Guitarist Musician Promo Shoot - Pass-A-Grille Beach St. Petersburg Florida Commercial Photography
To state it simply, this was one of the best shoots I have ever done, in all aspects. Nathan (artist name Redd Sun) contacted me about making some photographs for use as his own promotional materials for his music as he liked the style of this vanishing point photograph. The photographs in this post are obviously not that style, rather these are my own favorites from the shoot. In post Part 2 I will put the shots Nathan chose edited in the grainy style he requested.
What made this shoot one of the best, if not the best, for me was how Nathan wanted to be photographed. He told me at the start that he did not want any poses or anything like that. Of course I specialize in candid style so this was perfect for me. He then said just photograph him as he changed his guitar strings and then as he played. This could not have been more ideal instructions for me. The bonus was I got to listen to his guitar playing while shooting, which I really believe helped me capture the types of shots he wanted. Normally I just shoot in silence. This gives me the idea to bring along a music source of some kind for future shoots.
Guitarist Musician Promo Shoot - natural light portrait on Pass-A-Grille Beach St. Petersburg FloridaI (we) was also lucky in that the Pass-A-Grille Beach was not that crowded, there was a great sunset and the natural light before sunset time was fantastic (see above natural light photograph). This natural light allowed me to roam freely with my preferred Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens on my Nikon D300.
Guitarist profile shot for promotional materials - Pass-A-Grille Beach St. Petersburg Florida commercial photographyOf course I also used my own personally developed two-strobe setup for proper sunset shots. Even in the above shot, however, the photograph remained a candid as Nathan seemed to not notice me setup my lights around him and just kept on playing.
Guitarist silhouette promotional shot - Pass-A-Grille Beach St. Petersburg Florida commercial photographyEven though we were at basically the same location for the entire one-hour shoot due to the ability to make both natural light and strobist shots, as well as using three different lenses, I was able to provide Nathan with a wide variety of shot styles.
I really look forward to seeing how Nathan uses the photographs in his promotional materials. Part 2 of this photo shoot, to come soon.
Guitarist commercial promotional photography on St. Petersburg Florida beach - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/80th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame leftA shoot on Pass-a-Grille Beach a few years ago of a guitarist for his album cover and promotional materials remains one of my all-time favorites for several reasons. I edited quite a few shots from the shoot at the time, but thought now that over two years have passed, might I be able to find another shot I could add to my edited archives? (and also send the client a nice unexpected bonus shot) Going through the remaining photos I liked how the sun was just at the tip of the guitar and I thought by cropping a good amount off the top and bottom the focus can be put on that particular point in the image. 
