Photo shoot inquiries usually come from my contact page or by a phone call, but this one started with frisbee! Felix is a long time frisbee friend, recent summer league teammate, and someone I have watched live music with around PG, and who I have seen him play live too! When the band he is in needed a new collection of photographs to promote and market themselves, downtown Pacific Grove gave us the setting to create group branding portraits that showcased the full range of personality in the band and among all the band members. I was glad to produce photos that they can can pull from for upcoming performances, social media, websites, posters, press, and wherever else they need to visually represent the band.
Colorful and Black & White Branding Photography DJ Musician Producer Photo Shoot in Studio in Pacific Grove California
Incredibly, this was my fourth shoot (1st, 2nd, 3rd shoots) this year with local DJ and music creator Jason Kushy as his career continues to take off! We were back in my photo studio in Pacific Grove for this shoot where Jason wanted some branding photos with a colorful background. He chose a shade of red for those images. Then we shot on a gray gradient background for photos eventually converted to black and white for some minimalist, but eye catching branding portraits. All this resulted in yet another creative shoot that provided Jason more high impact branding photos to use for his own Spotify account and for his label to submit to publications writing about his new music releases. Thank you Jason for continuing to choose me as your photographer!
Photographing The Wharf Rats at the Salty Seal in Monterey Live for Promotional Photos and Video
How did I end up making promotional photos and a video of The Whatf Rats at the Salty Seal in Cannery Row in Monterey, California on a recent Saturday evening? All through the Pacific Grove Rotary Club of course! Fellow Rotarian, Matt, is the singer and guitarist for the band and he asked if I could come to their performance and make a series of photos of them performing, and then at their start of their second set list, make video of those songs. The lighting was better than I expected resulting in more dynamic still photos and the proximity I could get to the band members while they were playing allowed for close up video shots. The video above features the start of them playing Black Magic Woman, which we did not coordinate, I knew the song pretty well, and with a bit of luck and a bit of good timing, was able to record from start into the opening of the lyrics like we practiced it many times! Thank you Matt for this opportunity and for choosing me as your photographer and videographer.
Branding Photography shoot in Pacific Grove SoundWorks recording studio with returning DJ client Jason Kushy
I am so grateful that as local DJ and music creator Jason Kushy has more and more success with the new EDM tracks he releases, he continues to choose me as his personal branding photographer. Our first shoot was just back in June, in my just opened photo studio in Pacific Grove, then our second shoot was out on the streets of Pacific Grove in September. Now the third shoot was in a Pacific Grove SoundWorks, a local recording studio. I had met the owner, Jermaine, of the recording studio shortly after he had opened it up about a year ago. He remembered me and was fantastic to work with helping both Jason and I in getting the most creative photos we could at the sound board in his studio. This was a true team effort with open sharing of ideas and resulting in another series of branding photos Jason will use on his Spotify channel and with the record label he newly signed with too! Thank you to Jermaine for a great location in his studio for this photo shoot, and to Jason for continuing to choose me as his photographer on his music journey! —Find Jason Kushy, DJ and producer, on Spotify
DJ Jason Kushy gets signed to a label returns for a second personal branding photo shoot in Pacific Grove California
Even before my photo studio here in Pacific Grove, California was even close to fully setup, local DJ and producer Jason Kushy contacted me about a branding photo shoot to help him launch his first tracks on Spotify and other music streaming platforms. It was a great shoot in studio and out on location. Since that time he has grown greatly in popularity and been able to sign with a label! So he wanted another branding photo shoot to have images to share with the label and this new, exciting phase in his music career. This time the shoot was entirely out on location in downtown Pacific Grove using a couple of spots I had scouted before, and then also improvising with a few more. The result in just an hour shoot was a fantastic variety of backgrounds, styles, and vibes for the photos we made. Big thanks to Felix for assisting with this shoot allowing me to focus on getting as many creative looks for Jason as I could. And of course, a very big thank you to Jason for continuing to choose me as his photographer as his music journey takes off!
In Studio and Out on the Street Branding Shoot for a Local DJ and Music Producer
For just my second shoot in the new photo studio in Pacific Grove, it was an evening personal branding photo shoot for local DJ and producer Jason Kushy (check out his music on Spotify and everywhere else). He was fine with the studio being in nowhere near final form and setup. He was also very excited and passionate about the shoot, which I appreciated. We started out in studio getting a series of photos of a certain look, before heading out into the early night onto Forest Ave right in the heart of downtown Pacific Grove for some light trail shots and street vibe images. As you can see below, Jason has already put the images from the shoot up on his Spotify profile. It was a great personal branding photo shoot and I look forward to working with Jason again on making more images for his music career! Thank you Jason for choosing me as your photographer and for the great 5-star review too!
Photographing the orchestra at Albuquerque Academy
Now having photographed two plays at Albuquerque Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I am excited about expanding into the area of theatre photography. The latest play I photographed was the final dress rehearsal for Pirates of Penzance (see those photos). Before the performance started, I had a chance to photograph the orchestra getting warmed up in the pit. I had free range to go anywhere in the auditorium, including the catwalk! Also, the lighting changed during the warmup from very bright to the actual dark light level that would be used when the play was being performed. The last photo was of all the musicians out of the bit and on the stage for a clear group photo. I look forward to photographing their next play and of course sharing those photos with you here on Jason Collin Photography.
