Music Photography Blog

by Adam Elmakias

Updates For The New Year

Alright I know it has been awhile since my last update, so I got a bunch of updates for you all at once. First off, new site, custom made by Forefathers. The blogs have some catching up to do so please excuse any of the linking mistakes that might happen. Alright, now that we have gotten that out of the way, here is what I have been up to…

I went to Photoshop World in Las Vegas. Mostly because I wanted to promote my Lens Bracelets, but at the same time there were a lot of people I have followed for years speaking there. Deke McClelland was probably the coolest person to see for me. He taught me everything I know about how to use photoshop via video tutorials back when I was in high school. Oh the amount of class time I didn’t attend to watch those videos.

Photoshop World
September 7, 2011 – Las Vegas, NV
September 8, 2011 – Las Vegas, NV
September 9, 2011 – Las Vegas, NV

They had all these continuous light set ups with models/ concepts ready to go, you could just walk up and shoot. Sorta wild, it made me laugh more than anything. I mean, look at this guy! haha

I met a bunch of photographers and a few of them were nice enough to sport the Lens Bracelet, sometimes more than one at a time.

photographer rockin’ three bracelets

Listen to some photographers talk, very interesting and entertaining. I can’t remember any of these people’s names.

Josh from A Day To Remember was in Vegas, he loves Vegas. So I met up with him one night and hung around.

view from hotel room
at the Cosmo

Back to San Diego for a few days. Did a quick shoot with the drummer of As I Lay Dying for Alternative Press Magazine.

Colin sitting in so I can test light

Pierce The Veil and I knocked out an Attack The Block! themed photo shoot. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, scope it- it’s a blast.

Pierce The Veil getting ready for the shoot
final printed image

Quick three day trip to Dayton, Ohio for James Baney of The Devil Wears Prada’s wedding. Good people, good times.

October 14th, 2011 – San Diego, CA => Dayton, OH
October 15th, 2011 – Dayton, OH
October 16th, 2011 – Dayton, OH => San Diego, CA

I flew out to Knoxville, Tennessee to shoot some new press images for Whitechapel. This is my second time going out to Knoxville to shoot them. Last time it was freezing, this time it was beautiful. Images should be out later in the year.

October 24, 2011 – San Diego, CA => Knoxville, TN
October 25, 2011 – Knoxville, TN
October 26, 2011 – Knoxville, TN => New York City, NY

Matt Burke standing in for lighting tests on top of a mountain

Next stop, NYC. It was time to meet up with my favorite dudes, Collin Hughes, Jon Bregel and Taylor Pemberton are pretty alright I guess. I kid, they are all awesome dudes and if you have time I suggest checking out their work. Anyway, I hung out with the whole gang first night and we had a few pumpkin beers. I have never had one before, but damn they were good. Mike Lerner came and hung out as well. He’s always an adventure.

October 26, 2011 – Knoxville, TN => New York City, NY
October 27, 2011 – New York City, NY
October 28, 2011 – New York City, NY
October 29, 2011 – New York City, NY => Madison

The next day Mike and I went to the photography convention thing they had going on in NYC that day.  Saw a bunch of familiar faces, Brad Moore! Dude is everywhere.

 Day after I met up with Jon Bregel, his crew, some friends that had volunteered to be in the infomercial and some others. Oh yea, we shot an infomercial for Lens Bracelets, its a spoof on this video and should be out within the next month or so, just getting it edited now.

Collin is going to kill me for using this.

Collin and his girlfriend acting for commercial
Me and David Jackson on set of infomercial WI

I went to Seattle to shoot some live/ candid images of The Devil Wears Prada.

The Devil Wears Prada live in Seattle, Wasington

Hung out with Kelly in Seattle for her birthday, she’s the one with the red hair.

Did a full day shoot with For Today, their merch dude is amazing, he’s the bearded man. The rest of the guys were really nice as well.

For Today and their merch guy


Kyle stopped by for a quick moment so we could shoot some product shots for his clothing line, Electric Zombie, always nice to see his face.

Kyle Crawford in a good mood

I went out with Breathe Carolina for a little bit to snag some candids and shoot some holiday images for them. One of the best party bands ever, such a good time.

Tour with Breathe Carolina
November 24, 2011 – New York City, NY
November 25, 2011 – Asbury Park, NJ
November 26, 2011 – Secaucus, NJ
November 27, 2011 – Philadelphia, PA
November 28, 2011 – Secaucus, NJ
November 29, 2011 – Baltimore, MD

We had to get hotels outside of NYC because it’s pretty expensive to keep a tour bus in the city. Train stations here we come!

Waiting for our train in NYC

We didn’t take a train home, but somehow ended up in a Limo, no qualms here.

Limo ride to finish off the night

I woke early one day when we stayed in the New Jersey area. I am not sure why, but I caught the sunrise and met a cool lady with dogs.

Son and Father fishing during sunrise
This lady had two awesome dogs
Greyhound

I had to do a holiday shoot for the guys, so this involved going to Kohl’s/ Wal-mart and buying a bunch of one time use props.

the holiday shirts

I set up the shoot in one of our hotel rooms.

Kyle and Kevin getting ready for holiday hotel room shoot
Breathe Carolina holiday poster

BIG CHOCOLATE was the opening act for the tour.

BIG CHOCOLATE rockin’ out
Drinkin’ in a church
the Breathe Carolina crew and some friends

I went out to Memphis in between tours to shoot images of lenses for my new Lens Bracelets I am coming out with. Lens Rentals was nice enough to let me come hang for a day and shoot all their glass. Expect new bracelets out in early 2012/

November 30, 2011 – Baltimore, MD => Memphis, TN
December 1, 2011 – Cordova, TN

Canon glass
Nikon Glass
Zeiss

I went out with Asking Alexandria for a second time. Last time it was a headlining tour, this time they were out with Avenged Sevenfold, Hollywood Undead and Black Veil Brides. It was an arena tour that was hitting C markets. (A markets are main cities, B not so much, C way the fuck in middle of nowhere) The crowds ranged 4-15K. Lots of fun, and two catered meals a day- that’s the key part right there. I rented a few lenses and the Canon 1d MKIV and shot away. That thing shoots so fast, I ended up with 240 gigs of images/ videos. Its so nice to be able to burst shoot at a reasonable speed, rather than shooting 3 FPS like my 5D does so not well.

Tour with Asking Alexandria
December 2, 2011 – Madison, WI
December 3, 2011 – Minneapolis, MN
December 4, 2011 – Des Moines, IA
December 5, 2011 – Omaha, NE
December 6, 2011 – Green Bay, WI
December 7, 2011 – Duluth, MN
December 8, 2011 – Grand Forks, ND
December 9, 2011 – Grand Forks, ND
December 10, 2011 – Bismarck, ND
December 11, 2011 – Billings, MT
December 12, 2011 – Billings, MT
December 13, 2011 – Missoula, MY
December 14, 2011 – Yakima, WA
December 15, 2011 Medford, OR
December 16, 2011 – San Jose, CA
December 17, 2011 – Ontario, CA

The set up they did for the stage every day on this tour was insane, 7 semi-trucks strong

Asking Alexandria live
The Asking Alexandria crew and band, and I snuck in
Avenged Sevenfold live

This next year I have a few things booked already, hopefully see ya guys around at an event or two.

Imaging USA
I will have my bracelets with me and be sharing a booth with Lens Rentals. Lots of great speakers and artists all crammed into one city. Anyone else going?

Soundwave (Australia)
I am at least going to one Soundwave date, although I don’t imagine I will be doing much of the tour itself as it’s so many fly dates. I also plan on visiting Australia for another few weeks, any suggestions on where to go? I was thinking Cairns.

The Vans Warped Tour (USA)
First and Second week confirmed so far. I do not know how long I will be on it, however I plan on making some kind of formal meet up every morning. It’s hard for me to find time during the day so I am going to have an area we can meet outside the venue everyday for an hour or so. Come hang, ask questions, whatever works.

I think that is pretty much all I have for now. See ya on the road, remember you can track where I will be traveling right here.