Like all things in life, editing photos requires a soundtrack. Here is what I listened to the most in 2011.

TOP 50
Elite Gymnastics – RUIN
Pictureplane – Thee Physical
Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia
Cold Cave – Cherish the Light Years
Light Asylum – In Tension EP
Burial – Street Halo EP
Ringo Deathstarr – Colour Trip
Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys
The Lonely Forest – Arrows
Devin Townsend – Deconstruction
Sleep ∞ Over – Forever
Touche Amore – Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me
Washed Out – Within and Without
Cut Copy – Zonoscope
Com Truise – Galactic Melt
Austra – Feel It Break
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
I Break Horses – Hearts
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
John Maus – We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
 blink-182 – Neighborhoods
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar
The Cave Singers – No Witch
Pianos Become the Teeth – The Lack Long After
Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
Peter Gabriel – New Blood
Chad VanGaalen – Diaper Island
David Lynch – Crazy Clown Time
Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1979
Real Estate – Days
Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines
BALAM ACAB – Wander / Wonder
All Else Failed – Wouldn’t Wish This On Anyone
Active Child – You Are All I See
The Horrors – Skying
Peter Murphy – Ninth
M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Tombs – Path of Totality
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Loney, Dear – Hall Music
Amon Tobin – ISAM
Friendly Fires – Pala
Iceage – New Brigade
Big Talk – Big Talk
We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships
Viva Voce – The Future Will Destroy You

Other Albums/Tracks of Note:
Supreme Cuts –  Trouble EP
Kele Okereke: What Did I Do?
Goldenspell – Goldenspell
Nada Surf – The Moon Is Calling (demos 7″)
We Were Promised Jetpacks – In the Pit of the Stomach
Trap Them – Darker Handcraft
Screeching Weasel – First World Manifesto
Robin Guthrie – Emeralds
Britney Spears: Till the World Ends
Daft Punk: Fall (Remixed by M83 vs. Big Black Delta)
WU LYF –  Go Tell Fire To the Mountain
Teddybears – Devil’s Music
Patrick Stump – Soul Punk
Banjo or Freakout – Banjo or Freakout

Most Psyched About for 2012
New Killers Record
Nada Surf: The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy
Die Antwoord: TEN$ION
The Twilight Sad: No One Can Ever Know
School of Seven Bells: GHOSTORY
New Bloc Party Record
Something from U2?

The editing left me in a very B&W mood with the desire to return armed only with film and about a week of free time in front of my computer to scan and edit to my heart’s delight. I will have to remind myself to take a “film vacation” sometime in 2012.

Photos range from Rockefeller Plaza to 5th Ave, some of my favorite portraits of my wife Christy this year, a return to the Van Cleef and Arpels windows, and the most energetic Salvation Army bell ringers the world has ever seen.

Hope you have enjoyed my various travels in 2011 and I promise to bring you even more in 2012! Enjoy.

If every trip visiting New York City could begin with a rooftop headshot session I would be a happy man. In this case, it involved a pre-dawn drive from Raleigh that had me snapping pictures in the Upper West Side by 5PM. That evening light is a terrible thing to waste.

The lighting for a majority of the shots you see here is the typical portrait setup I have been using for a while now:

1. Main Light = Elinchrom Ranger in an Octabox (triggered w/ PowerST4)
2. Secondary Accent Light = SB-900 (triggered w/ Plus II)
3. FlexTT5 on camera

You might be looking at that setup saying to yourself, “hey, why not another FlexTT5 on that SB900?” Cause those triggers are expensive friend! And at the time, I only had enough for one… Luckily though, I have since upgraded to a second TT5 and an AC3 Zone Controller on camera and It Is GLORIOUS! No more running back and forth to the Nikon unit every time I want to change the power setting, making you look like a mad fool in front of the client… But for this shoot, Plus II with lots of running.

I brought both the 39-inch, deep octa and the 69-inch octa for this gig and to be honest, I rarely leave home without them. The majority of the close-ups are the smaller box while the wide, full length shots are, you guessed it, the larger one. As much as I like the flash shots, I am also curious as to how things would have turned out only using natural light and a reflector. Lots of great angles and textures up there to play around with. Other things I want to try/get/experiment with… more lights, grids, harder light, and edgier lighting setups. But for this straightforward headshot session, I figured I’d stick with soft light at 45 degrees + accent light. Hard to go wrong with that.

Now please enjoy a myriad of different looks from the day.

Moogfest, I Miss You… See you next year?

Bands featured: Active Child, M83, The Drums, John Maus, Neon Indian, Special Disco Version, Passion Pit, Ghostland Observatory.

Highlights from Day Two of Moogfest:

1. Sitting front row at Brian Eno’s Illustrated Talk
2. Finally photoing The Flaming Lips and realizing that the amount of confetti & balloons I was expecting was off by A LOT.
3. Showing up to Crystal Castles to find out that there was no photo pit, but still getting the shots you see below from within the insanely packed crowd
4. Being one of the only people in the room while Terry Riley sound checked A Rainbow in Curved Air
5. Hearing Suicide play their self-titled debut in its entirety
6. Being front and center in the photo pit during Amon Tobin’s ISAM set, pressed against the shoulder high subwoofers
7. Watching Dan Deacon literally lounge-surf across the crowd
8. Taking the headline image of the rabbit mask from Donnie Darko
9. Running a half mile between venues six times, strapped with 30+ lbs of photo gear, and never missing a single song (why so many hills Asheville?!)
10. Lunch/Dinner at Chai Pani
11. Espressos & Macchiatos, all day

It was a very good day. Evidence below…

Bands featured: The Flaming Lips, Crystal Castles, Terry Riley, Dan Deacon, Brian Eno, St. Vincent, Suicide, STS9, Battles + More in the full gallery.

If there is anything that choosing a career in photography has taught me, it is that you can wake up in the morning thinking you will be editing wedding photos all day, but instead find yourself in a city you have never been to, standing next your idol and living legend, Brian Eno. That is exactly what happened on Thursday, October 27th. By Friday, I was taking the pictures you see here on the first day of Moogfest in Asheville, NC for NPR’s All Songs Considered.

I think I chose the right profession.

Featured Bands: Atlas Sound, Austra, Holy F**K, Moby, Tangerine Dream, The Field, TV on the Radio.