“Xavier.”
“Yeah, mate!,” he says in his native Aussie accent.
“So, on my way over here, a girl asks me to give you her card. She says she’s a belly dancer and thought you might be interested in knowing that.” I hand him the card that I notice has a MySpace URL printed on it. “And, yes, she’s rather attractive, if that matters.”
“Oh, do you only take the cards if they’re good looking, mate?,” he says with a wry smile.
“Sure. But I’M really here to take your picture. Is that cool?”
Just before Shooter Jennings hits the stage, I think to myself, “Hopefully, I can get a quick portrait that captures some Shooter personality AND get up on stage with the other photographers, find some good angles, and get some nice performance shots.” Success, and I’m off to a good start.
After taking a few shots from the edge of one side of the stage: “Crap,” My mini-umbrella fell out of my camera bag, next to the rhythm guitar player… and so did my water bottle (both about the same size). I’m gonna need both of those things later ’cause my sunscreen is no match for the ball of fire in the sky–even though the thick haze of dust is providing some blockage–and I’ll be thirsty.”
Looking across the stage: “I’ll have to go back to that side of the stage and get my items. Not cool. My umbrella is damn near pink in color. Should I just leave it there, or claim it as mine and scurry off? Well, it’s really more of a light maroon. Ok, I guess I should pick my stuff up off the stage. Then I’ll scurry off.”
The first person I photograph at this year’s ACL. As I walk into the media area, there’s Dan Dyer and my good friend, Paul Oveisi of Momo’s. Dan is the man.
Dan Dyer
After shooting the performance of Louis XIV, I rush over to another show. Later, I come back and singer, Jason Hill is chatting it up with fans .
“Let’s do a quick picture,” I say. “I need you to squat down to make full use of the black panel behind you.” He gives me a puzzled look, and I look back at him with my “just trust the photographer” face. I take a picture. Boring, I think.
“Uh, can you give me a little smirk?” He, complies. But, I can tell he doesn’t quite like to be directed to smirk. I realize his sunglasses are not working for me.
“Nope. Can we lose the sunglasses?” Yeah. There it is.
Jason Hill — Louis XIV
