dusky light the sky was offering us in the background!

Once I’d called it a wrap on the rooftop and headed back indoors, we caught a glimpse of some VERY PINK light coming from a room off to the side. I thought for certain that the door would be locked. It wasn’t. Then I thought we would get yelled at for going into The Skyway. But then I reasoned with myself, “If they didn’t want us in there, they should have locked the door!”

We ended up having a GREAT time together. I hope to have the pleasure of photographing Looking For Alaska again in the future!

♥♥

{Discovery} Looking for Alaska

Here is a fact about my life: almost every friend I have is a musician. Music and bands are the reason I know 95% of the people I’ve met in the past decade. That’s how I ended up doing band photography in the first place: going to my friends gigs. Then I met more people in bands and befriended them, too. And if it’s not someone who is directly in a band, most of my other friends were met through musicians who are mutual friends or just by being at the same shows for so many years. And so forth and so on! And, yes, I do have a point with all this…

My point is: I’ve been out of the circulation from local shows for a bit now, due mostly to work scheduling conflicts. I’m discovering that I’ve missed that part of my life and those people and probably new people I could discover at those shows. Since that whole work scheduling thingy isn’t an issue right now, I’m trying my darndest to get out and see my friends play more often! I did so this past weekend, in fact, by heading out to the far east {Cordova, TN!} to see my friends’ band, Looking for Alaska. After I finally got to hear their music, I was kicking myself that it had taken me this long!

I have to say: I really, truly, genuinely think these guys are one of the best local bands I’ve heard in some time. They’re my cuppa tea. I may even be getting a sense of excitement over local music again! You see, in recent years, I have felt like there was a hole in my heart left by some of the local bands I used to love but aren’t together any more. Looking for Alaska just might be able to plug up that hole. AND they’ve just recorded an album, a fact which makes me both excited for them and eager for its release so I can get my hands on it!


Click on through for pictures of Looking for Alaska. Aug. 12 ’11. Smithseven House.