This shoot was both a concert shoot and a promotional shoot for the Elliot Randall Band, as they were called at that time. The venue, The Hotel Cafe was previously unknown to me and I only shot there this one time..
The band was excited about doing some promo shots and we shot these in an alley outside of the club that looked out across the road to a neat little BBQ joint. It provided a great backdrop for the shots. The really fun part of the shoot was when a pair of horse mounted LAPD officers came down the alley. While we didn't use them for promo shots, we did get some fun pics of the band with the horses. In hindsight I could have figured out some shots, but we just enjoyed the moment instead.
There were two images from this session that got used for promotion by the band. Both are included below.
This shoot also generated one of my favorite pics I have ever taken. The band was backstage warming up for their set. Just casually harmonizing in a corner. Danilo had his bass, Elliot his guitar and Kyle was just standing and singing. These guys sound amazing when they sing together. I snapped off a few shots and tried to get out of the way to let them do their thing, but one shot just stuck out for me. It's the first one below. It just shows an intimate moment for the band. Doing what they do best. I felt honored to capture it.
The show presented some interesting challenges, as The Hotel Cafe has terrible lighting. I was able to talk the sound board guy into raising the light up for me. I certainly had better light than was available for The Chris Pierce Band I had shot earlier.
I was still learning to shoot in low light, and I got a lot of grain in these shots. I was shooting with my Canon 20D at that time, and using my 70-200 f4 lens, so I had limitations. I still feel like I got some nice shots of the band.
Enjoy the images below.
