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BACKSTAGE WITH PLANET FUNK

Todd Spoth — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:19:16 +0000

I spent some time this past Saturday afternoon with longtime client, Planet Funk Academy at the Wortham Center in Houston’s theater district as they prepared to take the stage. I have photographed the renowned dance academy for nearly 5 years now and although the faces have changed, the energy is still the same. During my tenure as their chief photographer, I have seen kids go from Planet Funk to dancing for top tier pop/hip hop acts and tours, open their own dance studio or even star in feature films.

The group performed their latest theatrical dance show on Saturday night and I was there for a few hours during their prep and tech time. I photographed a few of their run-throughs during tech rehearsal, however I am always most excited to simply wander around backstage while everyone is getting ready and make images there. I have made several images that I particularly love during backstage moments from shows past and even though I had a shorter amount of time on Saturday, I still make some images that I enjoy. They are in the gallery below. I converted several to a very high-contrast black and white which appear first followed by color versions.

ON A WIRE

Todd Spoth — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:16:21 +0000

This is my first blog in quite some time. Ever since I returned home to Houston from Rio it has been 95% dreary and rainy. Ive forgotten how miserable the January’s here can get. To amend my misery I found out earlier this week that the Houston Chronicle staff position I had interviewed for back in December was filled. I was definately proud of myself for making it as far as I did. It would have been great to be able to gain some staff experience at such a large metro paper as well as stay here, where my friends and home are, but things don’t always work that way. I still have some irons in the fire though. Smiley and the rest of the Chron staff are going to throw a lot of freelance work my way, and I’ve been doing quite a bit of freelance work myself. The commercial stuff definately pays well, but as for right now, its really not as fulfilling as I want my work to be. I did however get my G9 back from Canon repair and have been toying with that this week. The shot seen here is one that I took this afternoon near my apartment. These birds gather by the thousands at one particular intersection. Its neat to see half of them parked and motionless and the rest frantically flying about. Ive seen this shot a million times before and finally nabbed something today from the car. This little G9 is proving to be a gem.