Every year there is a selection of images that excite me more than any others. In previous years I would sometimes struggle to even find appreciation in my own work. Instead I would browse through my friends and their Top 10s and think about how fantastic they are as artists and how far they have come along since I first started following them and their work. While they are all amazing photographers that I will continue to promote they still inspire me to feel more comfortable with the photographs I want to be taking as well as the ones that I end up taking in the moment.
This last year was unexpectedly eventful. With the previous year having a lot of focus on working with whichever touring musician came through for Flesh & Bone Magazine it was nice to find that 2016 enabled me to have a lot more personal experiences with so many different artists. I can honestly say that my best tour experiences were in this year and I have met some amazing, fascinating people. There were a lot of struggles and now I can comfortably say that I am overall happy and sending positivity to everyone that I possibly can. So all of that mush and filler being said here are my Top 10 Favourite images that I have taken this year with a brief description of why they exist and my feelings behind them.
10. Colour In The Clouds Single 27 Flowers
Although everything from here on out will essentially be live photographs I decided to start this list off with some commercial / promotional work instead. I remember first talking with the Colour In The Clouds guys about the image of this band well over a year ago and how it was what they wanted to do for an upcoming single release. There was so much talking about it until one day we just sort of sprung it upon ourselves to do this shoot. That morning three of them built a rectangular box, we filled it with a few bags of soil and starting getting the foundation of everything started until the models showed up. I hopped on my balcony and shot down at the girls from there as they laid naked in my backyard and even standing over them I felt generally excited about what we were doing. The shoot didn't take long, the editing on the other hand certainly did. It was one of the first conceptual photos in a long time I was finally excited about doing which is why it is important that it is featured on this list.
09. Arkells
Shooting X-Fest is always a unique experience as you have this huge crowd of people behind you for two nights who want nothing more than to get closer and closer to the artist. Of course bands like the Arkells would much rather get right in with the mix of the audience anyways. While their vocalist was actually surfing on the crowd at one point i've sort of grown to appreciate that "right before" image. He hadn't even made it on the stands and you can see all of the hands reaching out, fans and their excited faces and to me that was a lot more successful than anything else that had been captured from that show.
08. Colour In The Clouds
After a few tours with these guys I've grown to be a little more experimental with them than with other bands. I went through a faze of putting stars over a lot of my photographs and this was one that started it all (as you will see with the list going on). So at MazzFest experiencing the lighting that they did I couldn't help it.
07. Comrades
Something that always warms my heart is when photographs reflect a specific mood of the artist. Comrades like to use their own bulb lights or else mix it up with the red house lights that would be provided. They, over all, are this beautiful moody experience to watch and I do not think that any other photographs from touring with them quite shows the mood like this one had.
06. Household
The tour that concluded 2016 tours was with Colour In The Clouds and Household. I was so beyond excited to tour with this band and see them every night from their raw passion as musicians. This particular night was in Kamloops, the second date of the tour, and the venue was so unique and well lit and made for amazing imagery. The first time going through the images I couldn't even decide on my favourites because there had been too many of them. After playing around with colours for a bit I came to find this to be one of my favourite live shots as it became structurally perfect in my mind. Even looking at it I do not think I would be able to edit it down to this way again and am happy that I don't think I would ever want to revisit / re-edit this image.
05. Twenty One Pilots
Another image from X-Fest. I have to say that I was most excited about photographing a band that is so well known for their production. Even though they cut a lot of their production down for the festival it was still absolutely brilliant. But between the silhouettes and running around images that I had taken behind the barricade i found that working in the crowd ended up producing better images. Although Tyler was emerged in the crowd he is just perfectly risen, and then highlighted with his hat. The only other person that is level with him also is wearing the same shade of red. It felt very much like a universe in motion image for me and I am still very excited about it.
04. Laura and the Pineapple
The moment that Laura was given this pineapple by a friend of hers on tour I knew i wanted to photograph her with it. There was just something about her having a pineapple that I loved the idea of. With their van being so brightly coloured I knew that it would be the background to the subjects and the portrait is so simple and ridiculously serious that I have a hard time enjoying any other portrait the same way. I will never forget this fantastic pineapple moment.
03. Being As An Ocean
This image was taken fairly early in the year. I went to the show for an interview with Silverstein and ended up quoting the Office with these guys at the end of the night. With Emarosa also sharing the same stage as them I wasn't sure who I would end up getting more interesting shots from. The last three times i had photographed Being As An Ocean the venue offered less than adequate lighting and finally being in a venue that had more diversity to it was brilliant. Joel jumped into the crowd and got invested in the crowd. Just as he was about to climb back onto the stage i caught this quick image. I didn't look back onto the photos until the morning after and once I saw this image (also paired with another from the crowd) my stomach turned from excitement. I find something more beautiful in the moments between than those where there is a full-on performance and I feel that this is one of the more geniune photos that I have taken.
02. The 1975
Waiting until ten hours before the show to find out if i was accepted was so nerve-racking. I was convinced that I wasn't going to ever be able to photograph this band and once I got the email i hauled my way 2 hours in transit to be there. I was able to attend the show with a friend of 11 years (and the 1975 is most certainly her favourite band as she came 8 hours away to see them) and being there with her made the show a lot more enjoyable. Their lighting set up is so suiting to them and beautiful and picking between this photo and one of my photos of Matt was very difficult to do for me. That being said, I love the posture, the rectangles of light and how pink everything was. I hope that this will not be the last time I ever photograph this band with such a brilliant production.
01. Brand New
I had a difficult time picking between this one and my black and white photograph of Vinnie Accardi. I love them both very dearly and am still in awe of even being able to photograph them at all. I had bought tickets to the show months in advanced. Every time Brand New came through Calgary I had been out of town or simply was not able to go. Nothing was stopping me this time. Being well aware of how particular they are with photographers at shows I wasn't even going to try for a photo pass. Maybe about five days before the show i broke down and finally decided to send an email off and was surprised to find out that I was set up to photograph them at this show. That weekend I had photographed a show Friday in Calgary, Saturday in Saskatoon and would be turning around to photograph Brand New in Calgary for the Sunday. I was exhausted, but humbled to have the experience. Although I was escorted to the stage everyone was so pleasant since I was the only photographer granted to work the show and I don't think I could of had a better experience seeing this band live than I had being able to photograph them for the first three songs. I went through the photographs multiple times because I wanted to make sure that I would only have the best images to send over to the bands management and I really do feel that this photograph as well as the one of Vinnie are going to remain a highlight of my photographic life eternally.