'The Whore Moans'

The Whore Moans are a great rock band from Seattle.  They have a sound that is laking these days.  Where did all the Rock go??  In a world of weak emo-trash The Whore Moans manage to pound out some solid tunes on their latest album Hello From the Radio Wasteland.

These shots were for Sound Magazine and their lead review.

Enjoy...

Adam

www.adamforslund.com/bands

Sebastien Zimmerman Lighting Designer

Sebastien Zimmerman is a local lighting designer who is based in Seattle USA. He has worked for such venues as The Showbox, Neumo’s and more. His light has been cast on acts like Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Helio Sequence, Ice Cube, LCD Sound System and more.

In shooting Sebastien I was hoping to capture the essence of what it means to have the power of light in your hands. We shot outside under the shade of giant evergreens. It made for a really cool semidarkness that allowed patches of golden Sun to mingle with the globes Sebastien is holding. As our power supply started to run low is when we got some of the nicest shots. You can really see the filaments in each light. This shoot also made me think about what would ever happen if we couldn’t buy traditional lights?? If everything is compact fluorescent or LED then these kinds of images won’t be captured.

After the shoot we chatted and here is what followed...

Adam Forslund: When/how did you choose to focus on lighting design?

Sebastien Zimmerman: It was 2002 I was helping this guy set up sound and light systems at nightclubs around Seattle and a few of the bigger rave events around town. I was still going to school for audio at the time and somehow worked my way in with him as an apprentice. I did as much as I could, learning and asking questions about anything I didn’t already know or understand. Every Friday and Saturday night he operated a night club with a sizable light package. There was already someone doing the lights and I basically peered over his shoulder for a long time. Finally I asked him if he could show me what all the “button pushing” was about. He walked me through the steps of writing and running a light show. We had fog, strobes, lasers, PAR’s and plenty of other cool things. I was hooked. Around this time during one of the dances we operated, I was pulled into the Showbox scene. Someone there saw what I was doing with the dance lighting and figured they could help me adapt my current skills with a heavier flavor geared towards main stream rock and roll. I (Again) apprenticed for another year learning new things like basic electricity, touring productions and conventional lighting. I spent a lot of time going to every show I could and helping out during load in and rehearsals. I guess when they felt I had learned enough, the guy split for tour and left me in charge of the day to day lighting operations for 9 months. When he came back, I had just finished cutting my teeth, hitting my stride and establishing myself as a reputable lighting designer. Then things fell into place. I kept getting calls to light shows, mostly from the Showbox, a few obscure events, but I kept myself open around town just to keep life fresh. Neumos took a liking to my work and they take a good deal of my time right now. I try to do things I’ve never done before to keep on the cutting edge and keep polished.


AF: Why live in Seattle?

SZ: I wasn’t born or raised here. I was born in California and did time in Denver and Austin before my family came to Seattle. When I moved out of my parent’s house there weren’t many options for relocation abroad. Since we grew up in the country I would try the city life as I had always had a calling for it. I moved downtown in late 2002 and have been here ever since. I’ve moved around inside the city several times and still haven’t found my ideal pad. Maybe I just have a hard time settling. Touring calls.
I choose to remain in Seattle because I’ve grown to love it. Well, it’s a love/hate relationship. Growing up partially in other areas of the country I can see both the good and bad this city has to offer. There are a lot of very educated people here, people who don’t hesitate to lend a hand to those in need, however, there is also a lot of passiveness, people not willing to stand up for themselves and who prefer to just go through the motions. I seem to have found my niche here in Seattle. I can see myself as sort of a shadow icon around town. People might not know exactly who I am or what it is I do, but they know I’m always around and am important. I like walking down the street some days and just catching the look of familiarity from people. Also, being close to my family is important to me. My younger brother lives just up north a ways, so it’s nice to see him from time to time. I’m not sure exactly how they’ll take my absence once I begin a life of touring, but I know they’ll trust I’m doing the right thing, and I’m doing what I love.

AF: Who are some of the bigger acts you have worked with?

SZ: I’ve had the pleasure of working with thousands of bands in the short time I’ve been involved in the industry, all of them with unique styles, levels of artistry and experience. I listened to some weird stuff growing up but my world musically has expanded so much since I’ve become actively involved with bands. I still have [Favorite Bands] I can’t wait to go out and pick up or see, but I’ve also learned to have a strong passion for music in its most pure and unbiased form. It’s one of the jobs great fulfillments, working with a variety in music every time you show up. As for the particulars, I’ve been a part of in full or partially responsible for lighting, Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, Band Of Horses, members of Pearl Jam, Ice Cube, Spiritualized, Helios Sequence, LCD Soundsystem, Melvins, Yelle, Ratatat, Sir Mix A Lot, CSS, Flava Flave, BRMC, The Wailers, Blue Scholars, M83, Dark Star Orchestra, etc. all. This list could go on for days, practically anything that tours through the city is usually something I’m a part of.


AF: What was/is the most challenging aspect of your job on a day to day basis?

SZ: There are challenges you find yourself up against for every show. Each day presents me with something unique. It’s rare that anything you did the previous day would carry over and be productive for the next. It’s this aspect that makes my job so enjoyable. At times we get technical riders which lay some of the ground work for what’s expected of everyone, but you usually find yourself throwing this out at the start of the day with a whole new set of rules. All the work needs to be done in order of operation, done safely, logically, artistically, and of course, time is the enemy. Some days are “easier” than others, and some can bite you in the ass. I find myself working with other designers, collaborating on artistic or technical challenges. Often times bands do not come equipped with this knowledge and it becomes my responsibility to ask questions, gather information and put together the best lighting design. The most challenging part of my job is tracking people down and trying to light acts I’ve never even heard or seen. At the end of the day, we put on a show and people leave with a smile.

AF: What would you like an audience member to take away from your work?

SZ: It doesn’t happen often, but when you feel it, that sense of togetherness, everything working. The artist and audience respond to each other while the lights and sound compliment the performance. People are drawn to what’s happening around them, and all at once everyone comes together to get into it. I would prefer to be taken away as a member of the audience yet I know that I am part of the audiences experience for the evening. It’s been said that the best work done is that which is performed without drawing attention to itself. When you put on your greatest show, people should be drawn to the artistic value behind your design and not for the technical whoopee it’s capable of doing. If I haven’t criticized myself all evening, nagging myself about the little things I could have done better, or the things I should have done differently, while I see everyone leaving with a smile on their face, that’s all I could ask for. I’m usually very accepting, and I’ll take the bad with the good, but great is always better.


Be sure to pay attention to the stage lighting next time you are watching your favorite band. If it's good Sebastien Zimmerman may have had a large part to do with that. We hope the best for him. AF

The Camellias

Here are a few simple shots of The Camellias from their show last week at Chop Suey in Seattle. As is the case with most smaller music venues the lighting falls on the dark side. When shooting at 3200 ASA my feeling is to always shoot film. This shoot I wasn't able to reach for film on every shot. What you see here are still at 3200 ASA but digital in origination.

I look forward to working with them to get a few staged shots for their upcoming album.

Adam
www.adamforslund.com/bands

Just a quick update

In the coming months the blog will become more active as things have finally started to settle into a solid cycle of work and ideas.

There will be a couple features on some interesting subjects as well as talk about a few ideas.  Along the way www.adamforslund.com will be getting a whole new look and www.twitter.com/adamforslund will be a launch point for what is going on the ground of actual shoots from large films to small venues.

Stay tuned as things are changing...

Adam

Thoughts on Color as related to B&W

I've been thinking a lot about color and its perception. Not so much the true science behind it but rather the way each person sees it.

Newton said "Indeed rays, properly expressed, are not coloured."

If we all see color slightly differently then what is the best way to get people to see the color I want?? If I show you a firetruck that was shot in B&W you will see red paint on it. Not literally but mentally you know that it is red. Same goes for a can of Coke.

What about an object that we aren't familiar with?? How does the concept of color get transfered from one person to another??

Language.

That said one needs to think about their images in new ways. Will a person in the UK see the firetruck as the same red as an American??

With these ideas in mind it will be interesting to see how one can effect perceptions using B&W film and a greyscale.  Since it seems that at our core we seem to recognize a color when there is none.  We see Dorothy's dress as being blue before she steps in to Oz.  We know it is before seeing the color scenes or the entire movie for that fact.

People tend to talk about color in photography as a matter of monitors/color space/bits.  What they don't tend to talk about is the minds behind the eyeballs doing the viewing.

Newton was right...

There is no color until we assign one to an object.

Film, Digital and Time

I have been doing more shooting with digital both in motion picture and still work.

The standard gripes about digital ring true for me and those are issues I just accept.

However, the one thing that I keep coming back to is the fact that no one is talking about long term storage and long term viability of the files. Labs talk about 100 and 200 year inks but this is all based on speculation not real world experience. Will these prints actually be around for 5 generations to look at?? Perhaps. I have more faith in the prints than I do in the files.

The digi-camp talk a lot about backing up your data. Yes. You must make back ups of your photos and video. In 3/5/10 years you will need to move that data to whatever the current storage form is.

This is the tedium that we all sign up for in order to get a product that is immediate.

The bigger question is assuming that we all do what we are supposed to and make our back ups and move the files with time who is to say that these files will be of any use in 10 years and more??

Will JPEG, TIFF, DNG or better yet any of the specific camera RAW formats be viable in time??

Will MOV , WMV, H264 be viable in time??

We can look at images shot on the battlefield from 1863/1916/1943 because of their inherent physicality. We can watch a president or leader because of the physicality of motion picture film. In 150 years will these files turn into physical objects or will they simply be an arcane form of 0's and 1's that add up to nothing??

Lately I have been shooting bands for promotion and Seattle Sound Magazine this has me thinking about the bands and posterity. Will these digital images be relevant if this band makes it big?? Will I be able to call these images historic?? Will these images be around as Charles Peterson's and Jim Marshall's are?? Standing as a testament to a band's arc through stardom.

I have my doubts.

Todays file formats will be tomorrows IBM punch cards. Useless code on stacks of CDs/DVDs/Blu-Rays and lifeless hard drives.

Yet digital imaging isn't going away. Nor should it. Digital imaging just needs to be put into perspective against time.

A lot of questions get raised with no clear answers. It is best to look at each image as a valuable asset to be saved and used in the future.

Shooting Bands

Shooting bands live is always a challenge.   Being between the stage and the crowd is a hard line for photographers to follow.  In the crowd you are faced with blocking issues and being on stage is a distraction.  It is my goal to be both a fly on the wall and an active participant.  Using distance to capture the overall feel and sense of place.  Then getting in as close as I can to illustrate the raw performance in a way that highlights the small details of each performer.  From facial expressions to sweat on a singer’s brow. It is all needed to add depth to an image.

Another challenge when shooting concerts is light.  Some venues mix light with what seems to be no consideration for the people on stage.  An example would be using deep colored gels that work against the skin tones of the performers.  Heavy use of red seems to be one that appears often.  Others will flood the stage in an almost even light never isolating the band from the rest of the stage.

One way to over come this for me is the use of B&W.  By shooting outside of color the light becomes simply a matter of the grey scale.  Leaving the distraction of color behind to illustrate the performers best.  B&W also brings out some of the more subtle aspects of light that may be lost due to color filters and effects.  A light on the back of a singer’s head may not be flattering when it is a heavy blue.  However, when color isn’t part of the photo it becomes a great separation between the performer and the black background.

On a personal level higher contrast images tend to draw my eye in.  Things get lost in the middle grey areas.  By pushing things to black or white allows me to grab a performer and place them in space where by they stand out against the background.  What smaller details get lost in the shadows only enhance the larger ones that are standing in the spotlight.

A good example of what I am talking about are the shots I took of  "The National" when they came to Seattle Washington on their tour for the album "Boxer".  They are based in Brooklyn New York City and have a sound that is melodic yet raw.  Frontman Matt Berninger uses pointed lyrics with his deep bullfrog voice to push stories into your mind. 

These photos were taken at The Showbox Theatre a venue that is perfect for an indie rock band.  It has a wonderful sound and an amazing chandelier.  The crowd turned out and were treated to a great show.

If you have any questions about the images let me know.

Photos From The Show

The National Homepage