Who doesn’t love a cheap rock show? Certainly not me. That’s why my son and I wandered into Seattle to check out The Funhouse this past week. He was off the next day and I was willing to live with just a few hours of sleep. That was a good enough setup to justify a late night of punk rock and a visit to a venue new to us.

We knew one of the bands playing — Dies Drear — so we knew the night wouldn’t be a total loss. Turns out that was never going to be an issue!

The opening act was a band we hadn’t heard before, The Whywolves. Great punk trio, lots of energy on stage. They blasted through a Journey cover song that was one of my favorite tunes of the night.

Next up was a band called Sok and the Faggots. Gotta admit I had a visceral reaction just to the name of the band and I suspect that’s intentional on their part. Wasn’t sure what to expect but what I got was fast-paced, aggressive punk rock with tongue firmly in cheek. Hard to be offended by a band that clearly doesn’t take themselves all that seriously and don’t expect you to either. Definitely on the “see them again” list.

Next the evening took a left turn with a twist as the bands went on break and were replaced by a short burlesque show. Now mind you, I like attractive, scantily clad females as much as the next guy, but I was there to listen to punk rock and the diversion messed with the flow of things.

By the time Dies Drear set up and were ready to close out the evening, a lot of the audience had drifted off and The Funhouse was emptier. Still, the guys didn’t let that stop them from turning in another great performance. Both Matt and I have seen Dies Drear previously and they are firm favorites in our book. They’ll be taking a little break from performing but we’ll be waiting to hear word of their next concert later this year.

All-in-all the evening was a blast and The Funhouse turned out to be a fantastic place to see live music. We’ll be back as often as we can. Although next time, I’ll try to avoid scheduling a 6 a.m. meeting the morning after a show!

Here are a few photos I shot that night. You can click the image above or the thumbnails below to view larger photos.

I had the opportunity this week to shoot production stills at the final dress rehearsal of Theatre 9/12′s “A Shade of Green.” It’s a fantastic show by local, award-winning playwright Charles Waxberg. If you have a taste for psychological, dialogue-driven drama then this is a show you won’t want to miss.

From the Theatre 9/12 website… “An accountant for the Pittsburgh archdiocese is requested by a serial killer to meet 19 days before his execution, and he doesn’t know why. A spellbinding play about integrity, A Shade of Green asks at every turn, what would you do?”

“A Shade of Green” opens Friday, January 27, 2012 and runs through February 19 at Trinity Parish Hall in Seattle. All performances are pay-what-you-can.

Here are a few photos from the shoot. You can click the image above or the thumbnails below to view high-resolution photos.

Took a little drive to Ballard this weekend to visit The Ballard Mine. First visit to this little venue and sadly, likely the last since they’re closing down the end of this month. It’s a quirky little spot that’s literally a basement underneath another business. Very intimate though, you could walk up and poke the band onstage if you wanted, though these bands would likely poke back!

The show wound up being all-ages at the last minute so my son and I decided my younger daughter needed to join us on this adventure. You know the old saying about the family that rocks together, right?

The line up for this second-to-the-last weekend at The Ballard Mine was a trio of local punk bands — The Estafets, Highlight Bomb and Dies Drear.

All three bands cranked out great sets. Lots of positive energy, obviously having a good time on stage and enjoying the hell out of making music. These are the kinds of bands I love to see live. I’ll be looking for future opportunities to see them perform again!

As usual, I dragged a camera along with me. Since this was a smaller venue I figured I’d see if anyone squawked about me shooting with my big camera and no one did, so here’s a set of photos from the evening. You can click the image above or the thumbnails below to view larger photos.

"Xanadu" at ArtsWest

This year I decided to take on a couple of photographic challenges. I figured they’d push me to stretch my photography in ways I might not otherwise. In addition to shooting a photo a day — 366 photos in total thanks to the Leap Year — I’m doing a weekly post for Focus52.

Focus52 provides a weekly theme and gives you seven days to shoot photos to share with other participants. This week the suggested theme was “I am ________.”

I am primarily a photojournalist but one of my passions and creative outlets is theater photography. Theater photography provides a challenging opportunity to capture beautiful images. Although you will occasionally pose photos, theater companies generally want photos shot using stage lighting with actors running a scene. This means capturing action without using strobes. This pushes you into using high ISOs and a lot of manual control over the exposure.

With that in mind, I thought I’d share a few photos all shot very recently. You can click individual thumbnails to view high-resolution photos.

"All Through The Night" at ArtsWest

The first photos here are for two different productions for the same theater.

ArtsWest in West Seattle provides a regular season of theatrical entertainment but in addition also has an excellent educational program. The first photo above was shot for the poster for this summer’s Apprenticeship Program production of “Xanadu.” This was one of the fairly rare occasions where we posed photos and used a backdrop and flash in addition to stage lighting. “Xanadu” will open June 27, 2012 with 14 performances during a three week run.

The next photo is more typical of a shoot at ArtWest. One of the things I love about working with them is that they schedule a dedicated “photocall” for each production where I have an hour or so with the actors and the set to simply make photos. I work with their artistic director who puts together a “shot list” of the scenes they want to focus on and then I shoot away while the actors run through the scenes. I have the flexibility to move around the space, have them backup and re-run sections and generally capture exactly what I want.

"Shades of Green" at Theatre 9/12

This photo from Seattle premiere of “All Through The Night” is an example of a shot that not only features the actors, but also shows off the lighting and set. “All Through The Night” runs January 18 through February 12, 2012.

Next up is a photo made for Theatre 9/12. This Seattle-based company focuses on professional actor development. Right now they are deep in the throws of rehearsal for the world premier of “Shades of Green” by award-winning local playwright Charles Waxberg.

This too was a posed photo which will be used for online publicity among other things. Successful theaters in modern times are learning to leverage online news and social media. Digital photos like this one will be used on web sites, Facebook, Twitter and other outlets to help promote the show.

The focus here is purely on the actors and attempts to set an emotional tone for the viewer despite they fact they know nothing at all about the show. I like this think this one works, but I admit I’m biased! “Shades of Green” will run January 27 through February 19, 2012.

Finally, wrapping up this week with a photo from Redwood Theatre in Redmond, WA. This community theater is one of the first places I ever shot theatrical photography. They still bring me in from time to time to capture scenes from their productions so they must like me!

This shot from “Never Too Late” is an example of something a little different. This is an unpolished look at the raw, behind-the-scenes rehearsal process. Theaters will frequently have me capture photos of this nature to provide material for their historical archives. It also gives potential theater-goers a glimpse behind the stage at the work that goes into mounting a production.

In cases like this, I will normally schedule two shoots with the theater. The first early in the process to capture rehearsal stills and a second during a dress rehearsal just before they open to make photos of the finished results.

Hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about theater photography and seeing a few photos from my most recent photo shoots!

"Never Too Late" at Redwood Theatre

Took advantage of a beautiful afternoon recently to shoot my first sunset of the new year. They may be cliche for photographers, but I just can’t resist a sunset. Especially not when they are so beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest.

That said, I’ll be happy when they aren’t happening at 4:30 in the afternoon!

You can click the image above or the thumbnails below to view high-resolution photos.

When it comes to New Years Eve celebrations in Seattle, the annual party at the Space Needle is the biggest show in town. Not being a fan of crowds or traffic, rather than head into the city I wandered over to the West Seattle side of Elliott Bay to capture the fireworks from a distance. I like to show events in context, and I just love the light reflecting off the water.

Here are a few more shots from New Years Eve. You can click individual thumbnails to view the full size photo.

I had the opportunity recently to do a short road-trip from Seattle to Portland with my son to see Thrice, O’Brother, La Dispute and Moving Mountains at Portland, Oregon’s Wonderland Ballroom. Turned out to be an epic concert experience with all four bands turning in amazing performances.

Obviously I love the music at these concerts, but for me part of the experience is shooting photos. For venues like this where I don’t have professional access, I shoot with a Canon S90 point-and-shoot.

The Canon S90 makes a great concert camera for several reasons. It’s small and not considered a “professional” camera. It has a fast f2 lens at the wide end. It has full manual controls and supports RAW.

All of that combined with a little experience can make a memorable concert photo!

More photos from this concert on Flickr

Fall colors are starting to hit their stride in Burien, WA’s Dottie Harper Park.
Now the challenge is to photograph them before the wind and rain strip the trees bare!

Leaves changing colors in Burien’s Seahurst Park

In what has become an annual tradition, I attended the 2011 Zombie Shoot organized by Brian Morris of Morningstar Creative Group this past weekend. The event takes photographers, models and make-up artists and throws them together on location to stage photos of zombie attacks.

Full gallery of this year’s photos

Sample image from last year’s shoot