A few weeks ago Sven and I shot the set played by Blue Steel at the Langham Hotel in Auckland, at the IBM Kenexa best workplace awards. It was a pretty fancy party, lots of nice suits and pretty dresses, and another great performance by the band who we've had the pleasure of working with before. A nice big stage and interesting lighting setup with a bit of tasteful smoke machine-smoke made for some interesting photos I hope.

This was also the first serious work I shot with my new Fujifilm setup, after finally committing to the all-mirrorless jump from DSLR. For the photographers, everything was shot on a Fuji X-T1 with the 23/1.4 and 56/1.2 lenses. With the reasonably good lighting conditions it all performed admirably.

I recently photographed Auckland covers band Jumpsuit during their recording session at Roundhead Studios as promotional material for the Find a Band website, a show case of excellent NZ bands for hire, and related to Auckland Weddings on which Sven and I are listed under our Chromatic Bros. business. Music and band photography is something I was always keen to get into, so I jumped at the chance. It was great fun being involved in the recording session, and seeing some real professionals in action on both sides of the recording desk.

Roundhead studios was fun to see and shoot in, owned by the great Neil Finn (not present on a cold Saturday afternoon) and has been used by many NZ and international acts with their extensive combination of modern and vintage equipment. The studio environment was very interesting and inspiring its setup and details, and of course I looked jealously upon the guitars, especially Gretsch White and Black Falcons in attendance!

I had a shotlist given to me by Sam from Find a Band, covering each performer individually and playing as a group, as well as details of the instruments, and illustration of the recording process in the studio. The sessions were filmed by talented videographers at the same time, who had set up nice dramatic lighting, which of course made the photography a bit challenging and dark! But overall I really enjoyed the experience, which also aligned with my musical interests, and hope to try again soon!

Blue Steel at the Langham

Jumpsuit Recording at Roundhead Studio

Wells Blog

Latest Posts

Tweets