I photographed Paramore about eight months ago in San Diego. The band hired me to photograph them, as they needed some updated press images. I had never worked with them before this. I tend to roll solo to these kinds of shoots; sometimes I bring an assistant but I really do prefer working solo. The downside is that it’s hard to scout and shoot test images.

The way these shoots work has become pretty normal to me. They can be a little bit nerve-wracking, but it usually all works out in the end. A healthy struggle. Basically I arrive a few hours before the shoot, scout locations at the venue and around the backstage area. I am then given the band for 5 or 10 minutes. The goal is to get as many usable images in that time as possible. For this shoot, I was given the band twice, for about 10 minutes each time.

I scouted a total of two locations, one backstage by their dressing room and…

The other was out in the backstage parking lot. These next two images are basically a 180° turn from each other.

Anyway, I found my locations and tried to plan for where the sun would be by the time we shot. Location one had a few different walls and planes I was able to play around with, but we didn’t get any nice shots. I am not allowed to release anything that didn’t get used, so the first two locations shall remain a secret.

I only used my light for one of the locations as I didn’t want to use my allotted time to reset gear.

The shoot was easy; the band did most of the work, and other than telling them where to stand or talking to them a bit, they didn’t really require many directions. I think in the shot they ended up picking/using my direction was just me being really corny and saying “YAY life HAPPY woooo friends LOVE” – but I can’t be 100% sure.

Spent the rest of the night keeping it low key and stuck around to photograph them live. I think they played for 15 or 20 minutes total? Snagged a few images. Ed Sheeran was on before, so I snuck into the photo pit and grabbed a shot of him as well.