Centerfold
I have another centerfold spread in the East Bay Express this week:
Video – Green For All – "A New Sound"
Green For All released this video today. I shot a little bit of B-roll and recorded the voice-over. The rest was done by Black Powder Media, and Ryan Dexter. Enjoy!
Best of the East Bay Party 2009
I did some more event photography for the East Bay Express this weekend. This time it was the annual Best of the East Bay Party at the Oakland Museum. The party was crazy – 20,000 attendees, 13 bands on the main stage, live wrestling, food, art, shopping, etc. Here are some of my favorite shots from the party:
Outtakes – "What’s Killing East Bay Soul Food Restaurants?"
I did some editorial photography for this week’s East Bay Express cover story. It’s kind of a depressing story, and it’s difficult to take photographs to illustrate something that isn’t there, like a restaurant that no longer exists, but I did my best with it and I like to think the photos help to tell the story.
Here are some more photos I shot for this story:
Video from The Uptown Unveiled
I made a little video from footage I shot at the Uptown Unveiled last week. I’m looking forward to making more short videos like this, but it’s actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think the night shots look great, but it’s really difficult to keep people in focus when shooting video in low light. In fact, it’s really difficult to keep things in focus in general with this type of camera (manual focus/35mm sensor). The audio is also not great, obviously.
But it does have its moments. I love the people in the video who think that I’m taking a photo and start posing. Also the kid dancing with his mom (right around the 3:45 mark) is possibly the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
Best of the East Bay 2009 – Bands Photoshoot
Last Saturday I did a shoot for the East Bay Express with the bands that will be playing on the main stage at the Best of the East Bay 2009 Party. All 13 bands:
Souls of Mischief
Goapele
Fracas
Superfinos VTO
Mystic Rage
Maldroid
CU Next Weekend
7th Street Band
The Thrill of it All
Dizzy Balloon
The Heavenly States
Swann Danger
Social Unrest
The idea was to do a double-truck layout that would look sort of like one of those Rolling Stone Magazine covers where they take a bunch of separate photos of famous people against a white seamless background and then combine the images in Photoshop so it looks like they’re all part of the same photo, but with the twist that the band members would be all mixed up, so you’ve got hip-hop dudes posing with metal dudes, R&B singers next to punks, etc. It’s a very eclectic lineup, so there are some pretty amazing combinations of people that you wouldn’t expect to see together.
I was a little nervous about this job since there were so many people to shoot and I don’t normally do a lot of composite work, so I wasn’t sure how it was all going to come together. It actually went really smoothly. Once I got everything set up, the shoot was really fun, the bands were a blast to work with, and I’m totally happy with how it all came out. Other than spending a truly ridiculous amount of time working on this project in Photoshop, it could not have gone better.
The Uptown Unveiled
There was a big festival in Oakland last night called The Uptown Unveiled. There was a lot of stuff going on (skateboarding, BMX, bands, dancing, welding demos) and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Plus there were no riots or shootings. So that was nice.
I took a few pictures, but I shot a ton of video. It’s going to take a little while to get the video footage edited into something I can post online, but here are some photos:
Kids punching kids
Last weekend I went to the Northern California Regional Boxing Championships at my gym, Pacific Ring Sports in Oakland, CA. These fights decide who will go on to the national championships to compete for spots on the 2012 USA Olympic Boxing Team. Some of the kids boxing looked really young to me, and while I’m not morally opposed to boxing or even to kids boxing, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit weird about watching kids punch other kids in the face. There’s just something about it.
But once I got over the weirdness, I was really impressed with the level of self control these kids showed in the ring. Most of them really did box well, and they were all good sports and hugged their opponents after every match. It was interesting to see, and I’m looking forward to shooting more fights in the future.
I also shot video of one round. I’ve been severely underusing the video feature of my new camera, and I plan to start shooting and posting more video in the future.
Northern California Regional Boxing Championships from Stephen Loewinsohn on Vimeo.
Berkeley Community Chorus
My mom is a soprano in the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra. Last weekend Briana and I went to see their performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, and I (quietly) took a few pictures. BCCO is a non-profit which allows anyone to join and sing. They put on six of these free concerts every year. Their next will be Schubert – Mass in E Flat Major in December.
Ultimate Lighting Champion
I just shot these portraits for an actor & MMA fighter named Eddie Lopes. Most people want portraits that make them look beautiful, so it’s refreshing when someone just wants their photos to make them look badass. This guy had a wonderfully expressive face, and was able to go from looking like the nicest guy you’ll ever meet (which he was) to looking like he’s about to beat you to a pulp (which he can) in the blink of an eye.
