November Part 3: Usher, Coldplay, and Graham Colton

Usher
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

Ok this will be my final installment for November. Then we can move to December which will be all Kidd Kraddick stuff because that's pretty much all I shot that month.. plus a couple symphony related things.. well and kids with Santa at a daycare for the owner whom I know.. exciting huh?

So the end of November I shot Usher for Sony Ericcson. That was cool being there for the tour sponsor. I shot the meet and greet as well as the performance, so we set up while soundcheck was going on so after I got done moving lights I just set my stuff down and watched the rest of soundcheck.

Usher had these catwalks that made it near impossible to get into the front barricade thanks to having to walk through the crowd. Fortunately the fans were nice and let me through. Lighting was great. It was pretty much one song, they said first 2 but I wouldnt count the first songs as an entire song since he wasn't on stage for most of it, however the second song love in this club had this entire dance break added into it. Here are some shots.



Next I got to shoot Coldplay! What did I learn from this experience.. well that Chris Martin loves to run around onstage like a lunatic, it was great. I also think that next time Coldplay comes to town I should get a ticket and go because what I got to hear from the concourse while editing photos was great. Here are a few from that



And lastly I shot Graham Colton at the House of Blues Pontiac Garage. It was an acoustic gig with Michael Tolcher, Bryan Greenberg, and Tim Brantley. It was great as usual, Graham did a lot of older material and some cool covers with the other acts, even a version of "Dancing in the Dark"



Ok that's all for now! Yay november is done! I will have all the Kidd Kraddick stuff soon! Then a couple gigs from this month that I shot. :)

Rachel

November Part 2: Kelly Clarkson & Reba McEntire, Amy Grant, and the Latin Grammys

Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

So I wasn't joking when I said I was busy in November!

In a span of 3 days I was in Houston for the Latin Grammys, back in Fort Worth the next day shooting Amy Grant, and then off to Little Rock for Kelly & Reba. Talk about exhausted after that!

So we'll start with Kelly and Reba since it's the main thing pictured. Yes I'm playing favorites. The show was amazing, I'd say even better than the show in Bossier City. Not to mention the addition of Stuff Like That There was a great. Kelly hadn't done that song in a long time. We had a blast, and stayed at the Peabody and watched the ducks march on the carpet the next morning.





So the night before that I shot Amy Grant performing an entire set of her older material at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Her stage set up and lights were way better than I was expecting. It was a pretty good shoot.



And the night before that I was in Houston shooting the Latin Grammys. It was my first award show, red carpet experience. It was probably the worst night ever for my flash to be moody and it was. When we got into the Media room where they pose with the awards it was all good because I just set it to manual and bounced the flash. It was a good learning experience. Here are some shots.




Ok so part 3 to come with Coldplay, Graham Colton, and Usher.

I hope everyone's year is going well so far!

Later
Rachel

November Part 1: Miranda Lambert, Melissa Lawson, and Nascar

Miranda & Blake
Originally uploaded by rachelparker

Argh! Flickr just ate my blog!

Ok so I know I haven't blogged in like a month. But last month was really busy. And so right now I have a little time to try and play catch up. So this is my attempt.

I lucked out and got to shoot Miranda Lambert again. This time with Blake Shelton at the Texas Stampede. The paper covered her yet again and I love them for it! She's awesome every time I get to shoot her, I always get some great shots.

I have to say they were quite awesome with giving us 6 songs to shoot 2 songs of each and then 2 of them together. So while waiting between numbers we got to see about 10 songs in total. That was also cool because normally deadlines mean I don't get to see alot of the shows I shoot. I lucked out with her playing an early show in April though and got to watch a good chunk of the set.

The toughest thing about this shoot was the Stampede stage is always so tall, plus their sound wedges. So I shot blindly alot, holding my camera up and over them to get shots. And I got a pretty awesome one too. So as risky as it is to shoot like that, sometimes you luck out and get cool stuff. Anyway enough with my rambling. Here are some shots from the show.




So earlier in November I also got to shoot Melissa Lawson, the most recent winner of Nashville Star. She's also Arlington High alumni, so woohoo there! Also she's ridiculously nice because she was sitting behind us at the Carrie Underwood show, so I chatted with her a little. But here are some pictures from that and Melissa rocking to Hit Me With Your Best Shot.



And to top off this Countryfied entry I got to shoot Nascar which was a new experience. I've never really delved into to sports. But I enjoyed it, I even made friends with some of the Ryan Newman crew at Billy Bobs the night before the race, because while I was there working and shooting Melissa Lawson, they were making their annual visit to the Honky Tonk. But here are some photos from the Nascar Weekend..




Ok I'm gonna wrap it up with that for now! I have lots more to come. Latin Grammys, Amy Grant, Kelly Clarkson & Reba McEntire, Coldplay, Graham Colton, Project H, and several Kidd Kraddick guests!

Happy New Year Everyone!
Rachel