Morning Stretch

Lately, when I'm not taking my camera to concerts, it is with me in the back yard taking photographs of our great Sunflowers and the various insects that are enjoying them as much as I am.  They are currently blooming all over the place and this one caught my eye the other day.  It was opening its petals for the very first time.  Stretching out to get those very first rays of sunshine.  It is quite the remarkable site, or it is at least to my eyes.  My Lovely Assistant planted the seeds for these flowers back in the spring and they have no grown into these glorious flowers that really add colour and life to the yard.  I can't get enough of looking at them.  This photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/50sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  If you happen to have a little extra space in your yards at home, I definitely suggest carving yourself a little space for some sunflowers.  They are terrific.

Deftones At Centre Bell

I usually drive in to shows that I cover in Montreal.   But, when there is a show at the Centre Bell I tend to take public transit in order to save myself the hassle of traffic and trying to find parking near the arena.  There is one other plus to leaving the car at home.  The ride in to the show is often a very good indication of the good time to come.  On this evening, I was sharing my metro car with the usual collection of black t-shirts and long hair.  All of them excited to be heading in to the rock show.  The feeling is mutual and actually amplified by being there among them.  And why not be excited?  After all, Deftones were in town.  This current tour, in support of their latest album, Private Music, has been getting rave reviews so far and everyone was really looking forward to this show.  With the gauntlet thrown, Deftones didn’t waste much time coming out to make a mark of their own.  Deftones singer Chino Moreno confidently strode to his box at the front of the stage.  From there he smirked before letting loose a guttural scream from the depth of his soul before leaping to the stage as the band broke in to ‘Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)’.  We were shooting from the soundboard, which will usually illicit a groan, but in this case, it allowed us a full view of that stage and the great visuals which were used for each song.  The background used for the third song, ‘my mind is a mountain’ from Private Music, was by far my favourite.  It was the red motif laid over the periodic table of elements.  It made those symbols instantly more interesting to me in a few minutes.  Much more than a whole semester of science ever did.  We trudged away from our position at the soundboard as Deftones continued their sonic assault on the senses of those who remained, making sure that that metro ride home would be just as memorable as the ride that had brought us all to the arena together.  The photographs were all taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are a few more photographs that I took of Deftones as they performed on the Centre Bell stage.

If you would like to find out more about Deftones and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Idles, who performed earlier in the evening, you can do so by following the link.  A big thank you goes out to David Benveniste, Samantha Waterman and Taryn Mazza of Velvet Hammer Management and Christopher Gonda of V13 Media for getting me a pass to the shoot the show.  As always, I very much appreciate the opporutnity.  Deftones remain on tour until November, with a couple of 2026 shows already scheduled as well.  Don’t you dare miss it when they play in a town near you.

Idles At Centre Bell

  

Writing, writing, writing.I'm always up for finding out about a band that I don't know much about.  Such was the case this past week at the Centre Bell as the big rock show of the week was being opened by a band that my fellow photographers were singing the praises of.  Idles have been around for a little more than a decade now, but they've managed to fly under my radar. That certainly didn't stop them from treating the city to an incredible set.  Those years have provided their fans with five albums.  The most recent of which, Tangk, was released in February of last year.  I had never seen the band live before, but my fellow photographers quickly clued me in that I was in for a treat.  The band slowly hit the stage in a relaxed manner, exemplified by guitarist Mark Bowen and his choice of attire for the evening.  A bathrobe.  But, the energy level quickly jumped 100 notches as Idles broke in to ‘Colossus’ and Bowen transformed into a whirling dervish, flailing around the stage.  Before the second song began, singer Joe Talbot was already splitting the crowd down the middle for our first wall of death of the evening, and once the musical carnage had come to an end, the crowd surfers came out.  I was told to expect the unexpected from Idles and it was at that point of the show that I looked across the stage and noticed that someone was missing.  Guitarist Lee Keirnan was no longer stage left, but rather out surfing with the fans, all while shredding on the guitar.  My friends were correct, this was an act not to be missed.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Idles as they performed on the Centre Bell stage.

If you would like to find out more about Idles and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Deftones, who performed later that night, you can do so by following the link.  Idles are a hell of a band and put on a hell of a show.  Don't you dare miss it when they play in a town near you.

Cleared For Landing

Our relationship may have started off a little rocky, but over the years, the humble bumblebee has become my favourite member of the insect world.  We grow sunflowers in our yard and they were very late to bloom this year.  They are exploding at the moment and their arrival has marked the return of my fuzzy winged buddies.  Since we've been growing the sunflowers, I have been trying to capture a shot of a flying bee with his wings wide open.  It has proven to be a little more difficult than I though, but after lots of practice and experimentation, I though that I had finally found the right combination of shutter speed and focal length.  I took a seat near the flowers and waited.  After a little while, my little buddy arrived.  We chatted for a little bit and I kindly asked if he could hover a little bit near one of the flowers for me, and he happily obliged.  Yes, I talk to the bees.  You need to talk to someone when you're sitting alone in the yard.  He hovered, I snapped and then I let out an excited yelp when I saw that I had finally gotten the shot that I wanted. The photograph was taken at f/7.1, 1/500sec, ISO 400 at 200mm.  I just love seeing those wings and all of the pollen all over his fuzzy behind.  Glorious.

Descendents At MTelus

Downtown Montreal on a Saturday night is a thing of legend.  Rather appropriate as the city hosted Descendents this past Saturday night.  Upon my arrival at the MTelus, things seemed rather calm and I made the mistake of thinking that it was going to be an easy going kind of night.  I mentioned to security that they were probably happy to have an easy evening on their hands as a bunch of grey beards like myself weren’t going to cause that much trouble.  He gave me a look as if I was crazy and said “Eric, this is a punk rock show.  It will be crazy.”  With my eyes opened by his words, I took another scan of this docile crowd.  Suddenly, I saw what he saw.  The torn jackets, painted faces, pierced body parts and multi-coloured hair set was in attendance.  And they have may have been rather calm at the moment, but underneath that calm was a bubbling of energy.  The closer we got to show time, the louder the crowd became.  The closer we got to show time, they more they began to move around in anticipation.  The closer we got to the show, the wilder they became.  Why?  Because The Descendents were in town and about to rip the roof off of the building.  It was already an epic evening before our headliners had even hit the stage.  The Descendents came out of the wild late 70s punk rock movement in Los Angeles and are just as wild today as they were then.  Their first two albums, Milo Goes To College from 1982 and 1985's I Don't Want To Grow Up are stone cold classics.  Their 1996 return, Everything Sucks gave us their opening track for the show.  ‘Everything Sux’, a song that is almost 30 years old, yet many would tell you is just as appropriate today as it ever was.  What followed was a machine gun like procession of their best known hits, most served in short bursts of high energy rock.  I believe that the final count was 34 songs.  Earlier this year I got to shoot ZZ Top, but only for one song.  I think I had more shooting time on that evening than I did during the three songs I got to photograph on this night.  And my security guard friend was right.  The crowd was bouncing, swirling and surging all night.  I stopped counting after the fifth body surfer was escorted past us in the pit.  He and his co-workers certainly got a good work-out that night.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Descendents while they performed on the MTelus stage.

If you would like to find out more about Descendents and their music, you can do so by following the link to their Facebook page.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Mattstagraham and The Buzzcocks, who performed earlier that evening, you can do so by following the respective links.  A big thank you goes out to Descendents' management group, Evenko and Christopher Gonda of V13Media for getting me a pass to shoot the show.  As always, it is very much appreciated.  The songs may be short, but their power and message have stood the test of time.   Descendents only have a few more shows scheduled for this year, but they are sure to be back on the road again soon.  Don't you dare miss it when they play a town near you.