Orange County Band Photographer Greg Garcia Shoots MetavengeMetavenge shot in San Pedro with a Canon 5D
, Strobe
and Brolly
.Metavenge from Houston Texas. I got the opportunity to see these guys perform after the shoot and they are heavy, hard and shove their music right down your throat. You’ll definitely be hearing about these guys in the future.
We shot in San Pedro and in typical fashion, not free of incident. We arrived, late afternoon, scoped out the area, and set up to shoot. Within minutes, not even ten frames into the shoot, security stopped the shoot. I was escorted by security to see the Regional Director or something like that. By the time we got to the office, there wasn’t anyone to talk to and the Security officer kinda shrugged his shoulders and said I couldn’t shoot there. Meanwhile, the band’s manager called me on the cell phone and in code, we were able to communicate to move the equipment around the hill and behind a wall where security won’t be able to see us. Security escorted me back to where we were originally shooting and I kinda dismissed it like they had to get going to their show. Once security was out of sight, I bolted over to the guys and finished the shoot. As you can see, we were racing daylight. This was one of the last shots of the day. The guys were great and we got some great shots. Of course I had to harass them for not warning me about Security. “How could you guys not see him...? He had to cross a parking lot and a grass field to get to us!” I guess they were just too into the staring down the camera.
and 
as props and we staged the scene with some of the things Jimmy had around to help complete the image. 
. Three 
with a 
and 
were used for this capture. This was shot right before rehearsal for 
.
lit up and turned it on as soon as he saw the lights, he was ready to roll. We quickly shot a couple rolls of 
. My lens arsenal consists of a 
, 
, and a 
. I find I get most of my work done with those three lenses. For metering I still use my 
handheld and I use a Calibration Target from 
for Custom White Balance. This is probably the absolute bare minimum I would take to any shoot.
. Now I know this may be frowned upon to the "Mono Light" hating photographic community out there but I have found for a quick, unobtrusive set up, these really work well. If I'm setting up for a shoot in a doctor or lawyer's office, or even at a residence with families walking around, I don't have to worry about a battery pack and cables running through the room. I don't have to worry about a client or child tripping over cables and/or knocking over equipment. Usually, I can plug the lights into a perimeter wall outlet and the middle of the room stays clear. I find this works really well for me even in a three light set up. 
Wireless triggers for my lighting set up. The 
from 
that I have enjoyed using as well as a number of soft boxes including the 
.
for Crafter Guitars. This is a promotional endorsement for Crafter Guitars USA out of Virginia. This shoot went about as smoothly as they go, even with all the friday night traffic to get to Burbank from OC. Rob Shean assisted me on this shoot to ensure a speedy set up and tear down. This was shot at their rehearsal studio, the last 30 minutes of their scheduled rehearsal. When we arrived, they were outside taking a smoke break. We were greeted and introduced, then escorted to the rehearsal room. The plan was to set up while they were rehearsing their final set. Everything timed out perfectly. They finished the last song and we were ready to shoot. We shot a variety of poses for about twenty minutes, wrapped, and got on with our Friday night. I love it when a plan comes together...
. The hair and rim light came from the sun as it was setting over the horizon. Jodi is awesome to work with and is quite athletic. At one point she told me that she loves motocross and considered doing that for a living. Lucky for us that was a conflict of interest with the modeling and she chose to model.
and 
endorsement and was shot at the Vault in Long Beach. The plan was to get some live shots at sound check before their show. Everything was arranged with the venue and the light man to run lights to look like show while I got my shots. That seemed simple enough, right? I arrived at the venue at the scheduled time and there’s no band, no Poogie. Apparently his flight from Pittsburgh had been delayed. I waited two hours and I asked the cymbal rep, what are we going to do? His answer was pretty much, wait a little longer and shoot what you can. We were about fifteen minutes from doors opening when they finally arrive. Of course they need to sound check so they get onstage and the monitors do not work. So now the sound guy is pissed and doesn’t want anybody on the stage. The house is screaming they need to close the stage curtains because they need to open the doors. I’m getting nervous so I start unpacking all my cases for lighting and start setting up for another back up plan. I knew once they close that curtain, that stage is dark. All the front lighting is outside the curtain line. They close the curtain and the band is ready to go to the hotel. I’m feverishly trying to set up lights to get some shots. I lit Poogie with an 
from the front, I put 
on a 
overhead and I threw a blue light behind him aiming at the curtain. Meanwhile, Poogie’s band mates are yelling “C’mon! Let’s go! Bus is leaving…” I told Poogie, just a few shots and you’re outta here… I’m set, ready to go. Let’s go… Poogie sat down; wearing the shirt he was traveling in and I said, just play. It wasn’t but a few seconds before the stage manager stormed the stage furious because doors were open but I had already gotten my handful of shots. I’m not exactly sure what Poogie is so happy about in this shot. Maybe he could see behind me and new I was about to get my head chopped off. I don’t know but it works for me. Istanbul chose to run a different image at NAMM and I’ve included that image as well. All in a days work, right?
to brighten up her eyes a tad. Nothing else needed. We shot at a local park in the afternoon. Unfortunately we were having and typical hazy California afternoon so to get some color in the background, I chose to pick up some of the greenery the park had to offer. The sun was dancing in and out of clouds but I got enough direction from the sunlight through the trees to light up Crystal's hair. I think we got some great All-American girl next-door looks for Crystal and hopefully we'll all be seeing her on Glee sometime in the near future! Good Luck Crystal!