Music | MostlyLisa.com | Photography tips & iPhoneography inspiration

Posts Tagged ‘Music’

Rockin’ the 2010 GRAMMYs

Feb 4 2010

At the GRAMMYs
(David Karp (Tumblr), Rachel, Pete Cashmore (Mashable) & Lisa Bettany, Darya & Kevin Rose (Digg), Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) & Anna)

Sunday was a pretty normal day. I woke up at the Beverly Hilton, ordered 3 small pancakes for $20, stole a muffin from Jessica Alba at a Press Junket, got my hair and makeup done, put on a dress (!), jumped in a pimpin’ limo with Kevin Rose, David Karp, my boyfriend Pete Cashmore. I drank champagne, got yelled at for taking photos of the Red Carpet & nearly got harpooned by Lady Gaga’s diamonte headpiece.

Then, I waved at Weird Al, heard the Pants-on-the-Ground guy sing “Pants on the Ground” not once, but five times sequentially down the Red Carpet, watched the GRAMMYs live IRL, ate a super greasy pastrami sandwich in my satin gown, hugged Imogen Heap, celebrated in a private cabana at Diddy’s party, learned about the intricacies of tea from KRose & toasted with @Ev over Jay-Z’s Ace of Spade Champagne. *yawns*

Here are some snaps from the big night.

Lisa & Pete going to the GRAMMYs!

David & Rachel looking super cute.

David, Pete & Kevin ready for the Red Carpet.

Cheers to salad in the sweet limo!

Pete & Lisa enjoy their pre-Grammy champagne toast :)

Shira Lazar & I.

The Ladies.

Pete & YouTube founder Chad Hurley entertain themselves during the show.

Kevin & Pete go totally nuts at the After Party. #partyanimals

@Ev & @mashable at the Diddy party.

It was definitely surreal going from my socially reclusive, wifi-addicted lifestyle to hob nobbing with celebs at the Beverly Hilton. Now I’m just back to eating packaged hob nobs and watching ordinary people from my apartment window. Ohh someone just crossed the road and got into a taxi, now a bus is pulling up… where are my binoculars?

18 Comments »

Promo Shoot with Musician Jesse Tucker

tagged in Featured, Photography

Jul 29 2009

Canon 5DMKII, 50mm f/1.4 lens, 1/125, f/5.0, ISO 100.

We truly traveled to the most derelict location to get some background character for this promo shoot with guitarist, singer, songwriter, Jesse Tucker. In fact, there was a pair of used ladies’ panties inches away from Tucker in this very picture. Classy.

I shot my 580EX strobe on low power through an umbrella camera left. This gave a nice catch light in the eyes and gave a nice even soft light on the face. For triggers I use the Alien Bees CyberSync 2.4GHz Radio Remote Control systems. They are a third the price as Pocket Wizards and work like a charm. Way way better than the Gadget Infinity triggers I had before!

Canon Xti, LensBaby Composer lens, 1/500, ISO 100.

One lesson I learnt from this shoot is, when scouting for shoot locations, actually get out of your car and explore the area on foot with your camera. (more…)

14 Comments »

My first photography subject: Jessie Farrell

tagged in Featured, Life, Photography, Travel

Aug 4 2008

I’ve been photographing Jessie Farrell and her band for almost 2 years now. Taking pictures of Jessie was how I first got into photography. I started taking pictures at gigs, her first music video (in which I made a brief cameo as a pink hatted fiddler), her big CD release, and all the moments in between & that time we went to Jamaica (that was weird that we went there).

I was so tentative and unsure of my ability at first because I didn’t know anything about photography or dSLRs in general, let alone the technical skills required to take that money shot. When I look at my old shots, I’m so embarrassed at the settings I used. But that’s how I learnt, by experimenting with settings, taking thousands of shots, and basically falling in love with the process of taking photographs. That’s what I love. Just hanging back behind the scenes and capturing subtle candid moments of people, animals, even nature. I rarely, if ever, leave my apartment without my camera. It’s basically a part of me. Gosh, this is beginning to sound sappy. Uh. Brief pause… and resume…

I almost never get to see Jessie Farrell et al. perform live, because they are on the road so much in far off Canadian places, so I was really excited to catch their performance at Festival 150 in Victoria, BC. This might be the reason I took 1000 or so photos. Eek, I know. My Air is gasping for… well.. air.

Kylee Epp.

I also blame the Canon 70-200mm IS f/2.8 lens I rented again. It has such a delicious sweet spot that makes me swoon when I hit it. Wait. That sounded bad. I’m not sexualizing photography… Ever. Stop. I’m blushing. Actually, I’m just super sunburnt because I literally have the skin tone of a sickly vampire who spends all day & night on a computer like IMing and pirating shizz.

Anyway, I supposed to be taking a little break from my blog and the computer this week, as I’ve totally done in my neck. My computer over-use injury is back with a vengence.

Ok. Ok. I’m getting off the computer now… Don’t be mad.

Jessie was recently nominated for 7 Canadian Country Music Awards, including Best Female Artist, Album, Song, Songwriter of the Year & Best Selling Album. She is also nominated for Fan’s Choice award so if you are a fan, Vote for Jessie here. Additionally, 3 of her band members were nominated for the best performers in their categories: Ryland Haggis for Bass Player of the Year; Jesse Tucker for guitar player of the year; and Jesse Godin for drummer of the year.

Ryland Haggis.

Jessie Godin.

L-R: Jesse Tucker, Kylee Epp, Jessie Farrell, Jesse Godin, Ryland Haggis.

I’m currently in negotiations with them to start my throw-back 80s, futurist/emo/punk/rock/folk/singer/songwriter band. It’s a real mix of genres, but I’m covering them all to please that fickle, yet predictable the Gen “i”.

1-2-3-4, I’m seeing Feist tomorrow! Who’s coming?

And my question to photographers and blossoming photogs:

How did you get into photography? What or who was your muse?

28 Comments »

604 Showcase at New Music West

tagged in Photography

May 18 2008

Here are some photos I grabbed with my trusty Canon Xti/400D (with the 50mm f/1.4 lens) of the 604 Records Showcase last Friday at the Red Room for New Music West. It was great to see Jessie Farrell et al. as they rarely play their hometown of Vancouver. In fact, I heard them play more in Jamaica than in Vancouver! But, as always Miss Jessie and her rock star band looked and sounded smokin’ hot!

Jessie Farrell and Jesse Tucker rockin’ it.

Miss Jessie is lookin’ super fancy.

Ryland Haggis knows which ace is bass.

There were also other bands who were totally indie stylez like:

16mm

& Lotus Child, who were awesome

& Aaron Pritchett, who has some huge guns.

PS. Chad didn’t show. I know. He totally blew me off.

12 Comments »

Jessie’s Fabulous CD Release Party

tagged in Photography

Oct 10 2007

The lovely and talented Jessie Farrell released her debut album, “Nothing Fancy” yesterday. There was a fantastic tea party with friends, family and industry sorts at 604 Records.

My favourite…. cupcakes! Yummm.

Me & Jess with blueberry tea.

Then we headed to the Cactus Club to celebrate and i didn’t take many pictures because i was celebrating… boo. bad photog. but i did snap this nice one of Tom and Jessie snuggling up in the last moments of the night when we all felt very sleepy.

The last snap of the night in front of the shaggalicious wallpaper….

which kinda reminded me of the wall paper in the Vogue where Jessie’s first music video was shot.

Clicky this link to see Jessie and Jesse and Ry perform “Fell Right into You” live on Global tv.

3 Comments »

It’s a Block Party!

tagged in Photography

Jul 29 2007

Where? W. 1st Ave & uber chill.
When? C u next Tuesday.
How Chill? Super Chill.

Welcome to the Chillest Alleyway in Kits.

Band Aid.

Chill tunes from Red Yellow Blue.

Chill flip-flops.

Sensible footwear is so non-chill.

Glitter and beer go together like marmalade and honey. What?

Celebrating Rubbish.

Separating Rubbish. Being environmental is so chill.

Rubbish bin + balloons = chill ambiance.

chilldude22.

Yellow = Mellow.

Man, those carpets are so chill!

Jon and Roy (& chilldude22)

Check out the original “chilldude22″.

3 Comments »

Jessie Farrell and some very fancy wallpaper

tagged in Photography

Jun 18 2007

Something fancy about this shot of Jessie in that polkadot dress. Oh la la! A little sassy isn’t she???

Jessie Farrell and her band is set to play at the Calgary Stampede on July 5th, 14th and 15th!

Here are the details:

Thursday, July 5, 2007 “Calgary Stampede Kick Off Party”, Stampede Park, Calgary, AB

Saturday, July 14, 2007 @ Rope Square, Stampede Park

Sunday, July 15, 2007 @ Nashville North, Stampede Park

Hope to see y’all there!

No Comments »

Behind the Scenes of Jessie’s “Let’s Talk About Love” Music Video

tagged in Photography

Jun 16 2007

Here are some behind the scenes photos that I took of Jessie Farrell’s first music video.

Jessie & band will be playing next at the Stampede Kick-Off Party in Calgary. Here are the details:

Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Calgary Stampede – Kick Off Party
Stampede Park, Calgary, AB

9am: Jessie getting her hair and make-up done.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 01

9:30am: Crew sets up the lights & the camera gear on the Vogue Theatre stage.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 02

10am: Make-up touch up before Jessie’s close-up.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 11

11am: Jessie, Kylee & J-Go goof around between takes.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 04

Noon: One last set-up with Ryland and Kylee before lunch.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 05

Noon and a bit: Ryland’s bass is ace.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 12

1:30pm: Jessie’s wardrobe is touched up as Ryland practices his sweet keys solo. I thought Ry played the bass? Is that a different shirt? Weird.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 08

2pm: Blocking the shot with the director.

Jessie behind the scenes music video blog - 09

Tune in for more photos tomorrow!

5 Comments »

How to Restring a Guitar

tagged in Geeky Stuff

Jun 3 2007

(according to Jesse Tucker, guitarist extraordinaire, co-writer of Jessie Farrell’s first single “Let’s Talk About Love”, and lover of all things pocket vortex with a mild to extreme crackberry addiction)

This is my first time restringing my lovely Larrivee so let’s take it from the top…

Step One: Acquire some new guitar strings. I was very lucky to have these bad boys given to me by Tucker. Thanks Muck. You’re Awesome. The strings are awesome too. They are coated with Nanoweb (not exactly sure what that is, but it seems pretty high tech and kinda makes me feel like a superhero… “ah ha! You try to infiltrate my layer Beast Master, but what you do not know is that I am protected by an ultra thin Nanoweb… stronger than a thousand steel spider webs and wired with a million tiny electrode sensors!!!! Hiyah!!” Anyway… geeknerdgeek.

Step Two: Unwind guitar string with “stringer tool” (which looks like a New Year’s noise maker and probably has a name…)

Step Three: Take pin out the bridge with the other end of the “stringer tool” which will release old string. Take old string off.

Step Four: Get new string and unravel it.

Step Five: Line up the the ball end (looks like an eyelet) of the new string in the hole of the bridge and use the peg to push the eyelet down into the hole. Push down on the peg to make sure the string is secured.

Step Six: Stretch the string into the nut and thread string through tuning pegheads (make sure that the eye of the tuning peg is parallell to frets.)

Step Seven: Kink string to prevent it from slipping. Remember to give the string some slack for winding. The “E” string needs about 2 full wraps around, “A” string needs about 3..etc. If you wind it to tight it might snap! SNAP!

Step Eight: Wind it up (counterclockwise) a lot. Make sure that each wind of the string goes below the previous one. I had to hold the string and tug on it a little to keep it winding properly. Also, keep a watch on the pin in the bridge to make sure it doesn’t pop out. I had to push it in a few time during the winding to keep the string in place. You should stretch the strings a little with your thumb and index finger and then re-tune a couple of times until the string settles into its groove.