I absolutely love setting up and composing a beautiful piece of video the same way I love setting up and producing a great still image. There are some scenes which translate better into video than a single still frame. I believe in both mediums and am lucky to have tools in my arsenal that can perform both stills and video in a moment’s notice.

After working with video and multimedia for years I know my strong suit is capturing the video and producing. Editing and actually laying out a piece quickly becomes a frustrating task which is why I have to give a big thanks to my friend and close collaborator, Anthony Oyedeji who helped turn a huge archive of video and time lapse clips into something that really sings.

The goal of the reel is to let my clients know that I have the skill and ability to capture & produce video and time lapse pieces, but for me, personally, this short 2-minute reel is something like a movie trailer from the past 5 years of my life.

I promise that every time I complain about being stressed out with work or think I want to just have an “9-5 office job” I will watch this and remember how good I have it.

In this video I was:

• Hanging out at the beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Marveling at the splendor of Niagara Falls
• Glued to the window of a bullet train through the snowy forests of southern Germany & Austria
• Shoulder to the wheel, driving through Arizona
• Drifting in a race car with one of my oldest friends
• Partying with Girl Talk, EITS, the legendary DJ Numark, and a crazy Japanese metal band
• Mixing an album of my own music in a recording studio
• Entranced by the lights of Times Square in NYC
• Front and center for a break dancing performance
• Riding on a crazy roller coaster at sunset
• Hanging off a boat in the middle of a river
• On stage during an amazing jazz performance
• Feeling the sun come up in a small German village
• Watching the famed windmills of Amsterdam
• Playing with baby rabbits in rural Ohio
• Watching the world from Table Mountain in South Africa
• Almost touching lions in Africa
• Flying over sand dunes in Qatar
• Driving around downtown Houston at night

Additional thanks to the following people who are either in the piece or accompanied me on some of the adventures: Anthony Oyedeji, Douglas Vickery, Alex Vickery, Pandora Vickery, Heather Broussard, Michael Spoth, Justin Rogers, Rathan Reddy, Sean Lowe, Chris Lue, DJ Numark, Mike BBQ, Steven Phillip, Tori Raba, Robert Seale, The Mountry’s, and everyone else who I forgot. Here’s to 5 more years of crazy adventures and even crazier video!

Make sure you watch, make sure you watch in HD, make sure you share this with friends and make sure you let me know what you think!

Atlanta rapper, T.I. hangs out of a window during a video shoot in Houston.

Its been two weeks since NBA All Star weekend here in Houston. From Thursday, February 14th, through Sunday, February 17th, I photographed a barrage of events from special appearances at the mall and community service events to live shows and video shoots, with the intention of producing a small body of work showcasing what it’s like to be behind the scenes at an event like this. I was along for the ride photographing different events as well as coordinating and producing a handful of different videos for several different artists such as Trae, T.I and Future. People spend hundreds of dollars for entry into a club just on the very notion of being able to catch a glimpse of a celebrity during an event like this, these are the images that most don’t see. Image by image, this is 2013 NBA All Star Weekend from my perspective.

Houston rapper, Trae Tha Truth, plays with his son, Houston, outside of the Air Jordan pop-up shop at The Galleria in Houston. After an appearance at one of the mall’s stores, Trae took Houston to the store to buy him a pair of new shoes for behaving.

Local Houston rapper, DoubleBe, shows off his grill, backstage, at Fitzgerald’s before an All Star weekend showcase.

Another Houston artist, Kab Tha Don, shows off his own grill, backstage, at the same show.

Kab’s grill was too interesting not to get a close up.

Doughbeezy, takes a break backstage, prior to taking the stage at Fitzgerald’s.

Trae cheeses it up for the cameras prior to taking part in a local Habitat for Humanity build in Harrel Park.

Trae helps erect part of the wall framing at the Habitat for Humanity site.

Trae takes a break to do an interview with MTV.

New York artist, Jadakiss, poses during a music video shoot for Future and Trae Tha Truth in Houston.

Jada listens to the song before filming his cameo.

Trae waits for filming to commence.

Between takes, the ladies relax on the floor under a cloud of billowing smoke.

Director Philly Flyboy captures Future’s verse during the video shoot.

Artists, Trae, Meek Mill and Future pose for the camera during the video shoot.

New York rap pioneer, Kurtis Walker aka Kurtis Blow, makes a club appearance at Rich’s late Friday night.

Trae makes another appearance at The Galleria mall and a mob of fans go crazy.

The mob of fans grew so thick that the mall’s security was forced to sequester Trae and Memphis artist, Yo Gotti, in the Versace store.

The store held the artists in and the fans out. Security and police watch the entrance.

Onlookers crowded the store entrance in hopes of getting to see a celebrity.

Deciding to brave the growing crowd, Trae readies his entourage to move.

Trae  et al move swiftly through the crowd of people only occasionally stopping to snap a quick photo with fans.

Trae runs into Houston rapper, Paul Wall, sharing a laugh before moving on.

After the mall, the crew heads to Club Nox to meet up with Houston artist, Bun B.

After Nox, the crew moves on to Stereo Live where they run into Trey Songz leaving the club.

Waka Flocka greets Spank D, a member of Trae’s entourage, on stage at Stereo Live. Also on stage are Trae, Atlanta rapper, T.I., Meek Mill, and Nelly.

Sunday began on the set of another shoot. This time it was for UK rapper, Dizzie Rascal. Trae and Bun B are both featured on the track as well. Here Trae performs his verse for the camera.

Trae takes a breather between takes on the set of the Dizzie Rascal video shoot.

LA artist, Compton Menace, who is working on an album in a nearby studio, takes a break to help me test out a lighting setup.

Shelves of DJ Screw cds line the backroom at Screwed Up Records and Tapes, a store on Fuqua in Houston, devoted to the music of the late DJ Screw. The location was used for a scene in one of the several videos shot on Sunday.

Homies at yet another video shoot.

Atlanta rapper, T.I. performs his verse for the video cameras during a video shoot at a local studio.

A crowd gathers around the set as T.I. performs for the cameras.

A portrait of T.I. with a Rockets hat on following the video shoot.

ALL STAR WEEKEND (FEBRUARY 2013) – Images by Todd Spoth

One of my favorite portraits from 2012. Heather on the beach. In camera double exposure.

2012. Another year gone. Time flies. I think I say that every year. I post this a year to the day after posting my 2011 “Best of”. Hopefully my 2012 in images surpasses the years passed.

As always the images (95 total this year) are comprised of my commercial and editorial work with some personal stuff mixed in, and are showcased in chronological order. Lots of hip hop, lots of pretty pictures of pretty places, a few businessmen and a silhouette of The President. As I mentioned in my previous post, I thankfully was able to continue my traveling streak in 2012 so look for images from Japan and Germany amongst the group.

I finally got to photograph President Obama in 2012.

2012 was also what we call an “upgrade year”, which means that I upgraded my cameras. I was excited to grab a few of the first Canon 5D mark III cameras that came out and have loved them ever since. The image below is from one of my first shoots with the camera. The wonderful work of art is the fruition of me discovering that the new camera body disliked a certain brand of memory card. I haven’t been able to accurately replicate the beautiful image corruption since.

When I found out that my new Canon 5D mark III camera didn’t like one of my CF cards.

As in years past, I provide two ways to view the images. The first is an automatic slide show of the images in chronological order set to an instrumental version of Trae & Z-Ro’s “In My City” track. Both Trae and Ro are featured in the slide show as well and for those outside the loop, the city they are referring to is Houston. The second method of viewing is the usual Photoshelter slide show. Clicking on an image in the Photoshelter slide show will take you to my Photoshelter archive where you can buy prints if you are so inclined.

Here are the links to several previous years’ “Best of” posts. Check them out and let me know what you think.

2009 | 2010 | 2011

BEST OF 2012 – Images by Todd Spoth

The Bavarian Alps as seen from the warm confines of a Deutsche Bahn train.

As I write this it is the second day of 2013. It’s hard to believe its another year. Time flies? The idea of time stays the same, it’s our perception of time that changes. Anticipation, both good and bad, can make you perceive time as “flying by” or “taking forever”. Not sure where I was headed with that. Happy 2013!

Maybe the above stream of consciousness should be reserved for my upcoming “Best of 2012″ annual year-end wrap up post, but either way 2012 was…2012. I don’t know that it was overwhelmingly good or overwhelmingly bad, but I am thankful that I was able to extend my streak of “visiting a foreign country at least once a year”.

I am thankful to be in a profession and position to be able to travel, explore and experience life beyond my city, my state and my country. Granted Texas is large, but I meet way too many people here that have never traveled outside the state let alone the country. People need to get out more. I am self-employed, but I believe that traditionally, US companies, dole out a lot less vacation days than the rest of the world. Traveling to a new place and taking in the culture can also be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. You don’t have to spend your life savings on one weekend getaway. Be creative. There are many ways to see the world and not spend more than a few hundred bucks. I’m sure there are ways to see the world AND get paid too. *wink*

So I had a week in Munich, Germany, or München as the Germans refer to it as. I left on December 16th, which happened to be my birthday. My birthday dinner courtesy of United Airlines was less than stellar, trust me, but my little sister, Alex Vickery, a budding music writer and journalist, make the trip much more pleasant.

Since Munich is 7 hours ahead, my truncated birthday celebration was spent trying to sleep in the most uncomfortable position ever. Exciting.

It was morning in Munich when we arrived. We had to try and stay up to avoid jet lag. I think we succeeded.

In 2010 I visited Amsterdam and northern Germany for work (click here for that blog entry). This time it was Munich, the heart of the Bavarian state in far southern Germany. It’s an absolutely beautiful city with tons to do and see. We had designs on day trips to Vienna or Prague, but we decided in the effort of time that we would try and come back for those and focus on Munich and the surrounding area.

As with any real foreign city, the culture, the history, the beauty and the existence of actual mass transit were amazing. I think everyone starts to take for granted the place where they live after a certain period, but I was certainly and instantly jealous of their plentiful architecture (both classic and modern) and their ability to hop on a subway train and get to any part of the city within minutes. Whats even more exciting is that each of the stations are basically underground worlds full of shops and restaurants and bakeries that are unseen from the street level. Sure some are a little less pleasant than others, but some are unique works of art in their own right. Subways are different in all cities, but it is worth noting that I did not feel unsafe at any time during my visit.

A view of the mostly-derserted subway platform at Westfriedhof station in Munich.

We visited during the heart of the Christmas market season so everywhere you turned there was a square filled with vendors pushing holiday-related crafts, local cuisine and their traditional hot wine concoction, glühwein.

PRO-TIP: Street fairs and markets are probably one of my favorite ways to sample local fare when on the road. Taking the time to find a restaurant and navigate the language barrier is oftentimes more of a hassle than perusing aisles of food stands, pointing, handing over money and eating. If you don’t like something, try again. You can usually walk around a fair or market and gauge whats good by seeing how many people are eating a particular item and you can see what you’re going to get BEFORE you commit. It’s also cheap! Win-win.

We ended up doing so much during our week-long stay that it would take forever to go in-depth about each bit. In the effort of time here’s a brief and semi-illustrated rundown of some of the things we got ourselves into, in no particular order:

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-Rode to the top of the New Town Hall in a nice elevator and enjoyed the awesome view, then almost immediately climbed up 300ft+ of rickety stairs to the top of the nearby St. Peter’s church. Got there at noon. Heard lots of bells.

-Visited Neuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for the castle in Sleeping Beauty) and took pictures inside (they told us not to)

-Brought back about 100lbs of German photo books that we discovered at several different local book stores.

-Successfully found a Martin Hanford “Where’s Waldo” in German to continue my collection of Waldo ephemera from different countries.

Early evidence of my Waldo fascination paired with my Waldo pickups from this year.

-Had an amazing crepe with Nutella and apples and some other things. It was awesome.

-Spent an hour on an abandoned ski run in Eibsee, Germany. We made snow angels and then attempted to sled down the hills without a sled. I wanted to fight wolves like in The Grey, but we didn’t have enough time.

My sister’s snow angel technique.

-Went to the Deutsches Museum and the Stadtmuseum and both were absolutely amazing. Both museums were cheap and light years more awesome than any museum in the states. Plus for the most part they were empty which is a plus.

-Stumbled upon a small and off-the-beaten-path toy museum that turned out to be AMAZING. It was housed in an old old building off the main plaza and if you definitely had to search for it. It was maybe $3US for entry. So cheap, so amazing, so creepy. Tons of dolls and robots and other toys dating back to the 1800′s.

Creepy dolls at the Spielzeugmuseum (toy museum)

-Got caught in a blizzard and inadvertently crossed over the Austrian border where we did what any normal people do in an Austrian blizzard…took funny pictures.

What else do you do in an Austrian blizzard? (Photo by Alex Vickery)

-Rode in a quite scary gondola ride from the highest point in Germany (Zugspitze) down to a small mountain village and picked up a worker that was just standing on a support tower along the way. (CAN YOU SAY SCARIEST JOB EVER?)

See that guy in the purple? He is nuts!

-Went to one of the most famous beer gardens in Munich. Tried the beer. Yuck. Tried the pretzels. Yum.

-Marveled at the general use of type, color, and design…everywhere! (DIDNT SEE PAPYRUS!)

-Ran around the famous Munich Olympic park. It was deserted.

-Legitimately felt like I was on THE Polar Express more than once.

-Stumbled into an odd block of concrete condos for students. They were all the same, but each was painted in a different theme. Salvador Dali Simpsons was my favorite.

-Generally froze pretty much most of the time.

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That list could seriously go on forever. Munich is such an awesome place to visit. Oddly enough I didn’t use my (German-made) Hasselblad once during the trip despite taking the entire outfit with me. It can get pretty heavy after several hours of carrying it along with my digital outfit. I can say that the Dakine Mission photo backpack that I purchased via Amazon for about $100 was awesome during the trip. I was on the hunt for a travel backpack for my photo gear and definitely found it with this one. Well worth the $100.

Oh and I titled this entry “Postcards from Bavaria” since (besides the silly fun photos) there are no portraits in any of my selects from the trip. Most are street snapshots or landscapes from our travels.

As always, check out the slide show of my favorites from the trip below and let me know what you think!

BAVARIA, GERMANY (DECEMBER 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

Sadat Thorr, guitarist for Valient Thorr rips a solo during his set. VT is always fun to photograph.

Austin is widely known as The Live Music Capitol of the World and I definitely would not disagree. Although I live in Houston, didn’t go to school there nor ever lived there, I frequent the city many times throughout the year for different shows and such. I have attended as a fan, performed in my own bands and photographed tons of events over the years. SXSW and ACL are their staples, but since 2006 Transmission Entertainment’s FunFunFunFest has taken off. I have attended and photographed the festival since back in 2009. That year I shot a video of old school hardcore heroes, Gorilla Biscuits, performing “New Direction”.

GORILLA BISCUITS – “New Direction” LIVE AT FUN FUN FUN FEST 09 IN AUSTIN, TEXAS from Todd Spoth on Vimeo.

SXSW is always SXSW, ACL is always geared towards the mainstream pop and indie acts, but where FunFunFun differs is that the festival organizers are all old punk/hardcore kids just like myself. This is why every single year there is a huge reunion from a seminal punk act like The Descendents, or Gorilla Biscuits or this year with Youth of Today. They could have stopped there, but the festival has grown because they provide such a diverse lineup. This year alone I got to experience, De La Soul, Run DMC, David Cross, Converge, Youth of Today, Danny Brown, et al.

Covering festivals is tough though. I always know so many people, so its easy to get in pure hangout mode instead of work mode. Last year I made several Hasselblad portraits that I really liked and only took a handful of photos with the digital kit, this year was the exact opposite. I shot tons of digital images and maybe 1 roll with the Hasselblad (that is being processed as I type). For someone as anal as me about clean lines and backgrounds, shooting a festival can be a real challenge. Even the larger stages with the better lighting can provide tough angles and obstacles to avoid. Untrained photographers will shoot the same images from the “pit” and nothing more. Seasoned photographers look for the best angle. I did my best as always and came up with 78 edited images that reflect my experience at FunFunFunFest 2012.

The images leaned to the hip-hop side, but there was a good mix between the rock (for lack of a better word) and hip hop. One of my favorite moments melded these two worlds, when A$AP Rocky, a recent rap sensation, stage dove into the crowd during his set. He totally caught everyone off-guard including myself and the lighting guys so it was dark, but I kinda liked how the image turned out. Rappers always try and look as hard as they can on stage, but you can clearly see A$AP smiling (or screaming in horror) in the photo. This would never happen at any of his regular shows, but at a festival this is possible. These are the kind of moments I look for at festivals; unique scenes that you might not normally see or that other photographers wont catch.

A$AP Rocky crowd surfing after diving off the stage during his set.

This year the festival ran over 3 days instead of the usual 2. I definitely felt fatigued during day 3, but when you book that many acts I guess its expected. I definitely look forward to what’s in store for the years to come and definitely look forward to making photos of whomever that is.

A party on-stage during Girl Talk to close out Saturday night.

I outline a few of my festival highlights and lowlights below, but quite possibly the best highlight ever was seeing my own little sister, backstage, as a proper member of the working media. As a big brother and total music nazi, I tried to instill and indoctrinate my sister with good music for years. She is now a sophomore at the University of Texas and not only writes for several outlets and magazines, but is passionate about music and loves live music just like her brother. She has attended recent music festivals and events as a volunteer, but this event was the first where we were both credentialed media and working. She even had her big girl camera and was taking photos! Haha. She did her own thing and so did I, but we crossed paths, kicked it, and had a blast. I am proud of her. Check her out HERE!

iPhone snap of my little sister, Alex, and I hanging out on day 3 of the fest. Vintage Rockets tee + Bill Miller cup is a good look.

HELL YES:

-Seeing one of my favorite bands of all time, Braid, who broke up in 1999, perform TWICE in less than 12 hours.

-Seeing Dave Knudson of Minus the Bear do his crazy tapping riffs TWICE in one day.

-Experiencing Ryan Gosling fever for another year.

-Sitting on-stage about a foot from Converge as they ripped through their set. (also sitting a foot away from La Dispute and about 10 other bands as well)

-Seeing Youth of Today perform. They originally broke up when I was 8 years old. (that was a long time ago!)

-The girl that passes out free ice cream backstage

-Endless supply of Red Bull. (Sorry heart)

-Watching The Promise Ring at sunset.

-Run DMC reunion (obviously) but also DMC performing their hits with a full band on a smaller stage the next day.

-Finding a rad/close parking spot all three days

-Seeing David Liebe Hart (of Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show) give a crew of homeless Austin crust punks his leftover Hooters on a side street near the fest. (KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD!)

-Being backstage with Bun B and having Manny Fresh tap me on the shoulder and ask for me to take his photo with his camera. (Yessir!)

-Seeing your sister backstage as a real, live, working member of the media. (tear)

-Sleeping in + Bill Miller to start off day 3.

HELL NAH:

-Boxed water?! (I don’t like Austin THAT weird)

-No media dining.

-Having to walk really far between stages.

-No place to shoot or watch the Yellow Stage performances for media/photogs.

-Realistic, animated spider graphics on the HUGE screens during Girl Talk. Ew. (see photo) 

-De La Soul making photographers wave their hands and put down their cameras.

-Pulling into THE best parking spot on day 1 and realizing you forgot something. (But that was in your bag the whole time)

-Breaking down on the way home.

FUNFUNFUN FEST (NOVEMBER 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

The always-animated Spank D of ABN snarls for the camera during the video shoot.

Those of you that know me, know that I photograph a ton of hip-hop and rap related events here in my hometown of Houston. We are known for our rich culture of hip-hop and rap, so much so that my alma-mater, the University of Houston recently put on a symposium devoted to Houston rap to pair with their exhibit of Houston-related hip-hop ephemera in the university’s library. This past Saturday was a 16-hour day filled with nothing but hip-hop related events.

I started the day off around 11am at the annual Los Magnificos car show at Reliant Arena. Local artist, Doughbeezy and his manager Al, whom I graduated high school with, hooked me up with a backstage wristband for the day. I used to frequent these huge car shows years back and there were always entertainers, but this one, backed by a local radio station, has definitely grown into a huge concert inside of a car show. The fairly impressive lineup of hip-hop artists ranged from old school to new school. I was able to see Whodini perform their 1984 hits, “Friends” and “Freaks Come Out At Night” on the same stage as newer stars such as Tyga, J-Cole, and Future. Da Brat, Naughty by Nature, Chubb Rock and local favorites, Slim Thug, Z-Ro, Propain, and Doughbeezy performed as well.

Although I had a blast watching the performances, I was frustrated at the show’s setup. Since the venue was essentially a huge/long building, the sound was terrible. Of course the stages had professional sound, but the acoustics of the building were so terrible that after several hours I had a huge headache from all the excess reverberation and echoing. Not only that, but there was limited stage access or front of stage access for photographers, so instead of making images per usual I just sat back and enjoyed the show.

After regrouping at home for a bit, I hit the streets once again for a private music video shoot for “Long Live The Pimp” by Epic Recording artist and Atlanta native, Future. The song, off his recent release, Pluto, features Grand Hustle artist from Houston, Trae Tha Truth and pays homage to the late Pimp C of UGK. I didn’t get a lot of details prior to the shoot; there were no pre-production meetings and no call sheet. I got a text from friend and collaborator, Steven “Philly” Phillip, who was directing the video. Philly directs tons of music videos in the hip-hop industry and was flying in from Milwaukee for a few hours just to do this video. I agreed to meet him at a downtown address at 10pm.

When I got downtown I noticed the location was a parking garage. After being waived up and driving to the top, instead of seeing 1 car with Trae and Philly inside I saw what is the Houston-equivalent of a scene from The Fast and The Furious, a slab line. Custom cars is just another cog in the hip-hop culture machine of Houston. It’s a distinct set of things that makes Houston cars stand out and they are all things better experienced than understood. The top level of the garage was packed with 84′s, swangaz, elbows, neon, bass, and everything else needed to shoot a music video. They were ready.

Even though these artists are fairly well known, (Future has half a million Twitter followers alone) there are real record labels involved and the resulting videos get millions of hits on YouTube, the production is usually very grass-roots. Within a matter of hours dozens of the city’s top cars are organized, the director flies in from halfway across the country with nothing but a backpack, I show up with my own gear, another friend of a friend who owns a studio shows up with some lights to use. There are no focus pullers, no trailers for the “stars”, no craft services and no PA’s holding walkie-talkies, but the end product is usually more impressive than videos with 100x the budget shot 10 years ago.

Sure there are still music videos with huge budgets, actors, and permits, but there are also TONS of music videos being shot on literally no budget and still look amazing too. Years ago artists would shoot maybe 1 or 2 videos for their album’s singles. Nowadays artists will do a lot more videos in a short amount of time. It’s an interesting paradox; social media, YouTube, the dissemination and sharing of the content. It’s how a lot of artists get noticed, get their names out there and get seen. Whether we are better off with lots of lower budget productions or fewer high production features, who knows.

Once again, I digress.

When we arrived on the crowded parking garage, Philly got to work setting up lights for the video shoot and I took some time to set up a simple one-light still photo set that I kept off in a corner of the roof of the garage. 1 Profoto 7b with a Profoto medium box mounted was all I needed. I wanted to do some informal portraits of the artists in between takes. I work with Trae pretty closely, but had never worked with Future. I had no idea what I would get, if anything, but I wanted to be ready.

Trae takes a break on a car in-between takes.

After setting up stuff, I walked back over to the main video set. Philly was about ready to start shooting. I play the role as “associate producer” or similar; help him with shots, angles, gear, lighting, etc. While he captures video of the performance scenes, I snap behind the scenes stills. I also took several of the different cars setting up. Some of the displays of neon were pretty interesting. The above is an image I liked of Trae taking a break before shooting his solo performance scene.

After Future was finished shooting his scenes I was able to get him alone for a few frames at my setup. Luckily Lil Corey, Pimp C’s son, came over and helped me test my lights so they were nailed by the time Future came over. Future was definitely nice and into it, but since he was feeling a bit under the weather I only got a few minutes in. Below are a few of my favorites from my short time with him.

A triptych of portraits I made during my 5 minutes with Future.

After the main scenes were shot with Trae, Future and the cars Philly moved on to cameos. Cameos are a huge part of rap videos. Your homies get screen time, what’s better than that? Members of both artist’s camps including Slim Thug and Z-Ro made appearances. Although I don’t think she had an on-screen cameo, I was glad to finally meet Julia Beverly of Ozone Magazine fame.

As the cars were starting to file out and the video lights were being struck, Spank D, one of Trae’s good friends and an artist in his own right, came over and wanted to shoot some photos with Spodee, a fairly new artist who signed to Grand Hustle records. I’ve photographed Spank several times before and he is always hilariously animated so I obliged, no question. I had just met Spodee, but within seconds of them in front of the camera I knew why they were friends. They were hilarious, instantly busting into different poses and having a great time. I made several of Spodee solo, including several where he insisted on wearing my glasses. I’m pretty proud of the portrait I made while blind! During the editing process I allowed myself to get a little creative in Photoshop with one of his frames. I used to get creative and not save the more out-there edits, but I’m making a point of doing that now. Even if some are a little TOO crazy and will never see the light of day, I like saving them just because. Below is a collage of some of the edits I saved.

Sometimes I like to get a little extra creative in Photoshop. Spodee / Grand Hustle.

After the session with Spank and Spodee, Trae, Philly and I left downtown and shot a few more scenes with just Trae. After those, Philly and I filmed some downtown b-roll before calling it a night. I drove Philly to the airport at around 4am. He was getting ready to fly back to Milwaukee after only 6 or so hours in Houston and I was wrapping up an extra-long day.

The hip-hop game in Houston doesn’t sleep, but I definitely needed to.

If you would like to purchase a print or license any of the images included in this post, please email me at info@toddspoth.com. Stay tuned to my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds for an update on the music video. I’m @toddspoth on all networks. Also, let me know what you think and share with friends!

TRAE THA TRUTH & FUTURE (NOVEMBER 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

Beautiful fall foliage in Letchworth State Park.

A few months ago my dad mentioned to me that he was planning a trip to Buffalo, New York sometime in October. Although my dad now lives just a few minutes down the highway from me, he, like many current Houstonians, migrated here for work years ago. My dad grew up in Kenmore, New York, a small suburb between Buffalo and Niagara Falls in Western New York. My dad’s entire side of the family is from that area and for the most part, still reside there. My dad visits every few years or so to check up on my aging grandmother, his friends, and the rest of the family, however, due to my own hectic and oft-times unpredictable schedule, I have not been able to visit in nearly a decade.  I had not seen some of my other relatives in New York in much more than that. For shame.

This year my dad was planning on flying (literally) solo, so while I helped him search for airfare deals online, I decided that I needed to bite the bullet, take the time off, and visit my family. A few coupon codes and Southwest web deals later, we were set.

I travel a fair amount for work and pleasure. When I’m researching a locale I always have a list of things I would like to see and photograph, however this was the first trip where I really had no expectations of what I wanted to do or photograph. Although I had not been in some time, I did remember a lot about the area and really just wanted to spend some quality time with my grandmother, the rest of my relatives that I never get to see and my dad as well. Even though I am always “connected”, having the 10 days or so of not working and stressing out was definitely worth it.

The first thing I had to remind people back home was that I was NOT in New York City. New York State is a big place (well, small compared to Texas) that is primarily farm land. One tweet about heading to New York and all my Manhattan and Brooklyn friends are reaching out to meet up. I was so far away from anything resembling a city on this trip than I have been in a long time. (see above photo)

Several days of this trip were spent at my grandmothers house in Kenmore. The same house she has lived in since 1947. My dad was a baby in this same house. In 1947, my grandma, a then-newlywed, could look in all directions from her lawn and see vast, expansive, nothingness. Now there is a bustling suburb. She grew up with her many siblings in a house not even a mile from this house. A gas station sits where that house once stood. This one still going strong, needs constant upkeep. My dad and I help paint and install a new front door for her; amongst other things.

If you’ve ever talked to me about family, or archiving or memories, you’ve probably heard me run on for hours just like I probably am or will here, but it was absolutely mind-blowing to me that I have lived in close to 20 different houses, attended 10 different schools and my father is sitting in the same place where his crib once stood in the mid-1950′s, recalling events like they just happened.

I guess it boils down to; some people move around a lot and some don’t. I occasionally hear a friend talk about something their parents found in their attic from way back; a toy, a photo, a memory. The fact that I moved and lived in several different places, means that my belongings, my things (for lack of a better word) were combed through, siphoned, and filtered off so much that I cling to the few things I can identify with for dear life. Besides a few small items here and there, I can’t walk into my mom’s house and see the same coffee table that my sister and I almost broke when she was 1 or the same nightstand that was in my room as a child. Maybe it’s absurd to think about things in this way, but its definitely something interesting to me. I feel this way about family photos and photos in general, given my profession, but I also feel this way about objects and other memory-producing ephemera as well.

Sometimes I look back at a set of old photos and remember events and details about when the photo was taken. Sometimes I wonder if I only remember certain things in the past BECAUSE of the existence of a photo or object from the event. If I had 20 toys as a kid and there are photos with 4 of those 20 toys, after years and years of looking at those photos, my memories of my childhood toys are focused around those 4 photographed toys. This notion paired with my obvious love of photography drives me to not only search for real moments as an artist, but also to document everything around me. Sometimes I fear that if I don’t photograph something, I might forget it. I don’t want to forget, so I shoot everything. The question is: Is it a blessing or a curse?

Several photographs of my grandfather, Paul Spoth. He was a US Navy Seabee.

I digress. After several days of helping grandma around the house, my grandmother told me she was going to donate some old photos to the town’s historical society. I immediately piped up and asked, “WHAT PHOTOS?!” She had a box of photos of her mother, my great-grandmother, and lots of various family photographs that she figured no one wanted. She said she had asked several of her sisters about them, and no one else wanted them. “They all have too many pictures,” she said.

These are our history. These black and white images from the early years of the 20th century document our family’s life. Why am I the only one who thinks that is important? I want to be able to show these to my eventual children. I wanted them all. They belong to us and not some historical society. My favorite image (below) was is an original 8×10 mounted to a piece of cardboard. It is a group portrait of my great grandmothers school (yes school, not the class, the whole school) from 1914. The photo is about a year or so shy of being 100 years old. All of the students names are carefully labeled in pen on the back of the mount. I instantly fell in love with the photograph and the others that came with it.

School group portrait of my great grandmother, Margaret Heimiller, from St. Paul’s School in Kenmore, NY from 1914.

In between odd jobs at grandma’s house, we met up with several of my dad’s high school friends. Somewhere in there I realized that although decades apart, my dad and I had very similar high school experiences. I have lots of friends that look back on their high school selves and loath what they remember about the time. My dad and I both had a great time in high school and have a core of really amazing friends that we both still keep in touch with today. He has several friends that we met up with that I remember meeting as a child. They are pretty much like family to him, therefore they are like family to me. On a not-so-philosophical note, one of my dad’s good friends who also graduated high school with him, admitted to listening to Drake, Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga via Pandora on his iPhone. My dad can barely operate his antiquated phone, let alone a computer, email, the Internet, et al. It was very interesting to see this group of guys that all grew up together at various places in life; so different, yet so similar. I wonder how my friends and I will be 3o years from now.

Visiting old friends went hand in hand with experiencing some of the best food joints Western New York has to offer. Obviously a stop was made to Duff’s which is famous for their Buffalo wings, but my favorite area staple are the subs. In Texas we have Subway, Quiznos and the like, but the mom and pop franchises in New York like John and Mary’s and DiPaulo’s make THE best subs that I have ever had. They are seemingly so simple, but the bread is what makes them. I must have had 4 or 5 salami subs during my short visit. Other noteworthy stops included a lemon ice from Anderson’s, a beef on weck from several spots, a few foot longs from Ted’s and an amazing pizza from Bocce Club. The food is so good that my dad, who grew up on some of the above staples, filled his carry on with about 140 frozen Sahlen’s hotdogs and 8 jars of Weber’s famous horseradish mustard, because frankly, you can’t get them elsewhere.

My dad and I also made a stop at Spoth’s Farm Market, which is a local produce shop owned by my grandfather’s cousins. There was a photo of my grandfather taken in 1938 on the wall. They may not have been immediate family, but it was just crazy for me to be in the proximity of family and to see my name on the sign out front. There were jars and cans and products with “Spoth” on them. Wild. Just being around my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandmother the whole time was awesome for me. Back home in Houston I have my dad and thats about it for the Spoth’s. We are a rare breed. My family and the cousins and their cousins and all the rest of the Spoths are all over Western New York. It was surreal.

I was like a kid in a candy store with all of the fall color around me in Old Forge, NY.

After a recommendation from a friend, my dad and I drove out to Letchworth State Park to enjoy the fall foliage which was close to peak. We hiked up and down to different vistas and marveled at the leaves, the waterfalls and the beautiful scenery. My dad recounted his mischievous high school memories of the park. I took photos. It was amazing.

As if that wasn’t enough, my aunt and uncle took my dad and I to their cabin in Old Forge, NY in the Adirondack mountains. They bought the place since 89 and have made the 4 hour trek to upstate New York hundreds of times since. They boat and swim in the several lakes during the summer and ride their snowmobiles across the lakes during the winter. It had been years since I had been to the cabin. It was in the 30′s or 40′s I believe. We had the fireplace on non-stop and spent the weekend exploring, hiking, climbing and eating. My aunt replicated Thanksgiving in honor of our presence, complete with homemade pies and dishes using fresh veggies from her own garden. My grandfather was a farmer. It’s in our blood. Some of the best fresh produce can be found in these parts.

On Columbus Day, after our return from Old Forge, I decided to take a solo trip across the border, into Canada, and explore for the day. I would have liked to take my dad, but since he was without a passport, I had to go it alone. The rainbow bridge across to Niagara Falls, Ontario is about 15 minutes from my grandmother’s house in Kenmore. I explored on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, saw the craziness of Clifton Hill, and then ventured north to Niagara On The Lake. I have been to Niagara Falls numerous times as a kid, but it never gets old. Niagara On The Lake and the drive up River Road was amazing. NOTL is probably one of the neatest little towns ever, with shops and restaurants and flowers and beautiful weather. There was a Starbucks, but it was in a building from the 1800′s. I went all the way to Lake Ontario and looked out across the blue abyss. I squinted and saw Toronto on the other side. It was an awesome day.

Hasselblad diptych of my grandmother clutching a bouquet of weeds paired with the place my dad attended boy scouts as a kid.

The rest of the days we spent with family, with grandma and taking it easy. I used my Hasselblad to make some simple portraits and still lifes of different locations around town that my dad drove me by. In the above diptych I had my grandma pose while she was weeding a section of her flower garden. “This is my bouquet.” she said. My grandma looks a lot like the cartoon, Maxine. The image on the right is of the building my dad went to Sunday School and Boy Scouts in.

All my expectations of spending time with family were fully realized. I saw more waterfalls than I can count, ran through piles of orange leaves like I was 8, and got to wear my winter jacket for a whole week straight! I would probably curse everything after a few months of their debilitating snow, but Western New York in early October is beautiful. Everything is so close and the “traffic” is almost laughable compared to Houston. It’s surprising that I made it back at all. Until next time NY.

Check out both slide shows below to see my digital images as well as my Hasselblad frames and let me know what you think!

WESTERN NEW YORK 8×12 (OCTOBER 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

WESTERN NEW YORK 6×6 (OCTOBER 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

One of my favorite images from the studio session was this dramatic black and white frame.

Back in February I was introduced to Barrett, a local Houston rapper who had been making a name for himself with several successful mixtapes. He was gearing up for the release of his full-length LP Perseverance and wanted to get some photos done for the CD cover and layout. The album features songs with local artists such as Lil’ Flip, Magno, Sammy Veal, et al so needless to say I was excited to work on the project.

I work with a lot of artists and rappers and one thing I like to do is meet with them prior to the actual shoot and do some additional research on my end, including checking out their music, looking at their previous photos, and what they have done in the past. After meeting Barrett for the first time, it was clear that he definitely knew what he wanted and wanted to do what it took to get there. Unlike a lot of local rap artists, Barrett received formal training in the music business from Full Sail University after serving in the US Marine Corps in Iraq, but don’t let that fool you, he still has a genuine and fresh street flavor and the chops to back it up.

We decided to start with a studio session to get some basic and clean studio lit images that we could build the layout around. I really liked his look from the start. He is very tall, strong facial structure and muscular. We ended up using the beautiful live recording room at Big Door studios to set up in. I quickly ran through several lighting setups. I usually set up several lights and then turn off certain lights and reposition throughout the shoot to give the client a variety of looks. The image above is one of my favorites of the studio session and coincidentally one of the most simple setups. Its all about his stare.

Since the live room at Big Door has beautiful wood flooring as well as soothing turquoise walls, I decided to loose the backdrop and shoot a bit wider, incorporating some simple props. The diptych below showcases the final edited album cover on the left and the original image on the right. The black and white edit was done recently, but you get the idea.

The final edited album cover and the original cover image in black and white.

About a week later we headed out for the location portion of the shoot. We really didn’t have a predestined location in mind, instead we drove around and made it work. Armed with a Profoto 7B, a few heads and a variety of modifiers, we were ready for some urban explore-shooting.

I spotted an abandoned pathway that looked like it lead to an decommissioned factory of some sort that we decided to venture down. The image below is what the pathway looked like from the street. After passing a lot of sketchy objects we finally came across a rusted and decrepit metal building that looked like it was a fabrication yard or industrial shop. It was clearly abandoned, clearly used for graffiti and for the homeless although we did not come across another soul save for a pack of rabid dogs. We shot several different locations around the shop and left without issue.

We were welcomed to our first location with abandoned children’s toys and syringes.

We photographed at several other locations including some overpasses with good views of Houston’s skyline, but I ultimately focused on Barrett and made images that showcased HIM. Friend and frequent collaborator, Anthony Oyedeji of Full Fledge Entertainment and I were (as usual) on the same page. There are too many hip-hop & rap albums that STILL focus on being flashy and end up being way too busy to get the point across. Anthony and I both wanted to showcase Barrett as an artist; with clean, strong imagery and simple design.

After the shoots, the images were well received by Barrett and Anthony and I had somewhat forgotten about the album until a few weeks ago when I saw that Barrett had released the album and was having a release party. I made it a point to meet up with him and purchase a few copies for the cause. I had seen the cover design online, but had not seen the entire layout and booklet yet. I was blown away. Anthony outdid himself yet again with the design. The CD version of the album featured a double disk tray with a regular version of the music plus a chopped and screwed version (duh, this IS Houston) as well as a tri fold booklet with images on both sides. In total 8 images were used, 1 full bleed image per panel with the design being super minimal and complimentary to the photos.

The final layout of the album with images by Todd Spoth and design by Anthony Oyedeji.

It’s one thing to be happy with the edited images from a shoot, but it makes it THAT much more special when the design of the finished product makes the images sing. This is probably one of my favorite “final products” of late and I am proud to have worked on it with Barrett and Anthony. I can’t wait to work with them both again soon.

Looks even better in person. Look Mom, I even got mentioned in the “Thank You” section!

Shout out to Mike BBQ of Big Door Studios for letting us use his beautiful live room to shoot in. If you are a musician and need to lay down some tracks, look him up! http://bigdoorstudios.com

If you are in need of videos, graphics, design, or a good time, hit up Anthony Oyedeji at anthony@fullfledgeent.com (Be sure and tell him that Todd Spoth sent ya.)

Meanwhile check out the several more of the selects from both shoots in the slide show below as well as one of Barrett’s music videos directed by Anthony. If you dig the jams, click HERE to purchase Perseverance on iTunes.

Please let me know what you think, and if you dig the photos, please share this with a friend or RT on Twitter @toddspoth!

BARRETT HUSTLE (FEBRUARY 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

Barrett – What’s Your Motivation from Barrett Hustle on Vimeo.

Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips perform at Summerfest 2012.

Free Press Summerfest, year 4. I have successfully photographed every year and every year seen not only the festival grow in terms of the scope of performers and attendance, but my own personal vision grow with it.

The year one headliners were Of Montreal and Explosions in the Sky, year two it was The Flaming Lips, last year it was Weezer and Ween and this year Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, Pretty Lights and Afrojack co-headlined. There is no doubt that this year’s festival was the largest with an estimated 92K+ through the gates which is way up from an estimated 60K in 2011.

Is it just me or are we smack-dab in the middle of a festival renaissance?  Traveling festivals like The Van’s Warped Tour and Ozzfest have existed for a decade or two, but there seem to be new festivals popping up all over the place…and they are growing too!

I, for one, love it. Sure (especially in Houston) festivals can be long, hot, sweaty, tiring, and you’re guaranteed to wake up with a sun-burn come Monday, but given my love of photographing artists and music, where else can I photograph a live performance with a gorgeous blue sky and the skyline of my city as my backdrop? For photographers that cover as many entertainment-related events as I do, we whole-heartedly welcome the opportunity to shoot at ISO 200 and work with something other than a bland, dark, stage. I know others that are rather pessimistic at the thought, but when it comes to festivals, sign me up.

This year’s Summerfest was particularly exciting due to the fact that not only was I photographing the festival like I had in years past, but my own band, Square and Compass had been selected to play the festival. Needless to say, preparation was definitely key to being able to manage performing in a band as well as bringing home quality images. That being said, my usually kit for photographing a normal evening live performance at a club or venue is one body and one, maybe  two, lenses. I try to keep my shoulder bag pretty light and unassuming so a Canon 5D mark III sans grip with a Canon 35mm 1.4L and maybe the Canon 24-105mm f4L is about all I carry. I plan on being at festivals for 12+ hours, in the heat, and not only photographing live music at different hours of the day, but lots of feature stuff as well.

In the weeks leading up to the festival I received several questions from my fellow photographers on how to prepare to photograph a music festival. On a whim, the day before the festival I decided to put together a short behind-the-scenes gear preparation video explaining a bit on what I take and why I take it with my trusty iPhone 4s. Its nothing special since I was short on time and it was shot with a cell phone, so don’t expect much, but if you’re at all interested, check it out below.

Music festival photo gear prep with Houston commercial photographer Todd Spoth from Todd Spoth on Vimeo.

SATURDAY, DAY 1: Day 1 started pretty early at around 9:30am. Luckily this year I had the good fortune of being able to have an assistant with me at all times. My good friend Chris Lue who has accompanied me on many live music adventures over the last several years picked me up and we headed downtown. Getting to the festival grounds early meant up close parking which was a big plus. After getting our badges the first order of business is to locate and set up shop in the media tent. Since I was having to transmit images live on a deadline that means that I had to make sure my laptop would have a safe place to live during the day and wifi was available. Even though I am for the most part familiar with the general layout of Summerfest, I like to walk around the entire festival grounds early on the first day to make sure I know where the different stages are located. Another thing I like to do is chat up the security guards at each stage early in the day when its slow and they are just standing around. If you sneak a Red Bull from the artists’ tent and give them to the security at the main stages, you’ll be golden for the entire fest, regardless of what your pass says. I pretty much had the best access out of anyone, but I like to at least attempt to make that connection early in the day, since I know that later on when the headliners are slotted to perform and I’m running from stage to stage trying to photograph everything I can, that connection just might save my ass.

The first actual performance I photographed was local outfit The Sideshow Tramps on the main stage, from there we bounced around before catching an awesome set of Morris Day and The Time, followed up by Z-Ro and Major Lazer on the same stage. One of the acts I was really excited to see was Snoop Dogg, however his stage manager proceeded to boot nearly everyone from the stage and refused to let any photographers or videographers near his set. We managed to make it up to the VIP area which overhang each side of the stage, but the stage view was mostly obstructed by scaffolding. We still managed to catch a few songs then bolted for the other main stage to prepare for The Flaming Lips.

Over at the smaller main stage, we were fortunate enough to catch the second half of Erykah Badu’s set which to our sadness did NOT feature “Tyrone”. After her set the preparation started for The Flaming Lips. Now I knew going into it that I had a lot of pressure to top my Flaming Lips image from two years back, and although Im not entirely sure that I topped it, I think I came fairly close. I’m admittedly not the biggest Lips fan, but shooting them live in 2010 was one of the funnest live performances to attend AND shoot and since photography at a Lips live show is like shooting fish in a barrel it was a must for me. After what seemed like an extra hour of delay, the band busted into a short set of their own jams before barreling head first into Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of The Moon which they played in its entirety. After the first three songs I moved from the front of the stage, onstage just to the right of the guitarists which was the absolute best seat in the house. I was in-between Erykah Badu with a foil cape on, jumping up and down the entire time and a grown man in a felt lion costume losing his mind. It was a party the entire time. I LOVE the Dark Side of The Moon record so to see it live like that was amazing. Throw in a ton of balloons, endless confetti, and 5 huge balloons filled with cash money (courtesy of Snoop Dogg) made it unbelievable. I happened to do a portrait of The Flaming Lips front man, Wayne Coyne backstage earlier in the day and chatted him up a bit. He is one of the nicest guys and one of the most captivating front men I have ever seen, and I have seen a ton. How was day 2 going to top this?!

SUNDAY, DAY 2: Everyone on day 2 is a little bit slower, a little bit more tired and always show up a bit later, which is why I try and get there fairly early to catch the early acts of day 2. My #1 goal of day 2 was to get their early, get good parking once again and try and get several feature options to send off to my client before things got hectic later in the day. We started off walking the festival grounds and found quite a few nice features prior to stumbling on Austin’s Suite 709 on a side stage shortly after noon. I was walking by and their sound stopped me dead in my tracks. These guys were a little funk, a little Motown and a little rock and roll and I fell in love with their sound instantly. I made some images of them while I enjoyed the jams and they were nice enough to give me a few advanced copies of their forthcoming album Night & Day and boy is it awesome. After their set we headed over to see local favorites, Wild Moccasins on the same stage where The Flaming Lips played hours prior. The ground was still littered with confetti which was a welcomed sight as the Moccasins tore into their set of bubbly indie pop. I love those kids. Soon thereafter, we were in the media tent tearing through the frames I had just shot, editing and transmitting to the client. The initial plan was successful as I had just enough time to change and head over to the stage where I was performing before Square and Compass took the stage. Our own set went off without a hitch. It was definitely hot, but we had an awesome crowd and had a blast. Even though I was unable to operate a camera while playing guitar, I was able to setup (2) GoPro Hero2 HD cameras on stage to capture video of the set.

I allowed myself just enough time to change in the middle of the street, grab some water before we regrouped and headed back to the media tent to prepare for the second half of the day. Before Willie’s set I stopped by the paint slide which was a blast to photograph last year. Willie Nelson’s set was fun to photograph. There were too many Texas flags to count which is more than appropriate. Their plot took up less than half of the main stage and seemed so intimate with small combo amps, a grand piano and several decorative rugs underneath the bands’ feet. I guess that’s the way Willie likes it, which is fine by me.

After Willie we headed up to photograph a bit of our good friends’ Touche Amore’s set and then headed over to the smaller main stage to gear up for The Descendents. This was the second time to see them in the past two years which is amazing since they are incredible live. “Bikeage” is a personal favorite, so hearing that from the stage was pretty magical. Primus was up next. We caught a couple of songs of their set then worked our way back to the main stage to set up for Pretty Lights the headliner for day 2.

I really didn’t know exactly what to expect with Pretty Lights. I gathered that I had better plan to photograph the set since it would most likely have pretty lights and boy was that an understatement. Apparently the musical portion is a singular DJ that plays everything from glitch-hop to dub step from an on-stage platform surrounded by one of THE most insane lighting setups I have seen live. The music started off decent, with some hip-hop, but got progressively worse as the set progressed, however I was so entranced by the lights and focused on photographing them that I really wasn’t paying too much attention. For one thing, shooting with auto-exposure is a crap-shoot in a situation like this since your camera’s meter is going berserk with a lighting setup like that. Either way I was able to make some awesome frames from their set. After a handful of songs I moved back onto the hill and perched on top of a VERY unstable table for a few songs before we slipped out the back gate and were on the freeway home before the flood of people were able to block our path.

A hill full of people watches Sunday headliner, Pretty Lights, perform.

Even though I had transmitted early in the day I still had to transmit a batch from the headliners shortly after so getting out of there and avoiding the crowds were a must. If you’re shooting a festival either plan on staying for the long-haul and waiting for the majority of the crowd to disperse after the headliner’s set or have an exit strategy in place a few songs before the headliner finishes otherwise plan on being stuck in a flood of people heading to their cars and probably traffic as well.

MONDAY: Surprise, surprise. Despite my efforts of applying copious amounts of SPF 110, I still had gotten a good amount of sun, but I had a blast. After it was all said and done I walked away with 4144 total images and edited 124 for the gallery slideshow below. Nothing was broken, lost or stolen, all of the clients were happy, my own band’s performance was awesome and I got paid to watch some amazing live music from the best seats in the house. I had about 8 Red Bulls and learned that I ACTUALLY like them. I remember hating Red Bull prior to the weekend. Between the Red Bulls and the awesome baguettes in the artists’ lounge, I was covered for the entire weekend. I can’t wait for 2013!

Check out the slideshow and let me know what you think!

Click here to check out my Summerfest coverage from 2011! // Click here to check out my Summerfest coverage from 2010!

SUMMERFEST (JUNE 2012) – Images by Todd Spoth

Hasselblad frame of the Machida, Japan cityscape by Todd Spoth.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to spend some time in Japan. I made a lot of photos and did a lot of really awesome things. Click here to read more about the actual trip in the original blog post, “NEW YEARS IN JAPAN”.

During the trip I shot a handful of rolls of Kodak Portra medium format film with my Hasselblad 501cw outfit. Click here to check out some of my favorite medium format images from Japan in my archive.

A few weeks ago I decided to produce a small 8″ x 8″ square format book of my favorite Hasselblad images. As far as self-publishing books go I have made several efforts using the Blurb platform. You may remember my book I produced from images I took in Africa as well as my huge 400-page book for my grandmother. I had heard some rave reviews about Adorama’s publishing platform and their books so I decided to give them a try.

AFRICA BOOK by Todd Spoth // 400 PAGES by Todd Spoth

The online software was pretty simple to navigate, but the biggest surprise was the actual quality of the book itself. The pages were thick and laid flat making the gutter a non issue. The hardcover image wrap was nice as well, however I would love some additional cover material options in the future.

I received the book some weeks ago and just got around to filming a short preview video of what the finished product looks like.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

“RISING SUN” book preview by Houston photographer Todd Spoth from Todd Spoth on Vimeo.