Movement of Kingz Entertainment recording artist, C-Sharp.

About a month ago I had the pleasure of working with a fun group of artists from the Movement of Kingz Entertainment group. Movement of Kingz is a fairly new outfit of R&B and hip-hop artists based out of Houston. Their main goal was to create a set of interesting portraits of 4 of their members for promotional use on their upcoming website as well as other promotional pieces.

Since I have been shooting a lot of portraits of hip-hop and rap artists lately, I decided to turn to my favorite source of inspiration for this type of work, RESPECT magazine. I was fortunate to pick up the premiere issue of RESPECT, the quarterly “photo journal of hip-hop culture”, about 2 years ago and have been glued to its pages ever since. The premiere issue itself, which features the works of photographers like Ben Watts, Barron Claiborne, and Clay Patrick McBride, is something that is constantly pulled out prior to shoots like these. You don’t even have to listen, like, or shoot music or musicians to appreciate the work within its pages. Check it out here: http://respect-mag.com

Snapshot of my desk featuring 2 issues of RESPECT magazine taken with the new iPhone 4s.

The shoot was booked at Houston Skyline Studio in the warehouse district of Houston. It’s a decently sized and moderately priced rental studio with a small cyc corner and a few other setups available for use. There was plenty of cold A/C, a sound system for playing music (a definite plus for working with portrait subjects) and a nice ramp that allowed us to pull the car right into the studio to unload.

The client wanted basic portraits on white of each member in a few different looks. After that, he gave me the artistic license to be creative and go from there. We started with the basic setup on white, and although the cyc corner was a bit small, we made it work and knocked out several looks for each artist.

After those were out of the way, we switched up the lighting and went for a more harsh look with one simple gridded light that created some deep shadows. With two looks accomplished, we were done with the white cyc corner and moved on to the black background. We were able to knock out several different looks on the simple black background including one where we utilized simply the modeling lights of the flash systems to be able to maintain a shallow depth of field. One of my favorite of the artists, C-Sharp, decided to smoke several times during the shoot which added another layer of interest and complexity to the images.

For the final setups we took advantage of two different textures that the studio space provided, the first being a corrugated steal wall and the second being the bare wood of the structure of the studio itself.

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to studio photography is space and the lack thereof in most cases. Having a space large enough to accompany several different backgrounds and/or sets that are all accessible without breaking down one to get to the other saves tons of time for the photographer and the client. In this case the entire team was fortunate to be working in a space that provided a multitude of different sets without having to do much work, which resulted in me being able to provide the client with the images they were expecting and then some within a limited amount of studio time.

I am very fortunate to be working with clients that hire me because they trust my creative vision and ultimately give me a lot of creative license to do what I feel represents the artists best. With that in mind, after I provided the simple looks on white that the client originally had in mind, I allowed myself to be a little more creative in the editing process of the remaining images and I am pleased with the results.

On the day of the shoot, my good (and very talented) friend, Anthony Oyedeji, of Vicious Films, was on hand producing a behind the scenes spot for the Movement of Kingz camp. The result of his efforts is below. Check it out to see me and the rest of the Movement of Kingz crew in action! Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to check out a few edited selects from the shoot.

And now the edited selects from the shoot.

MOVEMENT OF KINGZ (SEPT 2011) – Images by Todd Spoth

Local Houston noise/rap artist, B L A C K I E, dives into an unsuspecting crowd on day 2 of the festival.

It seems like it’s been forever since last year’s Free Press Houston Summerfest and corresponding post. (Click here to visit last year’s blog post and relive Summerfest 2010) This year sort of snuck up on me. Regardless of my personal thoughts on the actual acts themselves, I’m proud to say that each year since its inception 3 years ago, the fest has gotten bigger and better in the grand scheme. I really appreciate the fact that the festival organizers really put an emphasis on local music. I not only hope that the festival continues to improve and make us Houstonians proud, but keeps the same “local music first” ideals that are apparent now. And with any luck, next year, I will be playing AND shooting. (Omar: Sign Square and Compass up for 2012!)

This year I was on assignment for The Houston Chronicle and their entertainment-driven special publication, 29-95. In past years, I was shooting for different clients that were not on a deadline, which meant that I could concentrate my efforts on shooting the entire show each day and then bother with editing and captioning the next week. For the print edition of the newspaper I had to capture images, download them to a remote laptop that we had set up in 29-95′s vendor booth, edit and transmit the selects to the paper. Ironically, even with the Chronicle building a few blocks away, the poor Internet connection made the transmission process a real headache. I transmitted images to the newspaper’s photo desk for the print edition several times throughout the day since I would not be getting home until after the print deadline.

For 29-95, I sent a healthy amount of selects over each night for use in a web gallery that was live throughout the day. In essence, it was like shooting for two separate clients concurrently. Luckily I had the help of two amazing assistants and a team of editors that made things go smoothly.

Day 1 started at about 10am. After getting outfitted with about 5 or so different wristbands, we set up our laptop station and walked the festival grounds to get an idea of the layout. The festival in general was a lot more spread out than in past years which was a pain since it took a lot longer to walk to between each stage, and since the majority of fans camped out at the main stage, so the exterior stages seemed much more isolated than in past years. You may be asking yourself why I am complaining about a short walk, but it was about 105 degrees F each day, so just being out in the sun, let alone moving is an exhausting task.

After getting the lay of the land, I started looking for details and hot weather features, before heading to the main stage to photograph the live acts. Bun B and Big Boi were the highlights of day 1 putting on amazing performances in the dead heat. I didn’t have any trouble getting access to the stage which was nice. The hip-hop acts were great, but Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were my favorites for the day for sure. During the golden hour I ventured back into the crowd and made some frames of a bungee attraction in awesome light.

Since we still had a lot of editing to do, we decided to skip Saturday’s headliner, Ween, and head back to the office early to get a jump on things.

Sunday was 110% better for me. After regrouping, I headed into Sunday with cooler clothes, less gear, and a working knowledge of what exactly I wanted to shoot and how the whole festival was laid out.

We started around the same time, at some of the smaller stages enjoying/photographing friends’ The Niceguys and By The End of Tonight before hitting the grounds in search of features. I stumbled on several nice details and a few excellent moments before heading to the main stage where I found local noise/rap/etc artist B L A C K I E  assembling his own stage props alone. After a few frames and an offer to help, we headed into the crowd to find out they were setting up a paint slide. Last year, the paint slide was replaced by a mud slide after a heavy storm rolled through the festival.

This year it was a paint slide, last year it was a mud slide. What will 2012 bring?

Since it was (mostly) dry this year, a black, vinyl tarp was setup, splattered with paint and hosed down before a line of kids started sliding down. It was definitely fun to witness and photograph even though there are still paint splatters on several of my lenses and clothes. After several frames at the bottom of the slide I decided to trek up the hill to see what it looked like from the top. The first thing I saw was a group of friends in line for the slide, covered in paint, having a great time smearing paint on each other. During the few minutes I spent with the group I photographed a nice sequence. Click on the composite below to see the entire 12 shot sequence together.

The 12-shot sequence of the paint-covered kids. Which one would you have selected?

After a quick edit/transmission session, we headed over to the main stage for the evening acts. After a few moments, IT happened. What we all thought we had dodged…the rain. Summer downpours have cursed the festival the past two years in a row and just when we thought we were out of the woods, dark clouds circled and opened for several minutes of rain, and like past years, I ventured out to make rain features while most photographers scurried for cover. Unlike past years, the showers were brief and the terribly uncomfortable mugginess that is usually present after a summer shower in Houston was no where to be found. For a time it was actually pleasant.

Right after Chromeo finished up an awesome set, B L A C K I E was set to perform. I was already familiar with his crazy stage presence (especially after playing with him the Thursday prior to the festival) so I knew to be up front and ready to shoot the insanity. The first several rows of mostly Weezer fans didn’t know what hit them when he started into his first jam. The set, although short, was a full frontal assault and was not only fun to shoot, but a challenge as well. The lead off image above is one of my favorites from a sequence of him diving into the crowd and at the same time completely freaking out about a half dozen unsuspecting girls. It was lovely. (Check out some video of the performance including video of myself photographing the set, shot by Houston artist Blak Joens, below!)

Afterwards Cut Copy dove into an awesome set while I ventured out into an impromptu dance circle that I witnessed was started by 1 crazy fan that began dancing on his own. It quickly grew into a huge group of fans dancing like there was no tomorrow. At one point a shirtless guy on crutches hopped into the dance circle much to the excitement of the crowd.

Just as the sun was setting, the festival headliner, Weezer, took the stage and devled into a lengthy set full of old fan favorites from mostly the Pinkerton and Blue Album eras. As a fan of the band, it was awesome to get a chance to photograph them whilst hearing all my favorite jams from back in the day. After photographing the first half of the set from both in front of the stage and a little bit further back, we headed back to the office to edit the days selects.

Three of my images from day 2 of the festival appeared in the print edition, including one A1, above-the-fold.

The entire weekend was long and exhausting and even though I don’t know how I can possibly top last year’s images, I had a blast and came away with some frames I am definitely proud of. The print edition of the paper used 3 of my images on the Monday following the festival. Check out the layout above. As always, a full slideshow of my favorites is below. Check out the images and let me know what you think.

If you know anyone in any of the images, please link them!

SUMMERFEST (JUNE 2011) – Images by Todd Spoth

I haven’t been doing a lot of shooting recently so naturally yesterday’s all day extravaganza at the 2008 Warped Tour was a welcomed return to shooting stills. My buddy Cameron and I made the trek out to Sam Houston Race Park, a horse racing venue that has recently started holding concerts at its location. Cameron and I attended our first Warped Tour a decade ago in 1998. Time flies. This year was the first year that there lacked at least one good act that I really wanted to see. There were plenty of bands that I made a note of seeing and several new acts that I really enjoyed, but none of them I really told myself I just HAD to see prior to the show. Regardless of the lineup, the festival’s variety, always lends itself to good captures and this year was no different. I have gotten some nice stuff from years past, but I believe this year was my strongest shooting year thus far. I have grown a lot as a photographer and artist in the last year and I have seen the result over the past few hours editing the 1500 or so images from the day. It is also of note that this is the first event that I have edited entirely in Adobe Lightroom. It takes some getting used to but everything was done sans – Photoshop. I walked out with a hand full of good moments and a sunburn. All in a day’s work. I have included one of my favorite, more abstract, images from the day above.