Finding a Firebreather
The day that the guys from Imagine Dragons stopped by the Orange Lounge for an acoustic set remains one of my favourite music shoots to date. I was blown away by their musicianship, but even more impressed with their warmth and openness.
During these shoots for ET Canada and Rdio, I am given time in the studio during sound check, and I then race in and out of the studio between songs, to capture whatever I can, when the cameras are not rolling. It is a huge challenge, and hilarious fun!
On this day, we were offered a few minutes of green room time with the guys, before show time. The band also graciously agreed to do an extra half song, to give me a chance to capture additional performance images. What generous gents, these Dragons are!
I captured this one by stealing a camera operator’s apple box to stand on…because Dan is TALL
Any time that I step into the green room, I am keenly aware that I am in the band’s private space, but that I am also there as the eyes of the super-fan. My role is to represent the fans, and give them an opportunity to get closer to their favourite musicians through my images.
Once ET Canada publishes my work from one of the Orange Lounge shoots, I keep an eye on where my images are shared online, and which types of images are most popular.
In the case of the Imagine Dragons gig – my green room portraits struck a chord with fans. One fan in particular stands out.
Anastasia is a super-fan from Russia. Not only did she share my images online – she made beautiful watercolour pencil drawings of three of them.
Here is a nice side-by-side of my original image, and Anastasia’s drawing, of lead vocalist, Dan Reynolds.
Anastasia has become my favourite source of Imagine Dragons news on Instagram and Twitter. I also like to keep an eye out for her latest artwork. I felt that I had to reach out to her, to find out a bit more about her, so I got in touch with her on Instagram. She generously agreed to share her drawings and some info about herself with me.
My favourite element of Anastasia’s drawing is the detail in guitarist, Wayne Sermon’s hair.
It turns out that she started drawing six years ago, but only became serious about it three or four years ago, and continues to study at art school. It takes her about two or three weeks to complete a portrait, and her preferred media are watercolour pencils. The three drawings from my images are not the only Imagine Dragons portraits that she has done – she is now up to about 15 drawings of the band.
Those wrinkles in drummer, Daniel Platzman’s jacket is why I do my art with a camera, and not a pencil!
It is really interesting to see how my approach to shooting music has evolved, once I saw how fans connect to the images that I capture. With luck I may get another chance to shoot Dan, Wayne, Daniel and Ben from Imagine Dragons…even better…I would love to shoot Anastasia meeting the band!
Hi Anastasia!
In case you were wondering – a Firebreather is an Imagine Dragons fan. If you want to see the band in action during their visit to the Orange Lounge – you can watch the music videos HERE
